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Register-Herald: Couple sparking creative community in Hinton

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BY MATT COMBS FOR THE REGISTER-HERALD
From the R&R Galleria Facebook page

When Amanda Baker saw the antique tin ceiling past a displaced drop ceiling tile, she was surprised.

“I said, ‘Look at this,’” Baker said. “We started popping the panels out so that we could see it and shine a light up there. Except for one panel that was a little bent and discolored, it was in perfect condition.”

Baker was walking through an old building located on Temple Street in Hinton that she and her business partner, Curt Messer, would turn into R & R Galleria.

The building had sat empty for approximately seven years and the pair would work more than a year to slowly get it into shape.

A relative newcomer to Hinton, six years ago, Baker knew the very first day she came through the old railroad town that she saw potential…

Read the full story on the Register-Herald site »

Arts in Our Communities annual meet-up coming soon

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BY EMMA PEPPER, DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS, THE HUB

The WV Department of Arts, Culture and History is set to host their 2019 Arts in Our Communities conference at the Culture Center in Charleston, WV this February 12-13.

The annual event is free to attend, and event organizers have promised the schedule will be released soon.

From the organizers:

“The West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History invites you to the 2019 Arts in Our Communities Conference, featuring presentations and workshops by key national arts leaders, along with panel discussions by artists and arts organizations from across West Virginia. The event will feature ample networking opportunities and presenters from every region of the state as we continue our conversation about arts in our communities.”

Visit the event registration page for details »

Ready to put arts at the forefront of your community’s revitalization strategy?

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The Create Your State Tour crew and a portion of the program from the 2016 tour

Applications are now open for the 5th round of the Create Your State (CYS) Tour in West Virginia. Five towns will be selected to host the program started by the founders of the RiffRaff Arts Collective in Princeton on May 13-17. The CYS Tour inspires and empowers arts-centric community development. 

Interested individuals and groups can access the application to host the CYS Tour at createyourstate.org. The deadline to submit applications is February 10.  For more information about the CYS tour, stay tuned to that website, send an e-mail to createyourstatetour@gmail.com, or call 304-320-8833. 

History of the program

The downtown area of Princeton, West Virginia is in the midst of a dynamic creative renaissance on its way to becoming a vital regional tourist destination known for its blossoming arts district. Early pioneers and catalysts of this revitalization Lori McKinney and Robert Blankenship began working toward this vision nearly a decade ago when they established the RiffRaff Arts Collective in the heart of downtown. Featuring an art gallery, artist studios, performance venues, a recording studio, a music school, and more, this vibrant collective has brought color and life to a turn-of-the-century structure and its surrounding neighborhood. Over the years, partnerships with local government and universities, local non-profit Community Connections, the Princeton-Mercer County Chamber of Commerce, volunteers and more, have amplified their work and sparked a sweeping movement to renovate Mercer Street, the town’s main thoroughfare, now home to many new business and community-building celebratory events such as an annual arts parade and various holiday-themed street parties including the “Downtown Countdown,” a New Year’s Eve ball drop a la NYC’s Times Square. Downtown Princeton once again has a thriving pulse!

Since 2012, McKinney and Blankenship, along with their music ensemble Option 22, have been traveling around the region to leadership conferences, entrepreneurship summits, and places of education to present a multimedia production called “Create Your State” that inspires citizens with their story of arts-based community revitalization and empowers other civic leaders, entrepreneurs, and creatives with tools to transform their environment and boost their local economy. Teamed with Community Connections, The Create Your State Tour was awarded a major grant in 2016 by the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation to take the show on the road around West Virginia. Twenty towns have received the program and are now making strides towards public art projects, establishment of arts festivals, arts-co-ops and more. Five additional WV towns will be selected to participate in the 2019 tour based on their interest, drive, and need for this type of development.

About Create Your State

The CYS program features live music, visuals, and a compelling exchange about the arts-centric revitalization of Princeton, providing inspiration and insight for the replication of this work. The music of Option 22 is full of hope and uplifting messages. The visuals—both video and still shots—are colorful and impactful, reflecting on building renovation, arts events, public works of art, parades, community garden creation, public space beautification, and more. The program is a stage show complete with professional sound and lighting, which creates an exciting, engaging setting for experiential learning. The web portal createyourstate.org is full of information, step-by-step instructions, webinars, and more, so that communities will have ongoing access to the information and a direct line of communication with the CYS founders. The generous funding provided by Benedum will allow McKinney and Blankenship to further elaborate their existing CYS curriculum, provide richer learning materials to participants, and offer ongoing support and mentorship as development plans get executed in communities throughout the state. 

The mission of The Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation is to encourage human development in West Virginia and Southwestern Pennsylvania through strategically invested resources. The foundation honors Michael and Sarah Benedum’s belief in “helping people help themselves” by creating “opportunities to cultivate the creativity of people and communities.”

CYS project manager and presenter Lori McKinney says, “This is a project ten years in the making. We have worked so hard for so long and we are incredibly thankful to have this opportunity to contribute to communities around the state, sharing what we’ve learned and inspiring people to transform their environment. The tour last year was impactful, and we have loved providing ongoing coaching to the wonderful teams that are working all around West Virginia. We are extremely grateful to Greg Puckett and Community Connections for all the support they have given us over the years to develop our work, and this opportunity is something we’ve been waiting for—to share what we have learned and give back at a bigger level. Many, many thanks to Community Connections and the Benedum Foundation for enabling this project!”

Greg Puckett, Executive Director of Community Connections says that, “We are exceptionally pleased at this amazing opportunity. Statistics show that when you change the physical design of a community, followed by an infusion of cultural diversity, it provides a vision of hope, innovation, and dedication from the community at large. This hope builds new partnerships and truly changes perception of negative, to overwhelmingly positive.”   

Wyoming County artist takes the leap to start a business

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BY TERRY BARTLEY, WYOMING COUNTY COMMUNITY COACH, THE HUB

Making the transition from hobby to business is always a challenge for new entrepreneurs.  Wyoming County artist, Laura Burdette, said she has found it particularly challenging in the mountain state.

“I’ve had to do side jobs because in West Virginia the term starving artist really applied,” Burdette said.  “It’s hard to make a living completely on that but, if it’s in your heart and it’s what you really want to do, it has to come out.”

Burdette said she has been painting since she was old enough to hold a brush.  Coming from a family of five children, Burdette and two of her sisters were artists.  She can remember that they used to create calendars as Christmas presents rather than buying something.  For Burdette, becoming a full-time artist is a long-time dream.

“When I was a little girl, I’d said, ‘Lord, when I grow up, please let me be an artist.’ That was exactly my prayer, so yeah pretty much that’s always what I wanted to do,” Burdette said.

While she has always had a passion for art, Burdette has not been in a position to make a career out of art for many years.  She felt like there was a lack of opportunity in Southern West Virginia. However, she believes that building relationships within her community over the years is much of what makes her a successful artist today.

“It’s been kind of interesting because I was a waitress for almost 30 years,” Burdette said, “So during that time, I’ve established a clientele.  I’ve handed out my cards and it’s just now that I’m painting full-time. I’ve got all of those [contacts] and it gives me more confidence to pursue it.”

Burdette sold her first piece of art in 1997.  She said she believes this event is what has given her the motivation to continue to paint as a side job, paving the way for her recent jump to full-time artist.

“It was a sketch of Father Time.  When I worked at the Eden Lounge, I would sit there and doodle.  And [a customer] would ask me ‘what are you doing? what are you doing?’ and so he wanted a picture of Father Time,” Burdette said, “I did it and then after that I met his uncle and it looked like his uncle. So the next day, after I sold it to him, I came home and there was an easel, paint, paint brushes and canvases at my door.  That man really got me started, it kind of gave me more confidence to say, ‘Hey, I can do this!’”

Burdette credits her transition to full-time artist to support from the West Virginia Community Development Hub and the Wyoming County Economic Development Authority (EDA).  Through The Hub’s Innovation Acceleration Strategy program – the initiative that preceded The Hub’s Energizing Entrepreneurial Communities program –  a volunteer arts team helped Burdette organize a series of art classes.  A mini-grant allowed them to purchase start-up supplies.

“I wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing if it wasn’t for the EDA and the West Virginia Community Development Hub.  I would just of been painting in my studio, but I wouldn’t be able to do the instruction,” Burdette said, “It helps the community, I feel like it it helps people get excited and friends tell their friends and their friends tell their friends.  This wouldn’t happen if it wasn’t for the mini-grant from The Hub.”

Burdette has since strengthened her classes through an ongoing partnership with the Wyoming County Family Resource Network.  They manage the Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) Powerhouses in Pineville and Oceana, where Burdette holds her classes.

“[The Wyoming County Family Resource Network] is very helpful. When I feel like I’m starting to get lazy or overwhelmed with other things, they say, ‘When do you want to do another class?’ They don’t charge anything and there actually are a few people that work at the PowerHouse that have become students of mine.  So they encouraged the community to come in and actually I think there was a couple of girls that they did scholarships for, they paid their way so they can take the classes,” Burdette said.

Burdette said she enjoys the class because she appreciates the chance to pass on her passion and her lessons learned to her students.  She said she hopes they can see how her commitment to art has created her opportunity to live her dream.

“Well I tell my students, especially the younger ones, don’t get distracted.  Don’t let peers and don’t let people drag you off if it’s your passion. Right now I have a little girl that is really pursuing it and she’s taking it seriously, so just don’t get distracted.  Don’t stop doing it and you’ll be successful,” Burdette said.

If you know someone in Wyoming County that would enjoy taking an art class or would like to acquire a custom piece of art from Laura Burdette, she can be reached at her studio page on Facebook.


PBS: Art is a lifeline for this Kentucky community

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BY LAURA SANTHANAM FOR PBS

Hunched over his work bench, Nathan Smith inspected the carefully carved sound holes, shaped like Christian anchors, on his mountain dulcimer.

At the top of the instrument’s long neck, he fit tuners into the black walnut, cut down from a nearby forest. After six weeks of work, achieving his goal of finishing his instrument excited Smith, a 38-year-old former coal miner from Littcarr, Kentucky, roughly 10 miles south of where he now sat and worked. His mark was on it — his initials cut into the body’s design.

How did Smith become a budding luthier? The Knott County Drug Court allowed him to enroll in classes through the Culture of Recovery program at the Appalachian Artisan Center. Smith decided to learn carpentry, joining six other students who together would build musical instruments at the center in Hindman…

Read the full story on PBS News Hour »

What does the future of Appalachia look like? This exhibit asks you to tell the story.

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BY EMMA PEPPER, DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS, THE HUB

The team at WVU Libraries is set to curate a highly innovative exhibition looking at narratives about West Virginia and Appalachia – and how the people of Appalachia today can rewrite them. The team is looking not only for artists, but also for scholars, community groups, and practitioners to submit ideas for consideration to be included in the exhibition that will be on view beginning August 2019.

The submission deadline is January 31, 2019 and questions may be directed to Sally Deskins, WVU Libraries Exhibits & Programs Coordinator, at sbdeskins@mail.wvu.edu or 304-293-0369.

Find more information on the exhibition on the WVU Libraries website »

From the organizers: 

This collaborative, multidisciplinary exhibit and programming will address the dominant contemporary narratives about Appalachia in a new way— how the people of Appalachia have worked and will work to rewrite their own narrative and transcend limiting definitions of what it means to be Appalachian. The creatively designed, accessible and interactive exhibit will synthesize humanities research, art, and civic action inviting viewers to explore the often overlooked communities of Indigenous Appalachia, “Affrilachian” (African American in Appalachia), and queer Appalachia. It will also ask viewers to examine Appalachian tradition and culture; the intersections between extraction industries, new technology, and science; literacies and education in Appalachia; as well as speculative futures for the region.

The exhibit will use scholarship and creations to tell stories about the broader ideas and relationships amongst the various Appalachian identities, past present and into the future.

We are seeking artists, scholars, community groups and practitioners whose work fits into one or more of the exhibit’s four themes:

  • Theme I: Growth of Diverse Ethnic Populations
  • Theme II: Science, Education and Industries
  • Theme III: The Future of Appalachian Traditions
  • Theme IV: Speculative Futures/Futurism

Active Southern WV: Mural celebrates community possibilities for Mount Hope

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BY STAFF FOR ACTIVE SOUTHERN WV

In Mount Hope, WV a vibrant mural resides on a main street building. “The Mount Hope Phoenix Wall”, by Ian Bode and Brian Pickens, is a visual representation depicting a town that rose from the ashes after the fire of 1910. The colorful painting features present and future possibilities for the town of Mount Hope. The large-scale art piece depicts scenes from the town’s history, iconic buildings and local recreational activities.

Three years ago, Active Southern West Virginia brought together stakeholders for a discussion focused on revitalizing Mount Hope. From that meeting, several projects were planned including a rail trail, a fitness trail with exercise stations, and a walking tour of town. Andy Davis, Active SWV’s Pedestrian, Bike and Trail Coordinator, has since put the fitness trail and stations in place, installed a bike repair station, and coordinated the purchase of property for the rail trail and the design for the mural project, all with the intention to reimagine Mount Hope as a destination for both historical tourism and business development…

Read the full story on the Active Southern WV site »

WV Metro News: Grafton volunteers restoring local historic theater

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Historic Manos Theater sign

BY BRITTANY MURRAY FOR METRO NEWS

A group of volunteers in Taylor County are working to bring back one of the area’s most historic theaters.

The Manos Theater, located in downtown Grafton, has been a part of the town’s footprint since the early 20th Century, first opening as the Hippodrome — later the Strand Theater — in 1912.

“It’s been closed now for several years,” committee chairman Tom Hart said Tuesday during an appearance on WAJR-Clarksburg’s “The Gary Bowden Show.” “Of course, when you leave something sitting, it doesn’t always get maintained and it starts going south, but a group of us talked, and we wanted to try to initiate action to make something happen with this theater to get it back open so it can serve the community both in the performing arts and possibly, once again, with some motion pictures.”

Though the group is still in the organizational stages, those traveling through Grafton have likely noticed changes to the facades already occurring…

Read the full story on the WV Metro News site »

FestivALL Charleston says we collaborate to survive – GLAM Series

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Artist and Director of the Department of Public Art for the City of Charleston Jeff Pierson with kids at FestivALL Fall’s Carriage Trail Leaf Walk. FestivALL Fall is this October 17-21. Image courtesy FestivALL Charleston.

BY SALLY DESKINS, EXHIBITS AND PROGRAMS COORDINATOR, WVU LIBRARIES

What’s GLAM? GLAM stands for galleries-libraries-archives-museums, and, for this series, The Hub is partnering up with Sally Deskins of WVU Libraries to put a spotlight on what happens when groups and institutions related to these collaborate. As Sally says, “Sharing resources can bring in more audiences, and lead to a better course for sustainability amongst all, as opposed to seeing each other competitively and bringing each other down.”

Read all of Sally’s GLAM columns here and read more about the series here.

Brittany Javins is Executive Director of FestivALL Charleston, a nonprofit organization that creates, produces and presents vibrant arts experiences and opportunities. She started out as intern, then assistant before she become Executive Director of this organization that relies on the dedication of volunteers, and “collaborates to survive.” Read on for more about this creative and far-reaching organization and Javins’s advice for those wanting to collaborate too…

Sally Deskins: Tell me about your background and why you got into what you do.

BJ:  I grew up as an artist (mostly ballet dancer) in Charleston. I worked for several years as a dance instructor for different studios and English teacher for Kanawha County Schools. A desire to incorporate the arts more into my daily work led me to pursue a Master’s degree in Arts Administration. I studied at Florida State University, but for my internship, I reached out to FestivALL. I wanted to remain in touch with my community. I also felt that interning with FestivALL would help me build on my existing knowledge of the Charleston arts scene, while introducing me to lots of new people and experiences. I was right!

Throughout my program, I continued to remain involved with FestivALL, and once I finished my program, I took a position as Assistant to the Executive Director. I have always loved how FestivALL brings everyone together, and that is what attracted me to wanting to work with this organization. As an artist, I loved that FestivALL was a time when the arts community collaborated and worked together. As a community member, I loved how FestivALL brought our city to life with people out enjoying the arts and being with each other. Now, I get to work toward creating this type of environment in a place I love.

SD: Tell me about your organization and your role, what you do.

BJ:  FestivALL is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to create, produce and present vibrant arts experiences and opportunities and serve as a catalyst for others in the community to do the same. We serve this mission through a variety of multi-arts events and programs throughout the year. Our longest standing and most well-known event is FestivALL held every June. For 10 days each summer, Charleston comes alive with music, art, theatre, dance, and more. We also have other mini-festivals throughout the year, a monthly speaker series, and a Neighborhood Arts Initiative which partners with artists, arts organizations, and groups serving children and youth year-round. FestivALL partners with over 90 organizations each year and works closely with the City of Charleston. We aim to highlight local and regional artists and organizations while also bringing in national and sometimes international experiences.

I am the Executive Director. We are a small staff with a mighty volunteer team, so we all wear many hats as many organizations in WV do. As ED, my main responsibilities including overseeing and maintaining partnerships and funding, working with board and staff for overall strategies and planning, ensuring our events and programs align with our mission and goals while serving our greater community, and maintaining a structure and team that helps balance the organization and promotion and sustainability of so many events and details throughout the year.

SD: So what are some ways you have or will collaborate with either outside organizations or groups?

BJ:  We are all about collaboration at FestivALL. It is the only way we survive. First of all, we work very closely with the City of Charleston, which supports us financially and also works closely with us on planning for city services and other event logistics. We also partner with over 90 arts organizations and community groups each year.  While we produce 4 events on our own, the majority of events at FestivALL are done through partnerships in which we co-produce or present other events as part of the full lineup. We often work with non-arts groups to get creative about ways to incorporate the arts into their events, or we work with artists and arts organizations to plan for new ideas and projects.

SD: Why is collaborating important to you and your position, and WV moving forward?

BJ:  We are a small city, and we are stronger together. A thriving arts scene is an indicator of a thriving city. The more we can collaborate – both within the arts world and cross-sector – we will be stronger for it.

SD: Any advice or tips for people wanting to collaborate—how do you approach people about it without knowing them? How do you think up such ideas?

BJ:  Be open! And communicate that. We have monthly meetings that are open to the public where we accept new ideas from the community. We also have a form on our website for submitting event proposals. We try to let people know as often as possible that we are always open to new ideas. One of our favorite and largest events this year was a temporary art installation – Brickscape – proposed by a local artist. We were able to work together to help make it happen, and it was an incredible and unique addition to this year’s FestivALL. Sometimes we also come up with ideas internally. If it involves someone whom we might not know, we find it helpful to find some common connections – someone who might be able to vouch for us as we present a new concept. We’re in a constant state of exploring and welcoming new ideas. It’s a part of our culture.

FestivALL Fall is this October 17-21, 2018 in Charleston. For more information visit festivallcharleston.com.

Interested in having your group or initiative featured as a part of GLAM? Email Sally at sbdeskins@mail.wvu.edu.