Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology News
Kentucky Museum to Host Bosnian-American Heritage Celebration
- Wednesday, May 1st, 2019
Join the Kentucky Folklife Program and Kentucky Museum for food, music, stories, and more in honor of A Culture Carried exhibition before it closes! Presented in partnership with our exhibit sponsors and contributors, this event will feature Bosnian food, music, and stories that build on the exhibit's success and share the ongoing vibrancy of Bowling Green's Bosnian-American community.
The event will also highlight the Kentucky Folklife Program's Bosnia Oral History Project, an on-going project directed by the Kentucky Folklife Program’s Bosnia Oral History Project Committee in partnership with WKU’s Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology. For the past four years, the Kentucky Folklife Program has been collaborating with members of Bowling Green’s Bosnian American community to learn about the traditional arts and cultural practices that are significant to the Bosnian community here in Bowling Green. In partnership with the Kentucky Museum and WKU’s International Year of Bosnia and Herzegovina, along with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, WKU’s Office of International Programs, and BIH Express, KFP curated a museum exhibit that explores the rich history and culture of Bowling Green’s Bosnian community.
“Based in a larger part on an ongoing oral history we have been conducting with our Bosnian neighbors, this exhibit is a way for us to share the intimate story of their journey to Bowling Green with museum visitors this year,” said Brent Björkman, Director of the Kentucky Folklife Program and Kentucky Museum. “Our staff is humbled by the way so many have let us into their lives. This project continues to be a gratifying collaboration and we are looking forward to sharing their story with those in our South-Central Kentucky community and far beyond.”
Event is free and open to the public.
Event Hours: Friday, May 3 from 6 to 8 p.m.
Location: Kentucky Museum, 1444 Kentucky Street, Bowling Green, KY
Admission: Free
About the Exhibition: https://www.wku.edu/kentuckymuseum/exhibits/aculturecarried.php
About Kentucky Museum
Now in our 80th year, the Kentucky Museum celebrates all aspects of South-Central Kentucky’s art, history, and culture. “Kentuckians need to know Kentucky” was the museum’s earliest conceptual framework, which took shape in the eyes of WKU’s founding president Henry Hardin Cherry. Today, we are a steadfast educational campus partner helping to inspire innovation, elevate community, and transform the lives of our students and the community.
About Kentucky Folklife Program
For over 25 years the Kentucky Folklife Program (KFP) has been dedicated to the mission of documenting, presenting and conserving the diverse traditional culture and heritage of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Housed in the Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology at Western Kentucky University, KFP conducts fieldwork and oral history projects throughout the state and produces educational programming and events that bring citizens into contact and dialogue with tradition and folklife.
About the Bowling Green Bosnia Oral History Project
In the Fall of 2015, with support from the WKU Institute for Citizenship and Social Responsibility (now WKU’s Center for Citizenship & Social Justice), the Kentucky Folklife Program began the Bowling Green Bosnian Oral History Project in collaboration with members of Bowling Green’s Bosnian community and faculty from the Department of Folk Studies & Anthropology. This ongoing project documents the stories of Bowling Green’s Bosnian community. For information about the exhibit or to find out more on how you can contribute an oral history to this project, contact us the Kentucky Folklife Program at (270) 745-4133 or kyfolklife@wku.edu