In May 2026, the Folklife Program partnered with the Tennessee State Museum for the annual Statehood Day celebration, commemorating both America 250 and Tennessee’s 230th birthday. The event also marked the 10th anniversary of the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program and featured folklife demonstrations and performances throughout the Museum, as well as the premier of the short film, A Grand Design: Captain Le Roy Reeves and the Tennessee State Flag, a rare display of the first Tennessee TriStar flag, guided tours of the exhibit Tennessee Voices, American Stories, among other activities.
Traditional art forms featured included buck dancing, Choctaw bead working and basketry, white oak basketry, instrument making, cartonería, flint marble making, ballad singing, coopering, wood carving, blues music, Old Harp singing, Choctaw social dancing, quilting, Kurdish traditional music, net making, hat making, string band music, Memphis Jookin, broom making, seed saving and agricultural folkways, and Stump Jumper boat making. “These artists represent the breadth and richness of Tennessee’s cultural traditions. Through their participation in the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, each has helped ensure that their deeply rooted art form is preserved into the future,” said Director of Folklife Bradley Hanson. “On Statehood Day, and as we celebrate America’s 250th birthday, these folklife practices remind us of who we are, and show us plainly what our state is and what it can be.”
