With support from an Arts Access Assistance Grant from the Kentucky Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts enabled ASPI to renew its oral history programming and conduct a "Creative Aging & Lifelong Learning" interview project.
Background
ASPI received a 2022 Creative Aging and Lifelong Learning grant from the Kentucky Arts Council to conduct a community-engaged interview project with creative elders and artists who exemplify an active commitment to and practice of lifelong learning. This project addresses the need for gathering, listening to, and learning from the stories and development of people who have found ways to make art and live continuously creative lives despite economic challenges, limited access to materials, and health and environmental issues.
ASPI received a 2022 Creative Aging and Lifelong Learning grant from the Kentucky Arts Council to conduct a community-engaged interview project with creative elders and artists who exemplify an active commitment to and practice of lifelong learning. This project addresses the need for gathering, listening to, and learning from the stories and development of people who have found ways to make art and live continuously creative lives despite economic challenges, limited access to materials, and health and environmental issues.
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Interview Participants
Interview participants included five artists/cultural organizers 55 and older who have connections to ASPI, Kentucky, and/or the Appalachian region.
Father Albert J. Fritsch, Author & Priest of St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church, Ravenna, Estill County, Kentucky
Warren Brunner, Regional Photographer, Berea, Madison County, Kentucky
Ron Owens, Woodworker, Mt. Vernon, Rockcastle County, Kentucky
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Judy Sizemore, Author & Teaching Artist, Jackson/Madison Counties, Kentucky
Yolantha Harrison-Pace, Author & Performance Teaching Artist,
Danville, Boyle County, Kentucky
ASPI Interview Team
ASPI Media Specialist Mark Spencer and Office Assistant Jocelyn Lee comprised the primary paid media team for conducting video interviews for the Creative Aging project. Mark designs and produces the ASPI “Appalachian Simple Lifestyle Calendar,” and he worked on multiple ASPI oral history projects with Appalachian elders in the 1990s. For decades, he has produced the Earth Healing video series and daily reflections featuring ASPI founder Father Albert J. Fritsch. Jocelyn has video experience and ethnographic methods training for ensuring ethical documentation and representation of vulnerable populations, including an undergraduate ethnographic methods course and the social-behavioral-educational human research certification through the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative Program. ASPI Board President Timi Reedy served as in-kind administrator for the KAC grant, and ASPI Board Secretary Dr. Tammy Clemons served as in-kind project consultant and administrative assistant for all phases of the interview project. Future Plans ASPI is collaborating to archive these recordings in Berea College Special Collections and Archives with other organizational records and oral history projects. The publicly accessible interviews will help inspire and model different art-making paths for creative aging as well as intergenerational engagement as part of lifelong learning. ASPI is also producing a short video trailer with interview excerpts as well as developing individual profile pages on each participant to feature their stories and creative work. |
Appalachia-Science in the Public Interest was awarded a 2022 Arts Access Assistance Grant through the Creative Aging and Lifelong Learning program of the Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, which is supported by state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (funded through a grant from the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies and Aroha Philanthropies).