Marsha MacDowell

I received my B.F.A, M.F.A. and Ph.D. from Michigan State University and have been employed as a curator since 1977 at the Michigan State University Museum. Since the mid 1980s I have served as coordinator of the Michigan Traditional Arts Program, a statewide program, headquartered at MSU’s University Outreach and Engagement, dedicated to documenting, preserving, supporting, and presenting the traditional and everyday arts and artists in Michigan and includes two major cultural asset commun ity-engaged documentation projects: the Michigan Quilt Project and the Michigan Stained Glass Census. I served as the co-founding director of the Great Lakes Folk Festival (1987-2017). I serve as the director of The Quilt Index (www.quiltindex.org) an international digital humanities project based at MSU’s Matrix: Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences. Within the Department of Art, Art History, and Design, I taught courses (including summer abroad programs in South Africa) and co-founded the MSU Museum Studies program where I served in a variety of teaching and administrative capacities. I have curated over 30 exhibitions, some local and some international; those of note include ones at the Smithsonian Institution, American Folk Art Museum (NYC), Nelson Mandela Museum, Stellenbosch University Museum, and many at the Michigan State University Museum. These activities have been supported by over 200 grants, including from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, Institute of Museum and Library Services, Michigan Humanities Council, Mellon Foundation, Kellogg Foundation and Terra Foundation. I have served in many different professional service capacities in the museum, folklore, and quilt study field, including the following: founding and current editor, H-Quilts; founding board member, The Alliance for American Quilts; past-president, American Quilt Study Group; elected member of the Executive Board of the American Folklore Society; and member, international editorial board for Museum Anthropology.  I have been elected a fellow of the American Folklore Society and have received several major awards from the society.  I have received numerous internal grants and recognition awards from MSU, including the all-university Lifetime Achievement in DEI Award.