Call for Nominations
The WayMakers Collective is proud to announce a call for nominations for grants for individual artists and organizations who are contributing to imagining Appalachian Futures with a particular focus on art and cultural practices that propose more just and inclusive alternatives including work on a personal scale, a social scale, and an ecological scale. We invite nominations of artists and organizations that are working at the intersections of decolonization, sustainability, anti-carceral organizing, liberation, and other areas helping to support non-oppressive futures in the region.
This opportunity is more than a grant. Individuals and organizations awarded grants will have the opportunity to join the WayMakers Collective and have access to convenings, online events, access to additional funding, and voting rights as part of the collective community.
Nominees will be considered whose work fits into one of our five core strategies identified by the WayMakers Collective for how arts and culture can create a better future for our region:
Shifting Narratives: Telling stories through a variety of mediums of who we are, where we are, and what we do that combat stereotypes and foster Appalachian pride.
Regionalist/Network: Linking artists, cultural workers, groups, organizations and supportive communities for peer exchange, collaboration and advocacy—locally, regionally, and across all of Central Appalachia.
Direct Support: Nurturing artists, culture bearers, cultural workers, groups and organizations to encourage engagement and creative transformation throughout the region.
Healing and Restoration: Supporting individuals and communities to respond to generational traumas in holistic ways that build resiliency and sustainability and that recognizes historic and systemic injustices that have directly impacted marginalized communities in Central Appalachia.
Removing Barriers: Breaking down doors to opportunity, both physical and intangible, for artists, cultural workers, groups and organizations that are now blocked from the tables of power.
Who should I nominate?
Who do you know (maybe it’s you) who is answering questions like these:
What does an Appalachian Futurist aesthetic look like?
How can arts, culture, and creative work contribute to imagining more just Appalachian futures?
How do other futurisms such as Afro and Indigenous Futurisms interact with art and culture in the Appalachian context?
How does the idea of Appalachian Ingenuity exhibit itself in Appalachian arts and culture?
What does the future racial and ethnic composition of our region look like and how will that shape the arts and culture landscape of Central Appalachia?
What are the future traditions Appalachian people will need to survive the coming decades and a changing planet?
What are traditions and practices from the past that need to be pulled into the future?
Where does innovation happen in Appalachia? Who gets overlooked in conversations about creative innovation?
How are Appalachian youth imagining possible alternatives?
How will the changing climate impact the future of Appalachia?
Who do you know (maybe it’s you) who is working on:
What an Appalachian Futurist aesthetic looks like
Using arts, culture, and creative work to imagine more just Appalachian futures
Afro and Indigenous Futurisms and how they interact with art and culture in the Appalachian context?
Appalachian Ingenuity and how it shows up in Appalachian arts and culture
What does the future racial and ethnic composition of our region look like and how will that shape the arts and culture landscape of Central Appalachia?
Future traditions that Appalachian people will need to survive the coming decades and a changing planet?
Modernizing old traditions for future generations
Creative innovation
Appalachian youth and alternative futures
Climate impact
You can nominate people or organizations working with: imagined futures and imagination as a tool for creating new possibilities; creators of digital spaces and art or work that exists outside the present moment or physical space of Central Appalachia; artists and work looking at hybrid models of identity or work; artists and organizations working with migrant, immigrant and refugee populations; art and culture work that spans ideas of human or land healing: traditional medicine coops, teachers, or tradition bearers, sustainable farmers, artists working with ideas of reclamation and healing; individuals or groups creating more inclusive spaces for youth, LGBTQ+ and/or BIPOC communities; groups or artists exploring new futures for communities of disability; groups working on land reparations for Indigenous and Black communities: artists and group working with people in recovery; inventors and social enterprises that that push the boundaries of community innovation; artists and organizations working on transformative justice, with incarcerated populations, or on abolitionist futures; individuals or organizations using arts and culture to organize around ecological, sustainability, and climate issues.
Please think broadly and creatively about who you might nominate and please prioritize BIPOC, women, youth, and queer art and culture bearers and BIPOC, women, youth, and queer-led organizations. We seek to fund applications from people and communities currently underrepresented in traditional funding in our region.
The Nominations Process
Current members of the WayMakers Collective can nominate artists, culture bearers, and arts and culture organizations using this form. The deadline for nominations is xxxx. I Please note that current members of the AppalCore are not eligible to apply for a grant.
Grant Awards: We are working with $285,000 in grant dollars this year with $142,500 allocated to grantees that will be new to our Collective and $142,500 for existing WayMakers Collective members. Grants range in size from $5,000-$15,000.
If you have any questions or need assistance with your application please contact xxxx.