Centre for Modern Art & Theory at Masaryk University in Brno is delighted to share that colleagues from their Centre – Valéria Bláha, Marta Filipová, and Julia Secklehner – are organising a workshop titled “Agents of Change: Folk Cultures in the Long 20th Century”, taking place on the 18th and the 19th of June 2026 at Masaryk University in Brno. The workshop is part of their research project “Beyond the Village: Folk Cultures as Agents of Modernity, 1918–1945”, funded by the Czech Science Foundation.

The workshop turns attention to folk craftspeople and artisans that have actively engaged with social upheavals, market shifts, government policies, and technological advances around the globe from the late 19th century to the present. Building on the idea of agency in folk art, the workshop welcomes papers that offer new perspectives on the meanings of folk art throughout the long 20th century in various geographical and political contexts. With the goal of developing new theoretical frameworks for the study of folk art across disciplines, the workshop seeks to open a long-overdue debate about the role of folk art in contributing to political, social, and economic change during the long 20th century.

The organisers invite scholars from various fields engaged with the topics of folk creativity, folk art and material culture to submit proposals (up to 300 words) for 20-minute papers, accompanied by a brief CV. Please send the proposals to folkandchange@gmail.com by 19 December 2025. Notification of acceptance of proposals will be issued by the end of January 2026. For enquiries, please feel free to contact the members of the project team:
Marta Filipová m.filipova@phil.muni.cz
Julia Secklehner secklehner@phil.muni.cz
Valéria Bláha valeria.krsiakova@mail.muni.cz

Full CFP available here: https://modernartbrno.com/blog/cfp-agents-of-change-folk-cultures-in-the-long-20th-century/