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Posts from the ‘Good News’ Category

Oct 8

State Fairs: Growing American Craft: Four Questions for Exhibition Contributing Curator Jon Kay

Jon Kay with Jason Baird Jackson
Indiana University Bloomington

Jon Kay is Director of Traditional Arts Indiana and an Associate Professor of Folklore at Indiana University Bloomington. In this exchange I pose questions to him about the new Smithsonian exhibition and catalogue State Fairs: Growing American Craft. Find details about the exhibition at the end of the interview.

Jason Baird Jackson (JBJ):  Jon, you have just returned from a trip to Washington, DC for the opening of the exhibition State Fairs: Growing American Craft, which will run through September 7, 2026 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery. The Renwick is the part of the Smithsonian devoted to craft. Before I ask you about your role in the exhibition and the associated catalogue (Mary Savig, ed., State Fairs: Growing American Craft. Smithsonian Books, 2025), can you tell me about the opening? What did you see? What did you do? Who went with you? What was most memorable?

Jon Kay (JK): Thank you for the opportunity to reflect on my recent trip to Washington, DC, where I attended the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM)’s after-hours celebration of the exhibition State Fairs: Growing American Craft at the Renwick Gallery. I participated in the event with Keith Ruble, a bowl hewer and longtime demonstrator in the Indiana State Fair’s Pioneer Village (Figure 1). Keith was named a State Fair Master in 2001—well before I became director of Traditional Arts Indiana (TAI)—a testament to the longstanding recognition of his work.

From 2001 to 2021, TAI partnered with the Indiana State Fair to honor its veteran participants through the State Fair Masters program. Each honoree was selected for their skill, excellence, and deep knowledge in their discipline, as well as for their commitment to passing on that knowledge within their communities. The program emerged in the years following the untimely death of Bill Day, an early Pioneer Village demonstrator and Keith Ruble’s bowl-hewing mentor. It was fitting, then, that both Keith’s and Bill’s bowls were featured in the Renwick’s exhibition (Figure 2).

Keith had been invited to demonstrate at the exhibition, but initially declined—he and his wife, Susie, don’t fly, and he didn’t feel up to driving to DC. When he told me this, I offered to take him. He agreed. So, the day before the celebration, Keith, Susie, my wife Mandy, and I made the twelve-hour trip to the Renwick.

On our first morning in DC, we walked to the Renwick Gallery to view the exhibition and deliver several hand-hewn bowls that Keith had made for the museum’s gift shop (Figures 3 and 4). I imagine your future questions will explore the exhibition’s content in more detail, but for now, I’ll say it was a remarkable showcase of crafts by artists who have exhibited, competed, and demonstrated at state fairs—past and present. From pottery and crop art to canned goods and quilts, the exhibition underscored the central role of craft in state fairs since their inception in 1841 (Figures 5, 6, 7, and 8).

The celebration brought together many of the featured artists and their families, including saddle maker Bob Klenda from Kimball, Nebraska; canner Rod Zeitler from Coralville, Iowa; and basket maker Polly Adams Sutton from Seattle, Washington (Figures 9, 10, 11). While the artists enjoyed seeing their work on display, the event also created a meaningful space for state fair craftspeople from across the country to connect and share stories. The atmosphere was one of mutual appreciation. In a culinary nod to fair traditions, the Renwick served corndogs, cornbread, corn pudding, and other fair staples. It was a festive and memorable evening.

The following day, Keith demonstrated his craft at the Renwick. Concerned about wood chips, the events team taped down tarps and provided tables and chairs. Keith’s setup was minimal—just a few tools: a bowl adze fashioned from a ball-peen hammer, a bent gouge, a couple of spoon knives, and a hand-rasp scraper (Figure 12). But what really caught people’s attention was his sassafras stump with luggage handles, which he uses as a chopping block (Figure 13).

Throughout the day, Keith worked on an Indiana-shaped bowl, answered questions, and shared stories. He spoke about his mentor, Bill Day; his wife’s tolerance for him chopping in the living room; and his “mother-in-law” bowls—his name for the ones that crack (Figure 14).

Alongside Keith were two other demonstrators: Martha Varoz Ewing from Santa Fe, New Mexico, who practices traditional straw appliqué, and Samuel Barsky from Baltimore, Maryland, known for knitting custom sweaters of his own design (Figure 15 and 16).

Soon after Keith began, the rhythmic chop, chop, chop of his adze echoed through the gallery, drawing visitors to the demonstration area. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the artists worked and engaged with the public. Keith noted that he didn’t even finish the bowl he brought to work on. I assured him that the Smithsonian didn’t mind. There was a steady stream of visitors throughout the day, and the exhibition, as a whole, was very well attended.

JBJ:  I am glad that you and Mandy, Keith and Susie had a great time at the exhibition and its opening events! With the scene set now, can you tell me about your role as one of the “contributing curators” working with lead curator Mary Savig?

Two men standing side-by-side outside a museum building.
A man standing looking at wall-mounted exhibition cases holding carved wooden trays.
A man holding two carved wooden trays shaped like a map of the continental USA outside a museum building.
A group of carved wooden bowls in a sales case.
A ceramic figure of a seated person with many small child-like people all ccovering the large figure's body.
Portrait images of people mounted and lit in a museum environment.
Many jars of preserved fruits and vegetables displayed in an array.
A floral design quilt mounted on a wall.
A man in a western-style hat stands in front of a saddle on display in a museum.
Many jars of preserved fruits and vegetables displayed in an array.
A large brown object made with basketry techniques on display in a museum. The form is of many curved surfaces.
A set of tools sitting on a surface ready for use.
A man uses tools for carving on a wooden stump, used as a bench. Indoors, inside a museum.
A man uses tools for carving on a wooden stump, used as a bench. Indoors, inside a museum.
A woman seated is doing delicate craftwork on a table with craft materials nearby.
A man is seated in a museum environment working on knitting yarn.
A bench-sized seat of wood placed on display in a museum.
A basket of round elements (willow) in a round bowl-like shape.
A vase-shaped wooden object on display.
A blue and whie ceramic vase holding what appear as corn dogs as if the corn dogs were flowers in a vase.
A ceramic vessel of tan pottery with colored designs and two handles on opposite sides.
A man stands in an exhibition space next to two wall-mounted cases with carved wooden trays.

JK: From 2004 to 2022, I coordinated the Indiana State Fair Masters Program as part of my work directing Traditional Arts Indiana. For this program, I conducted oral history interviews, created exhibition panels, and produced documentary films.* My friend Betty Belanus, a retired curator at the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and Indiana’s first state folklorist in the 1980s, was aware of my long-standing work with the Indiana State Fair. When Mary Savig, Chief Curator of the Renwick Gallery, began planning the exhibition State Fairs: Growing American Craft, Betty suggested that she reach out to me to help identify potential Indiana craftspeople to feature.

Mary and I met at the 2023 Indiana State Fair, where I gave her a tour of the fairgrounds. The State Fair Masters program, as I mentioned earlier, celebrated the work of longtime fair participants—from apple growers and hog breeders to pie bakers and weavers—highlighting the artistry embedded in fair traditions. While many of these practices have aesthetic dimensions, the Renwick is a craft gallery, so performance-based traditions, such as baton twirling, clogging, and washboard playing, were outside the scope. I joked that while I could make a case for seedstock swine breeding or miniature donkey husbandry as art forms, jars of jelly and pickles were probably as close as the exhibition would get to these more ephemeral crafts.

As we walked the fairgrounds, Mary and I discussed her vision for the exhibition and my nearly two decades of work with the Indiana State Fair. The State Fair Masters program had ended in 2023, so I was especially reflective during our visit.

Our first stop was the Indiana Arts Building, formerly known as the Home and Family Arts Building. In the basement, baked goods and canned items were exhibited; the main floor featured quilts, needlepoint, weaving, crochet, and knitting. The building also featured paintings, photographs, and other artworks that had been entered in various fair competitions. I introduced Mary to longtime building coordinator Nancy Leonard, and then we talked with Mary Schwartz, a 2013 State Fair Master who was recognized for her needlepoint artistry.

Next, we visited the Pioneer Village, located across the fairgrounds and surrounded by antique tractors and historic farm implements. The Village showcases farming practices, music, and crafts from Indiana’s Depression Era and earlier. I introduced Mary to the wheelwrights and blacksmiths, and Charlie Carson who trains oxen and makes yokes. In the Pioneer Village Building, Mary talked with quilters, weavers, and broom makers—but what truly captured her interest was the bowl hewing.

I had recently curated an exhibition at the Swope Art Museum in Terre Haute, Indiana that featured several bowl makers who demonstrated at the fair. I introduced Mary to Keith Ruble and Blaine Berry, both of whom would later be featured in the Renwick exhibition. I also secured a large sassafras bowl made by Bill Day for the exhibition. I loaned the gallery a tulip poplar bowl shaped like Indiana, which Keith had made for me for the 2016 Bicentennial of Indiana Statehood. In addition to recommending artists, I shared ideas for potential craft inclusions. Mary ultimately acquired a settee and two Windsor chairs from Blaine, which the Smithsonian purchased (Figure 17).

By the end of our visit, Mary had identified about ten potential Indiana artists for the exhibition. A few months later, she told me that she needed to pare down the list, because the exhibit included more craftspeople from Indiana than any other state. The final roster included bowl maker Keith Ruble, chairmaker Blaine Berry, basket weaver Viki Graber, woodturner Betty J. Scarpino, and potter Kelly Bohnenkamp, who loaned her whimsical “corndog vase” (Figures 18-20). The exhibition also included works by two historical Indiana craftspeople: a vase by Mary Overbeck (1878–1955) and the large bowl made by Bill Day (1915-1999) (Figure 21).

JBJ:  I am glad that you could help the craftspeople of Indiana gain recognition from this major exhibition at a key world museum devoted to craft. I mentioned the catalogue for the exhibition at the start. Can you tell readers what they will find in that catalogue and what your contribution to it is?

JK: The exhibition catalog, State Fairs: Growing American Crafts, is a companion book published by Smithsonian Press (Savig 2025). It connects the narrative threads of the exhibition, as outlined by editor Mary Savig in the introduction. The chapters then highlight key themes, including “4-H and Youth Participation,” “Creative Arts Competitions and Women’s Collectivity,” “Indigenous Fashion Shows,” and “Studio Craft Competitions.” My chapter ended up being more focused than the others, centering on the Pioneer Village at the Indiana State Fair.

Mary and I initially discussed framing the essay around creative aging in heritage events, but ultimately, she felt a tighter focus on the Pioneer Village would serve the book better. For my chapter, I drew on decades of interviews with participants in the Pioneer Village. In fact, I had to work hard to stay within the word count. I hadn’t realized at the time that mine would be the only chapter focused on a specific event. While the other essays explore broader themes across multiple fairs, mine is grounded in my long-term work at the Indiana State Fair—and especially in the Pioneer Village.

I feel fortunate to have served as a contributing curator for the exhibition. Much of my role involved sharing nearly two decades of research into craft traditions at the Indiana State Fair. I’ll be returning to the Renwick Gallery this winter to participate in a panel discussion, where I’ll speak about my work in arts and aging, drawing on experiences with longtime fair participants, including those in the Indiana Arts Building and across the fairgrounds.

JBJ: The new exhibition, book and public program series at the Renwick Gallery is one of scores of projects that you have pursued related to craft and craftspeople in Indiana, in the United States, and overseas. Looking ahead, what is your next big project related to craft all about?

JK: As you know, I tend to keep several projects going at once, so questions like this always make my head spin a bit. I recently submitted a manuscript for a book on Indiana basketry, which is currently under review at the press. It examines the social function of craft in everyday life and the cultural changes that have undermined it.

In addition, I co-authored a new, public-facing book, Lifelong Arts: A Creative Aging Handbook, for the Indiana Arts Commission. The Indiana Arts Commission will publish it. I wrote it with Stephanie Haines and Anna Ross, and it explores creative aging practices. The book is based on a series of public workshops and trainings that we conducted across the state in 2022-23. Lifelong Arts will be my third public-facing creative aging guide. This one is a more general guide to arts and aging. In contrast, my other two projects were regional and based on traditional arts and everyday creative practices: Memory, Art & Aging (Kay 2020) and Everyday Arts in Later Life (Kay, Jackson, and Islam 2024).

So, I am in the starting phase of two larger projects. One explores bowl hewing in Indiana, which connects to Keith Ruble, Bill Day, and the State Fair. While this tradition is deeply rooted in Indiana, I’ve also discovered that bowl hewing is part of a broader international network of green woodworkers, toolmakers, and heritage events. Many of these makers speak about how the craft supports their emotional, physical, and social well-being, which aligns with my ongoing interest in craft and wellness. The second project, which may eventually merge with the bowl hewing project, is a scholarly study on “Folklife and Creative Aging” (Figure 22).

Of course, my academic research runs in parallel with (and within) my work directing Traditional Arts Indiana at Indiana University. TAI continues to operate the TAI Apprenticeship and the Indiana Heritage Fellowships. I am also exploring the development of an online version of TAI’s Community Scholar Training. It’s a lot to think about and seeing it all laid out like this feels a bit daunting.

In closing, Jason, thanks for your ongoing interest in craft, museums, and folklore. It was great to reflect on this moment and to think about my years at the fair and the exhibition at the Renwick. I know that the exhibition has helped me approach the fair with fresh eyes and to see the many crafts and communities that the fair has helped cultivate.

JBJ: Thanks Jon for sharing these valuable reflections and thanks for all that you do for Indiana and its peoples.

Learn more about the exhibition State Fairs: Growing American Craft online at: https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/state-fairs 

A version of this post will be preserved in the Published Work and White Papers collection of the Material Culture and Heritage Studies Laboratory community in IUScholarWorks. [Update: See https://hdl.handle.net/2022/33755 for the archival version.]

Notes
*Twenty documentary videos profiling State Fair Masters are accessible via Indiana University’s Media Collections Online. See the “Traditional Arts Indiana’s State Fair Master Documentaries” collection via https://media.dlib.indiana.edu/.  

References Cited

Kay, Jon, ed. 2020. Memory, Art, and Aging: A Resource and Activity Guide. Traditional Arts Indiana. https://hdl.handle.net/2022/33323

Kay, Jon, Joelle Jackson, and Touhidul Islam. 2024. Everyday Arts in Later Life. Traditional Arts Indiana. https://hdl.handle.net/2022/33322

Savig, Marty, ed. 2025. State Fairs: Growing American Craft. Smithsonian Books.

Oct 10

How to Study Folklore When You Cannot Go to Graduate School?

An image of leaves and flowers in reds and yellows and greens on gray and blues printed as wall paper. It is a design from William Morris and Company.

My run of posts on scholarly societies in general, and my scholarly societies in particular, has, I know, been heavy on facing unhappy developments and low, so far, on positive prospects. Here is a post to where I highlight what is for me a welcome trend.

I live and work in a community that still centers a really rich and generative and extended form of in-person graduate education, but my colleagues and I have long been confronted by the question of how to support those who cannot take up the project of moving across the United States, or the globe, to join us in the multi-year study of folklore (or, in my other field and department, anthropology). This question predated the internet. It predated Zoom, YouTube, and similar platforms. It once took the form of letters seeking reading recommendations and these still come to us by email. In my former department, the Department of Anthropology at the University of Oklahoma, we then still ran a paper- and postage-based correspondence course in folklore studies when I arrived on the faculty in 2000. The old summer institute-based form of the Folklore Institute associated with Indiana University and the leadership of Stith Thompson (1885-1976)—like it’s still thriving peer, the Linguistic Institutes run by the Linguistic Society of America since 1928—was another analog solution to the problem of low residency, high impact, advanced study in folkloristics. For the bestowal of a full and formal master’s degree, the Master of Arts in Cultural Sustainability (M.A.C.S.) today offered by folklorists and allies at Goucher College is a now proven low-residency option. I commend all of those, past and present, who have worked to build up the Goucher program. They identified, and have found ways to meet, an obvious need.

To my fellow folklorists, I say that we need more experiments and more approaches to the problem of higher-level, but still introductory, educational opportunities in folklore studies. It is in this context that I have been inspired by some specific developments that I wish to flag. For those who are not yet aware of them, I point here to some in-person and online initiatives that have broader implications. If you can get access to the Chronicle of Higher Education, I direct your attention to a survey article: “Making Space for the Humanities Off Campus: Night School Bar and the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research offer alternatives to traditional academe.” by Ariannah Kubli (2024). Finish out your introduction, if you can, by consulting an older (but still post-COVID) account of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research (BISR) in the New York Times: “Where Can You Go to Grad School Without Going to Grad School?” by Cat Zhang (2023).

Given the number of folklorists in New York City and the lack of folklore courses there, it would be easy and fruitful to imagine a sophisticated folklore studies course in-person at the BISR, but pitching such a direct thing is not my point here. What I am trying to evoke is the idea that we can find win-win ways to give more adults access to sophisticated learning in folklore studies outside the extant US/North American/world graduate programs.

While the articles cited above evoke the convivial nature of in person, non-degree adult education, it is important to highlight here that many of the BISR courses (to stick with a flagship example) are taught online and are thus available to those who cannot physically get to Brooklyn, New York. I urge the curious to check out the current BISR course offerings not because I am urging you to take one of their courses, but because I am hoping that you will give thought to the possibilities. It is within the capacity of, I believe, organizations such as the American Folklore Society to organize and platform such a thing as a four-week (twelve-contact hour) introduction to folklore studies. Who might take such a course? Probably a mixed group with diverse purposes, but one audience that I hope would take such a course would be those colleagues who have entered the realm of public folklore practice without having a background in folklore studies. Such colleagues increasingly staff folk and traditional arts programs in state-level arts and humanities agencies and thus are our colleagues, but they are colleagues who sometimes struggle to join in the discussions that we have had been advancing since 1888 or earlier. Another potential audience might be those pondering whether formal graduate training in folklore studies is actually what they want.

Of course, the examples of Night School Bar and the BISR are just variations on older practices, including a wide range of proven community education frameworks that we can be revisiting and perhaps revising for present purposes. The first folklore studies course that I ever taught was a multi-session course for adults on “Jewish Folklore and Ethnology” shared in Tulsa, Oklahoma as part of the dryly named, but richly experienced, “Adult Institute” co-managed by Jewish community organizations in the city that I once lived in so intensively. I was too young and inexperienced when I did that, but I know of no harms caused and I met lifelong friends in the doing.

I will wrap this reflection up, but I note that trends in continuing and adult education are intersectional with the rise of microcredentials in general and the practical ability for organizations to issue semi-formal credentials on platforms like LinkedIn in particular. When I complete, for instance, university- required training on various regulations governing my work as a scholar, these completed trainings can now be sent to display on my LinkedIn page. We are now more than a decade into discussions of digital badges and a raft of related practices that are separate from the university degree and its associated transcript. There is a large literature on microcredentials and continuing education in various domains, and the issues are complex, but the shallow end of the pool is accessible to us and in the AFS, we have a strong, time-tested brand. We at least have opportunities, as always, to experiment with even one-time trials. In this, we have the recent experience of the such key recent projects as the Folk Arts Partnership Professional Development Institute, the Veterans Oral History Workshops, and the institutes held in connection with the China-US Folklore and ICH Project. All of these have been partnered and impactful programs in teaching and learning staged outside formal university educational contexts.

PS: To anyone who has reads this post with hope that it would offer a top ten list of ways to study folklore without going to graduate school, I am sorry that my colleagues are not yet in a place to answer the title question in that way. For a glimpse of how the field works in the United States, see Lloyd (2021). For a glimpse how folklorists write and think, consider reading any of the titles recognized with the Chicago Folklore Prize. And think about attending a American Folklore Society annual meeting.

Kubli, Ariannah. 2024. “Opinion | Making Space for the Humanities Off Campus.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. February 14, 2024. https://www.chronicle.com/article/making-space-for-the-humanities-off-campus.

Lloyd, Timothy, ed. 2021. What Folklorists Do: Professional Possibilities in Folklore Studies. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Zhang, Cat. 2023. “Where Can You Go to Grad School Without Going to Grad School?” The New York Times, November 23, 2023, sec. Style. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/23/style/brooklyn-institute-for-social-research-adult-education.html

Sep 19

Now Published: Living in Heritage: Tulou as Vernacular Architecture, Global Asset, and Tourist Destination in Contemporary China by Lijun Zhang

Good news is scarce in my world right now, but I am really very pleased to share that Lijun Zhang’s latest book Living in Heritage: Tulou as Vernacular Architecture, Global Asset, and Tourist Destination in Contemporary China has now been published by Indiana University Press in the Material Vernaculars series. It has to be auspicious that Lijun’s important book was officially published on September 17, 2024, which this year was the Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival (did you see that moon?!?). I may share more about the book later, but for today, here is the description and the link to its page at IU Press.

Yongding County in southeast China is famous for its large, multistory communal vernacular buildings known as tulou, translated “rammed earth building.” These structures were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008. Living in Heritage introduces readers outside of China to this classic example of local Chinese architecture in the context of contemporary heritage preservation and tourism.

Focusing on the Yongding Hakka Tulou Folk Culture Village, which is part of Hongkeng Village, author Lijun Zhang examines the on-the-ground processes and effects of heritage-making, UNESCO-inspired tourism, and how locals negotiate the dramatic transformation of their daily, social, and economic lives. Within an age of cultural change beginning at the start of the 21st century, Living in Heritage explores how the tulou phenomenon as heritage has and continues to be transformed into cultural, economic, or political capital. Through her careful study, Zhang reveals how the blurring of formerly distinct domains—private and public, local and global—gives rise to a living museum that now relies on insiders and outsiders to preserve their way of life.

Living in Heritage offers an in-depth ethnographic account of the people dwelling and working within traditional tulou architecture in the 21st century.

Lijun Zhang is Assistant Professor of Folklore at George Mason University. She is author of Chinese Folk Art and Crafts and editor (with Marsha MacDowell) of Quilts of Southwest China and (with Ziying You) of Chinese Folklore Studies Today: Discourse and Practice.

Please consider purchasing a copy from IU Press here https://iupress.org/9780253070975/living-in-heritage/ (or wherever you get your books). Doing so supports not only the press in general but the free-to-readers versions of Material Vernacular titles. (More on that when the free version becomes available.)

Aug 30

“A Culture Carried: Chin Basketry in Central Indiana”: Five Questions for Exhibition Curator Jon Kay

Jon Kay is Director of Traditional Arts Indiana, an Associate Professor of Folklore, and Interim Executive Director of Arts and Humanities, all at Indiana University Bloomington. In this exchange, I pose questions to him about his new exhibition A Culture Carried: Chin Basketry in Central Indiana. Find details about the exhibition and associated opening program at the end of the interview.

Jason Baird Jackson (JBJ): Thanks for taking time to field a few questions about the upcoming exhibition “A Culture Carried: Chin Basketry in Central Indiana.” For Shreds and Patches readers, I’ll share all the practical details about the show and the opening celebration below. Here, let’s jump right to an initial question about this exhibition and the work on which it is built. 

Who are the basket makers whose work centers the upcoming exhibition at the Cook Center for Public Arts and Humanities in Bloomington?

Jon Kay (JK): The exhibition features the work of Pu Ngai Chum and Reverend Ceu Hlei, lifelong friends from Chin State, Myanmar. Both are Zophei basket makers who now reside in Southport, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis with a large Chin refugee community. Pu Ngai Chum has lived in Indiana for over ten years, while Reverend Ceu Hlei came to visit his daughter in 2020 just before the pandemic began and ended up staying due to the ongoing turmoil in Myanmar. Following the military coup, civil unrest, and persistent violence against the Chin, he decided to remain in the United States with his family.

Pu Ngai Chum started making baskets for his Chin community after his children encouraged him to leave his job during the pandemic. Similarly, Reverend Ceu Hlei, feeling bored and depressed as a newcomer to Indiana and unable to leave the house, was encouraged by his son-in-law to start basket making. His son-in-law suggested he try using recycled polypropylene packing ribbon from local warehouses, just as Pu Ngai Chum was doing.

I met Pu Ngai Chum and Reverend Ceu Hlei about a year later while conducting a folklife survey on arts and aging in Central Indiana, funded by the Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation. Since then, I have worked with them to coordinate basket classes, workshops, and demonstrations. All the while, I was buying baskets and documenting their craft, which led to this exhibition. 

Reverend Ceu Hlei teaching Chin basketry.
Ngai Chum teaching Chin basketry.

JBJ: I know that visitors will enjoy seeing their work presented in the new exhibition. Hopefully there will be a good turnout for the opening event where they will be demonstrating their skills publicly. That will be a great opportunity.

It seems to me that many people take baskets for granted. They are a kind of thing that one sees readily available in a store like Target. We rarely know where such baskets came from or who the people were who made them. When discussing your work with talented basket makers in Indiana, how do you find ways to shake people out of this passive relationship to this venerable craft?

JK: Other than the molded plastic laundry baskets and hampers sold by big box retailers—which arguably are not baskets— every basket is handmade. Today, their making may include special jigs, tools and machinery, but to some degree all baskets require some handwork and specialized knowledge. In the United States, some discount stores sell inexpensive baskets that are made in distant places where labor costs are low and manual skill is high. So, it is easy to speculate why baskets are met with apathy or even disdain. 

When people want to invoke the idea that something is outmoded or simple, they may compare it to “underwater basket weaving” or call it “Basketmaking 101.” This position assumes that anyone can do it. While it is true that almost anyone could learn to weave basic baskets, few do.  But if you look deeper into these woven vessels you begin to see they hold so much more. The sheer diversity of materials, patterns, aesthetics, and uses is staggering. From carrying eggs and catching fish, storing grain or serving food, holding babies to burying the dead, baskets for millennia have held our most precious possessions. 

Moreover, the work that baskets and basketmaking does in the world is still needed. In many places baskets remain a part of everyday life. They are the perfect thing to carry to the market—no need for plastic bags. The feel of the twisted handle in my hand as I work in my garden each summer reminds me of how this old technology is perfectly designed for the work that baskets do in the world. But, more than the physical nature of baskets, basket making is needed now more than ever. In my arts and aging research, I see the value and power of creative pursuit in later life; something you can devote your time and attention to, a practice that gives you satisfaction and purposes, an activity that coaxes you into a state of flow. All of which support our wellbeing in later life…or for that matter throughout the life cycle.  Too many young folks and elders in the United States, for example, are struggling with feelings of depression, boredom, and loneliness. Many find it difficult to forge meaningful relationships. Some are perpetual distracted with social media and portable technologies, and struggle with the basic human skill of human interaction with the world around us. Basket making is just one craft that requires mind and hand to work in concert. In addition, basket making can connect generations. Makers learn when they are young, often from grandparents or nearby elders then, when they grow old, they return to the craft to fill their lives with purpose in meaning. Moreover, when an elder teaches a younger person to focus and make a basket, they are also demonstrating them how to age well. In this light, I think we need more baskets, and for sure we need more people making baskets. 

A glimpse of the exhibition, “A Culture Carried: Chin Basketry in Central Indiana”.

JBJ:  Well said! And I think that your arguments about making and meaning also help us understand the remarkable transformations underway now at the intersection of craft and making activities and social media, particularly how-to videos for would-be craftspeople and makers, but also making-videos-as-entertainment, especially very short format videos of the kind visible on platforms like TikToc and Instagram. We can explore those themes another time but, building on them, could you say something about how you yourself use video and photography as part of your studies with basket makers such as Pu Ngai Chum and Reverend Ceu Hlei?

JK: Yes, you are exactly right. I have witnessed over and over how the documentary impulse is one of the ways that intergenerational bonds are strengthened. We could talk for hours about that, for sure. In the exhibition I include two documentaries that my research assistant Touhidul Islam and I made featuring the work of the two makers. They are great ways for exhibition goers to see how a basket comes together. Both videos compress a half day of work into a few minutes.  And while I made them to share in the exhibition and online, that was just one of the reasons that I undertook those video making projects. First, the making of the video gave me a reason for engagement with the artists. I could tell them about my work, show them my publications, and visit with them, but when we collaborate in the making of the video, we learn about each other, and our trust grows. I have done five basket-making video projects all for the same reason. The first was with Viki Graber a Mennonite willow bask maker from Goshen, Indiana. The next was with Li Guicai a Baiku Yao basket maker who makes bamboo rice baskets in Southwest China. In addition to the two basket videos with the basket makers in the current exhibition, I recently produced a video that follows Myaamia artisan Dani Tippmann through the making of an elm bark basket. Each of these making projects (both the making of the basket and the making of the video) allowed the maker and the me to deepen our research relationship.  It gave us a reason to work together. It was valuable to the maker, but also to me as video producer. Whether it is hosting a craft workshop, curating an exhibition, or making a video, my public-facing folklore work is more than just doing public programs, each activity creates a context for deep learning with my interlocutors.

I focus on process-centered documentaries. When I began this approach, it was less common for an ethnographic video to concentrate on a creative process. Instead, films would use footage of making as a backdrop for telling the maker’s story. However, in recent years process-centered videos have become popular. My social media feed is full of them. These videos are also very popular in the home communities where these tradition bearers are from.

I prefer making process-centered videos in part because the researcher and maker roles are even— the maker makes, and the documentarian shoots and edits. While we are working together; the maker knows what I am doing and what they need to do for it to be successful. As we work together, the maker tries to make the best basket possible, and I try to capture the best footage I can.*

JBJ: It is great to gain this sense of your process and your priorities in the work. That the videos will have multiple uses, both now and in the future, is a key factor. A classic gallery exhibition is a unique and wonderful thing—I have devoted my life to making them—but they cannot reach all audiences and they are very time and place limited. Your videos will do varied work around the world and in the Indiana Chin community itself. I look forward to watching them!

Can you say something about how this project and exhibition intersects specifically with Indiana University Bloomington, above and beyond its relevance to the Chin community, to Indiana as a state, and to TAI as the state public folklore program? Put another way, what connections already exist between IU Bloomington and the Chin people in Indianapolis and around the state? This is not the first time IU is engaging with Chin people, is it?

Yes, exhibitions have a limited reach, but they can signal to a community or group that we see them and that their work and culture is valuable both in their community and beyond. I have successfully used campus venues to prototype exhibitions, that I later expand and tour to venues nearer to the makers’ home communities. I did this with an exhibition about oak-rod basketry that was at Indiana University’s Mathers Museum of World Cultures but that was later installed at the Historic Brown County Art Gallery in Nashville, Indiana. Similarly, I did a small proof of concept exhibition on bowl hewing in Indiana at the Herman B Wells Library’s Scholar’s Commons that then was expanded to tour to the Swope Museum of Art. Just as video making is a process for fostering creative collaborations with the artists that I work with, so are exhibitions. Developing an exhibition, growing the exhibition, touring and programming the exhibition—all contribute to my greater understanding of the art form and the makers with whom I collaborate. 

Back to your real question though… Back in 2010, Traditional Arts Indiana did its first project with the Chin community in Indiana. My graduate assistant at the time, Anna Mulé took the lead on that project, and we created a community exhibition and festival about Chin culture. Back then there were just a few thousand Chin living in Central Indiana. Today there are more than 30,000. I wish I could tell you that we continued to work with the Chin through the years, but we didn’t. In 2021, I received a grant to do work in Central Indiana focused on how everyday arts support elder wellbeing.  It was then that I met my collaborator Kelly Berkson, an IU linguistics professor and the director of the Chin Languages Research Project (CLRP). It was in working with her that I learned about how much larger the Chin Population had grown. CLRP is doing amazing work documenting the diverse languages being spoken by the Chin peoples living in Indiana. Through Kelly and CLRP, I discovered that there were dozens of Chin students studying at Indiana University. Kelly had enlisted a strong team of Chin students to support her linguistic research and to understand what Chin languages are being spoken in Indiana. After meeting Kelly and her team, we decided TAI and CLRP needed to work together. Kelly and I received campus funds to support a summer collaborative project, the Chin Folklife Survey.  The Chin students, Kelly, and Chin linguist Kenneth Van Bik, and I conducted interviews with elders in the Chin community. By recording their life stories, we developed a robust collection ethnographic interviews and linguistic data. The students loved the project. After that summer project, I began working one of Kelly’s students, Em Em, who graduated from IU with a degree in Public Health. She helped pilot a series of creative aging programs for Chin elders at the Chin Center of Indiana. From there, Em and community scholar Anna Biak helped start the Winding Wednesday group, a weekly gathering of Chin back-strap weavers living in Central Indiana. Pi Nah Sung has emerged as the lead teacher of that group. I say all of this to make clear that there is a network of students, community scholars, nonprofits, and university partners working with the greater Chin community in Indiana. 

This exhibition would not exist if it was not for that constellation of collaborators. Kelly and her students introduced me to the community, students assisted me with translations and helped me understand the significance of basketry in their community. Em organized and facilitated basket workshops with the two makers, and her insights and knowledge supported this exhibition throughout its creation. This exhibition is not an expression of my “great curatorial understanding of Chin basketry,” rather it is a humble offering of respect and appreciation to the Chin community in general and to Pu Ngai Chum and Reverend Ceu Hlei specifically. It is my scholarly way of thanking them for their time and talent. I also hope the exhibit captures the interest of Chin students and that they might be inspired to learn more about the traditional arts of their community.

 JBJ: It is super to get the wider Indiana University and Chin community contexts for the exhibition and for the larger project. That background really brings to life what is meant when we describe a research project as being a community collaboration.

You have been very patient with my questions at a busy time. You are not only finishing the exhibition and starting a new semester at Indiana University, but you are also working as Interim Executive Director for Arts and Humanities on the Bloomington campus. Take off your hat as Director of Traditional Arts Indiana and put on the A&H director’s hat. From the perspective of your new role, how does an exhibition like this one articulate with the larger body of work that faculty, staff and students at Indiana University Bloomington are now pursuing?

JK: The Arts and Humanities have long been one of Indiana University’s strengths. I feel very fortunate to be serving in this new role at this critical time.  While I have been on the faculty at IU for twenty years, I have always identified as a public folklorist/humanist. My work has always aimed to serve the state, communities, and tradition bearers with whom I collaborate. Our university has undertaken of a seven-year initiative called the IU 2030 plan, which has three priorities. “Student Success & Opportunity,” “Transformational Research and Creativity,” and “Service to Our State and Beyond.”  In some ways, this is just a rearticulation of the existing areas of review for university faculty: teaching, research, and service.  The exhibition and the work that surrounds it delivers on the IU 2030 promise. I outline this below, not as a way of championing IU’s initiative or my work but rather to present how public humanities can work in a university context.

Student Success and Opportunity

Students were involved on all levels with the research, curation, and programs associated with the Chin basket exhibition. Chin students helped identify the basket makers and served as translators and fieldwork assistants. They worked with the Chin Folklife Survey, and gained insight into the fieldwork process, oral history skills, and how to translate field research into accessible content for their community. Folklore students worked alongside me in drafting the exhibition script, editing fieldwork video to be shown in the gallery, and selecting photographs to be included. These “real-world” experiences foster community pride and help develop important professional skills. In addition, they develop a portfolio of career-ready competencies to add to their resume before they leave the academy.

Transformational Research and Creativity

The exhibition also is an example of transformative arts and humanities research. While much of IU’s emphasis is in the biomedical and technology sector, one of the priorities of the 2030 plan is to “Improve the health and well-being of older adults through expansion of IU’s nationally recognized programs in aging research.” Since 2013, Traditional Arts Indiana has worked to research and present the ways that older adults employ traditional arts to resist feelings of isolation, boredom, and helplessness that beset so many older adults.**

The exhibition tells the story of older Chin who make baskets to give their lives purpose and meaning. Through baskets, and by extension all traditional arts, the exhibition shows how community-based arts work to connect elders to their community, fill them with a sense of satisfaction and mastery, and offers them a positive and culturally validating way to devote their time and attention.  Over and over, my ethnographic projects focused on the expressive lives of elders reveal how traditional arts support elder wellbeing. Since “creative aging” is culturally situated and individually experienced, however, there needs to more research with and for the diverse communities we serve.

Service to Our State and Beyond

With recent changes at the National Endowment for the Arts, each U.S. state and territory is required to have a plan for supporting the folk and traditional arts practiced in their jurisdiction. In Indiana, Traditional Arts Indiana has done this work since 1998. This is one way that we serve the state. We host apprenticeships, award Heritage Fellowships, and produce exhibitions, recordings, and scholarship-based, public-facing works. The new exhibition is one of the ways Traditional Arts Indiana is serving our state. In addition to the service that our work provides to the state and for the Indiana Arts Commission, the state arts agency, the work that we do related to traditional arts and creative aging has helped shape arts and aging policies and programs across the United States. Moreover, our primary effort is always to serve the people of Indiana, including the Chin community in Central Indiana.

 I should say that these are the way that I am framing my work given the current priorities of our University, but as a public humanist, I really have not done anything different than what I have done in the dozens of exhibitions, videos, publications, and projects that I have undertaken in since joining the faculty—I research, I teach, I serve.

JBJ:  Jon, thank you so much for your time and for all that you do to support so many different communities and constituencies! As promised, I will now share the exhibition details. I look forward to seeing you at the opening events!

* Readers can learn more about Jon Kay’s approach to ethnographic video production with makers in his contribution to Asian Ethnology. See:

  • Kay, Jon. 2022. “Craft and Fieldwork: Making Baskets, Mallets, and Videos in Upland Southwest China.” Asian Ethnology 81 (1–2): 273–78.

** In addition to major lectures in venues such as the Library of Congress, sources related to Jon Kay’s work on creative aging include the following two books:

  • Kay, Jon. 2016. Folk Art and Aging: Life-Story Objects and Their Makers. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
  • Kay, Jon, ed. 2018. The Expressive Lives of Elders: Folklore, Art, and Aging. Material Vernaculars. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

A Culture Carried: Chin Basketry in Central Indiana

OPENING SEPTEMBER 5, 2024

Chin Basket Weaving Demonstration by Pu Ngai Chum and Reverend Ceu Hlei at the “First Thursdays” Festival on the IU Bloomington Campus

Thursday, September 5th from 4 to 7pm on the Arts Plaza, Indiana University Bloomington

Bloomington Gallery Walk Exhibition Opening

Friday, September 6th from 5-8pm at the Cook Center for Public Arts & Humanities in Maxwell Hall (750 E. Kirkwood Ave, Bloomington, Indiana)

May 14

Workshop: Textile Arts and Heritage Practices in Southwest China

I am happy to be hosting a group of colleagues in Bloomington this week for a long-delayed (COVID…) writing workshop on “Textile Arts and Heritage Practices in Southwest China.” This grows out of the work of the “China-US Folklore and Intangible Cultural Heritage Project,” a joint project of the China Folklore Society and the American Folklore Society. Specifically, the effort arises from that project’s “Collaborative Work in Museum Folklore and Heritage Studies” sub-project (2017-2021), an effort now extended through the “Craft and Heritage in Upland Southwest China” project (2022-present) of the Material Culture and Heritage Studies Research Laboratory. The generous funders and partners for these various projects are discussed in Jackson 2023. This week’s workshop has been supported by the College Arts and Humanities Institute and the Institute for Advanced Study, both at Indiana University. Thank you to all of those who have supported these projects.

There will be a campus event associated with the workshop on Friday, May 19, 2023 at 2:30 pm. Read about it here at this calendar link and in the flyer posted below.

Dec 4

Article: “Kultuuriline omastamine kultuurimuutusena” in Studia Vernacula 14

More good news in terms of publication work. I am pleased to share that my article “Kultuuriline omastamine kultuurimuutusena” is now published in Estonian in the wonderful journal Studia Vernacula (see volume 14). This is a translation (minus the case studies) of my earlier paper “On Cultural Appropriation,” which appeared in English in the Journal of Folklore Research (volume 51, number 1 in 2021). Special thanks go to Elo-Hanna Seljamma for work translating the paper, to Kristi Jõeste for inviting me to contribute the paper, and to Madis Arukask for discussing my contribution in an editorial appearing in the new issue. Studia Vernacula is a wonderful open access journal beautifully produced in digital and print form. Even if you do not read Estonian, I urge you check it out with the help of Google Translate or a similar service. So much wonderful material culture studies work appears therein year after year.

Nov 13

Article: “A Survey of Contemporary Bai Craft Practices in the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China” in Museum Anthropology Review 16(1-2)

I am very happy to note a new co-authored article titled “A Survey of Contemporary Bai Craft Practices in the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China.” It was jointly written with Wuerxiya (first author), C. Kurt Dewhurst (third author) and Cuixia Zhang (fourth author) and it appears in Museum Anthropology Review volume 16, numbers 1-2. This is the special double issue published in honor of Daniel C. Swan, as noted in an earlier post on Shreds and Patches. The article is based on work undertaken by a much larger bi-national team within the “Collaborative Work in Museum Folklore and Heritage Studies” sub-project of the broader “China-US Folklore and Intangible Cultural Heritage Project,” a collaboration (2007-present) of the American Folklore Society and the China Folklore Society. In particular, it describes work undertaken through the auspices of, and in partnership with, The Institute of National Culture Research at Dali University. Special thanks go to the Institute and its leadership.

Find the article online at Museum Anthropology Review: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/mar/article/view/34101

In this image is the first page of a journal article as typeset. The article pictured is "A Survey of Contemporary Bai Craft Practices in the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China." Visible are the names of the authors, the abstract, the key words and the first paragraph of text.
Presented as an image is the first page of the journal article “A Survey of Contemporary Bai Craft Practices in the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China.”

Nov 13

Article: “Basketry among Two Peoples of Northern Guangxi, China” in Asian Ethnology 81(1-2)

I am very happy to note the publication of “Basketry among Two Peoples of Northern Guangxi, China” in the latest double issue of Asian Ethnology. This article is one that I co-wrote with my friends and collaborators Lijun Zhang (first author), C. Kurt Dewhurst (third author), and Jon Kay (fourth author) and it is based on work undertaken by a much larger bi-national team within the “Collaborative Work in Museum Folklore and Heritage Studies” sub-project of the broader “China-US Folklore and Intangible Cultural Heritage Project,” a collaboration (2007-present) of the American Folklore Society and the China Folklore Society.

I am a huge fan of Asian Ethnology, a wonderful open access journal now in its 81st year. Check out the huge volume that our paper is a part of, Find Asian Ethnology online here: https://asianethnology.org/ and also in JSTOR

Find our article here: https://asianethnology.org/articles/2386

Find Jon Kay’s companion article here: https://asianethnology.org/articles/2387

His project is distinct from ours, but find William Nitzky’s article (also) on the Baiku Yao people today here: https://asianethnology.org/articles/2384

This is a image of page one of the published journal article "Basketry among Two Peoples of Northern Guangxi, China. It shows the author's names, the article title, an abstract and the keywords along with the journal's logo, which are a group of line drawn masks from Asian traditions.
A image of page one of the typeset version of the scholarly article “Basketry among Tow Peoples of Northern Guangxi, China” published in Asian Ethnology.

Nov 13

Article: “Towards Wider Framings: World-Systems Analysis and Folklore Studies” in Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics 16(1)

Page one of the article “Towards Wider Framings” as typeset for the Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics.

I am happy to report that my article “Towards Wider Framings: World-Systems Analysis and Folklore Studies” was published in the Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics earlier this year. Readers will have the judge the article for itself, but I can’t say enough good things about JEF. Its a wonderful open access journal doing wonderful work in, and at the intersection of, my two fields. Thanks to everyone at the Estonian Literary Museum, the Estonian National Museum, and the University of Tartu who work to make the journal a success.

Find the article in two places online. In Sciendo here: https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jef-2022-0002 and in the JEF OJS instance here: https://www.jef.ee/index.php/journal.

Oct 30

Museum Anthropology Review Volume 16: Studies in Museum Ethnography in Honor of Daniel C. Swan

Social media is changing again and it seems like a good time to give Shreds and Patches more love and attention.

My collaborator and special issue co-editor Michael Paul Jordan and I are very pleased to announce the publication of a new double-issue of Museum Anthropology Review titled Studies in Museum Ethnography in Honor of Daniel C. Swan

Find the new collection in honor of Dan in Museum Anthropology Review online here: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/mar/issue/view/2153 Thanks to all of the authors, production staff, publishers, peer-reviewers, and helpers who made this collection possible.

Daniel C. Swan pictured wearing glasses and holding a water bottle while standing in front of a large building and a plaza filled with many tourists. He wears a plaid button-down shirt in blue and white and he looks towards the camera while the other people in the scene face away from the camera as they move into the plaza and the building beyond. The sky is vivid blue with streaks of high white clouds. The tile roofs of the buildings behind the subject are orange.
The above image appears in the introduction to the special collection “Studies in Museum Ethnography in Honor of Daniel C. Swan” with the following camption. “In the days following the Seventh Forum on China-US Folklore and Intangible Cultural Heritage and on the eve of the global COVID pandemic, Daniel C. Swan was one of 19.3 million reported visitors to the Forbidden City (a.k.a Palace Museum) in 2019. May 21, 2019. Photograph by Michael Paul Jordan.”
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