Meet our 2024 Intercultural Microgrant recipients!

This year’s cycle has awarded over $30,000 to intercultural teams across Kentucky.

The Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange (RUX) is excited to announce 21 grants in our 2024 Intercultural Microgrant cohort.

This second-annual cycle of RUX microgrants issued more than $30,000 in seed grants supporting teams of two or more individuals or organizations collaborating across distance, difference, or sector on projects that celebrate and connect Kentucky's people and places. Grantees and their respective funds include:

Josh May Memorial Fund

In memory of RUX Co-Founder Josh May, this grant fund supports diverse Kentuckians to collaborate on a musical project.

  • MURRAY - Wit’s End Records & Slough Water Records - Awarded a grant to purchase a digital mixer to record & document performances of regional LGBTQ+ artists and artists from other marginalized groups 

The Monument Workshop at UK

In partnership with The Monument Workshop at UK, this fund seeks community-driven work designed to improve the monument landscape in Kentucky.

  • IRVINE - Jess Stevens & Mariel Gardner - Researching racial expulsions in Estill County and hosting relevant community sessions & an exhibition at the Museum at Kentucky Steam

  • LOUISVILLE - Kaira Tucker & Angela Brown - Gravestone conservation, workshops, & related zinemaking at Louisville Cemetery, focused on African-American musical & architectural artists

Kentucky Waterways Alliance

In partnership with the Kentucky Waterways Alliance (KWA), this fund seeks to invest in projects that clean up, improve access to, or offer education about Kentucky’s waterways.

  • CAMPBELLSVILLE - Shaelyn Bishop & Forever Green River, Inc. - River Readings program providing educational river ecology & conservation books to local schools

  • STANTON - Red Oaks Forest School - Scholarships for youth attending nature-based art therapy program focused on Appalachian & Indigenous storytelling & cultures

  • HYDEN - Kentucky Heartwood & Amy Richardson - Artist workshops centered on art, writing, and civic engagement surrounding areas of old growth in Daniel Boone National Forest

Kentucky Foundation for Women

In partnership with the Kentucky Foundation for Women (KFW), this fund supports small, women-led projects that use arts, culture, or creativity to bridge geographic, racial, and economic divides in Kentucky or reduce political polarization.

Civic Health Microgrants

This fund supports projects that bring community members together across different ideologies or backgrounds to work together or solve a local challenge.

  • LEXINGTON - Sarah Baird & Chris Murray - Illustrated, multilingual  zine celebrating the 100+ playgrounds of Fayette & surrounding counties for family education & civic engagement

  • RADCLIFF - Shauntrice Martin & Iniejah Allen Jr - Rural-urban policy debate league for youth

  • LEXINGTON - Deborah Slone & Sandi Curd  - Bridging Kentucky’s STEM Communities: A Summit for Learning & Collaboration gathering rural and urban STEM professionals from across Kentucky

Artist-led projects generating economic impact in Eastern KY

This fund invests in projects that engage Eastern Kentucky artists with individuals or organizations from the Kentucky RUX Network to collaborate across distance, difference, or sector on projects that celebrate and connect Kentucky's people and places and promote economic impact.

  • OWENSBORO - Bluegrass Hall of Fame & Museum - Veteran-focused songwriting workshops facilitated with Eastern KY artists

  • HAZARD - Stacie Fugate, Ryan Combs, Tamara Russell, Dee Parker, & InVision Hazard - Uncovering family histories of diverse Kentuckians in Hazard, with a multimedia exhibition in the Bobby Davis Museum & Park

  • LOUISVILLE - Louisville Folk School & The Local Honeys - Appalachian music performance series at local school & public-facing workshop/performance

  • WHITESBURG - Mark Kidd, Renew Appalachia, & Statewide Multimedia Artists - The Commonwealth Cushaw Project with culinary & agricultural heritage workshops celebrating Kentucky’s food, cultures, and the natural world

  • LOUISVILLE - McKinley Moore & Honky Talkin’ - Bringing Eastern KY artists to Louisville for Honky Talkin’ podcast & performances

  • HARLAN - Susan Liv Petty-Taylor & Vickie Smith - Rural-urban women storytelling gatherings & community-based magazine

  • WILLIAMSBURG - Angelika Weaver & Shana Goggins - "Imperfect Allies: A Kentucky Women's Guide to Social Justice Activism" zine & toolkit

This year’s Intercultural Microgrant Program was launched with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kentucky Foundation for Women, Kentucky Waterways Alliance, Fund for the Arts, the Monument Workshop at UK, the Josh May Memorial Fund, and individual donors.

Combined with its Artists Respond grant cycle earlier this year, RUX has granted over $65,000 in microgrants this year in celebration of our ten-year anniversary. The Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange (RUX) is a creative leadership program with over 300 alumni from 65 Kentucky counties and an expansive, cross-sector member and partner network across the state. RUX was founded in 2014 as a program of Art of the Rural and Appalshop. 

This funding provides RUX’s experienced, capable alumni and member network with the support they need to try new ideas and solve old problems through short-term projects that foster dialogue, connection, or collaboration among Kentuckians from disparate backgrounds, identities, or experiences. 

Want to learn more about our work to bring Kentuckians together?

Join us at the Golden Thread, a mainstage event at Kentucky Performing Arts Center in Louisville on October 19, featuring some of the Commonwealth’s most visionary public, private, and third-sector thought leaders who are connecting Kentuckians across diverse cultures and communities. Learn more at kyrux.org/golden-thread

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