The Kentucky Musical Legacy Project is an NEA grant-funded initiative of the Kentucky Folklife Program, documenting and presenting the musical traditions of South Central Kentucky. As a Folk Studies graduate student at WKU and KFP’s Graduate Assistant, I have contributed to the project in a variety of ways.
In my Folklore Fieldwork course, I interviewed two local musicians on their experiences performing in the Bowling Green, KY, area. The indexes and transcriptions of these interviews supplemented the fieldwork for the larger Musical Legacy Project.
Beginning as an assignment for my Public Folklore course, I wrote a grant proposal for the Kentucky Oral History Commission to transcribe 17 interviews conducted by other KFP staff during field research for the Musical Legacy Project. I was able to successfully submit and receive the grant. This transcription work is ongoing.
Now, as the Graduate Assistant at KFP, I am assisting KFP staff in writing copy for an online exhibit – a safe and accessible alternative to an in-person museum exhibition which will present the Musical Legacy Project fieldwork and findings in an interactive way.
Georgia Ellie Dassler 