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Handbook for Presenting Mississippi’s Artists

Presenting Mississippi's Traditional Artists: A Handbook for Local Arts Agencies

  • Written by Joyce Cauthen
  • Original printed version edited by Deborah Boykin and Betsy Bradley
  • Online version updated by Larry Morrisey

In the early 1990s, the Mississippi Arts Commission directed a special grants initiative to help local communities in their efforts to present local artists and build an appreciation for local culture found in their area. The Artists Build Communities initiative was a program that offered both training and grant funds for a number of communities to accomplish this work. One of the resources created by this project was this booklet. Written by the Commission by the Alabama-based folklorist Joyce Cauthen and published in 1994, Presenting Mississippi's Traditional Artists provides an introduction to the methods used by folklorists in documenting and presenting artists. In addition to the HTML and PDF versions of the booklet that follow, printed versions of Presenting are still available from the Commission.

Download a PDF version of Presenting Mississippi's Traditional Artists here.

The online version of the booklet has been subdivided into the following sections:

  1. Purpose of Booklet / Recognizing What is Traditional in Mississippi Culture
  2. Investigating a Community's Traditional Culture Through Fieldwork
  3. Planning Programs Featuring Tradition Bearers
  4. Working with the Tradition Bearer
  5. Completing the Project / Assessing Long-Range Results
  6. References and Resources