As the nation’s attention turned to the economic impacts of the farming crisis in the late 1980s, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival sought to highlight one of the lesser known aspects of the crisis.

In a state where there are typically miles between neighbors, the Blackfoot Ranch Rodeo in Idaho provides a space for the community to come together.

Hear the stories behind iconic American symbols, the people operating the national museum behind the scenes, and the initiatives advancing our shared future.

The Olathe Leadership Lowrider Bike Club is an after-school program that prepares students for life after high school.

The day after the Festival, Indigenous participant groups visited the Cultural Resources Center and National Anthropological Archives.

Gregg Lamping has been working every summer at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival since 1976.

Our team implements accessibility services into the Festival from the early stages of the production process.

At the Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center, interns study the art, rituals, and traditions that permeate our everyday lives.

Sustainable practices have long been important at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, but this year’s theme particularly highlights their urgency.

My first impression of the Idaho gearmaking community was that it was mostly men isolated from each other by the vast geography of the fourteenth largest and fourteenth least populated state.