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A sign indicates the Museum of Appalachia was closed on Sunday, April 24, 2022, for a celebration of life for the museum’s late founder John Rice Irwin who passed away on January 16, 2022, at the age of 91.

Hey y’all,

We stand on the shoulders of giants, and few stood as tall as John Rice Irwin. Himself something torn from the pages of history – the epitome of the proud, if puckish, mountain patriarchs I grew up hearing old folks speak wistfully of – he became not just the steward of our region’s culture and traditions, but the savior of its history. Founding the Museum of Appalachia in 1969, Irwin made it his life’s work to preserve and contextualize the lives and relics of our ancestors. In doing so, he not only won the MacArthur Genius Grant in 1989 but ensured the rich culture and deep heritage of the folks who settled southern Appalachia would continue to be taught and understood for generations to come.

“Someone told me when I was young that John Rice had bought a kingdom here, and he was king of it,” longtime museum band member John Alvis said. He was speaking at a memorial service for the late Irwin held on the campus of the Museum of Appalachia on Sunday, April 24. “He had built him a log kingdom… no one loves this Museum the way John Rice did.” 

Alvis told of how that love and devotion to the museum was apparent to anyone who met Irwin. “He would look at this place like he had never been here before and he studied every animal and every tree and studied it as though it was his first time here,” so meticulous and passionate was he about the museum.  

“There would not be this museum if somebody didn’t have the singular vision,” Steve Dean said as he memorialized his friend. Dean is the creator and host of the “Heartland Series,” a television docuseries which for 25 years, chronicled the people and history of the Southern Appalachians for WBIR in Knoxville. “It was John Rice’s strength of character that made it happen.”

I never met John Rice Irwin, but I have met his daughter. Elaine Irwin Meyer, the current president of the Museum of Appalachia, was kind enough to speak to me for this newsletter last year. In talking with her, I could see the love this family has for our region and its traditions, and I got a real sense of just how passionate they are about the museum their father and grandfather built. 

I also got a real sense of just what a warm and gregarious person Irwin was. His granddaughter, Lindsay Gallaher, and her brothers John Meyer and Will Meyer recalled the adventures they went on with their grandfather, collecting antiques and artifacts throughout Appalachia. 

“He would never really plan things, so we never ate. We would grab candy bars from gas stations along the way,” she said, fondly recalling how he would pull over on the side of the road if he saw something which interested him, no matter where they were. “For a long time, we didn’t understand why we were tagging along with him. But over time, I realized the reason he wanted us with him… he wanted that to be as important to us as it was to him so we could carry on what he was doing here.”

Irwin would no doubt be pleased that they have. Like her mother and brother Will, Gallaher also works at the Museum of Appalachia. Together, they are carrying on John Rice Irwin’s legacy. 

And thank God for that. While I did not grow up at the museum the way Gallaher did, I can understand the sentiment. The Museum of Appalachia is, simply put, one of my favorite spots in our region. I love spending hours roaming the museum grounds, enjoying the living exhibits, the goats and the peacocks, and the live music which can frequently be heard from one of the museum’s many porches. Going there is like going home – if home was 1850.

It was to show my appreciation to the man who built such a magical place that I attended his memorial service, and I was far from alone. In addition to the family, scores of mourners – many of whom knew John Rice personally and some, like me, who simply admired his work – turned out to celebrate the life of a man to whom many believe our region owes a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid. 

For it was John Rice Irwin who thought that it was not only the great and the powerful who deserved to be remembered in museums, but the everyday people of southern Appalachia who against the odds lived a life and created a culture here in the mountains. 

“The genius [of John Rice Irwin] was matching all these artifacts – which some people called junk – with a story,” former Tennessee governor and senator Lamar Alexander said. 

Irwin understood the need to preserve the region’s history as it was quickly vanishing, either because of modern life or because Appalachian artifacts were so often carted off out of state. He hated seeing items “carried up to Ohio when they belonged here,” Alexander – a longtime friend of Irwin’s – eulogized. “You don’t have to go very far out of our own backyard to find something special and interesting. How lucky we are that for 91 years, that ‘something special and interesting’ in our backyard was John Rice Irwin.”  

Until next week, y’all be blessed.

Sincerely,

Skylar

Renee Anderson of the Appalachian Artisan Center on how art can help recovery.
 The logo of the Appalachian Artisan Center. Photo: Appalachian Artisan Center/Twitter.
Sarah Jones, a student editor here at 100 Days in Appalachia, interviewed Renee Anderson, the artistic director and culture of recovery coordinator for the Appalachian Artisan Center about her work using art to help aid the recovery of those experiencing addiction. The Appalachian Artisan Center is, Jones explains, “a studio in Eastern Kentucky where artists can rent space to create their work, and they offer affordable rates. So, this allows local artists to use these spaces and to have access to areas they may not usually have in small local areas. The center also houses a program called the ‘Culture of Recovery’ which helps people in recovery learn art-based skills which can offer economic opportunities for them down the line. But it will also help them heal. It's just a beautiful program."

Watch the full interview here.
Charles Hatcher of Healing Appalachia on using music to aid recovery in West Virginia.
The logo of Hope in the Hills. Photo: Hope in the Hills/Facebook.

Another of our student editors, Bailey Tucker, interviewed Charles Hatcher of Healing Appalachia. He serves as the program director of Hope in the Hills – a yearly concert which aids those in recovery from addiction. The idea for the concert came, Hatcher explains, after a friend’s son died because he could not get into a long-term treatment facility fast enough. 

This prompted him to reach out to other friends, including recording artist Tyler Childers, to create “a yearly concert where we could put all the funds that we make directly into action,” Hatcher says. “The whole idea of it was to be able to move quickly when things need to happen because the inability to move as quickly as we should have, I think may have cost my friend's son his life."

Watch the full interview here.

Ebtehal Badawi on using art to build bridges in her community.
Ebtehal Badawi. Photo: Provided by Ebtehal Badawi.

I interviewed Ebtehal Badawi, last month’s 100 Days in Appalachia Creators & Innovators newsletter series host, about her work as an expressionist painter and her life in Pittsburgh. Badawi, an immigrant from Saudi Arabia, is best known for her “Pittsburgh Builds Bridges” murals which have appeared across the city and have really taken it by storm. She hopes to use her talents as an artist to bring people together and to make Pittsburgh – and Appalachia – more inclusive and welcoming places to live and visit.

Watch the full interview here. 

And if you aren’t yet subscribed, sign up for the Creators and Innovators Newsletter series here. This month, we will be joined by a hip hop artist from West Virginia!

Appalachian News Roundup:
Fascinating stories from across our region

  • The Knoxville News-Sentinel has some beautiful footage of the celebration of life for John Rice Irwin.
     

  • The Herald-Dispatch of Huntington, West Virginia, reports that the Appalachian Regional Commission has opened applications for its Appalachian Leadership Institute, which is billed as “a free leadership and economic development training opportunity for individuals currently living and/or working in one of the ARC’s 13 Appalachian states.” A nine-month program, applications for the 2022-2023 class are open until June 1. Find out more and apply at http://www.arc.gov/leadership.
     

  • Two Appalachian pastors – Josh Howell, the Southern Baptist pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Pikeville, Kentucky, and Rob Musick, who is the chaplain at the Presbyterian-affiliated University of Pikeville – wrote about why they think so many Christians in Appalachia and elsewhere are angry. They take what I find a conservative opinion on the subject, but I think it’s important that we hear them out and understand their perspective, as their views do seem indicative of many in our region. This piece appeared at The Presbyterian Outlook.
     

  • A new independent film about a down-on-her-luck aspiring Broadway actress who is forced to return to her Appalachian hometown is set to begin production in West Virginia, HuntingtonNews.net reports.
     

  • Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted have announced a $500 million investment in Appalachian Ohio, the Highland County Press reports.
     

  • WYMT-TV out of Hazard, Kentucky, reports on a new partnership between Appalachian Regional Healthcare and AppHarvest, “a central Kentucky based sustainable food company,” to help their employees improve their health and well-being. They plan to start with AppHarvest’s approximately 8,000 employees before broadening the campaign to the rest of the region.
     

  • I interviewed Dr. Kirk Hazen, a professor of linguistics and the director of the West Virginia Dialect Project at West Virginia University, about the stigmatization of Appalachian dialects. Read the full story at the Daily Yonder.

     

Visit us at 100daysinappalachia.com.
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