2016 Performing Our Future

INSTITUTE
Welcome Packet

CONTENTS
Inquiry......................... 3
Teams.......4
Itinerary........ 6
Directions, Maps & Contacts....... .9
Economic Empowerment and Global Learning Project......13
Roadside Theater: Community Cultural Development....... 14
Roadside Theater: Story Circles........15
Imagining America....... 17
Working Definitions of Key Terms.....19
Digital Resource Guide........... 22

INQUIRY

How can arts and culture

promote individual voice and
collective agency, unbounding a
communitys imagination and
ambition in order to create the
conditions for economic
development?
How can a community organize
itself to build an economy thats
broad-based and sustainable?

TEAMS
Corvallis, OR /
University of Oregon
Marion Rossi
Charlene Martinez
Elizabeth Helman
Hunter Briggs

Binghamton, NY /
Cornell University
Shorna B. Allred
Sarah Chalmers
Sam Morrison
Mari Giurastante
Scott Peters

Phoenix, AZ /
Arizona State University
Roberto Bedoya
Greg Esser

Columbus, OH / The
Ohio State University
Sonia BasSheva Majon
Godwin Apaliya
Raven Lynch
Katlyn Perani
Cassie Patterson

Utica, NY /
Cornell University
Paula Horrigan
Caroline Williams
Shannon Enders

Easton, PA /
Lafayette College
Fluney Hutchinson
Michael Kelly
Owen Robinette
Kerri-Ann T Sutherland
Seth D Kimmel
Ayleen P Correa
Emily M Saba

Ames, IA /
Iowa State University
Jennifer Drinkwater
Lyndsay Nissen
Sharon Stewart

Berea, KY /
Mountain Assn. for
Community Economic
Development (MACED)
Betsy Whaley

Davis, CA /
University of California
Sheryl-Ann Simpson
Juan Gomez

Gainesville, FL /
University of Florida
Jeff Pufahl
John Alexander
Michael Spranger

Waterloo, ON /
Wilfrid Laurier University
Kathryn Carter
Nicholas Dinka
Lynn Osborne-Way

Blacksburg, VA /
Virginia Tech
Bob Leonard

Syracuse, NY /
Imagining America
Tim Eatman

Communications & Documentation Team

Amy Brooks, Communications Director, Roadside Theater
Holly Zahn, Communications Director, Imagining America
Kristine Y Todaro, Public Relations, Lafayette College
Kathleen Parrish, Director of Content Strategy, Lafayette College
Kevin Vogrin, photographer/videographer, Lafayette College
Clay Wegrzynowicz, photographer, Lafayette College
Josh May, Communications Director, Appalshop
Michaela Miller, Documentary Fellow, Appalshop

Institute Co-Directors
4

Ben Fink
Creative Placemaking Project Manager
Appalshop

Jamie Haft
Interim Managing Director
Imagining America

Institute Planning Team

Dudley Cocke
Scott Peters
Fluney Hutchinson
Paula Horrigan
Ada Smith
Alex Gibson
Tim Eatman
Josh May

Institute Logistics Team

Donna Porterfield
Marissa Rutherford

Appalshop Production
Team Leaders
Herb E. Smith
Kate Fowler
Kelli Haywood
Lacy Hale
Nate Polly
Dudley Cocke
Amy Brooks

Letcher County Partner Sites

Cowan Community Center /
Grow Appalachia
EpiCentre Arts
Hemphill Community Center /
City of Jenkins
Kings Creek Volunteer Fire Department

The 2016 Performing Our Future Institute is made possible by the generous support of
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, ArtPlace America, National Endowment for the Arts,
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and The Hearst Foundations.

ITINERARY
Thursday 7/14
TIME

EVENT

LOCATION

2:00 pm

Airport shuttle pickup TRI

Whitesburg

TRI - Blountville, TN

5:00 pm - 5:45 pm

Appalshop tour

Meet in Appalshop lobby

5:45 - 7:00 pm

Opening session

Whitesburg City Hall 2nd

Floor Meeting Room

7:15 - 8:15 pm

Supper (on own),

EEGLP discussion (optional)

Whitesburg restaurants,
EEGLP discussion @
Heritage Kitchen

8:30 - 9:30 pm

How We Got Here:

Appalshops Story of Us

Appalshop theater

9:30 pm

Drinks & social time (optional) Whitesburg restaurants/bars

Friday 7/15
8:00 - 8:30 am

Breakfast (on own)

Whitesburg restaurants

8:30 - 9:00 am

Film group live on WMMT

WMMT on-air room

(Appalshop first floor)

9:00 - 12:30 pm

Partner site visits and story

circle training (lunch on-site)

Meet in Appalshop parking lot

(lobby if raining)

1:00 - 3:30 pm

Theory of Community
Cultural and Economic
Development

Appalshop theater

3:30 - 4:00 pm

BREAK

4:00 - 4:45 pm

Letcher County play reading

and discussion

Appalshop theater

4:45 - 6:00 pm

Story circle & reflections

Appalshop theater

6:00 - 6:15 pm

Quick intros to EpiCentre art

opening and Farmers Market

Appalshop theater

6:15 - 8:00 pm

Supper; Gallery Opening

(optional); EEGLP discussion
(optional)

Whitesburg restaurants;
Summit City Lounge (Gallery
Opening); Heritage Kitchen
(EEGLP discussion)

8:00 - 10:00 pm

Pickin on the Past, Riffin on

the Future performance

Appalshop theater

10:00 pm

Moonshine tasting (optional); Kentucky Mist Moonshine;

Drinks & social time (optional) Whitesburg restaurants/bars

Saturday 7/16
8:30 - 9:00 am

Radio group live on WMMT

WMMT on-air room

(Appalshop first floor)

9:00 am - 9:45 am

Breakfast at Farmers Market

Whitesburg Farmers Market

9:45 am - 12:00 pm

Developing a Community
Cultural and Economic
Development plan

Whitesburg City Hall 2nd

Floor Meeting Room

12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Lunch and plan sharing

Whitesburg City Hall 2nd

Floor Meeting Room

1:30 - 2:00 pm

Photo group live on WMMT

WMMT on-air room

(Appalshop first floor)

2:00 - 6:30 pm

Production period begins

Start in Whitesburg City Hall

2nd Floor Meeting Room

6:30 - 7:00 pm

Music group live on WMMT

(Production period continues)

WMMT on-air room

(Appalshop first floor)

7:00 - 8:30 pm (or whenever

your team desires)

Dinner

Whitesburg restaurants (or

wherever)

8:30 - 9:00 pm

Theater group (half) live on

WMMT
(Production period continues,
if desired...)

WMMT on-air room

(Appalshop first floor)

9:00 pm (or whenever your

team desires)

Drinks & social time (optional) Whitesburg restaurants/bars

(or wherever)

Sunday 7/17
8:00 - 8:30 am (or whenever
your team desires)

Breakfast

DQ, on own, or out of town

(many downtown Whitesburg
restaurants closed)

8:30 - 9:00 am

Theater group (other half) live

on WMMT

WMMT on-air room

(Appalshop first floor)

9:00 am - 12:30 pm

Production period concludes

Various

12:30 - 1:30 pm

Lunch (catered)

Appalshop lobby

1:30 - 3:30 pm

Production presentations &

discussion

Appalshop theater

3:30 - 4:00 pm

Visual arts group live on

WMMT

WMMT on-air room

(Appalshop first floor)

4:00 - 5:00 pm

Action Steps: 3 steps to take

soon after getting home

Appalshop various & theater

6:00 - 10:00 pm

Dinner and Square Dance

Carcassonne Community
Center

8:00 - 8:30 am

Breakfast

Whitesburg restaurants

8:30 - 9:00 am

Stragglers live on WMMT

WMMT on-air room

(Appalshop first floor)

9:00 - 10:30 am

Closing session

Whitesburg City Hall 2nd

Floor Meeting Room

10:30 am

Airport shuttle departs

Whitesburg TRI

Appalshop

Monday 7/18

D I R E C T I O N S, M A P S & C O N T A C T S
TRI to Whitesburg Motel:

Whitesburg Motel to Appalshop:

10

Downtown Whitesburg to Carcassonne Community Center:

Follow the caravan, led by Ben in the van. But in case we get separated...
1. Leave downtown Whitesburg as if you're going to the motels.
2. Keep going past the motels on Route 15 North, for about ten minutes, until you reach a
big intersection with a big Double Kwik gas station on the right.
3. Take a left onto Route 7 North, and stay on it for about fifteen minutes, until you pass a
blue metal bridge going across the river.
4. Shortly after that bridge, take a right onto Route 3408.
5. Go about a mile on 3408, then you'll come to a sharp left turn -- TAKE THAT TURN to
stay on 3408.
6. You'll go up and over the mountain -- just stay on the same road as it curves right past
an Old Regular Baptist church and a bunch of houses.
7. When you get to your second Old Regular Baptist church, turn right on Carcassonne
Road.
8. Then go up a bit and turn left on Square Dance Road. The Community Center will be at
the end of the road, on top of the mountain.

Restaurants
Pine Mountain Grill
(606) 633-1183
45 US-119
Whitesburg, KY

Lees Famous Recipe

Chicken
(606) 633-4305
789 Jenkins Road,
Whitesburg, KY

Streetside Bar and

Grill (606) 633-2721
203 Main Street,
Whitesburg, KY

Pizza Hut
(606) 633-2271
63 Jenkins Road,
Whitesburg, KY

Las Penas Mexican

(606) 633-3903
180 Parkway Plaza
Loop Whitesburg, KY

Long John Silvers

(606) 633-0140
2346 KY-15
Whitesburg, KY

Heritage Kitchen
(606) 536-5055
260 Main Street,
Whitesburg, KY

The Thirsty Heifer

(606) 633-5749
126 Main Street,
Whitesburg, KY

Jumbo House
Chinese
(606) 633-8388
94 Whitesburg Plaza
Rd, Whitesburg, KY

Wendy's
(606) 633-1487
37 Medical Plaza Ln,
Whitesburg, KY

Subway
(606) 633-3400
714 State Highway
2034, Whitesburg, Ky

Summit City Lounge

(606) 633-2715
214 Main Street,
Whitesburg, KY

Grocery stores
Food City
(606) 632-9680
251 Medical Plaza Ln, Whitesburg, KY

Save-A-Lot
(606) 633-1884
Parkway Plaza Loop, Whitesburg, KY

11

Drug & convenience stores

Rite Aid
(606) 632-1936
2300 KY-15
Whitesburg, KY

WalMart
(606) 633-0152
350 Whitesburg Plaza Rd,
Whitesburg, KY

Dollar General Store

(606) 633-9458
2810 Ky-15
Whitesburg, KY

Marathon
(606) 633-5547
837 Hazard Rd
Whitesburg, KY

Double Kwik Markets

(606) 633-8327
35 Susan Cook Dr
Whitesburg, KY

Gas stations
BP
(606) 633-0271
122 Jenkins Road
Whitesburg, KY
Urgent care facilities
Mountain Instant Care
(606) 633-7000
60 Jenkins Rd, Whitesburg, KY

Appalachian Regional Hospital

(606) 633-3500
Hospital Rd, Whitesburg, KY

Amy Brooks, Institute Communications: cell: (937) 901-9205 | office: (276) 325-0313
Donna Porterfield & Marissa Rutherford, Institute Logistics: cell: (276) 679-5281
office: (276) 325-0313

12

ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT & GLOBAL

LEARNING PROJECT
EEGLP is a faculty-mentored, student-centered
organization based at Lafayette College in Easton,
Pennsylvania, that is founded on the principles of
promoting economic agency and justice and social
valuableness in communities through the
strengthening of their capacity to participate in
private market exchange. It utilizes a public
scholarship paradigm collaborative knowledgemaking, with, for, and about communities. Central
to the EEGLP process is creativity, malleability,
entrepreneurism, market competitiveness, and
synergies between existing assets and the crafting
of fresh synthesis between the assets of community and newly introduced technology, human
capital, or other processes.
In EEGLP initiatives, multidisciplinary teams of faculty and students engage in dynamic and
diverse partnerships with communities aimed at mapping their assets, challenges, and
opportunities for value and wealth creation through competitive market exchange. Since its
founding in 2007, the EEGLP has partnered with organizations and citizens in New Orleans,
Easton PA, rural Honduras, and central Appalachia.
Key EEGLP Principles include:
1. Economic development = cultural development; otherwise its extractive development.
2. Create the conditions for voice, agency, and ownership. Create public spaces, cocreative spaces, inclusive spaces, non-threatening spaces, and free spaces (including but not
limited to market spaces), where people can collectively imagine a future. Keep the door open
to more and more (different types of) people seeing their self-interest in this work, as it grows.
3. Build a process with room for participatory, democratic, messy work. Balance the
necessary top-down (administrative) leadership with significant bottom-up (popular) leadership.
Participants must be agents of change, not clients or consumers. Work toward a sustainable
project, financially and otherwise.
4. Work based on assets, not liabilities. Identify current assets and build a plan to grow
them.

13

R O A D S I D E T H E A T E R: C O M M U N I T Y C U L T U R A L
DEVELOPMENT
Roadside Theater believes that communities are immeasurably enriched when residents tell their own
stories and listen to the stories of others.
Roadsides CCD method rests on five broad
principles:

Active participation

Partnerships and collaborations

involving an inclusive range of
community organizations

Local leadership

Knowing when to lead and when to

follow
Engagement over the course of at
least two years

Roadsides CCD praxis, like its plays form

and content, grew out of experiences in its
home community and has been shaped by
the goal of helping any host community
become more inclusively and deeply aware of
itself. The story circle has proven effective in
this regard. CCD projects can take many formsfor example, the celebration of residents diverse
traditions and histories through a cultural festival, or the self-identification of a particular issue to
address. How a community uses Roadsides CCD process is up to local stakeholders to decide, with the
caveat that whatever the projects purpose(s) and goals, a cross section of the entire citizenry be
encouraged throughout to participate as equals in it. Roadside does not solicit work in communities
outside its region, believing to do so would be presumptuous. Nevertheless, when invited into a
community for a CCD effort, the company begins the process of working itself out of a job, with the goal
of leaving behind an inclusive group of residents carrying on cultural projects in their own ways toward
collectively identified ends.
CCD work is as complex as the individuals and communities that practice it. Typically this necessitates
many moving parts at work simultaneously. Roadside's process relies on action-assessment cycles to
facilitate learningto generate knowledge, develop skills, alter attitudes, change behaviorsamong all
stakeholders. Participants should allow their plans to evolve as the work proceeds; flexibility, intuition,
and nimbleness are hallmarks of effective community cultural development.
To guide this practice, Roadside encourages participants to ask:

What aspect of our community life are we trying to celebrate or transform, and why is that important?

How are we trying to achieve this, and why is that the best strategy?

How will we know we are succeeding; what data will provide us evidence, so we can improve the work
and demonstrate its accomplishment to others?
Roadside Theater 1999

14

R O A D S I D E T H E A T E R: S T O R Y C I R C L E S
A Story Circle is a group of people sitting in a circle, telling personal stories, led by a Story Circle
facilitator. Each Story Circle is different according to its purpose.
What is and is not a story?
A story is a narrative of events drawn from the tellers personal experience.
A story can be fashioned from a memory, a dream, a reflection, a moment in time, and more.
A story typically has a beginning, middle, and end, as well as characters and atmosphere.
A story is not a lecture, an argument, a debate, or an intellectualization, although these elements
may be part of a story.
Story Circles should:
Be preceded by an informal time to socialize. (For example, a pot luck dinner.)
Take place in a quiet space with good acoustics where interruptions are unlikely to occur.
Consist of from 5 to 15 people sitting in a circle without notepads, pocketbooks, etc., and in such
a manner that each participant has a good view of every other participant.
Have one trained facilitator who begins, oversees, and ends the Circle.
Have a stated time period in which the Story Circle will take place.
Have a purpose articulated by the leader and agreed to by the participants.
Allow for silences between stories.
Be as much about listening as about telling.
Story Circles should not:
Primarily serve the agenda of any one participant.
Give importance to one story, or one type of story, over another.
The facilitators role:
Be clear about the purpose of the particular circle. (Examples: reinforcement of cultural identity;
examination of issues of race and class; identification of community concerns; introduction of a
community storytelling project; and so on.)
Know, or determine with the group, the theme for the particular circle. The theme must
complement the story circles purpose. For example, if the purpose is to explore cultural identity,
a circle theme could be family holiday traditions. If the purpose is to better understand race and
class, the theme of the circle might be a story about a moment when one realized that one was
different.
Introduce him or herself, describe the circles purpose and theme, and state the time the Story
Circle will end.
Tell the rules of the Story Circle and answer participants questions about them.
Emphasize the idea that listening to the stories of others is as important as telling your own,
noting that deep listening can engender a meditative quality in the circle.
Discourage participants from thinking too much about what they will say when it is their
turn, asking them to trust that their story will come from their listening to the stories of
the others.
Tell the group how long the circle will last, and ask participants to pace the length of their
stories to the time available, taking into consideration the number of participants. For
example, if there are 12 people in the Circle and 60 minutes for storytelling, each story
should be approximately 5 minutes in length.
Announce the manner in which the facilitator will politely indicate to a teller that he or
she has passed the time limit and needs to wrap-up the story.
Ask the participants to quickly name the typical elements of a story narrative, plot,
characters, atmosphere, etc.
Begin the circle with a story that sets the tone for the purpose and theme of the circle, or
state the theme and ask who in the circle would like to tell the first story.

15

After the first story, go around the circle clockwise or counterclockwise, with each
person telling or passing when it is their turn. The rotation continues until everyone has
told a story.
Reserve time after the telling for participants to reflect on what has just transpired by
asking everyone for their observations and comments.
When possible, end with a group song or poem (perhaps taught and led by a participant)
that brings closure to the spirit of the particular Story Circle.
End the Story Circle on time.
Participants often want to talk personally to each other after the Circle breaks up, so the
facilitator should ensure space is available for this purpose.

Story Circle rules:

There is only one Story Circle facilitator.
There are no observers only participants.
The Story Circle facilitator is also a participant, and must tell his or her story as
well.
Participants speak only when it is their turn.
The order of telling is either clockwise or counterclockwise from the first teller.
When it comes to ones turn, the person decides the timing of when to speak, and may
decide to pass, knowing their turn will come around again.
After everyone in the Circle has had the opportunity to speak or pass, the rotation
begins again for those who have passed.
Listening deeply is the most important part of the Story Circle experience.
Participants should not distract themselves by thinking ahead about what story
they will tell.
Rather, participants should listen to the stories told, and, when it is their turn, tell
a story brought to mind by the previous stories, or pass.
Participants and the facilitator never argue with or debate another participants story.
Participants and the facilitator never comment upon another participants story other than
to say, when it is their turn, That story reminds me of . . .
There is no cross-talk in a Story Circle and all responses to a particular story wait their
turn and are in story form.
Story Circles are never recorded or videotaped without the participants expressed
Permission.
If the stories in a Circle might be used to inform the development of a new play,
all participants must understand this and give their permission.
When a Story Circle should be stopped by the facilitator:
It is not unusual for painful stories to emerge in a Story Circle. The facilitator must exercise
judgment about when to continue a Story Circle and when to stop it. Story Circle facilitators
should not try to serve as therapists, social workers, or doctors (even if these are their
professional occupations), because participants did not come to the circle to receive these
services. The facilitator can:
Call for a break and talk individually with the distressed person.
Refer the distressed person to the proper professional.
Resume or reschedule the Story Circle.

16

Vision: Publicly engaged artists, designers, scholars, and other community members
working with institutions of higher education to enrich civic life for all.
Mission: Imagining America advances knowledge and creativity through publicly
engaged scholarship that draws on humanities, arts, and design. We catalyze change in
campus practices, structures, and policies that enables publicly engaged artists and
scholars to thrive and contribute to community action and revitalization.
Values:
Collaboration, participation, dialogue, and transparency
Creativity and innovation in developing and mobilizing knowledge with communities
Cultural diversity, inclusion, and social equity
Reciprocity in campus-community partnerships, research and creative activity,
teaching and learning, and assessment
Goals:
Catalyze and sustain regional, national, and global conversations about publicly
engaged scholarship that address significant problems
Advance diversity, inclusion, and intercultural dialogue as means to the end of social
equity on campuses and in communities
Demonstrate, document, and assess the impact of democratic scholarship and
cross-sector collaboration integrating humanities, arts, and design
Model democratic publicly engaged scholarship and creative practice at IAs host
campus and among its member institutions
Promote forms of professional development, including tenure and promotion policies,
that support and encourage publicly engaged scholarship, with attention to humanities,
arts, and design
Support, mentor, and learn from democratic, publicly engaged graduate and
undergraduate student scholarship
It is IAs practice to review this document every other year as the landscape of higher
education shifts in response to our work, and as we adjust our goals to changing needs
within higher education.
Publicly Engaged Scholarship is defined by partnerships of university knowledge and
resources with those of the public and private sectors to enrich scholarship, research,

17

creative activity, and public knowledge; enhance curriculum, teaching and learning;
prepare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen democratic values and civic
responsibility; address and help solve critical social problems; and contribute to the
public good.

16th Annual National Imagining America Conference

Milwaukee, Wisconsin
October 6 8, 2016
Pre-conference, October 5
Hosted by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
http://imaginingamerica.org/

18

Working Definitions of Key Terms in

Community Cultural and Economic Development
(NOTE: This is a compilation, partially plagiarized from the writings of Fluney Hutchinson, Dudley Cocke,
Arlene Goldbard, and others. See Ben Fink for source info.)
(ANOTHER NOTE: These are working definitions, meant to start discussions, not end them.)

Agency is an individuals and a communitys capacity to imagine and create a reality different from the
one that currently exists. Amartya Sen calls it the freedom to do and achieve in pursuit of whatever
goals or values [an individual or community] regards as important. Agency is inextricably linked to
voicean individuals and a communitys capacity to speak for itself, to express and communicate its
goals and valuesand ownershipan individuals and a communitys capacity to own the value and
wealth it creates.
Anchor institutions are institutions, deeply rooted in a community, which can mobilize and make
actionable the collective will of disparate stakeholders within that community. Anchor institutions are the
central organizing hubs of community cultural and economic development efforts.
Assets are everything a community or organization has, both physical and cultural, which has the
potential to create value and community wealth. Types of assets include:

Known/tangible assets, which are already actively creating value and community wealth,
Latent assets, which are not yet creating value and community wealth, and must be activated,
and
Foundational assets, which undergird other assets, and are often deeply held cultural values.

Asset mapping is the process of recognizing and ordering the assets of an community or organization, in
order to better understand, cluster, and activate synthetic and synergistic opportunities and create added
value within that community/organization. Asset mapping, in the words of Alan Lomax, seeks to discover
the inherent genius of a community:

Whats right about it?

What does it have?
What are the things that make it vibrant, that make people want to live and be and stay there?
What are the things that represent its wealth?
What are the things that, if they can be bundled and clustered to create new kinds of synergies,
will create new and increased value?

(The opposite of asset mapping is liability mapping, which asks the opposite questions and often
leads to externally-imposed, unsustainable solutions.)
Assetizing, a.k.a. commoditizing, is the process of turning a latent asset into a known/tangible asset,
which is actively producing value and community wealth.
Bounded imagination is the condition in which an individual, a community, or an organization lacks
sufficient agency to understand the full range of possibilities for the creation of value and wealth. A
critical first step in community cultural and economic development is to unbound the imagination, through
artistic and/or other creative processes.

19

Community cultural development (CCD) describes a range of initiatives undertaken by artists in

collaboration with other community members to express identity, concerns and aspirations through
various media, while building the capacity for collective work and action.
Community organizing describes the process of bringing people together to act on their common
interests, to build a base of common concerns and aspirations and to mobilize community members to act
in concert.
Community wealth is the value (monetary and otherwise) that is collectively created and owned by the
community that creates it. The centrality of community wealth is what separates democratic, inclusive,
sustainable development from extractive development.
Conscious capitalism, a.k.a. social enterprise, is the premise that organizations, by being more
intentionally civic-minded, can improve their long-term profitability.
Constitutive weightlessness is the ideal practice of the third party (non-local partner) in an EEGLP
collaboration: working in close, mutual collaboration with local partners, yet without allowing its own
values and biases to influence the development process. When constitutive weightlessness is practiced
correctly, the participation of non-local partners will feel complementary and residual rather than primary
and foundational.
Culture is the intellectual, spiritual, and material and emotional traditions and features of a people.
Democratization is the process of creating a culture where all stakeholders feel dignified and fully
engaged in shaping the society, where all stakeholders see the representation of their cultural lives, the
representation of their social lives, the representation of their dignified lives being represented in how
economic life is organized. Democratization is essential for economic development to be stable,
sustainable, and inclusive.
Development (economic, community, cultural, and otherwise) describes a process of analyzing the
resources and needs of a particular community or organization, then planning and implementing a
program of interlocking initiatives to build from these resources to meet those needs. Practitioners of
community cultural and economic development work toward

democratic or grassroots development, where members of a community define their own

aims, determine their own paths to reach them, and own the resulting development as community
wealth; instead of the dominant paradigms of
imposed development, in which outside entities direct the development, approaching
communities as problems to be solved by bringing circumstances in line with predetermined
norms, and
extractive development, in which these outside communities extract value from a communitys
assets (including land and people) and remove that value from the community.

Entrepreneurship, in the context of community cultural and economic development, is the process of
converting activated and latent cultural assets into economic products with opportunities for being
competitive and wealth creating in market exchange.
Extractive developmentsee development.

20

First voice refers to people speaking for themselves, including through media: people telling their own
stories in their own words and ways, rather than being spoken for by experts, commentators, or narrators.
It is a bottom-up, participatory paradigm of art and culture.
Foundational assetssee assets.
Imposed developmentsee development.
Known assetssee assets.
Latent assetssee assets.
Liability mappingsee asset mapping.
Resigned preferencessee bounded imagination.
Social enterprisesee conscious capitalism.
Synergistic opportunities are opportunities created by combining an organizations existing assets.
Synthetic opportunities are opportunities created by combining an organizations existing assets with
assets outside of the organization.
Tangible assetssee assets.
Third parties are non-local partners, often in higher education (such as EEGLP) or cultural institutions
(such as Roadside Theater, when working outside Coal Country), who play a crucial role as catalyst and
evaluator of development efforts. Third parties practice constitutive weightlessness, to avoid a controlling
or co-dependent relationship with local partners.
Weightlessnesssee constitutive weightlessness.

21

DIGITAL RESOURCE GUIDE

Appalachia in Cultural & Economic Context
Stranger With A Camera, (Appalshop Films, 2000, dir. Elizabeth Barret)
Beyond Measure, (Appalshop Films, 1994, dir. Herb E. Smith)
Whats the Matter with Eastern Kentucky?, New York Times
Owning the Mountains: Appalachias history of corporate control, Appalachian Voices
The Violent Remaking of Appalachia, The Atlantic
Appalachian Miners Are Learning To Code, Bloomberg
A Terrifying Liberation (Alternate ROOTS)
Appalshop as Culture Hub:
NEAs short film on Appalshop
Becoming a Culture Hub, Appalshop.org
How a unique community radio station serves listeners in Appalachia, Columbia
Journalism Review
Local media
The Whitesburg Mountain Eagle
Letcher County News-Press Archive
WYMT: Eastern Kentucky News
The Appalshop-Imagining America-EEGLP Partnership:
Turning Imagination into Action: EEGLP-Appalshop collaboration becomes national pilot
program for civic and economic development, Lafayette.edu
Podcast: A Conservative Economist on Cultural Development, Roadside.org
Performing Our Future:
Imagining Americas POF Press Release
POF Summer 2016 Primer: a Quick Guide to the Forum, the Institute, and Research
Additional Resources:
Chapter: Seeking a Theater of Liberation, by Roadside Theater artistic director Dudley
Cocke, from The Routledge Companion to Art and Politics, Randy Martin

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