James Baker Hall Foundation Grant Programs Making Progress

Write to Recover/Bullitt County Artist Guild

You learned last month about Write to Recover, the expressive writing program at the Bullitt County Detention Center’s Substance Abuse Program. Another aspect of our long-term foundation support is to help facilitate an artist guild in Bullitt County. On Saturday, August 10th, 30 interested artists met in Shepherdsville for the initial meeting.

The goal of the guild is to establish a community arts center to support local artists and writers for the purpose of making the arts and artists more visible in the wider community and more integral to its development and growth. The guild will offer fellowship to members, mentorship opportunities, workshops and jam sessions, platforms for showcasing creative work and for presenting artists’ work to the community.

Ironwood Writers Studio, The Hindman Settlement School

In early August, the foundation staff loaded up a van and headed east for an overnight at The Hindman Settlement School. We met with Executive Director Will Anderson, Melissa Helton who is the Director of Literary Arts, as well as Development Manager John Harris and learned about the deep history of the school and how it supports the Appalachian community. The school was severely damaged in the devastating floods of 2022 in Eastern Kentucky, yet never missed a day of service to their community. The damage was severe to the property as well as contents.

So much so that the school has hired an archivist who works full-time to save many of the historical documents from the school’s inception in 1902. The purpose in visiting was to talk about the foundation’s support of Ironwood and to hear from staff and several of the students who attended what they liked about the program and how we can improve it in year two of the foundation’s three year commitment.

In 2024, 16 students attended The Ironwood Writers Studio. And while they raved about learning techniques from the writers-in-residence who worked with them, what became clear was the camaraderie of being with like-minded student artists . . . some for the first time in their lives. For a high schooler who is perceived as “different”, having a week to express your creativity with people who understand you, was a powerful outcome.

Foundation staff was so impressed with everyone we met and appreciated hearing from the students who participated. Our collective goal is to reach out to find more high school students who would benefit from attending the Ironwood Writers Studio.