COLUMBIA --  Will Moreau Goins will receive the  "Lifetime Achievement" Award for work in the Arts.

The South Carolina General Assembly, the South Carolina Arts Commission and the University of South Carolina's McKissick Museum announced the recipients of the 2008 Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award.

The award ceremony will be on April 16th in the South Carolina State House. This award recognizes outstanding achievement and contributions to the arts in South Carolina.

"I believe that there is no better choice for this high honor...Dr. Goins is one of South Carolina's most well-known and beloved Native American storytellers, singers and dancers" explained Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter.

The state legislature created the Folk Heritage Award in 1987 to recognize lifetime achievement in traditional arts. The Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Awards are one-time awards presented annually by the South Carolina General Assembly .

An author, activist, educator, recording artist, community leader, and crafts artist, Will Moreau Goins is an active member of the state's arts community and is well known nationally and internationally and throughout the state of South Carolina. He is a Storyteller. In the tradition of the great Iroquois & Cherokee orators, Will Moreau Goins Ph.D. is a well-known and requested presenter. "As our most requested speaker, Dr. Goins reached thousands of South Carolinians, from students to senior citizens, presenting on a variety of folk heritage and humanities topics...Dr. Goins is an excellent historian, a strong speaker, and a passionate advocate of the arts" added Mr. Randy Ankers, Executive Director of the SC Humanities Council.

In his stories Will Moreau Goins weaves the ancient past, mythology and the present with dramatic narratives and song.

He also is a Storyteller in a new contemporary medium by his work in stage productions and in film. He has worked in the field of communications/film and video for over 25 years. He founded the successful SC Native American Indian Film Festival ten years ago at the Nickelodeon Theater. A recording artist, that also has his storytelling available on CDs, Will is a "Singer of Songs" contemporary and ancient chants. He thinks of himself as a contemporary person in a modem age. His craftsmaking is inherited from his forefathers and was passed down to him by the family members, matriarchs, who continued these traditions in his large extended Native American family.

"Goins knowledge is deep and his professionalism in unmatched..I can think of no more worthy recipient for this award than Dr. Will Moreau Goins," stated Mr. Ed Bolt, Site Manager, Pickens County Museum Hagood Historic Site.

Dr. Goins, active statewide in the arts community of SC, serves on various boards including the Board of Directors for the South Carolina Traditional Arts Network. He is presently a part of the Humanities Council SC Speaker's Bureau and currently serves as the president of the S.C. Traditional Arts Network, a statewide network promoting, preserving and celebrating South Carolina’s traditional and folks arts. Dr. Goins taught Native American Indian beadwork class at McKissick Museum 2005. In addition, Dr. Goins was classified as a “SC Master Artist” in the SCAC Traditional Arts Initiative and served to teach an apprentice Native American Indian regalia design and construction and Native American Indian beadwork in 2006. He is an Active Member of The SC Storytellers Network (member since 2003).

Will Moreau Goins has dedicated his life to preserving, presenting and performing Native American music traditions, beadwork and storytelling. He weaves the ancient past, mythology and the present with dramatic narratives and song.

He has worked with Native American people, organizations and agencies, both federal and state, for over 30 years and presently has an integral role with the Eastern Cherokee, Southern Iroquois and United Tribes of South Carolina Inc. This non-profit organization is "dedicated to the preservation and perpetuation of South Carolina Native American arts & crafts, history, culture, and heritage."

For years, Goins has been passionately involved with the American Indian Educational Programs, working specifically with K-12 students and also Higher Education. In addition to song, storytelling and beadwork, Goins leads the Cultural Arts Ensemble, a dance & drum troupe that travels the region and internationally to perform Native American ceremonial dances, including the "Stomp" and "Round" dances. This ensemble "reaches out" to over 10,000 youth in performances annually. "He is an accomplished artist a tireless community activist and certainly a constant promoter of art. ...He is, in my view, a valuable asset to the state of South Carolina, his Native people, and the arts," stated Representative Joseph H. Neal of South Carolina's General Assembly.

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