Grassroots Appalachia is our effort at supporting sustainable living through Community Engagement by:

Social Enterprise

We embrace a market solution because it will help ensure that Appalachian folkways are preserved and cherished as people learn that they can help sustain themselves through their own creative efforts, whether such creativity is demonstrated in song on the fiddle, on wood with acrylic paint or in the soil with seeds. This method of matching experts with apprentices is ancient, proven, and a lovely use of talented people often overlooked.

Fair Trade Arts & Crafts

We offer a mix of retail products, concerts, plays, concerts, provide learning opportunities, and partner with existing individuals, groups and institutions so that Appalachians can exhibit their talents and earn money. Our partners wish to pass on vital Appalachian traditions and folkways to subsequent generations. The intention is to create opportunities for cottage industries to emerge to the benefit of Appalachian communities.

Lenoir Artist Fellowship

Teachers, musicians, artists, poets, actors, directors, potters, sculptors and others involved in the creative and fine arts are essential for a vibrant, energetic community. We are committed to helping established and emerging artists to move towards establishing their own cottage industries. Appalachia’s greatest abundance is her people. Our people are abundantly talented and resourceful. It is only a matter of cultivating and gathering the talent. That is the purpose of LAF.

We operate out of Lenoir, N.C. Learn more here.