Wonders Within Wood: Carving and Design

In this curriculum guide, we take time to think about the many different life skills and goals we can help youth achieve while focusing on a traditional art form like green wood carving. Specifically, there will be opportunities to look into the past, connect with...

National Folk Festival Guide

We developed this guide  to help ground and prepare visitors for the 82nd-84th (2025-27) National Folklife Festival in Jackson, Mississippi. This big, diverse annual festival features vibrant, contemporary traditional artists and art forms from the region and around...

Foodways Icebreaker

Have you ever heard something through the grapevine? Or been called a good egg? This activity highlights a variety of ways that food appears in our cultural expressions, and may introduce you to sayings you’ve never encountered before!

Postcard Museum

Invite people to stand in a circle. Hand each person a postcard and instruct people to examine the front, which will be visible to all, and the back, which may provide further information that only they see. Explain that everyone is going to build a museum exhibit...

Two-Minute Interviews

Procedure • Divide the class into pairs. • Ask each pair to decide who will go first and second. • Tell students they’re going to listen to each other talk for two minutes about a particular topic. Select a topic that relates to a lesson theme or a cultural...