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The MSU Museum is starting an 18-month renovation project on July 1, 2024. During the temporary building closure, the Museum will continue facilitating and creating experiences at the nexus of the arts, sciences, cultures, and technologies.

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Contact Information:
(517) 355-2370 or (517) 290-5190

C. Kurt Dewhurst

Curator of Folklife and Cultural Heritage

Director for Arts and Cultural Partnerships, University Outreach & Engagement
Curator of Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Michigan State University Museum
Professor, English and Museum Studies
University Outreach and Engagement Campus Senior Fellow

Kurt Dewhurst serves as the director for Arts and Cultural Partnerships and as a Senior Fellow, University Outreach and Engagement (UOE). He is director emeritus of the Michigan State University Museum, as well as a curator of folklife and cultural heritage and a professor of English and Museum Studies. Dr. Dewhurst directs and coordinates a variety of arts and cultural programs for University Outreach and Engagement. The author or co-author of numerous books, articles, and exhibition catalogs, he has also curated over 60 exhibitions and festival programs. He teaches courses in folklife, material folk culture, and museum studies.

He is past chair of the Board of Trustees for the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress, president of the American Folklore Society, chair of the Advisory Council of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, chair of the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, vice-chair of the Michigan Humanities Council, Director of the MSU Center for Great Lakes Culture, and president of the Michigan Museums Association. He is an advisor to the Nelson Mandela Museum in Mthatha, South Africa; Chair of the U.S. Friends of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation on Non-Racialism in Johannesburg, South Africa; and advisory to the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation in Cape Town, South Africa. He has served as an advisor to the development of the Nokomis Learning Center, Okemos, MI; the National Cultural Center in Bangkok, Thailand; and the National Heritage and Cultural Studies Center at the University of Fort Hare, Alice, South Africa. He also serves as a senior reviewer for the Accreditation Program of the American Alliance of Museums.

Dewhurst is a past recipient of a Fulbright grant to work in Thailand with the National Culture Commission of Thailand and participated in a French-American Foundation Arts Administrators Exchange Program in France. He was honored with the Américo Paredes Prize by the American Folklore Society for excellence in integrating scholarship and engagement with communities. In addition, the Great Lakes Folk Festival was recognized in 2004 as the best project in the 30-year history of the Michigan Humanities Council. In 2011 he was elected a Fellow of the American Folklore Society. He received the 2018 MSU Charles Gliozzo Award for International Diplomacy. In 2023 he received the MSU Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

In the past decade he coordinated a major cultural heritage training program in South Africa; served as co-curator of the 2006 Smithsonian Folklife Festival program, Carriers of Culture: Native Basket Traditions; was co-curator for the major international exhibition, Dear Mr. Mandela, Dear Mrs. Parks: Children’s Letters, Global Lessons (in South Africa and the US) and Ahmed “Kathy” Kathrada: A South African Activist for Non-Racialism and Democracy in the US. He was awarded a Fulbright grant at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, where he assisted on the re-development of the Museum of Anthropology. He is one of the leaders for the US-Africa Cultural Heritage Strategic Partnership and the American Folklore Society/Chinese Folklore Society Folklife and Intangible Cultural Heritage Partnership project involving museums from both countries. He has served as co-curator for an exhibition in 2015, Nani I Ka Hala: The Vibrancy and Vitality of Lau Hala Weaving in Hawaii, Bishop Museum, Honolulu, on living Native Hawaiian lauhala weaving traditions, and the 2012 Smithsonian Folklife Festival Program, Campus and Community: Public Universities and the USDA at 150. He is one of the leaders of the 2018-2021 Ubuntu Dialogues: Museums and Communities Connect collaborative project between MSU and Stellenbosch University Museum, Stellenbosch, South Africa. He also is a member of the leadership team for a new international alliance, Cultural Heritage and Museums on the Move: Migration and Mobility, based at Lund University, Lund, Sweden. In 2023 he was appointed as a Trustee of the Vaal University of Technology Foundation Board in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Research interests include:

  • Cultural economic development
  • Cultural heritage policy
  • Intangible cultural heritage
  • Intellectual property
  • Folk and traditional arts
  • Ethnicity
  • Occupational folklore
  • Museology theory and practice
  • Cultural facilities planning

Selected Publications

  • Wuereiya, Jason Baird Jackson, and C. Kurt Dewhurst. “A Survey of Contemporary Bai Craft Practices in the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China.” Museum Anthropology Review. 16(1-2), 2022.
  • Zhang, Lijun, Jason Baird Jackson, C. Kurt Dewhurst, and Jon Kay. “Basketry Among Two Peoples of Northern Guangxi, China.” Asian Ethnology, 2022.
  • Dewhurst, C. Kurt and Marsha MacDowell. 2020 “Introduction.” Nelson Mandela Centenary: The Father of All Nations at 100 Years and Beyond. Nelson Mandela Museum and University of Fort Hare, South Africa.
  • Dewhurst, C. Kurt and Marsha MacDowell. 2019 “Art, Aesthetics, and Crafts. Oxford Handbook of American Folklore and Folklife Studies. Chapter 14, London: Oxford University Press.
  • Dewhurst, C. Kurt, Patty Hall, and Charles Seemann (eds).) 2017 Museums and Folklife: 21st Century Perspectives, Rowman and Littlefield Press.
  • Dewhurst, C. Kurt and Marsha MacDowell 2016. Introduction, Curatorial Conversations: Cultural Representation and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.Olivia Cadaval, Sojin Kim, and Diana Baird N’Diaye (eds.). Oxford: University of Mississippi Press. pp. 3-10.
  • Dewhurst, C. Kurt and Lynne Swanson. 2016.  “A Commitment to Textile Traditions: The Michigan State University Museum, East Lansing, MI.” Quilts of Southwest China Marsha MacDowell and Lijun Zhang (eds.).  Nanning: Guangxi Museum of Nationalities. pp.62-65.
  • Dewhurst, C. Kurt and Marsha MacDowell 2015. Strategies for Creating and Sustaining Museum-based International Collaborative Partnerships. Practicing Anthropology. Summer, Vol. 37. No 3, pp. 54-55.
  • Dewhurst, C. Kurt and Marsha MacDowell 2015. “Memories of Robben Island Visit with Ahmed Kathrada. Triumph of the Spirit: Ahmed Kathrada and Robben Island. NZ: PQ Blackwell with the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation.
  • Dewhurst, C., Kurt, Diana Baird N-Diaye, and Marsha MacDowell 2015 “Cultivating Connectivity: Moving Toward Inclusive Excellence in Museums”. Curator: The Museum Journal. Special issue on Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Vol. 57, No. 4. pp.1-18.
  • Dewhurst, C. Kurt, Lia Keawe, and Marsha MacDowell 2014. Ike Ulana Lau Hala: The Vitality and Vibrancy of Lau Hala Weaving Traditions in Hawaii. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. 2014.
  • Dewhurst, C. Kurt.  2014. Presidential Address 2011, “Folklife and Museum Practice: An Intertwined History and Emerging Convergences.” Journal of  American Folklore. Vol. 127, No 505. pp. 244-263.
  • Dewhurst, C. Kurt and Marsha MacDowell. 2013. “Going Public through International Museum Partnerships.” in Going Public: Civic and Community Engagement (eds. Hiram Fitzgerald and Judy Primavera, East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.
  • Dewhurst, C. Kurt, Marsha MacDowell, and Kate Wells. 2012. Siyazama: Traditional Arts, AIDS, and Education in South Africa, Johannesburg: University of Kwa-Zulu Natal Press, 2012.
  • Dewhurst, C. Kurt. 2011.“Folklife and Museums: A Force for the Construction of a New Cultural Ecology.” Journal of Cultural Heritage. Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences in Universities and Institute of Chinese Intangible Heritage, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. Vol. 1. pp 100-104.
  • Dewhurst, C. Kurt. 2002. “Rethinking Collaboration: Lessons from the Field,” in Julie Avery, ed. Rooted in Place: Community Arts and Culture. East Lansing, Michigan:  Michigan State University Museum and Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs.
  • Dewhurst, C. Kurt, Marsha MacDowell, and Narissa Ramdhani, 2008. “Lessons Lived and Learned in Developing and Managing a Bi-National Cultural Heritage Sector Project in South Africa,” 2008. Museum Anthropology Review. Vol. 2, No. 1.
  • Dewhurst, C. Kurt, Marsha L. MacDowell, and Marjorie Hunt. 2006. “Carriers of Culture: Living Native Basket Traditions.” in Frank Proschan, ed. Smithsonian Folklife Festival Annual. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, pp. 46-62.
  • Dewhurst, C. Kurt, Marsha MacDowell. Carriers of Culture: Native Quilting Traditions. Museum of New Mexico Press. 1997.
  • Dewhurst, C. Kurt, Betty MacDowell, Marsha MacDowell. Religious Folk Art in America: Reflections of Faith. New York: E.P. Dutton. 1983.
  • Dewhurst, C. Kurt, Betty MacDowell, Marsha MacDowell, Artists in Aprons: Folk Art by American Women. New York: E.P. Dutton. 1979.

Selected Exhibits

  • “Dear Mr. Mandela/Dear Mrs. Parks” Exhibit, (collaborative with the MSU Museum and Nelson Mandela Museum), Mthatha, South Africa, 2021 (revised and expanded of original 2008 exhibition).
  • “Nani I Ka Hala: The Vibrancy and Vitality of Lau Hala Weaving in Hawaii.” Bishop Museum, Honolulu, and Maui Arts and Cultural Center, HA. 2015.
  • “Sun-up to Sundown: Selections from the Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives Collection,” Michigan State University Museum. 2013.
  • “Ahmed Kathrada: A South African Activist for Non-Racialism and Democracy.” Michigan State University Museum, East Lansing, MI. 2013.
  • “Campus and Community” (Smithsonian Folklife Festival Program), Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Washington, DC. 2011.
  • “Carriers of Culture: Living Native Basket Traditions” program at Smithsonian Folklife Festival, 2006.
  • “Carriers of Culture: Living Native Basket Traditions” preview exhibit, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. 2006.
  • “Dear Mr. Mandela/Dear Mrs. Parks” Exhibit, (collaborative with the MSU Museum and Nelson Mandela Museum), Mthatha, South Africa, 2008.
  • To Honor and Comfort: Native Quilting Traditions” (a collaborative project between the National Museum of the American Indian and Michigan State University Museum), National Museum of the American Indian, New York, New York, October 16, 1997 – January 4, 1998; Michigan State University Museum, East Lansing, Michigan. National venues: Fuller Museum of Art, Brockton, Massachusetts; Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, Ohio; Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, Montana; Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii; Washington State Historical Society, Tacoma, Washington; Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona.
  • “Native Quilt Traditions of the Southwest.” Institute of American Indian Arts Museum. Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2000.
  • “Caught on the Fly: Fly Fishing Traditions in Michigan,” MSU Museum, 1999.

Selected Honors

  • American State and Local History Awards, 1977, 1985, and 1988.
  • French-American Foundation Arts Administrators Exchange Program in France, 2000
  • Cultural Heritage Training program in South Africa, program coordinator, 2000-present
  • Salzburg Seminar Series on Community and Culture, Salzburg, Austria
  • Distinguished Service to the Humanities Award, 1998
  • Fulbright Grant to work in Thailand with the National Culture Commission of Thailand, 1992
  • Michigan Humanities Council and the American Association of State and Local History Award, 1992
  • Award, and a Crystal Award for exemplary community service by the City of East Lansing, 1990
  • Michigan State University Diversity Award for Michigan Traditional Arts Program Contributions, 1990.
  • Americo Paredes Award, American Folklore Society, 2004
  • Michigan Humanities Council, Best Project in 30 Year History of the MHC for the Museum’s Folklife Festivals, 2005
  • Fellow, American Folklore Society, 2011
  • Fulbright Grant at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2011
  • MSU Charles Gliozzo Award for International Diplomacy, 2018
  • MSU Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, 2023.
  • Elected Trustee of the Vaal University of Technology Foundation Board, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2023

Degrees

Ph.D., English/American Studies, Michigan State University, 1983
M.A., Michigan State University, 1973
B.A., Michigan State University, 1970