Appalshop Special Project: Creating in Place

Creating in Place is a collection of original stories, photographs, audio, visual art, and writing both expressing and documenting how individuals in our communities have experienced 2020.

This has been a wild year: the U.S. continues to respond to a pandemic in ways never seen in our lifetime, marches for racial justice are taking place in eastern KY and around the nation, and even the weather has been unpredictable, with late frosts, early heat, and historic storms knocking out many peoples’ power in the spring. We are adjusting in almost every area of our lives, jobs, families, means of being together, and how we take care of ourselves and each other.

Creating in Place brings together original, creative works from the people living these realities. If you’re a community member scrolling through the collection, you might see photographs from a family down the road, read stories from the neighbors you haven’t gotten to see during the pandemic, hear original audio documentaries created by young people, and also contribute your own original artwork to inspire others and build fellowship. If you’re from outside the region and viewing this collection, you will encounter first voice reflections of the region’s complexity, resilience, sorrows, humor, and hope during 2020. Here’s how you can join us, right now:

• Submit your own photograph! Every week Appalshop will post a new photography prompt under #CreatinginPlaceKY.
• Contact the director of the project, Becca Finney (becca@appalshop.org) if you have ideas for how you or your community could contribute to the collection. We welcome stories, visual art, writing, photographs, audio, music, you name it.
• Stay tuned to the collection website and Appalshop social media, because opportunities to get involved will expand in the coming weeks.