National Council for the Traditional Arts Awarded Grant to Support the 83rd National Folk Festival
Silver Spring, MD — The National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA) is excited to announce it has received a grant from the Mellon Foundation in support of the 83rd National Folk Festival in Downtown Jackson, Mississippi. The festival will receive $150,000 in flexible program support to build and strengthen the local arts infrastructure the event is establishing during its three-year residency in Mississippi’s capital city.
“I would like to thank the Mellon Foundation for their generous support, and for recognizing the impact of our work in Jackson,” said Blaine Waide, executive director of the NCTA. “Bringing the National to the state of Mississippi for the first time in its 93-year history represents a significant opportunity and responsibility to build something lasting in a city and state that have made immense contributions to our nation’s artistic and cultural legacy, and that are deserving of a panoramic celebration of music, dance, art, culture, and food.”
For over 40 years, the National Folk Festival has demonstrated success in communities across America, where locally produced festivals and expanded cultural programming have continued long after the completion of the National’s three-year residency in each host city. A large-scale, multistage, multicultural celebration, the National Folk Festival represents a proven strategy to act as a catalyst for social, cultural, and economic transformation, as well as community building. It also deepens and expands relationships across cultural, tourism, business, and philanthropic sectors, and among public agencies, civic leaders, and other key stakeholders. This investment from the Mellon Foundation will help create the staffing capacity and sustainable foundation needed to execute a festival of this scale, while also strengthening local partnerships.
First held in 1934, the National Folk Festival is the nation’s premier celebration of folk and traditional arts. It honors the artistic traditions of all Americans, while shining a light on the nation’s finest traditional artists, who hail from cultural communities from coast to coast. Through its dynamic performances and programs, the festival builds bridges and creates cultural understanding among artists and audiences from different backgrounds. The traveling festival is in residence in a host city on a three-year cycle, with the intent for establishing a locally produced festival that continues after the National moves to its next host city.
The festival is in residence in Jackson, MS, from 2025-27, marking the first time it has been staged in Mississippi as well as the Deep South more generally. Grant funds from Mellon will be used to support developing staff capacity and expertise as well as effective partnership infrastructure and communication ahead of the launch of Jackson’s local festival in 2028. Funds will also support programming, enabling the festival to introduce Jackson audiences to traditional artists of the highest caliber from diverse cultural backgrounds from across the nation while also highlighting some of the best artists in Mississippi for a national audience. The cumulative effect will elevate the grassroots traditions and stories that collectively define American culture and character.
