Monuments Across Appalachian Places (MAAP) seeks individuals and groups to participate in free Commemorate Workshops in anticipation of a future funding cycle. Workshops will be held across Central Appalachia and online between April and September 2026.
We invite community organizations, project teams, artists, researchers, educators, government officials, advocates, activists, memory keepers, and others to apply to attend one of six workshops in 2026 to refine/develop ideas for new monuments honoring histories that are more than 50 years old.
Potential monuments should fulfill our mission to reclaim, amplify, imagine, reinterpret, document, and display histories and experiences that highlight collective struggles for the vitality of Appalachian people and our shared environment, led by and for people whose stories have been silenced, denied, or excluded.
The goal of each Commemorate Workshop is to build the capacity of Appalachian community leaders and organizations to employ participatory arts and commemoration as tools for storytelling, organizing, and social change. The workshop will offer training and support in grant writing for monuments: developing community-based and trauma-informed approaches to commemoration, preparing budgets, re-imagining physical installations, troubleshooting feasibility of projects, and planning digital archive work and oral history collection and preservation. Small group sessions will offer attendees support in preparing and workshopping their grant application ahead of the October 15, 2026, deadline for Monuments Across Appalachian Places (MAAP) proposals.
Successful MAAP proposals will receive grants for between $50,000 and $350,000 to create new monuments during 2027-2028. Commemorate Workshop participants are not guaranteed MAAP project funding, and applicants for monument project grants are not required to attend a Commemorate Workshop to be eligible for funding.
Commemorate Workshops
We welcome your involvement!
Jump to:
Upcoming Workshops
How to apply to attend a Commemorate Workshop
MAAP accepts applications that were developed, written, and reviewed entirely by humans.Space is limited to 30 participants per workshop; prospective project teams are encouraged to submit one application for 1 to 4 team members to attend. MAAP will give priority to groups with potential projects about the diversity of communities in Appalachia, migration and population displacement, environmental issues and concerns, and social, environmental, and economic justice.
Applicants will select one of the following options as each becomes available.
April 11, 10am to 3pm: Southern Appalachian Labor School, Oak Hill, WV Applications are closed for this session.
May: Virtual, Zoom - Apply here by May 6, 2026.
June 27, Cleveland, VA (Russell County) - Location TBA. Time approx. 10am-3pm Apply here by 5pm on June 5, 2026.
July 13, 6-7:30pm, Virtual, Zoom - Apply here by 5pm on June 25, 2026.
August: near Rocky Top, TN - (Application deadline TBA)
August or September: Virtual, Zoom, date TBD
Meals will be provided during Commemorate Workshops, and successful applicants will receive travel support.
-
The google form application will ask for the following information.
Last name of applicant
First name of applicant
Email of applicant
Name the town/city and state where the primary applicant lives.
Please write a brief description of an undertold history that you would like to honor publicly (300 words). If you have a working title for your project, please include it. You may wish to consider responding to the following:
What physical form might this history take? (e.g. art installation, fabric arts, archival work, festivals, etc)
How might you engage the general public in researching this history and/or bringing it to life?
What work or research have you or your organization already undertaken with regard to this undertold history?
What impacts do you hope to see from your project?
In what town/towns or city/cities do you imagine your potential commemorative project would live? (optional)
Please describe your role in the community or within your organization. If applicable, give a brief description of your organization. (100 words)
How many members of your organization or prospective team would like to attend (total, including the applicant)?
Please let us know what you hope to learn or gain by attending a Commemorate Workshop. (optional)
Please use this space to alert us of any additional information, considerations, requests, accommodations, or concerns. (optional)
How did you hear about the MAAP Commemorate Workshops?
Acknowledgement: You understand that attending a MAAP Commemorate Workshop does not guarantee future funding.
Acknowledgement: You understand that you am not required to attend a MAAP Commemorate Workshop in order to apply for or be eligible for MAAP funding.
MAAV is based at Virginia Tech and led by Virginia Tech faculty. Because this project will produce research, documentation, installations, and performances in collaboration with dispossessed peoples and communities, MAAV acknowledges the role research universities have played in systematic and institutional abuses such as experimentation, segregation, exclusion, scientific racism, objectification, cultural tourism, stolen art, and unrepatriated artifacts. MAAV is committed to disrupting harmful power dynamics that perpetuate deep-rooted injustices between institutions of higher education and impacted communities.
About MAAP
Monuments Across Appalachian Places (MAAP) is an expansion of Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia (MAAV), funded by the Mellon Monuments Project and housed at Virginia Tech. For more information on MAAV projects in Appalachian Virginia, visit our Projects Page.
In order to amplify suppressed regional histories and strengthen community power, MAAP will work with projects based in Appalachian Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. MAAP seeks monument projects that involve a broad community in exploring and understanding a more nuanced and accurate chronicling of Appalachian histories. Our goals are to:
Inspire people to see themselves as capable of reshaping our physical landscapes
Uplift histories that have potential to reshape public memory
Center communities that have been chronically underrepresented and under resourced
Form new coalitions and networks that promote community well being and set in motion new ways of collaborating
Reimagine what a monument can be, beyond conventional statues or murals
Create artistic expressions and spaces for reflection that go beyond the delivery of information
MAAP is led by Katrina Powell, Alumni Distinguished Professor at the Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies, and Emily Satterwhite, the director of the Appalachian Studies Program at Virginia Tech. For questions, please contact our MAAV Project Coordinator, Lauren Trice, at maav@vt.edu.