Lily Hayden: Do you think, especially because there's so much kind of cultural shifts and social issues today, do you think a lot of that ties into art?

Brandon Harrod: Oh, yeah, 100%

LH: now and whenever you were in college?

BH: 100%.

BH: I paint squares. That's my tagline. I've always just said that I paint squares. I so traditionally, I kind of have nothing to say with my art. So it's about talking to your community. It's about like, I've always kind of felt that disconnect between politics and my art, but the art that I looked at was like in the, in the like, I'd say like 40, 50, 60s, like some of the craziest, some of the craziest turmoil in our country, in our world was going on at that time, but the art, the art didn't So everybody was always making whatever art they want to make, whatever makes them happy. And that's always how I felt. It's for me, it's always been kind of disheartening. To like see the art that has something to say kind of like explode because it like I just I just kind of stand back and I really love it and I really enjoy it and I really I support the artists that have something to say in times of turmoil, but. at the end of the day, art is to you what you want art to be. So I just make art that makes me happy. I make, I make colorful art with like a weird dark undertone. And that to me, fits in this world somewhere.

Allyah Slagle:  Now, can you tell me about, I know you said you’re doing the Mississippi Arts Council. Could you tell me a little bit more about that?

Morrisey:  The Mississippi Arts Commission is a state arts agency. So we are an agency of state government. So we get state tax dollars. We have a fifteen-member board who govern us and they are appointed by the governor. And we’re about thirteen people. We’re in a state office building in Jackson, Mississippi, which is the state capital of Mississippi. And we work statewide. We provide grants and services to individual artists, as well as people, as well as organizations who present the arts in their community. So that’s kind of the short thing of it. So grants to individual artists, services to individual artists. Grants to, anywhere from like a small afterschool program at a library, all the way up to the biggest museums in the state, get grants from us.

In response to a question about her first field school in Mongolia with Dr. Jean-Luc Houle: “What type of- what type of work did you do?”

Deborah Parrish: Our first thing was marking anything, artifacts we found in the ground, any monuments. And then the team sort of split up and Jean-Luc would look at- was more about looking at habitation sites and like winter camps and summer camps. And his co-director Bayaraa [Jamsranjav] and the Mongolian team would do a lot of burials. Um, so we would switch back and forth. There was also the techniques of us just learning how to map and measure. Um, a lot of the Khuriskurs, or um the late-bronze age monuments that Jean-Luc talks about that you get to learn. And, you know, sometimes it was documenting salvaged ones, sometimes it was measuring out and excavating the horse-head mounds on the edges, on the peripheries of the monument. And um, and then sometimes certain ones of us go with the Mongolian team and get to work on burials, um and then we would come back to the lab and process those artifacts at night.

In response to the question: What was the most rewarding part of working in the court system?

Crystal Bohlander: The most rewarding aspect of working in the system is serving Kentuckians in a way that really promotes their best interest. It has been my observation that far too many things happen that are not done in the best interest of Kentuckians. And, as a state that is- is a very poor state, has very few resources, the idea that we were able to reach as many people and do as much good as we did with the meager, meager resources we had to do them with was practically a miracle. I got to meet with- I got to work with people who did their job out of love for their fellow humans. They weren’t- nobody was getting rich through this work. I got to touch families who, I think, legitimately needed assistance. These were people who their problems were genuine by any standard. That feels pretty good at the end of the day. It feels pretty good at the end of the day to look back and to say, instead of trying to get more out of people, I was trying to put more into them. And it just feels like a better legacy.

In response to Allyah asking him how he got the job he has now:

Paul: I spent about a year there [Humanities Tennessee].While I was working there, I got a call - or I had actually met some people that worked with Humanities Tennessee. and that's the state wide humanities council. They work uh from Mount Sydney to Memphis and they do a big book festival. They were grant makers and they did a lot of work with community museums. And I loved what they did. I thought “oh this sounds amazing. I love all of this, uh give me a call if I can ever help out in any way.” Well they had a traveling Smithsonian Exhibit coming to Franklin. and they worked with these very small community organizations that weren't really professionals. They were volunteers that were trying to do good things and they needed- they wanted- they needed help doing a companion exhibit. The exhibit was all about food, American food traditions. It was called “Key Ingredients.” You can find it online, it’s great. They asked if I could help them put together a local exhibit about local food traditions. I said “of course that would be a great thing to do” and my boss there at the time gave me the leeway and permission to do that. And, so I sat down with them and we put together this very small like three or four panel exhibit about… food traditions and that was they had um- like block party barbecues and that sort of thing. And it was really fun, it was great and the exhibit went up and went off without a hitch and about a month later I got a call from Humanities Tennessee and they said “hey we have a job opening, doing the kind of thing that you did with Franklin, would you be interested in applying.”Now, when an employer calls you and asks if you're interested in applying for a job they have, I took that as a really good sign. (Paul and Allyah laugh)

Ryder Rominger:And speaking of accomplishments, what are some things that you’re proud of from your career?

Josh Chrysler:Hmm... Well, one of the one of the big ones that comes to mind immediately is something that just happened in the last year is-I don't know if you're familiar with the National Heritage Fellowships, but it's something to look up if you don't know about them, but basically, these are like the highest awards in folk and traditional arts that the country gives out. So it's an award from the government in folk and traditional arts, and that goes to people who, you know, practice and maintain these cultural art forms in their communities. And it's, you know, it's sort of a big deal to get one of these... you know, it comes with, like, a $25,000 stipend and a big event in Washington, D.C. And anyway, I nominated an artist here in Wyoming by the name of Ernie Marsh. He's a bit and spur maker and a silversmith and and he received one of these National Heritage Fellowship awards this year, which is, it's just pretty cool to see somebody who you know deserves like this level of recognition because of the quality of their work and their like lifetime of experience maintaining these-this important tradition in their community. And so it's just it's pretty rewarding to be able to, help somebody like that get a recognition that they deserve. And so just last month was the award ceremony for that in D.C., and so I got to travel out there with him and watch him receive this award, which is pretty cool.

Hines Bowers: Obviously, history is a big thing for you, so easy to remember the Final Four run and everything. My dream job is a sports historian.

Paul Just: No, that's what they call me now. When somebody calls about- with the younger people, now, when somebody calls with questions, one, I work on some committees and work with the alumni W Club, which is the letter winners organization. I know a lot of those people, and so I've been working with them for many, many years. And I've done some major projects and some small projects and kind of work- sat on a few committees. The- I was fortunate to be able to work with a lot of great coaches and a lot of great athletes. And some wonderful situations. When I was a student, we were regularly in men's basketball top 25 team. And back then, back then it was 25 nowadays, back then it was 20, top 20 team. And now it's 25 of course. And then right there, when I was transitioning, you know, with the- that was Clem Haskins year, if you've heard that name. Clem Haskins is- may have been the best player ever to play here, he was certainly. We've- got three players that were consensus all Americans. Clem Haskins was consensus All American- He was three time all American consensus in ‘67. Jim McDaniels was a three time all American consensus in ‘71. Tom Marshall,- excuse me. Tom Marshall finished his career here in 1954. And was narrowly missed the first- consensus of top five. He narrowly missed that, and then was the second five. So he was second five consensus, what they call, what they refer to it as. And then. So many others. But anything- any of those areas you'd like to talk about, I'd be glad to tell you what I know about it, that that …

Hines Bowers - So tell me about Shakertown. As somebody, I live in Bowling Green right now. I don't, I've never been out here. What is Shakertown?

Tommy Hines - Well, the Shakers were, are a communal religious organization, and they came to America in 1774 from England and set up a commune. A community in upstate New York. They were to some degree isolated, but they did in a socialist-type setting, share everything alike. So the community takes care of all of its members. You convert to the Shakers, and you can stay or leave you don't have to, you're not like bound for the rest of your life. You could join the Shakers and be here for 75 years. You could join and be for 7 1/2 days. But the idea caught on, especially in the early part of the 19th century, when they came to Kentucky and Ohio. The great religious revival was going on, and people were really looking for community. Well, this looked awfully good because you had a community of yaknow several 100 people who are all working for the same cause. You lived in great buildings. You had plenty of food. You had industries where there was always work. You had a great place if you came to bring your children. For them to have an education. So at that time in American history, the Shakers took off, and by the 1830s, there were 24 villages in America, all the way from Maine to Kentucky. This was the most southern of all the villages. So it was a major force economically, culturally. They believed in racial equality and sexual equality, and had male and female leaders who had equal powers here. They were also extraordinarily successful because so many people working for a common cause and so many industries, this place eventually encompassed 6,000 acres they had a 6,000-acre farm, built over 200 buildings here in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and today only nine of those buildings are left. So you don't get any picture at all of what was here. It was a major, major town. So one of the caveats, though, the Shakers believed in celibacy. So to be a Shaker, you have to take a vow of celibacy, just like a Catholic nun or a Catholic priest. It was godly motivated. So they felt like if you were going to have a one-on-one relationship with God, you would be more successful as a single person. So people did it, and I know it's hard to believe in 2025, but you know, thousands of people did it in the 19th century. I will admit, most of the people that came to the Shakers were either single people or single parents, women especially who had bunches of kids and their husband had died on the frontier or whatever. It was ideal for that type of situation. I know this is a long answer, but so this community grew in great numbers until the Civil War, which was the beginning of the end economically, and then after the war, with the increase of the highways and railroads and river traffic. The younger people started to leave, and the population grows older and older and older. By 1922, only nine people are left here.

In response to the question: “… Having all of these stories and these family memories from these people [that you have interviewed throughout your field work], and how did you manage to go through the process of archiving these things? … And how did you do it on a technical level, and then, like even on an emotional level?”

Teresa Hollingsworth: You know, I kind of felt like a collector, caregiver, to a certain extent. And you know, I think, you know, emotionally, you know, I've been very fortunate that most of my experiences were very, very positive. You know, the people I've worked with are, you know, have been just wonderful and so generous in sharing their experience, their art, their life experience, their stories with me. And I mean it, you know, you look back at things, and sure there, "I wish I would have done that differently in that interview," or "Why didn't I follow up on that lead that that person mentioned to me," you know, and that's just kind of life. You can only do what you can do, and not beat yourself up about it, because I think we're all trying to do our best, quite honestly, regardless of our situation or circumstances. But, you know, I really, I think, took very good memories, very good experiences from my oral history and folklife fieldwork, from the public programming that I was either engaged with or had the opportunity to create and present. You know, I have always felt my whole career, and because I have worked with so many artists, but prior to this position at Oxford, you know that it's "artist first." The artist should be first. The… yeah. You know, that it is- yeah, that it's the artist first, and it's like we do whatever is necessary to make them comfortable, to- you know, if you're going to be presenting them at a festival or something, to make them feel appreciated.