In spring 2019, the AIR Institute of Berea College, in partnership with MACED and the Kentucky Arts Council, held a training for 10 Kentuckians to become AIR Shift facilitators.
AIR Shift facilitators are prepared so they can go out and conduct three-day “Shift” workshops designed for artists and creatives, unique small businesses and cultural heritage nonprofits, and governmental and social service staff. Facilitators guide workshop participants through the design thinking process and a business canvas to create a small project to address an issue in their community using arts or creativity. Projects must be locally implementable within a year and have a $10,000 or less budget.
A few of the new Eastern Kentucky based facilitators trained to “shift your world” are highlighted below:
Jake East, Perry County
Jake East is an arts administrator and euphonium performing artist based in his hometown of Hazard, KY. He studied Music (Euphonium) and a Minor in Arts Entrepreneurship at Morehead State University. As a euphoniumist, he has performed internationally with the Morehead State University Symphony Band and the Kentucky Ambassadors of Music on tours of England, France, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, and China where he was Principal Euphonium of the MSU Symphony Band and Tuba/Euphonium Ensemble. He then served as an AmeriCorps VISTA at Redbud Financial Alternatives, a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) with a mission of providing financial education and equitable consumer lending. He is currently the Executive Director of Appalachian Arts Alliance, an organization with a mission of building access points for high quality arts education, arts entrepreneurial tools, and community centered programming in Eastern Kentucky.
Max Hammond, Carter County
Max Hammond is a life-long horseman, he loves and lives on a six generation, Eastern Kentucky, hillside farm and cares for 24 head of Paso Fino horses and 2 mules. Max developed the concept of “The Appalachian Horse Revival” which was presented to and adopted by Morehead State University. He is currently working as a community partner with Eastern Kentucky University on the Appalachian Horse Project. As President of the Olive Hill Council for Planning and Restoration, he founded, helped produce and hosted the first “Trail Town Stage,” a live show, soon to be radio broadcast, that celebrates the range, depth and influence of mountain music and promotes the rich songwriting and storytelling heritage of our region. He also successfully promoted his hometown as a location for the filming of a motion picture. Max is currently spearheading the effort to establish a trail system centered in Eastern Kentucky that will honor the first Appalachians, the Native Americans.
Laura Poulette, Madison County
Laura Poulette paints contemporary botanical watercolors inspired by the native plants of Kentucky’s woods and meadows. Laura graduated from Berea College where she studied studio art. She has adjudicated into the Kentucky Crafted Program of the Kentucky Arts Council. Laura exhibits her art work throughout Kentucky, and her line of original art, greeting cards and prints is carried by 16 galleries and boutiques in the Southeast. She lives with her family in the hills outside of Berea, Kentucky.
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Greta Slone, Floyd County
A native daughter of Appalachia, of coal miners and immigrant theologians, Greta Heintzelman Slone is rooted in eastern Kentucky—by birth and by choice. She has had careers firmly planted in the humanities, most notably at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Jewish Historical Society, and as an archivist for Broadway theatre productions. Greta is now the Director of Strategic Communications for Big Sandy Community and Technical College. She also owns Free State of Appalachia, an ecommerce business, whose focus is on empowering Appalachian artists through the reproduction of their original artwork on the most common canvas—the tee shirt.
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Mindy Woods-Click, Carter County
Mindy and her husband, Dan (also a newly trained facilitator!), operate the non-profit Grayson Gallery & Art Center, Inc., to provide a venue for the arts and a creative place for the community to flourish. She graduated with a degree in plant and animal sciences from the University of Kentucky and worked for the Department of Agriculture. She has been a volunteer in her community for the last 25 years, serving on the founding board of the Carter County Public Library; one of the last two counties in the state without a public library system, and went on to serve on the State Board of Library Trustees. Mindy also serves on the Carter County Community Fund Board, Grayson Tourism Commission, Grayson Planning & Zoning Commission, and Park Board.
After they trained together in the spring, in June 2019, a few of the facilitators came together in a unique partnership with Cowan Creek Community Center to work with a group of high school students in Letcher County on designing community projects. In the first day of their internship, participants gathered at the Community Center for orientation and the three-day Shift workshop where they came up with ideas to potentially implement within the community that summer.
Facilitators led small groups of the students through exercises, and challenged them to collaborate and think differently about art, business and the economy. Over the three-days, they worked on business plans (including marketing, scheduling, budgeting, etc.), did a run through presentation of their ideas, and presented their ideas to a panel of judges comprised of local community leaders.
The groups came up with three final ideas:
- Build a giant scrabble board on the lawn at the town’s outdoor music stage, where the summer Levitt Amp series takes place
- Host a cooking competition in Whitesburg
- Organize a parade of decorated off-road vehicles
Over the course of the summer, the students have worked on implementing their ideas and plans developed through the Shift training. Read more here.
“The AIR Shift Facilitator training was three incredible days of working on communication skills, collaboration, and learning how to help creative minded and business minded folks to bring their abilities together, for the benefit of all,” Mindy Woods-Click said of the program.
“We put this into practice with high school and college students in Whitesburg and they came up with amazing projects to boost attendance at a local farmers market and concert series. We were also able to facilitate part of the AIR Shift program with the Carter County Youth Leadership Academy, and the high school juniors came to consensus on a community-wide clean-up program. An Air Shift Workshop is in the future plans for our community!”
This year, AIR has also trained more than 50 facilitators in South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio. Each is actively planning and implementing Shift Workshops and helping guide community members in implementing their own small scale projects to boost local business development. Please contact Beth Flowers (beth_flowers@berea.edu) at Berea College with questions about the AIR Institute.
