A folklorist with wide acclaim in arts, music and public policy discussed “Creativity, Career and Public Education” when he spoke on the MTSU campus earlier this week.

Bill Ivey, one of America’s foremost arts administrators and public policy leaders, delivered the keynote address for the 10th annual Scholars Week.

Bill Ivey brings the keynote address about “Creativity, Career and Public Education” for MTSU Scholars Week March 28 in Student Union Ballroom. (MTSU photos by Rachel Helms)

Ivey spoke March 28 in the Student Union Ballroom. The event was attended by a number of faculty and administrators.

Scholars Week emphasizes the research, scholarly efforts and collaboration of undergraduate and graduate students and faculty. You can learn more and find a complete schedule here.

“Bill Ivey is one of the nation’s leading thinkers on culture and creativity, and his insights into the arts and public policy are consistently thought-provoking and impactful,” said College of Media and Entertainment Dean Ken Paulson, who also serves as president of the First Amendment Center.

Ivey’s abstract for his MTSU talk reveals that “in an era when business, technology, economics and education are increasingly intertwined, he seeks to explore and define a balanced understanding of artistic expression, creativity, scholarship and their impacts on American democracy and quality of life.”

Ivey is a visiting research associate in the Indiana University Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology.

Highlights of Ivey’s career include his service as:

• founding director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University from 2002 to 2012.
• team leader in the 2007 Barack Obama presidential transition.
• the seventh National Endowment for the Arts chairman (1998-2001). He was appointed to the post by President Bill Clinton.
• first full-time director of the Country Music Foundation and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, 1971-98.
• two-term chair of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

Ivey is a trustee of the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based think-tank, and is the author of numerous articles and two books about art, public policy and politics: “Arts, Inc.: How Greed and Neglect Have Destroyed Our Cultural Rights” and “Handmaking America: A Back-to-Basics Pathway to a Revitalized American Democracy.”

Ivey has written and lectured extensively about the importance of cultural policy and the value of cultural engagement in the pursuit of a high quality of life. He coined the phrase “Expressive Life” to define the part of the human experience shaped by cultural heritage and creative practice.

The Distinguished Lecture Fund, Department of Recording Industry and College of Media and Entertainment are sponsoring his appearance.

— Randy Weiler (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu)

Keynote speaker Bill Ivey, left, and professor and Scholars Week committee member Will Langston visits listens as MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee makes a comment during their casual conversation March 28.