Here's to 2023!

RUX united Kentuckians at Community Intensives across the state and kicked off its tenth year in style. Join us in celebrating the 2023 cohort and host communities.

People

For our 2023 RUX cohort, RUX hosted 55 Kentuckians across Louisville, Owensboro, and Estill County. These leaders in the arts, agriculture, community development, education, government, health, and business represent all regions of Kentucky, including Barren, Breckinridge, Campbell, Crittendon, Carter, Daviess, Fayette, Fleming, Franklin, Green, Kenton, Jefferson, Madison, McCracken, Metcalfe, Perry, Rockcastle, Rowan, Warren, and Whitley counties. 103 speakers led conversations and trainings, and we paid 42 artists, farmers, chefs, and organizers to help produce these events.

“I appreciated the opportunity RUX provided me to discover the amazing diversity of rural and urban Kentucky. I’ve learned so much from visiting various places I never would have and meeting new folks who are working hard to make Kentucky what we know it can be.” -Bernard Clay (Writer & Poet; RUX Participant)

Place

We created common ground. In Louisville, we learned about local folklife, affordable housing, and Walnut Street & the Russell neighborhood through a Narrative Stage with the Louisville Storyville Program at the Western Library Block Party, bus tours with ReACT, Olmsted Parks, and the Hope Buss, a Community Lunch and Bingo at St. John Center, and a Narrative Stage with Ekknowledge at the Little Loomhouse. In Owensboro & Daviess County, we focused on cultural and culinary traditions, refugee and immigrant support programs, African American history and leadership, green spaces, and agriculture, through a Community Conversation about Refugee Resettlement, a Narrative Stage Owensboro’s African American Leadership, and a Community Conversation about Agriculture & Family Farms. In Estill County, a Narrative Stage about Youth Experience & Engagement and a Community Conversation about Rural Economic Development taught us about local youth civic engagement, local economic development, and ecotourism in rural areas.

Across all RUX weekends, 100% of RUX cohort members agreed that they learned a new skill or idea and something new about each Community Intensive region. This year, RUX Community Intensives contributed $128,214 to local economies.

“The organizers of RUX have been courageous in promoting inclusion and equity across the state, and I look forward to seeing what the next ten years hold.” -Dr. Brittney Hernandez-Stevenson (Muhlenberg County NAACP President; Muhlenberg County RUX Organizer)

Narrative Change

We hosted three Rural-Urban Solidarity Project film screenings, three statewide leadership retreats, two podcasts, and a webinar. We kicked off our 10th year at The Golden Thread gala with artists and thought leaders from all over Kentucky. We invested in Intercultural Microgrant projects that have taken place across Campbellsville, Edmonton, Frankfort, Irvine, Louisville, Owensboro, Paducah, and Whitesburg, supported by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Capacity Building

In Kentucky, we welcomed 10 new Steering Committee members. We hosted retreats at Barren River, Rough River, and Carter Caves State Parks, including our first Alumni Weekend, which attracted 55 Alumni (representing every RUX cohort) from 15 counties. We said goodbye to beloved Program Manager Amelia Martens, who left the program to focus her talents on her local community in Paducah.

In Minnesota, the second cohort of MN RUX launched with 24 Minnesotans bridging connections across Mahnomen County, White Earth Nation, and Winona County. Minnesota RUX is supported by Art of the Rural, the McKnight Foundation, the Bush Foundation, Gizhiigin Art Incubator, Itasca Biological Research Station, Armory Arts Gallery, Hubbard County Developmental Achievement Center Gallery, Nemeth Arts Center, Nibbii Institute for Rights of Nature, Studio 176, Engage Winona, Minnesota Marine Art Museum, Our Voices, Prairie Island Campground, Project FINE, St. Charles City Council, Winona County Historical Society, and Winona State University.

“I have built meaningful relationships, deepened my knowledge of the state, and learned new skills to help me face challenges in my work through engagement with the RUX model.” - MN RUX Alum

Partnership

Cross-sector partnerships are the foundation of RUX. We partnered with 85 organizations, networks, foundations, and businesses. 2023 Program Partners: Art of the Rural, Appalshop, KY Arts Council, KY Folklife Program, and regional partners Alight Marketing Agency, the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute at the University of Louisville, Estill Development Alliance, The Filson Historical Society, Fund for the Arts, Hood to the Holler, the International Center of Kentucky, KY Performing Arts, Louisville Free Public Library, Louisville Metro Government, TARC, the Marilyn and William Young Foundation, the Public Life Foundation of Owensboro, and Owensboro Health. 2023 Funding Partners: National Endowment for the Arts, the W. L. Lyons Brown Foundation, the Mercatus Center at George Mason, KY Foundation for Women, Greater Clark Foundation, the Lawrence and Augusta Hager Educational Foundation.

“RUX has allowed me to see Kentucky and my fellow Kentuckians through their own eyes, to walk a mile in their shoes,” he says. “It has helped me understand and, therefore, love our land and people more than any other experience in my life.” -S. Brandon Coan (Applied Civics; RUX Alum)

Thank you for supporting a more connected and collaborative Kentucky!

Your contributions make another decade of RUX possible.

Please donate what you can today!