Celebrating, Honoring, and Valuing Rich Traditions: The History of the Ohio Appalachian Arts Program - Softcover

Wayne Rapp

Softcover

ISBN 10: 097763003X ISBN 13: 9780977630035

Publisher: Lucky Press, LLC, 2006

Synopsis

The seeds for the Ohio Appalachian Arts Program were sown in 1978 when the Executive Director of the Ohio Arts Council set in motion a plan to develop a Minority Arts Program that included the underserved communities of Appalachia. A coordinator, working with a team of consultants who knew the region and its people, began to identify the artists and organizations and to determine their needs. The idea from the beginning was that the Ohio Arts Council would be a partner with them to build and support a program of the arts that would help restore pride to the area. Through inclusion of works from well-know poets of the Appalachian region and interviews with the individuals involved with the building process, this story traces the evolution from early assessments of talent and needs, through the initiative stage to full program status. Along the path was an encounter with the artists and arts organizations across the Ohio River in West Virginia and the recognition of mutual interests and support that could be gained by their incorporation into the program. Numerous examples of the benefits to artists and arts organizations that have been derived from the Ohio Appalachian Arts Program are documented in the story. After more than twenty-five years, the participants express pride in their accomplishments and hope for the program's future.

About this title

About the Author

Wayne Rapp is a freelance writer whose nonfiction has appeared in such publications as Ohio Connections, Stone in America, Slippery Rock Gazette, The Columbus Dispatch, The Catholic Times, and AirFare. One of his pieces, Lessons from Underground, is part of the Bottom Dog Press collection Writing Work: Writers on Working Class Writing. His fiction has appeared in a variety of publications, including Grit, Thema, The Americas Review, Vincent Brothers Review, the Bottom Dog Press Anthology, Working Hard for the Money, and the Fall Creek Press series, VeriTales. His short story, In the Time of Marvel and Confusion, published by High Plains Literary Review, was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He has completed a collection of Border Stories called Burnt Sienna, and his fiction has twice been honored with Individual Artist Fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

A Word from the Appalachees

In the beginning was that strange-sounding word: Appalachian. Hernando de Soto named the long mountain range that stood in the way of his voyage of discovery after the Appalachee tribe of Muskhogean Indians he encountered in Florida and Georgia. He mistakenly thought the tribe lived in those mountains. Years later, Americans would learn to identify Appalachia as a region in the Eastern and Southeastern parts of the country that generally follows the landscape of a series of long ridges divided into several ranges of mountains. People living in that region appropriately are referred to as Appalachians.

In 1965, as part of Lyndon Johnson s War on Poverty, the Appalachian Regional Development Act (ARDA) was passed with the bipartisan support of Congress. The act established an Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) and defined Appalachia in specific geographical terms. It established boundaries for an area of 200,000 square miles that traversed the spine of the Appalachian Mountains from southern New York State to northern Mississippi. Included in the region were over 23 million people in 410 counties across thirteen states.

The boundaries were surprising to some. Prior to this specific geographic definition of the region, few people might have thought of Appalachia as including states such as New York, Maryland, or Pennsylvania. The term had always had a more southern connotation. In Ohio, twenty-eight counties were part of the original designation. They basically formed the southern and eastern boundaries of the state. Columbiana County joined the list in 1989, becoming eligible for commission money.

Geography aside, the overriding characteristic of counties identified as being part of the Appalachian region was poverty. Statistics showed that one in three Appalachians lived in poverty with a per capita income twenty-three percent lower than the U.S. average. High unemployment in the region during the 1950s had forced more than two million people to leave their homes and seek jobs elsewhere. ARC s goal, then, was to develop programs that would provide economic development in the region, curbing the migration flow and giving the residents an opportunity not only to stay but to lead lives of hope and dignity.

The idea to establish a specific office in the State of Ohio that would be responsible for representing the Appalachian region did not come for more than twenty years after the creation of ARC. In 1986, the state, through passage of House Bill 891, established the Ohio Office of Appalachia, and Governor Richard Celeste appointed the first director. Eventually, the Governor s Office of Appalachia was created, and all functions relating to the region were consolidated in one office in 1991. Appalachian Ohio now had an organization to support their specific interests in state government.

While the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Governor s Office of Appalachia have been successful in meeting their goals, the region is often miscast in stereotypical terms in other parts of the country. Aren t all Appalachians poor? And aren t all poor people either ignorant or lazy, or both? A drain on the welfare system? Popular culture in general and the entertainment industry in particular continued to stigmatize the Appalachian region with a hillbilly brand that is a source of derision. Where were to be found those strong, warm, sincere characteristics of the real people of Appalachia: self-reliance, pride, family solidarity, neighborliness, sense of humor, and patriotism? Someone needed to answer that question.

Edition details

• Publisher: Lucky Press, LLC
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 097763003X
• ISBN 13: 9780977630035
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160