The Waymakers Collective in Knoxville, Tennessee, has announced 51 grants totaling $4.5 million to nonprofits and individuals working in the arts in Appalachia.

The non-traditional funding collaborative—fiscally sponsored by the Appalachian Community Fund—distributed awards ranging from $5,000 to $35,000 in support of equitable justice, creative cooperation, and sustainable stewardship across the Appalachian region. Working with grassroots organizers, activists, and artists in BIPOC, Indigenous, immigrant, and LGBTQ communities across Appalachia that are typically overlooked by larger foundations, the group uses a participatory grantmaking model to distribute funding and challenge traditional power dynamics between foundations and grantees, promoting a regionally specific inclusiveness rooted in equitable justice, creative cooperation, and sustainable stewardship described as Appalachian Futurism.

"The most affirming part of receiving this funding is how we have been trusted…to create the work we visioned…to be a steward of the money, and the respect of the project itself,” said Mitzi Sinnott, CEO of All Here Together in Huntington, West Virginia, which received funding for a mural project honoring local Black history.

“We know that our region is more diverse than the cultural narratives show,” said Waymakers program director Joe Tolbert, Jr. “The path to Appalachian Futurism, where every culture is seen and celebrated, is one where not only funds are redistributed, but that power is redistributed as well.”

(Photo credit: GettyImages/Hill Street Studios)