North Carolina Folklife Institute

About

The North Carolina Folklife Institute (NCFI), an independent nonprofit, champions the folklife and traditional arts found across the state, from music, craft and storytelling to foodways, labor and celebration. It sees these traditions as living practices that bind communities and connect generations. NCFI teams up with tradition-bearers, local scholars, artists and community leaders to record, archive and share what they know, so their stories are kept and their voices carry further. That work includes fieldwork, events, cultural documentation, and print and audio publications, along with a network that links folk and traditional artists with leaders in communities statewide. The institute puts community knowledge and leadership first, aims for fair representation of traditions long left out of mainstream accounts, and treats folklife as rooted in history while still changing today.