Appalshop

Appalshop is a cultural multimedia arts and preservation non-profit based out of Whitesburg, Kentucky. It is the culmination of funds from the War on Poverty, the American Film Institute and the work of Bill Richardson. Richardson moved to Whitesburg from New Haven, CT., to help start the Community Film Workshop. It was one of five similar projects created through the Office of Economic Opportunity (Charbonneau 2009, 138). The workshop started by teaching local high school students the craft of filmmaking and oral history. But it soon became a branch of the larger social currents developing in the region. With local knowledge and concerns on the forefront the soon to be renamed workshop morphed into the Appalshop Project (140).

Appalshop became an outlet for young eastern Kentucky youth the reframe the image of Appalachia and its people. In the early 1970s Appalachia was still a region plagued by stereotypes and dated, cartoonish caricatures (Hanna 1997). But renewed concern for the welfare of the region had many young mountain communities reconnecting with the outside world. This time, though, they wanted to tell their own stories in their own words. It could not have come at a better moment, as eastern Kentucky became a battleground in the fight for social, environmental and economic justice.

In 1979 Appalshop moved into the former bottling plant in Whitesburg. With millions in dollars of allocated grant money and donations the project was able to create a permanent space as both a media center and an archive for the growing material that was being created. According to original volunteer and current employee Herb E. Smith,

“Buying the building in 1979 was a huge step. The president of the biggest bank in town was looking around, and he said, 'wow, this is really nice!' he couldn't believe it. They didn't know where the money came from. They didn't even know there was money out there like that. Put a million dollars into one of the biggest buildings in town, and he says, 'damn, they're gonna be here permanently. It's not the circus coming through town.' for a lot of people it was the building that made people think we meant it.” (Appalshop, n.d.)

In a region that had grown accustomed to the lack of long term, committed institutions willing to work toward generational change, Appalshop’s physical and local staying power gave it an edge not seen before (Abbate-Winkel 1995, 58). As criticisms and caution waned in the surrounding counties, Appalshop was able to make deeper impacts.

Through the 1980s/90s Appalshop expanded to more artistic and archival roles. Participants started making movies about their own experiences and those of their families. Many of these films challenged (and sometimes embraced) the narrative many outside of Appalachia had come to expect(Herdman 2014, 58). This has not come without critique, in particular to the project's lack of diverse voices and dissemination of class and racial struggles throughout the region (Hudson 2014). But as an ever growing and evolving project, Appalshop has made a commitment to incorporate the voices and experiences of those community members who have not traditionally fit the image of ‘Appalachian’ in American popular culture.

In 2019 Appalshop celebrated its 50th anniversary. The original 1969 Community Film Project has now become an Institution of many various projects all under the umbrella of the overall mission of the organization. According to its own website, “Today Appalshop operates a radio station, a theater, a public art gallery, a record label, an archive, a filmmaking institute, a reproductive justice program, a community development program, and a frankly dizzying array of other initiatives…” (Appalshop, n.d.)

Within its own archive (established in 2002) Appalshop has started collecting and preserving not only its own materials, but family and cultural heritage items from throughout the region. Its media collection alone consists of thousands of audio, cinematic and photographic records that can be stored within a climate-controlled vault on-site (Appalshop, n.d.) All housed, along with many other entities, within a retired and renovated bottling plant.

Abbate-Winkel, Dee. “Voices, Mirrors, Names, and Dreams: A Case History of Participatory Management at Appalshop.” Ed.D., Northern Illinois University, 1995.

Appalshop. “Appalshop.” Accessed December 4, 2020. https://appalshop.org/story.

Charbonneau, Stephen Michael. “Branching Out: Young Appalachian Selves, Autoethnographic Aesthetics, and the Founding of Appalshop.” Journal of Popular Film and Television 37, no. 3 (November 16, 2009): 137–45.

Hanna, Stephen Phillips. “Representing Appalachia: Appalshop Films and the Politics of Regional Identity.” Ph.D., University of Kentucky, 1997.

Herdman, Catherine N. “Appalshop Genesis: Appalachians Speaking for Themselves in the 1970s and 80s.” Ph.D., University of Kentucky, 2014.

Hudson, Kathleen S. “Fixin’ to Tell: Cultural Preservation, Multiculturalism, and a Delicate Double Commitment in Appalshop’s ‘Insider’ Activism.” M.A., The University of Mississippi, 2014.