Marsha MacDowell is a professor in the Department of Art and Museum Curator of Folk Art at Michigan State University. She has had nearly thirty years of university museum-based experience in teaching, collection development and management, and development of exhibitions, festivals, publications, and arts policy, particularly as it relates to traditional arts. MacDowell also serves as the coordinator of the Michigan Traditional Arts Program (a partnership program of the MSU Museum with Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and the Michigan University Extension Service). She is past president of the American Quilt Study Group and currently serves on the board of The Alliance for American Quilts. Her recent activities include the development of the NEH-funded The Quilt Index, the Mellon and Ford-funded South African National Cultural Heritage Training and Technology Project, a national 'Quilt Treasures' oral history project, the Great Lakes Quilt Center, the Great Lakes Folk Festival, and the exhibition 'Carriers of Culture: Contemporary Native Baskets.'