Roots & Rhythm Festival
City of Morgantown and the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum
Roots & Rhythm Festival Receives Microgrant from the Kentucky Rural Exchange Program
The Roots & Rhythm Festival has been awarded a microgrant through the Kentucky Rural Exchange (RUX) program — a recognition that highlights both the cultural significance of the festival and the growing momentum behind celebrating the life, legacy, and influence of Arnold Schultz in Morgantown and the surrounding region.
This microgrant is more than financial support. It represents a statewide acknowledgement of the importance of rural storytelling, local heritage, and community-driven collaboration — all values at the heart of the Roots & Rhythm Festival.
Background: Honoring a Kentucky Music Legacy
The Roots & Rhythm Festival was created to honor Arnold Schultz, an African American musician born in Ohio County, who later lived, died, and is laid to rest in Morgantown. Schultz played a pivotal role in the evolution of American roots music and is widely recognized for his influence on legendary Bluegrass musicians, including Bill Monroe.
His playing blended Blues, fiddle-tune traditions, and rural dance-hall music in ways that shaped the foundations of what would eventually become Bluegrass. Even today, his musical fingerprints can be heard across modern roots, acoustic, and Americana music.
A primary goal of the festival is to educate audiences about Arnold Schultz’s life, his musical style, and his lasting impact on the music we enjoy today. Through storytelling, historical interpretation, and conversations with musicians and culture bearers, the festival helps bring his story forward for a new generation.
To further support this mission, the festival will also offer workshops focused on Bluegrass and Blues-style music traditions, providing opportunities for musicians, students, and community members to learn, share techniques, and deepen their understanding of the musical heritage that Schultz helped inspire.
This year’s festival will feature two outstanding Bluegrass acts — The Kody Norris Show and The Lowland Ramblers — both known for their high-energy performances, traditional sound, and deep respect for the musical traditions rooted in Kentucky.
The Grant Process: A Community-Centered Vision
The application to the Kentucky-Rural Exchange microgrant program focused on the festival's alignment with RUX goals, which aim to strengthen small-town leadership, expand creative placemaking, and invest in initiatives that elevate local identity.
The proposal emphasized:
The festival’s role in cultural and historical preservation
Its commitment to education and storytelling around Arnold Schultz’s legacy
The impact of creative events on small-town economies and tourism
Opportunities for youth, artists, and families to participate in music and heritage learning
The festival’s long-term vision as a recurring regional event
Collaboration played a key role in the process — bringing together city leadership, tourism partners, local volunteers, musicians, and community members connected to Schultz’s story.
Receiving this microgrant affirms that the work being done in Morgantown is part of a broader movement in rural communities to strengthen their identity through culture, creativity, and civic pride.
Results: Expanding Outreach and Growing Festival Awareness
Funds from the Kentucky Rural-Exchange microgrant will be explicitly used for marketing and promotion of the Roots & Rhythm Festival.
This support will help the festival:
Increase regional and statewide awareness
Reach new audiences and first-time visitors
Promote educational programming and music workshops
Strengthen tourism engagement and community participation
Highlight the historical and cultural significance of Arnold Schultz
By investing in marketing, the festival can expand its reach while ensuring that both the music and its rich history are shared widely across Kentucky and beyond.
Significance: A Win for Morgantown and Rural Kentucky
The microgrant represents more than support for a single event — it reinforces the idea that rural Kentucky communities are important cultural leaders and storytellers.
The Roots & Rhythm Festival:
Elevates an essential chapter of Kentucky history
Preserves and teaches traditional music styles
Supports rural arts and heritage-based tourism
Builds community identity and hometown pride
Creates educational, cultural, and economic opportunities
Most importantly, it ensures that the story and influence of Arnold Schultz continue to be honored, understood, and passed forward in the place that now holds his legacy.
This recognition from the Kentucky Rural Exchange program strengthens our commitment to celebrating who we are as a community — where music, history, and rural storytelling continue to shape our future.
Partnership & Cultural Collaboration
A key strength of the Roots & Rhythm Festival is the spirit of collaboration behind it. The festival benefits from a growing partnership between the City of Morgantown and the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum, which strengthens preservation efforts surrounding the legacy of Arnold Schultz and his influence on American roots music.
This partnership supports education, musical storytelling, and historical awareness — helping ensure that Schultz’s contributions are recognized not only locally, but within the broader national conversation about Bluegrass history.
The festival also receives meaningful support from the Jack Dappa Blues Heritage Preservation Foundation, an organization dedicated to preserving and advancing the history of African American Blues and roots music. Their involvement reinforces the cultural importance of Schultz's role as a bridge between Blues traditions and emerging rural string-band music.
Together, these partnerships deepen the festival’s mission — connecting scholarship, performance, heritage tourism, and community celebration.
—City of Morgantown and the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum
The Kentucky Intercultural Microgrant Program is a seed grant to support two or more individuals or organizations collaborating across distance, difference, or sector on projects that celebrate and connect Kentucky's people and places. Our 2025 funding partners included Kentucky Arts Council, Fund for the Arts, Kentucky Foundation for Women, Kentucky Waterways Alliance, EarthTools, and individual donors. Learn more at kyrux.org/microgrants