Katy Clune is Virginia’s state folklorist and director of the Virginia Folklife Program of Virginia Humanities, which serves to sustain and empower the vital and diverse cultures and traditions of communities across the Commonwealth. Katy has dedicated her career to forging connections between people through culture and creating platforms for communities and artists to tell their stories and expand the reach of their voices. She has worked for educational and cultural organizations including the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, The Textile Museum, the Center for the Study of the American South at UNC Chapel Hill, and, most recently, Duke University’s arts initiative. In 2021, she received an Archie Green Fellowship from the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress to interview repair professionals across North Carolina. She has her BA in art history from UC Berkeley and her MA in folklore from UNC Chapel Hill. Raised in the Foreign Service, she has called six countries and both US coasts home. Outside of work, Katy spends time outdoors in the woods and near rivers, sews, plays with printmaking, and aspires to turn her backyard into a cut flower farm.