"Toward an Arkansas Folklife Program" is the focus for a one-day conference to be held in the Carl R. Reng Center on the Arkansas State University campus in Jonesboro on Friday, Sept. 20.

Sponsored by the Heritage Studies Ph.D. Program, the Delta Studies Center, and Arkansas Review, the conference will bring together professionals in public folklore programming with ASU students, faculty, and administrators, with representatives of cultural tourism sites in Arkansas, and with the general public.

Speakers at the program include folklorists from such institutions as the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, the Louisiana Folklife Festival, and the Iowa Arts Council. Representatives of state folklife programs in Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, and Tennessee will also speak.

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

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

ASU’s doctoral program in heritage studies utilizes multiple academic perspectives within a laboratory of the Mississippi River Delta. The goal is to develop heritage professionals who identify, preserve, interpret, manage, and promote regional history and culture for non-specialist public audiences.

Graduates of the program will qualify for senior positions in cultural and historical agencies, cultural and historic tourism, museums and archives, parks and historic sites, and consulting firms and heritage-related businesses.

# # #