Message from the Director

FOR 40 YEARS, the National Endowment for the Arts has awarded the National Heritage Fellowship, the nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.

Of the nations that bestow honorifics on their culture bearers, the United States is singular for an approach that matches its motto, e pluribus unum: one nation comprised of many cultures. National Heritage Fellows carry the stories of their peoples—Indigenous, immigrant, migrant, captive, and refugee—across ever-shifting landscapes. They are gifted tradition bearers, stewards, and innovators, and include practitioners whose traditions have emerged relatively recently from distinctly American experiences.

This was as true for the first class of Heritage Fellows in 1982 as it is 40 years later. Indigenous arts like 2022 Fellow Francis Palani Sinenci’s Hawaiian hale buildings, or 1982 Fellow Georgeann Robinson’s Osage ribbonwork, stand alongside immigrant and refugee Heritage Fellows like Serbian tamburitza musician Adam Popovich (1982) and Tibetan singer and dancer Tsering Wangmo Satho (2022). Singer Bessie Jones (1982) gave voice to a multitude of Gullah-Geechee cultural traditions; coastal and Caribbean Black music, dance, and parade traditions are resplendent in the class of 2022.

We might also pause and consider that bluegrass music—a musical tradition that sounds far older than it really is—was barely 40 years old when its visionary creator, Bill Monroe, received a Heritage Fellowship in 1982. 2022 Heritage Fellow Michael Cleveland, born in 1980, was inspired by Monroe’s music and even played with him as a child.

As global ambassadors for American culture, 2022 Heritage Fellows C. Brian Williams, TahNibaa Naataanii, Shaka Zulu, Eva Enciñias, and the Legendary Ingramettes have represented the United States on global stages from Bulgaria to Senegal, Vietnam to South Africa. We are reminded that American identity is comprised of multitudes. We thank the National Heritage Fellows for their service to their communities, our nation, and the world.

Congratulations!

Photo by Edwin Remsberg

Clifford R. Murphy, PhD Director, Folk & Traditional Arts National Endowment for the Arts