Texas Folklife Announces New Executive Director Charlie Lockwood
Austin, Texas – October 5, 2016 – Texas Folklife is pleased to announce that Acting Director Charlie Lockwood has accepted the position of Executive Director. Lockwood has served as Acting Director since January of this year. He has worked at the organization since 2012, serving as Programs, Operations, and Development Director.
During his tenure at Texas Folklife, Lockwood has overseen a variety of flagship Texas Folklife programs, including the National Endowment for the Arts funded Apprenticeships in the Folk & Traditional Arts and Stories from Deep in the Heart youth radio program, Accordion Kings & Queens, The Big Squeeze statewide youth accordion contest, and Foodways: A Place at the Table, a statewide survey of Texas food traditions. He has coordinated grant management, membership cultivation, and fiscal sponsorships for unincorporated organizations and individual artists. For the past several years, Lockwood has undertaken an archival preservation project to organize, digitize and ultimately disseminate 32 years of Texas Folklife's rich archival holdings.In 2014 he co-produced Traditional Music of Texas Volume 1: Fiddle Recordings from the Texas Folklife Archives, and in 2015 was honored with a Community Sabbatical Research Award from the University of Texas at Austin Humanities Institute to research historic and contemporary Texas regional music recordings.
Lockwood is a native Austinite who received his BA in English, History and interdisciplinary studies in Ethnomusicology from Vanderbilt University and his MA from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in Ethnomusicology. He plays the oud (Middle Eastern short-necked fretless lute) in the Austin-based world music group Atlas Maior, and is a member of the University of Texas at Austin Middle Eastern Ensemble Bereket. Lockwood has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Cape Town, South Africa, New Orleans, Louisiana, Austin, Texas, and performed and studied music in Cairo, Egypt and Istanbul, Turkey.
“The Texas Folklife Board of Directors is pleased to welcome Charlie Lockwood to the role of Executive Director”, says Board Chair Heyden Walker. “As Acting Director Charlie has brought an impressive level of management, insight, work ethic, and organizational integrity to the job. We are looking forward to an exciting future for Texas Folklife under Charlie's leadership.”
“I am honored with the opportunity to serve as Texas Folklife’s Executive Director,” says Lockwood, “and to continue our work with an amazing variety artists and communities across the state to celebrate, present, nurture and document the folk and traditional arts of Texas. This is an exciting moment to build upon the proud 32 year legacy of this organization, introduce our programs to new audiences, and fulfill our mission as the primary folk and traditional arts resource organization of the state.”
About Texas Folklife
Texas Folklife is a statewide non-profit organization dedicated to presenting and preserving the diverse cultures and living heritage of the Lone Star State, and is designated by the National Endowment for the Arts as the Folk & Traditional Arts organization for the state. For over 30 years, Texas Folklife has honored cultural traditions passed down within communities, explored their importance in contemporary society, and celebrated them by providing accessible and joyful arts experiences.
1708 Houston St.
Austin, Texas 78756
T (512) 441-9255
F (844) 386-2091
www.texasfolklife.org
Media information: Sheree Scarborough (512) 922-5483 / sheree.scarborough@gmail.com
