Missouri Folk Arts invites nominations for the 2025 Living Traditions Fellowships.

These awards seek to recognize the excellence and lifetime achievement of living traditional artists and community scholars in the Show Me State. The fellowships will honor those individuals’ deep-rooted contributions to Missouri’s traditional arts and their vibrant communities. Nominations, per the guidelines linked below, are due via email by Tuesday, March 25, 2025 by 6 p.m. Central.  

Accessibility
Missouri Folk Arts intends for the nomination process to be accessible to all. Please notify staff, ideally by March 10, 2025, for assistance per the Americans with Disabilities Act or for issues organizing nomination materials.

Nominations and support materials then will be reviewed by a panel of traditional arts and community specialists and awardees notified in late April. Living Traditions Fellows will receive a stipend for a scope of work–a public presentation and a recorded oral history–both to be coordinated in collaboration with Missouri Folk Arts. 

Nominators, please click the link highlighted below and download the guidelines. 

>>2025 Guidelines, Living Traditions Fellowships<<

Living Traditions Fellowships are modeled on the National Heritage Fellowships presented by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). For Missouri’s fellowship, we use the NEA ’s definition of folk and traditional arts:

The folk and traditional arts embody the expressive culture that grows out of shared activities in everyday life. Rooted in and reflective of the cultural life of a community, folk and traditional arts are constantly evolving, shaped by values and standards of excellence passed from generation to generation, most often within family and community, through demonstration, conversation, and practice. Vital and varied activities may coalesce around a wide range of commonalities, including ethnic heritage, cultural mores,
language, religion, occupation, or geographic region. Genres in folk and traditional arts include but are not limited to, music, dance, crafts, foodways, dress/adornment, occupation, ceremony, and oral expression, including stories, poetry, and language.

Funding Support
This project is made possible through funds received from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Missouri Arts Council with administrative support from the Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Missouri.

This fellowship program is contingent upon continuation of funds from both the NEA and the MAC.