Class Offers Ideas to Increase Student Engagement with Folklife Festival

A Northern Michigan University communication studies class collaborated this semester with the Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center on campus to increase student awareness of and participation in the next Upper Peninsula Folklife Festival Oct. 2-4. The event features workshops, demonstrations and performances by folk artists reflecting the ethnic and cultural traditions of the region. Students conducted various levels of research and developed ideas for the center related to programming, promotion and a potential student intern to assist with both.

Assistant Professor Joshua Ewalt's "communication in small groups and teams" class presented their semester-long group project's findings and recommendations to Beaumier Center Director Dan Truckey at their final class session April 21.

"It's a lot of pressure to put on students to have them present in front of their project client, the Beaumier Center, and someone from NMU Marketing and Communications," Ewalt said. "I like to do that kind of thing because it amplifies and better models what real-world organizational context looks like, where there is pressure on what you produce beyond just a grade. The students made an extra effort to make sure each group was working on something different to avoid a lot of overlap in their presentations. They took constructive feedback from each other, and I think the end result was a cohesive and phenomenal presentation."

"When you do the kind of work I do, oftentimes it's easy to get into the weeds of the details and not consider the bigger picture of what people outside of your own little world of folk nerds want or expect from such an event," Truckey said after the presentation.

"From my point of view, this is so helpful because you recognized the dilemma associated with time. Hiring an intern who offers a student's perspective, is social media savvy and could assist with things I don't have time to do on my own would be very helpful. And having occasional 'teaser' activities on campus in advance to build excitement for the festival is a great idea to keep it in people's minds for an extended period. Thank you so much for all you've done."

Throughout their presentation, students addressed the following: what folklife is and why it matters; key challenges they identified, especially around awareness and engagement; a suggested poster redesign to capture student interest; and programming, marketing strategy and communication efforts that have the potential to better connect with students.

Those who presented on behalf of their respective groups included Chloe Osterman, Truman Maher, Emerson Byers, Nicklaus Huntley and Charlotte Strom.

Byers' group surveyed students about desired programming for the festival, along with social media and marketing preferences. She said in response to the first question of whether extra credit or volunteer opportunities would make them more likely to attend the event, 56.3% said yes, and 43.8 said they would give it more thought. Nearly 84% of those polled said they prefer hands-on learning over demonstrations.

"Our solutions to engage more students are to have food trucks or other festival food and cooking lessons, especially if a student discount could be provided," Byers said. 'Regarding crafts, having vendors who could sell jewelry and other knick-knacks and offer demonstrations and activities to create take-home pieces would be nice. In terms of music, there could be live music, dance classes and maybe a college-age late night dance. And for culture, teaching and playing folk games, having a storytelling time for kids, and a cultural fashion show or parade are some of our ideas."

With all of the options, partnering with some of the many student organizations on campus is encouraged.

"We recommend increasing the center's social media presence broadly, because social media algorithms tend to favor accounts that are regularly active on a consistent basis," added Strom. "Regularly posting will increase your chances of being seen by users on those platforms, which would help this event specifically and also increase general awareness of the center. We specifically recommend Facebook and Instagram. Those were the two that almost everyone said they were on, and they're easy to do in conjunction, because everything can be cross-posted."

The U.P. Folklife Festival will feature traditional artists and craftspeople from across the Upper Peninsula and Upper Midwest, representing many different cultural/ethnic backgrounds and mediums.

According to a preview by Truckey, the emphasis will be on learning traditional arts versus simply watching them being created. There will be several workshops in the areas of arts and crafts, music, dance, storytelling, cooking and others. The focus will be on person-to-person learning of these traditions in the hope that these arts will continue to flourish.

The festival is being funded, in part, by a nearly $19,000 grant from the American Scandinavian Foundation and an $8,000 grant from the Michigan Arts & Culture Council.

Several arts organizations are involved in creating the event. Beyond the Beaumier Center, they include Borderland Arts, the City of Marquette Arts and Culture Center, the Hiawatha Music Co-op, and Superiorland Woodturners, with additional support from the Upper Peninsula Arts and Culture Alliance and other arts and culture organizations.

Artists who are interested in teaching, demonstrating or performing at the festival can submit their applications online at https://www.nmu.edu/beaumier/upff.