funding of major non-profit centres for folklife documentation and presentation, such as City Lore and the Center for Traditional Music and Dance in New York, Texas Folklife Resources, Northwest Folklife, the Western Folklife Center, and the Philadelphia Folklore Project. The Smithsonian Institution features the Smithsonian Folklife Festival every June and July which attracts upwards of two million people to hear live performances and view demonstrations of traditional crafts. Each year, some 15 outstanding American folk artists and performers are awarded National Heritage Fellowships from the NEA for their lifetime achievement. Some more widely known awardees over the years have included John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Clifton Chenier, Earl Scruggs, Michael Flatley, Shirley Caesar, Albertina Walker, Janette Carter, Koko Taylor, Brownie McGhee, Sonny Terry, Jean Ritchie, Sunnyland Slim, Lydia Mendoza, Boozoo Chavis, Zakir Hussain, Helen Cordero, Margaret Tafoya, Santiago Jiménez, Jr., John Cephas, Bois Sec Ardoin, Mick Moloney, Clarence Fountain & the Blind Boys, Esther Martinez, and the Dixie Hummingbirds. Public folklore in Canada The evolution of public folklore in Canada has followed a different course than in the United States, with folklore scholarship stimulated more by local social, political, and economic factors than by international trends in scholarship. This can be seen as part of a "distinctively Canadian" approach to folkloristics. One early attempt to bring folklore scholarship into the public sphere was the establishment of the short-lived Canadian Folk-Lore Society in Toronto in 1908 under the leadership of David Boyle, archaeologist and director of the Ontario Museum, and there have been strong links between museology and public folklore in Canada ever since. Other early attempts included the development of the Alberta Folk-Lore and Local History Project in 1944–45, and the establishment of the Canadian Folk Music Society in 1957, under the leadership of Marius Barbeau, who has been described as Canada's first public sector folklorist. In the 1950s, Barbara Cass-Beggs collected folk music, published Eight Songs of Saskatchewan, and played an instrumental role in the formation of the Saskatchewan History & Folklore Society, also in 1957. Following the 1968 establishment of the Memorial University of Newfoundland's Department of Folklore by Herbert Halpert, and the creation of MUNFLA by Halpert and Violetta Halpert, graduate programs in folklore studies at Memorial included occasional courses on applied folklore designed and taught by folklorist Neil Rosenberg prior to his retirement in 2004. Graduate Sheldon Posen became Curator of Canadian Folklife at the Canadian