This program, held July 17-19, 2024 on the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville campus, provides Arkansas educators with tools and resources for developing community-centered historical and cultural documentation projects in the classroom. This multi-day training, hosted by Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts at the University of Arkansas, centers on folklore theory and practice for K-12 settings:  Day 1 of the training introduces key folklore concepts and how folklore can be found and researched through primary source material in an archive or library.  Day 2 focuses on oral history methods and folklore collection (how students and classrooms can create their own primary sources). Day 3 focuses on modes of presentation and project-development for the classroom. AFTA will also lead the group on a tour of University of Arkansas Libraries and to the Special Collections reading room where a portion of an existing folklore collection will be available for viewing. Finally, AFTA will discuss community collaboration, including best practices for developing relationships with local partners. Each day and theme are accompanied with digital resources that can be used in classrooms alongside sample lesson plans for classroom projects. Bits of Arkansas folklore and history will also be part of each day’s training information with an emphasis on the program's 2024 theme of "Arkansas Legends and Lore." 

Target audiences include humanities educators of middle school, junior high and high school students in Arkansas (K-12 educators in Social Studies, English Language Arts, Fine Arts, and Library Media). Please note that on-campus lodging will be available for all participants the evenings of July 16th-18th. Participants will also receive $75.00 towards reimbursement of travel costs. Advance registration is required (see below for links to registration).

About Us: Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts (AFTA), a statewide public folklore program of the University of Arkansas Libraries Special Collections Division dedicated to the mission of building cross-cultural understanding by documenting, presenting, and sustaining Arkansas’ living traditional arts and cultural heritage.  AFTA staff Virginia Siegel and Lauren Willette will host the program, and several humanities scholars and public educators will lecture and facilitate individual topics (see below for more information about speakers and facilitators). This summer program is a specialized training for K-12 educators modeled after AFTA’s longstanding program called Community Scholars. Recognizing that individuals are already experts of their communities, Community Scholars trainings are offered three times a year throughout the state to equip & empower community members to document, present, and sustain their community arts. This K-12 version of the program is tailored to equip teachers to take the curriculum and use it in the classroom.  

For more information contact:  

Lauren Willette, Folk Arts Fieldwork Coordinator, Project Coordinator (willette@uark.edu or 479-575-4664) 

Virginia Siegel, Director of AFTA (vdsiegel@uark.edu or 479-575-7115) 

Day Three – July 19 

9:00 am - Morning Greetings; Readings 

9:30 am - Raven Cook – Connecting with Visual Folk Arts and Active Listening 

10:30 am - Community Collaboration 

11:30 am - Lunch 

1:00 pm - Modes of Presentation 

2:15 pm - Adjourn Training 

Registration Information: 

https://uark.libwizard.com/f/cspdapp 

More information here: https://folklife.uark.edu/k12-teacher-training/ 

Rigorous content for each learner:  

1. Equity Practices - ... understand their students’ historical, cultural, and societal contexts, embrace student assets through instruction, and foster relationships with students, families, and communities. 
2. Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction - ... prioritize high-quality curriculum and instructional materials for students, assess student learning, and understand curriculum and implement through instruction. 
3. Professional Expertise - ...apply standards and research to their work, develop the expertise essential to their roles, and prioritize coherence and alignment of learning.  

Meredith Martin-Moats wears many hats: cultural worker, writer, radio producer, oral historian, researcher, community organizer, flower farmer and caregiver. She works to weave connections across generations and work across divides. She supports place-based work focused on a deep understanding of land and community history and conducts anti-racist, community-based research. She also strives to situate and elevate caregiving as central to community work and enjoys getting her hands in the dirt. Martin-Moats received her Master of Arts degree in folk studies from Western Kentucky University. She is a co-founder of The McElroy House: Organization for Cultural Resources in Dardanelle and currently serves as co-director for the River Valley Adult Learning Alliance, an organization working to provide community-based literacy and multilingual resources across five rural counties in central Arkansas. She also works on the Participatory Action Research project at Highlander Research and Education Center. She and her family operate Sulphur Springs Truck Patch, an experimental tiny farm and increasingly research-focused project in Harkey Valley, on land that was passed down from her grandfather. She lives with her family, dogs, cats, many critters and beloved donkey on what is rightfully Osage ancestral land in Yell County. 

Dr. Lisa L. Higgins directs the Missouri Folk Arts Program, folk and traditional arts partner of the Missouri Arts Council (MAC) based at the Museum of Art & Archaeology at the University of Missouri. Higgins manages daily operations, including staff, budgets, grants, reports, strategic communications, and consultants. She is the program specialist for MAC’s Folk Arts grants, coordinates Missouri Folk Arts’ outreach activities and social media, and collaborates with MAC on key initiatives, like arts and aging. Via the Show Me Folk Initiative, Higgins organizes outreach and engagement with local advisers and community scholars, provides support for consultants, and coordinates the Living Traditions Sustainer Fellowships. She previously worked at South Arts, a regional arts organization, as Traditional Arts Program Manager. Higgins earned a PhD in English with emphases in Folklore and Rhetoric from the University of Missouri, as well as BA and MA degrees at Arkansas State University. She served on the curatorial team for The Ozarks: Faces and Facets of a Region at the 2023 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. In 2022, she joined the volunteer board, as treasurer, of Local Learning: The National Network for Folk Arts in Education. Higgins’ select publications include essays in Culture Works: Folklore for the Public Good, Eds. Marcus Cederström and Tim Frandy (2022); Journal of Folklore Research, Volume 59, Number 2 (2022); Expressive Lives of Elders: Folklore, Art & Aging, Ed. Jon Kay (2018); Through the Schoolhouse Door: Folklore, Community, Curriculum, Eds. Paddy Bowman and Lynn Hamer 2011; and in Volumes 3 and 5 of the Journal of Folklore and Education. 

Raven Cook is a Fayetteville resident with deep roots in Arkansas. With a commitment to education and empowerment, Raven has worked in the Northwest Arkansas community teaching Black History, visual art, and Diversity, Equity, and inclusion. Raven holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and is pursuing a master’s degree in the inaugural Art History master’s program also at the University. Raven was an associate museum educator at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Director of Education at Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, and a consultant at the former IDEALS Institute. She has received numerous awards for her work and continues to grow in her desire to build community through curiosity. When Raven is not working in the community, she enjoys time with her family at home. Raven acknowledges that most of her achievements come from her deep faith and support of her dad, Michael Cook, mother Patsy Warren Cook, brother Stephen, loving partner, Sam, and her newest addition, her little boy, Jermaro (pronounced like tomorrow) Robert Lewis. 

Dr. Gregory Hansen is Professor of Folklore and English at Arkansas State University, where he also teaches in the Heritage Studies Ph.D. Program. He completed his graduate degrees in folklore at Western Kentucky University and Indiana University. Dr. Hansen has completed public folklore projects for the Smithsonian Institution, Museum of Danish America, Florida Folklife Program, Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, and other organizations. His research and publications center on folklore and education, public folklore, documentary media, and folk performances.  He has produced a number of documentary videos and is the author of A Florida Fiddler: The Life and Times of Richard Seaman, which Western Folklore reviewed as “one of the finest books yet about an individual folk artist.” His most recent publication is Sustaining Support for Intangible Cultural Heritage, a volume that he co-edited with Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya and Mariana Pinto Leitão Pereira. In addition to his research and teaching, Dr. Hansen also coordinates A-State’s annual Delta Symposium and assists with the Arkansas Roots Music Festival. Much of Dr. Hansen’s work in public folklore has centered on folklife education. He worked as a folk arts coordinator for ten years with the Florida Folklife Program. Much of his work included directing Jacksonville’s Duval County Folklife Program. The project was recognized with the 1990 “Program of Excellence Award” from Florida Council for the Social Studies. He also assisted with the research and writing of the Smithsonian’s “Iowa Folklife: Our People, Communities, and Traditions” and “The Florida Music Train.” Both of these resources were recognized with the Dorothy Howard Prize for excellence in folklife education from the American Folklore Society’s “Folklore and Education Section.” For over two decades, he served as co-editor for the newsletter of this section for the American Folklore Society. 

Lauren Willette, Folk Arts Fieldwork Coordinator, Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts, University of Arkansas Libraries 

365 N. McIlroy Avenue 

Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701 

479-575-4664 

willette@uark.edu 

Virginia Siegel, Director of Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts, University of Arkansas Libraries 

365 N. McIlroy Avenue 

Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701 

479-575-7115 

vdsiegel@uark.edu 

Joshua Cobbs Youngblood, Special Collections Instruction and Outreach Unit Head, Rare Books Librarian, University of Arkansas Libraries 

365 N. McIlroy Avenue 

Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701 

479-575-7251 

jcyoungb@uark.edu 

Gregory Hansen, Professor of Folklore and English, Arkansas State University 

P.O. 1890 

State University Arkansas, 72467 

870-972-3508 

ghansen@astate.edu