The Heritage Studies Ph.D. Program and the Delta Studies Center at Arkansas State University are sponsoring a one-day conference "Toward an Arkansas Folklife Program" on Friday, Sept. 20.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place in the Osage Room of the Carl R. Reng Center beginning at 8:15 a. m.

The purpose of the conference is to assess the nature of public folklife programming and to consider ways in which a statewide folklife program in Arkansas might be revitalized.

The morning session will address the question "What Is Public Folklore?" Peggy Bulger, director of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, will provide an overview of public programming’s history and philosophy in the United States.

Other speakers for the morning session will be Jason Baird Jackson of the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, who will speak on folklife and museums; Michael Luster, director of the Louisiana Folklife Festivals, who will talk about folk festivals; W. K. McNeil of the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, who will consider folklore apprenticeship programs; Rachelle Saltzman of the Iowa Arts Council, who will address folklife in public schools; and Erika Brady, professor of folk studies at Western Kentucky University, who will speak on training public folklorists.

The conference will re-convene at 1:30 to consider folklife programs in some of Arkansas’ neighboring states. Panelists will be Joey Brackner of the Alabama State Council on the Arts, Bob Gates of the Kentucky History Commission, Maida Owens of the Louisiana Folklife Program, Lisa Higgins (a Jonesboro native and ASU graduate) of the Missouri Folk Arts Program, and Robert Cogswell of the Tennessee Arts Commission.

The conference will be introduced and moderated by Clyde Milner, director of the Heritage Studies Program, and by ASU folklorists Gregory Hansen and Richard Burns.

The conference is funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

For further information, contact William Clements at 870-972-3043 or send e-mail to delta@astate.edu.

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