Scenic view of Benham

Originally uploaded by appalachiancenter

Benham, KY is known as one of the best preserved coal camps in the region. Recently the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum worked in collaboration with the SKCTC Appalachian Archives to create a Walking Tour of downtown Benham. The project used information gathered by the Museum about its many downtown historical buildings along with photos from Archive’s Benham & Lynch Photography Collection to create a handout map for the walking tour. Highlights of the tour included the fire department, hospital, commissary, school, theatre and Miners Park. These map handouts have been given to visitors from across the state, school groups, as well as visitors from out of state. This joint project between the Appalachian Program and the Museum has been so popular and well received that plans are underway to do a second printing of the Walking Tour map.

Funeral

Originally uploaded by appalachiancenter

Community Scholar Carol Shutt, of Hillsboro, KY recently received a grant from the KY Oral History Commission to research “Funerary Customs in Harlan County.”
Carol is interested in interviewing people about past and present traditions related to funerals. What music was played? What food was served? Who digs the grave? Are there special traditions related to the different ethnic or religious backgrounds of the people that live here in Harlan County?
Carol says her goal with this project is to document the funeral traditions of this county and to show whether or not they have changed over the years and if so, what kinds of changes have we seen.
Carol plans to come back for interviews the weeks of September 15-19 and October 13-17. If you are interested in participating, or helping with this project please contact the SKCTC Appalachian Program.
Also please feel free to post and share funeral traditions from your family, church or community on this site. Be sure to let us know where you are from.

The SKCTC Appalachian Program recently welcomed visiting artists the Beehive Design Collective and Francesco di Santis. These artists are beginning arts and community organizing projects here in Harlan County.

The Beehive Design Collective is based out of rural Maine and they are working on a project to produce documentary illustration poster on the story of coal in the Appalachian Region. The Bees don’t consider themselves to be academics or professional researchers, but story tellers who use the art of illustration to tell the stories they collect. They plan a return visit to Harlan County this fall.

You can check out their organization and see examples of their art on their website:

http://www.beehivecollective.org/english/front.htm

Franceso di Santis is another visiting artist who stopped by the Appalachian Program office for a visit. Franceso is a portrait artist that also works with his subjects to collect personal narratives. First he sketches a person’s portrait, gives it to them, and he asks them to write their personal story directly on the sketch. Franceso hopes to build a collection of sketches and stories called, “Voices for Appalachia.”  Franceso spent a year in New Orleans doing a project with the victims of Hurricane Katrina, that was published into a book “The Post-Katrina Portraits.”

You can check out some of his work at the website:

http://postkatrinaportraits.org/