Folklife and Museums: Twenty-first Century Perspectives

C. Kurt Dewhurst, Ph.D., serves as the Director of Arts and Cultural Initiatives and Senior Fellow. University Outreach & Engagement; Curator of Folklife and Cultural Heritage at the Michigan State University and Professor of English at Michigan State University. He is also Director Emeritus of the MSU Museum. His research interests include folk arts, material culture, ethnicity, occupational folk culture, cultural economic development, and cultural heritage policy.

Patricia Hall is an independent folklorist and museum consultant living and working in San Diego, CA. Previously, she served as Director of Education for the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH), where she designed and led museum seminars; oversaw the Association’s Consultant Service; published and produced written and audiovisual materials (So You’ve Chosen to be a History Professional and Now That You’ve Chosen History: Here’s How to Get the Job); and presented papers and published numerous articles on the relationship of folklore and history.

Charlie Seemann is the Executive Director Emeritus of the Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nevada. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from San Francisco State University and an M.A. in Folklife Studies from the University of California at Los Angeles. He was Deputy Director for Collections and Research at the Country Music Foundation/Country Music Hall of Fame for 12 years, and then Program Director at The Fund for Folk Culture in Santa Fe, New Mexico, before coming to the Western Folklife Center in 1998. He retired from that position in July 2014.