Appalshop facts for kids
Appalshop is a special place in Whitesburg, Kentucky, located in the heart of the southern Appalachian mountains. It's a center for media, arts, and education. Imagine a place where people tell stories, make movies, play music, and teach others about their culture!
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History of Appalshop
Appalshop began in 1969 as the Appalachian Film Workshop. It was part of a big government effort called the War on Poverty. This project helped communities by teaching people how to make films.
In 1974, the group became a non-profit company and changed its name to Appalshop. It quickly became a key place for filmmaking in Appalachia. Since then, they have made over one hundred films. These films cover topics like coal mining, the environment, and local traditions.
Appalshop does more than just films. They also create theater shows and music. They even have their own record label, June Appal Recordings, for bluegrass music. You can also find photography, multimedia projects, and books made by Appalshop.
Since 1985, Appalshop has run WMMT-FM, a local radio station. It's located in Whitesburg, Kentucky. The station plays music and shares news important to the region. This includes parts of eastern Kentucky, southwest Virginia, and western West Virginia. You can even listen to WMMT live online!
In 2022, Eastern Kentucky faced terrible floods. Appalshop and its valuable collections were badly damaged. Water, mud, and dampness harmed many items. The center has been working hard to save its archives. They got help from a company called Iron Mountain.
By August 2023, they had saved 13,500 items. These included rare performances and interviews. They even saved an interview with leaders from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Materials about Black Appalachians were also recovered. Some items, especially videos and audio, are being put online. This will create a bigger digital library.
However, about 15 to 20 percent of their archives were lost forever. The damage to the building was so bad that Appalshop bought a new one. This new building is in Jenkins, Kentucky, and it's built above the flood level. They plan to fix up the new building to fit their needs. They also want to respect its history as a former hospital and home. While they wait, they turned an RV into a mobile radio station!
What Appalshop Aims To Do
Appalshop has important goals, as shared on their website:
- To share and keep alive the old traditions and new creative ideas of Appalachia.
- To tell stories that big companies don't, showing Appalachia through its own voices.
- To help communities work for fairness and solve their own problems.
- To celebrate different cultures as a good thing for everyone.
- To join in talks with people from the region, the country, and around the world to achieve these goals.
How Appalshop Gets Support
Appalshop's Funding
Appalshop gets money from many different places. This includes donations from people and grants from public and private groups. In 2017, they reported that most of their money came from grants.
Grants They Received
National Endowment for Humanities
The National Endowment for Humanities has given Appalshop several grants. One grant of $100,000 helped them improve public programs. It also helped people access their collections. This grant was important because many people in the region had lost coal-related jobs.
ArtPlace America Grant
In July 2015, Appalshop received $450,000 from ArtPlace America. This money helped them offer more arts and technology training. It also helped create new types of jobs in Letcher County.
Economic Development and Appalachian Regional Commission Grants
Appalshop received $275,000 for a project called the Southeast Kentucky High Tech Workforce Project. The Economic Development Administration gave $200,000. The Appalachian Regional Commission gave $75,000. These grants help create a special program at Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College. This program teaches about information technology and media production.
Awards
In 1990, Anne Lewis, a documentary producer at Appalshop, won a big award. It was the Alfred I. du Pont Award for Broadcast Journalism.
See Also
- June Appal Recordings
- WMMT (FM)
