Folk and Traditional Arts

Jim Jackson, a master of the Sheridan-style leather carving tradition, received both the National Heritage Fellowship and the Wyoming Governor’s Art Award in 2019.

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The Wyoming Arts Council’s Folk & Traditional Arts Program identifies, documents, supports, and celebrates the cultural traditions that shape the state’s diverse communities. These art forms are expressions of shared identity—passed down through families, neighborhoods, faiths, tribes, occupations, and social groups. Rooted in community experience, these arts preserve heritage, tell stories, and evolve to meet the needs of today’s practitioners.

Whether it’s saddlemaking, beadwork, powwow dancing, quilting, or hoop dancing, Wyoming’s traditional arts represent a vital and living history. Through grants, partnerships, and public programming, the Arts Council ensures these traditions continue to thrive across generations.

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What Are Folk & Traditional Arts?

Folk and Traditional Arts are grassroots, community-based art forms that express cultural identity through shared knowledge, stories, and practices. These arts are typically learned informally—through observation, participation, and hands-on experience—rather than in formal settings. They hold deep significance in the communities they come from and are often linked to place, purpose, and tradition.

Examples of Folk and Traditional Arts in Wyoming:

• Saddlemaking and leatherwork
• Cowboy poetry
• Beading and quillwork
• German-Russian Dutch Hop
• Powwow songs and dances
• Wood carving and diamond willow
• Rug braiding and quilting
• Fly tying and taxidermy
• Mexican ballet folklórico

These traditions are not static; they continue to grow, adapt, and connect Wyomingites to their cultural roots while shaping new expressions.

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How We Support Folk & Traditional Arts

The Wyoming Arts Council integrates support for Folk & Traditional Arts as a core element of its statewide cultural mission. Key initiatives include:

• Mentoring Project Grants that pair master artists with apprentices to pass on traditional skills.
• Community Support Grants to help organizations host folk artists, document local traditions, or celebrate cultural heritage.
• Public Programs such as exhibitions, publications, documentary films, and lectures that promote awareness and appreciation.

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Keeping Tradition Catalog

The Wyoming Arts Council has published Keeping Tradition: Folk & Traditional Arts Mentoring Project Grants in Wyoming 2005–2025, a retrospective catalog celebrating the first 20 years of the Folk & Traditional Arts Mentoring Project Grant program.

The 72-page, full-color catalog includes:

• Artist spotlights
• Historical context
• Traditional art forms practiced across Wyoming
• A complete list of former grant recipients

Featured traditions include old-time fiddle, rawhide braiding, beadwork, regalia making, western saddlemaking, and more.

Request a Catalog

The catalog is available free of charge by request. Pre-orders may be submitted online using the button below. Catalogs will be mailed in the coming weeks.

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The Wyoming Folklife Collection

Fieldwork and documentation from the Folk & Traditional Arts Program are preserved in the Wyoming Folklife Collection, housed at the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming. This archive includes decades of interviews, photographs, recordings, and research from the original Folklife Program (1980s–1990s) and its revival in the mid-2000s.

View the collection description

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National Recognition: National Heritage Fellowships

The National Heritage Fellowship is the highest honor given in the U.S. for excellence in folk and traditional arts. Five Wyoming artists have received this prestigious award:

• Don King – Western saddlemaking (1991)
• Eva McAdams – Shoshone regalia (1996)
• Martin Goicoechea – Basque (Bertsolari) poetry (2003)
• James Jackson – Sheridan-style leatherwork (2019)
• Ernie Marsh – Bit and Spur maker from Big Horn County (2025)

Learn how to nominate an artist

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Additional Resources

Want to learn more about folk & traditional arts?

To learn more about folklore, folk art, and folklife, visit the Library of Congress American Folklife Center to read “American Folklife: A Commonwealth of Cultures” by Mary Hufford.

To learn more about some of the traditional arts found in Wyoming, check out the radio series “…You Know That Wyoming Will Be Your New Home”, originally produced for public radio by the Wyoming Arts Council in 1985 and now available on the Wyoming Arts Council’s YouTube page.

For more information on supporting Folk & Traditional Arts, visit the links below:

• American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress
• National Endowment for the Arts, Folk & Traditional Arts
• American Folklore Society

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For more information, please contact Josh Chrysler, Folklorist & Health and Wellness Specialist at (307) 256-2010 or joshua.chrysler@wyo.gov.