The experience of artmaking in Appalachia is a complex one. An Appalachian identity often creates a distinctive and strong relationship between person and homeplace, but artists are told they need to leave the region in order to learn and innovate. Being told to leave home and to escape tradition is a hard thing to reckon with, both as a person and an artist. When the artists we interviewed left home, their connection with a homeplace was what inspired them creatively much more than the urban, non-Appalachian communities they joined. As young artists in Appalachia, we wanted to learn from their innovations and their experiences of coming home in “The Art of Finding Home.”
