Voices for Appalachia
An Appalachian Portrait-Story Project
Written and Narrated by Hundreds
Reach the artist Francesco di Santis through email at wanderer@riseup.net
Voices for Appalachia is a media and social phenomenon made up of 500 Portrait-Stories. Each piece of art features a hand drawn portrait of an individual living within Appalachia and their personal story written directly on the portrait. The art series includes a large range of descriptive stories and anecdotes of firsthand accounts of each person’s experience in Appalachia.
More about Voices for Appalachia:
This project is the result of impressive work by hundreds of participates, dozens of supporting organizations, numerous volunteers and the passion and dedication of the volunteer artist. The portraits are now consolidated and ready to be made publicly accessible under this unique aesthetic theme. The future of the project depends on continued collaboration to make it accessible for viewers within Appalachia as a touring art show and outreach and education tool. Please consider arranging a Voices for Appalachia art show for your community.
How to get the Voices for Appalachia traveling art show to your town:
Contact United Mountain Defense if you are interested in hanging the Voices for Appalachia Portrait Story Project in your community space or at your event.
Phone: 865 689 2778
E-mail: umdvolunteerhouse@yahoo.com
You will need a large, public, well-maintained space or event within Appalachia. The best space would be large enough to hang the entire series (500 square feet or more) at standing eye/reading level (perhaps 4 to 7 feet off the floor). It is also important to have uncluttered wall space that can have nails put into it to hang string for the portraits to hang on.
In order to ensure that the portraits do not become lost or damaged during shipping the project must be transported from person to person and not be shipped through mail. Therefore any group wishing to display the project must provide weatherproof transport of the project to and from Knoxville, TN. We would be happy to work with you to arrange the details of transportation including networking with volunteers throughout Appalachia that may be able to help. In order to ensure that parts of the project do not become lost, the entire project will travel to each location, though it is not required that all of the portraits be displayed at each location.
The UMD volunteers ask that you please contact us at least 3 months before your display date to set up a pickup time for the display. Please understand that the project may not be available at all times as it will be provided on a first come first serve basis. Any undisplayed portraits should be stored in a secure location. The duration of any display shall not be longer than two months unless otherwise decided upon so that more groups may have a chance to display the project.We are an all volunteer run organization with a very small budget so we gladly take donations for our time.
Guidelines for setting up a Voices for Appalachia show:
The Voices for Appalachia Portrait Story Project is a one of a kind fine art series that is very fragile. It is essential that the integrity of the project is maintained so that the artwork can be enjoyed and used as an education tool for many years to come. When setting up an art show it is very important to respect the series by following these guidelines:
- Make sure the artwork does not come into contact with water of any sort including rain, fog, or mist.
- Keep the portraits inside of their cellophane envelopes at all times.
- Hang the show in a secure location so that the portraits are not stolen, lost, misplaced, or destroyed.
- The portraits will need to be hung using string and clothespins and it is important that they do not have holes punched in them or anything sticky like tape attached to them. Instructions for hanging the show will be provided.
- UMD is not able to replace either the portrait or the cellophane envelopes. The project will be inspected before leaving and upon returning and you or your group will be responsible for replacing any damages to the series.
History of Voices for Appalachia:
March 1, 2008 marked the beginning of the two year project called Voices for Appalachia, A Portrait Story Project.
During 2008 and 2009 volunteer artist Francesco "Cesco" di Santis traveled around Appalachia meeting and drawing various residents and visitors to the region. His drawings began simply enough with charcoal, graphite, colored pencil, china marker and plain sketch paper.; Adopting progressively thicker papers to accommodate an evolving and more intensively layered style, a whole spectrum of media emerged from dry to wet, common to uncommon
These portraits indicate every demographic and community that Cesco was able to find during his two years of travels. Many of the people drawn were friends and friends of friends so the project reflects a greater sense of community.
Cesco set out with an initial aim of drawing at least five people a day, roughly envisioning a five month commitment of making the "art-media-social phenomenon"; he "co-bottomlined" with his partner Casey available in one place after another, throughout the active coalfields wherever residents and sympathizers in solidarity had begun to organize resistance against "King Coal." Impressed by the scope of consequences these landscapes suffered as an energy colonies, the complexity and diversity of regional issues (from coal extraction [mountain removal, deep-mining] to coal-washing [coal slurry impoundments and injections and subsequent leaching and spills] to burning [emissions, coal ash impoundments and subsequent spills] to accelerated erosion, de-population, prescription drug and other hard drug addiction, economic depression and the persistence and patience that would become necessary to "co-generate" a series worthy of public discourse. Their journey turned into a 16 month commitment in total, the parts of 2008 and 2009 warm enough to reasonably draw people outdoors.
Most spectators after reading or skimming just a few narratives quickly realize the plurality throughout these Portrait-Stories. Folks wrote of everything from their genealogy traced up to the present, to childhood memories, to their relationship to folk culture, to old United Mine Workers struggles, to perceived changes in the land and impacts upon their life from surface "mining," to non-violent direct action or civil disobedience to halt or bring attention to the industry's atrocity, to trying to create fair, sustainably local economy in Appalachia or practice primitive skills or permaculture. Stories range from silly to tragic to sentimental to transgressive, from incidental to serious and implicative.
Many were pleasantly surprised to discover there was no charge for being drawn as long as one desired to contribute the content for their handwriting so their perspective could be rendered authentic to the world.
Some feared government, coal company or local community reprisal for writing their uncensored stories, yet most came to understand the very safe and nurturing nature of this media format in which there was no question and answer format. One began and ended the narrative where they chose and one did not have to sign their name if they didn't want to. Privacy was sensitively respected, innuendo never projected. Very often portraits were left with participants so they would have as much time as they needed to consider what they would write. Some were drawn several times over many visits.
Early on Casey and Cesco had not foreseen the immense challenge of drawing portraits and gathering stories from such a large region. They accepted that Appalachia or even the coalfields could be elastically defined, stretching over many county and state lines. They also realized that as more and more whom they would meet would self-identify as Appalachian and feel "Voices for Appalachia" as relevant to their communities and . . . well, what a long strange journey it became. From academia and high profile conferences to moonshining shacks, punk squats and roadside camping, from parks, community centers, cafes, galleries, museums, to homesteading farms, family reunions and festivals, from intentional communities to downtowns, from grassroots campaign headquarters to private residencies, from indigenous to old-timers to back-to-the-landers to newcomers, from second-home retirees to the homeless, from fundamentalists and evangelicals to pagans, agnostics and secular humanists. They learned and from the portraits you will see, there is no one Appalachia.
In some cases those drawn had already enjoyed a whole plethora of media about their concerns or heritage. In many cases, those drawn had never been drawn before and had never experienced any professional form of media and likely otherwise never would have.
The Portrait-Story Project only manifested where potential participants invited it. Many were first referred to it by extended family, neighbors, co-workers and so on. Many seeing The Portrait-Stories exhibited then wanted the series to grace their own spaces as well. Despite the odds of seeking a "critical mass of input" over great distances in an overwhelmingly rural context Cesco drew nearly 2,000 portraits altogether in Appalachia.
Convincing folks they "have a story" or at least that memories of their experience could become one often stood as a challenge. Often Casey or Cesco would engage participants in conversation, often while they were being drawn, until a winning or compelling anecdote became apparent. Many didn’t know what to write on their portraits at the moment and so asked if they could write on it later and mail it at a later date. Alas many of the portraits were never written on or never returned to the project. If you have written on your portrait you can mail it unfolded to UMD at P.O. Box 20363 Knoxville, TN 37920.
So we are very proud to be able to present a completed body of over 500 portrait stories. Hopefully this number will continue to increase as more and more people continue to write on their portraits and add them to the series. When members of Mountain Justice initially invited and conversed with Cesco about creating the Voices for Appalachia Portrait Story Series we hoped that the project would be a touring art show that would stay within Appalachia and be used as a tool for outreach and education. We also hoped that it would be turned into a fine art book someday.
Current Location
Voices for Appalachia is currently located at:
The Birdhouse
800 North 4th Ave.
Knoxville, TN
It is being displayed there for all of February 2012 as part of "Tennessee Loves Mountains Month." On Feb. 4th, 2012 there will be an art opening from 7-11:30PM.
Facebook Event: First Saturday with Jack Herranen and Voices for Appalachia
