Founded in 1969 as the Appalachian Film Workshop, Appalshop has grown to become a media, arts, and education center located in Whitesburg, Kentucky, in the heart of the southern Appalachian region of the United States. Archivist Caroline Rubens will discuss Appalshop’s history and mission and how the floods of 2022 devastated their extensive archival collection of audio recordings, videos, photographs, and artwork that document history and life in the Appalachian Mountains, and as well as ongoing recovery and restoration efforts.

About the speakers

Leo Shannon is an archivist and traditional musician from Seattle, living in Whitesburg, Kentucky. He has been with the Appalshop Archive throughout the flood and recovery efforts, and is always looking for new ways to bring archival materials to life.

Shane Terry grew up in Knott County and in 2010 became a volunteer DJ at Appalshop’s community radio station, WMMT. Shane worked as a filmmaker with the archive on different projects and eventually worked with WMMT before and after the 2022 EKY floods. Since then, Shane has helped the archive with digital file infrastructure as we work to save the collection.