WELCOME RUX 2018!

The Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange Steering Committee is pleased to announce our 2018 RUX learning cohort. After our most competitive application process  to date, the RUX steering committee has finalized selection of the incoming cohort, which includes 75 members from 25 counties and every region of the state.  Cohort members come from 40% rural, 35% urban, and 25% micropolitan communities.

The Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange program is known for helping rural and urban Kentuckians discover their common identity, history and culture. Over three weeks each year, RUX brings leaders in the arts, agriculture, community development, health, and business together to change the context of professional collaboration. Through our unique community intensive framework, RUX helps members deepen bonds, inspire stronger accountability, and create the conditions for innovation. The result is a diverse network of culturally competent leaders with both the deep social capital and the collective capacity needed to transform Kentucky’s future. 

Now in its fifth year, this partnership between Art of the Rural and Appalshop has earned national acclaim in the Wall Street Journal, US News and World Report, and national conferences such as Grantmakers in the Arts and the Community Development Society. Kentucky RUX has served more than 200 Kentuckians from 42 counties since 2014, and will have been hosted in every region of the state by the end of 2018. 

RUX members will gather in Bowling Green and Horse Cave June 8-10, in Knott County August 3-5, and in Covington Oct. 10-12 for the Kentucky RUX program’s fifth year.
RUX is supported by the Rural Policy Research Institute, regional host partners, and dozens of Kentucky businesses.

Current host partners include the Kentucky Folklife Program in Bowling Green, Hindman Settlement School in Hindman, and BLDG in Covington. Past host communities include Harlan (2016-2017), Lexington (2016-2017), Louisville (2014-15), Paducah (2015-16), and Whitesburg (2014-15). To discover more about 2018 Kentucky RUX cohort, visit www.kyrux.org.