The Rural Arts And Culture Map

Today we are excited to launch The Rural Arts and Culture Map. As readers may be familiar, we shared news of the Map this summer as — with all of your help — the project won the crowd-source vote for a Rural Digital Advocacy Grant, an opportunity provided by the Rural Policy Action Partnership with funding from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. We are deeply grateful for your support.

Your efforts on behalf of this project speaks to what excites us so much about The Rural Arts and Culture Map: it's a space for collaboration, conversation, a platform where individuals from across the country (and the world) can share their artistic and cultural life. Unlike many other digital mapping projects, there are no gatekeepers here. This Map is generously hosted by PlaceStories, a platform designed by Feral Arts; these artists are led by a mission to create a space for inclusive and boundary-crossing storytelling. Our mission, and its outreach and interdisciplinary collaboration, is further coordinated and advised by Appalshop and the M12 art collective.

This is the first digital map of such a scope and with such a vision of wide public participation. Together, we can break new ground.