Page 42 - Journal 89-3 Full

Art Camp: An Appalachian Solution

to an Art Desert

By Ronald Vaughan Morris and Denise Shockley

The Appalachian Regional Commission defines a mountainous area from New York to
Mississippi as a region of limited economic opportunity and low educational attainment.
Appalachia is the home of an arts desert, which exists when there are limited places to view,
experience, or create art. To combat this problem, the Gallia-Vinton Educational Service Center
partnered with Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts to bring ArtReach to the impoverished
students of a three-county area. The students participated in a 4-day arts camp where they
explored Appalachian folk crafts as visual art. The guest art instructors selected student projects
tied to the culture of the families and the community. Art instructors discussed sharing, learning,
and community as important aspects of their educational practice.

tudents need cultural opportunities that will expose them to different perspectives
Sbeyond what they might encounter in their provincial locations. Art deserts form
in the spaces between cultural centers and are devoid of exhibition and instruction
spaces that educate and inform visitors about visual arts. Due to roads that must
skirt geographic impediments, there may be great distances between audience
and performance venue; there may also be little distance but a road that follows
an undulating river, making travel times longer. The geographic space and time
between people and cultural exhibition spaces means that many students living in an
art desert are at a significant disadvantage as they try to access the visual arts.
Southeastern Ohio is such a location, and under the direction of Arrowmont’s
ArtReach on the Road and the Gallia-Vinton Educational Service Center (ESC),
teachers and students have met in an Appalachian community for a 4-day arts
camp during the summer to fill the gap in art opportunities. Arrowmont is based
in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where it provides art education to adults. The ArtReach
program allows Arrowmont to provide art instruction to local students, but ArtReach
on the Road provides art activities in six Appalachian states. The Gallia-Vinton
Educational Service Center provides training for teachers and support for families
and students. In this initiative, arts educators have gathered to create a 1-week oasis in
the arts desert where students learned, modeled, and experimented with high-quality
instructors and visual arts methods and materials. Each student took a different class
each day to learn how to work with four divergent art media.

Literature Review
Education in Appalachia has traditionally been plagued by scarcity and
inaccessibility at a variety of levels. The Appalachian Regional Commission
defines the region from the mountains of eastern Kentucky, western North Carolina,
southern Ohio, eastern Tennessee, western Virginia, and West Virginia as needing
government assistance in job creation, infrastructure, and educational attainment. If
young people wish to leave the area, they are limited by educational preparation, and
if they stay in the area, they are constricted by a lack of opportunities. Scarce post-
secondary education options, limited jobs, and misalignment with career preparation
confound youth who are committed to staying in the region (Kannapel & Flory,

40 The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin: International Journal for Professional Educators