Helping to sustain the traditional cultures of coastal Louisiana

The Louisiana Division of the Arts Folklife Program is a partner in the Bayou Culture Collaborative. See their website for more information about the collaborative and its partners. 

The Folklife Program participates by offering strategies to help ensure traditions are passed on to future generations by producing workshops in addition to offering funds to organizations and individuals to sustain the traditional cultures of Louisiana.  Currently we support two types of workshops. 

Bayou Culture Collaborative Workshops bring together artists, tradition bearers, folklorists, and scientists to explore the connections between art, tradition, and science and to inspire advocacy and creativity in the face of land loss and cultural shifts. We partner with other non-profits and university centers to produce these workshops. 

Passing It On workshops are taught by a tradition bearer to pass on a tradition. We provide funds to an organization or tradition bearer for workshops or mini-apprenticeships.

Contact: Louisiana Folklife Program, folklife@crt.la.gov to discuss possibilities.  

How Can You Help? 

The Bayou Culture Collaborative offers several opportunities for you to get involved.  Attend the workshops and gatherings and participate in working groups.  Learn more at Bayou Culture Collaborative, https://slwdc.org/bayou-culture-collaborative. 

Ways to Connect 

                 Sign up to receive announcements from the Bayou Culture Collaborative, https://slwdc.org/bayou-culture-collaborative and follow them on social media.  

                Sign up for Folklife News emails. 

Workshops or mini-apprenticeships can focus on traditional knowledge of the environment and any folk tradition, including music, crafts, dance, occupations, oral traditions, foodways, ritual traditions, and more. Tradition bearers can come from any traditional culture—from those of Native Americans to those descended from the earliest settlers to the most recent immigrants—in coastal parishes. See examples of traditions here.  

Find essays on the Folklife in Louisiana website and other sources that address traditions in Louisiana's coastal communities here.

Collaborators and Funders

This project is a collaboration between Louisiana Folklore Society, the Louisiana Division of the Arts Folklife Program, the South Louisiana Wetlands Discovery Center, Nicholls State University Center for Bayou Studies, University of Louisiana at Lafayette Center for Louisiana Studies.

The collaborative is funded with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, and the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism and the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. It has also received funds from the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area, Restore the Mississippi River Delta and Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program. 

If you would like to know more, contact the Folklife Program director or explore the Folklife in Louisiana website.