ACTA is pleased to announce that Jennifer Joy Jameson will join ACTA in the newly created position of New Media Program Manager, effective March 1, 2017.
Jennifer Joy Jameson is a public folklorist and cultural organizer originally from Encinitas, California near San Diego. Jennifer comes to ACTA from the Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC) where she served as the Folk and Traditional Arts Director since 2014, administering traditional arts grants, providing consultation to artists and organizations, and developing special initiatives and documentation projects related to a wide range of cultural arts. At MAC, she managed the digital revival of Mississippi Folklife, a state publication with a history dating to 1927, and directed the Mississippi Bicentennial Folklife Survey, overseeing the documentation of nearly 40 artists or artistic communities statewide. Jennifer also serves as the New Media Coordinator for SPACES Archives, a non-profit archive dedicated to documenting and advocating for the preservation of international art environments.
With an M.A. in public sector folk studies from Western Kentucky University and a B.A. in folklore and ethnomusicology from Indiana University, Jennifer has worked with museums, archives, festivals, and cultural organizations on the federal, state, and local level. This includes positions at the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Traditional Arts Indiana, the Kentucky Folklife Program, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and Tennessee’s historic Highlander Center. Jennifer’s studies have focused on material culture and traditional music in the American South, and her writing has appeared in The Oxford American, The Journal of American Folklore, and The Art of the Rural. This year, Jennifer was invited to conduct collaborative research exploring the local memory of Mississippi artist Loy Bowlin, “The Original Rhinestone Cowboy,” as part of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center’s 50th Anniversary exhibition The Road Less Traveled, opening in 2017.
ACTA’s New Media Communications Program is funded in part by grants from the James Irvine Foundation’s New California Arts Fund and the San Francisco Arts Commission.