Folklorist heads up arts transition team

Oregon folklorist and blogger Camilla Mortensen reports this:

President-elect Barack Obama has begun to put together his transition team.

The American Folklore Society announced this morning that one of its members, former head of the National Endowment for the Arts, William "Bill" Ivey, was named to the transition team by Obama.

According to AFS, Ivey will have responsibility for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services during the transition.

Ivey is often credited with "restoring Congressional confidence in the NEA" and getting back some of the arts funding that had been lost in the Reagan years.