As a nonprofit organization with a public mission, the Western Folklife Center belongs to anyone who cares about the West and wants to ensure that the many peoples and ways of life here remain alive and vibrant. If you have participated in the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, attended a concert, reading or exhibit we presented, listened to and appreciated our recordings, films and radio programs, you have experienced the public presentation of western folklife and you understand how these presentations help nurture the art forms and the stories, as well as the people and ways of life from which they emanate.
Many of you have told us that you value our work and would like to support programs and initiatives you care about, from performances and exhibits to archives to the renovation of our facility. To make it easy to support the programs you care about we’ve developed our Stakeholder Program. When you donate to the Stakeholder Program, you’ll provide direct support to the activity or program of your choice and join in a partnership with the Western Folklife Center.
More than your financial interest, your involvement with the Western Folklife Center and its projects also express your personal interest, which goes well beyond the dollars you contribute. Our stakeholders are closely connected to us in a partnership that ensures we remain a robust and healthy organization, and that we can continue to fulfill ourmission of preserving western culture in all its varied and colorful forms.
The Stakeholder Program is different from our Membership Program, which provides benefits in the form of National Cowboy Poetry Gathering tickets and other perks. When you make an initial or ongoing contribution of $250 or more to the program of your choice, you are demonstrating that you value our work. We welcome your support for any of our programs. In return for your generous investment, you will receive:
- an invitation to the Stakeholder Breakfast at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering
- invitations to events and social opportunities in communities where we conduct outreach events
National Cowboy Poetry Gathering poets and musicians
The average cost of bringing one poet or musician to the Gathering is $3,000. This includes honorarium, travel and accommodations. With between 70 and 100 artists represented at the event each year, these costs add up. As a stakeholder you can contribute to the cost of bringing a poet or a musician or you can opt to sponsor one at the $3,000 level. Click here to become a stakeholder, or for more information about sponsoring a poet or musician, contact Charlie Seemann toll-free at (888) 880-5885 or by email at
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Educational programs for children/youth
| The Western Folklife center provides workshops, tours and performances for youth during the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering and throughout the year in Elko. Roughly 4,000 schoolchildren participate in programs during the Gathering, including home-schooled and rural children. In 2005, we implemented youth workshops during the Gathering, which have included roping, cowboy poetry writing, leather working, songwriting and cooking. The cost of producing a performance for children averages $1,000 and a workshop averages $1,500. Click here to donate now. |  |
Deep West Records
With our label, Deep West Records, the Western Folklife Center is committed to “preserving rare and endangered sound,” and creating CD's that are meant to be listened to carefully for generations. Whereas a musical group might go into a recording studio and have a master recording ready to press in a single day, Western Folklife Center CD's require extensive fieldwork, research and documentation, then careful production. It may take years to produce something like our Smithsonian Folkways CD Songs and Stories from Grand Canyon and can cost anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000: the average price is $35,000 per CD. Click here to donate now.
Exhibitions
The Western Folklife Center was recognized in 2004 as an outstanding museum when it received the National Award for Museum Service. The educational and artful exhibitions produced by the Western Folklife Center grow out of fieldwork and research as well as collaborative work with artists, cultural specialists and other museums. Producing an exhibition from the ground up typically costs from $50,000 to $75,000 for research, curation, production, shipping, installation, insurance, and maintenance. The Western Folklife Center produces and hosts exhibits in its Wiegand Gallery in Elko and also produces traveling exhibits, such as its exhibition about the culture of sheep ranching, Trailing the Year: The Human Landscape of Sheep Ranching in the American West. Click here to donate now.
Archives
The Western Folklife Center Archives collects and preserves materials in all formats that document expressive arts, traditional lifeways, and the evolving cultural landscape in the Great Basin region and throughout the American West, and is also responsible for documenting the programs and administrative history of the Western Folklife Center. The cost for continuing archival operations averages $125,000 per year. Click here to donate now.
International cultural exchange program
Over the years the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering has frequently hosted representatives of cattle and horse cultures from around the world, including poets and musicians from Australia, Mexico, the British Isles, Mongolia, Columbia, Brazil, Argentina, and France. These cultural exchanges are a unique and valuable part of the Gathering, but bringing foreign guests to Elko is expensive. While it costs about $3,000 to bring a poet or musician from the U.S. or Canada, international travel expenses add to the cost of bringing our guests from overseas. Click here to donate now.
