Government Award - Pike County Extension for Fine Arts

The spotlight is on Kentucky as Pike County has bragging rights on pioneering the first Cooperative Extension Program in the nation to focus on the arts.

Cooperative Extension Service agencies, with oversight from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, connect land grant universities to local communities with educational programs that usually focus on agriculture and natural resources, family and consumer sciences and 4-H youth development. With the changing times, the universities and the extension services have also found the need to provide services in areas of community and economic development.

In just a few short years, the Pike County Extension for Fine Arts, a cooperative program of the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, the College of Fine Arts and the Pike County District Board of Cooperative Extension has demonstrated the power of the arts in strengthening communities and the economic benefit they can provide. Pike County Extension Agent for Fine Arts Stephanie Richards, along with an action based 25-member advisory board have been paving an expansive path of success for the arts.

Through community based planning, the Extension Service established Pike Arts as a non-profit organization to develop arts partnerships and deliver quality programming in all art forms. Pikeville, Belfry, Shelby Valley, Phelps and Elkhorn City were identified as geographic anchors to serve every resident of Pike County. Pike Arts successfully incorporates an aggressive arts marketing plan, a collaborative program to assist Pike County schools in arts implementation across the curriculum and active partnerships and collaborations with the Pike County Artisan Center, Artists Collaborative Theatre, the Pikeville Medical Center, Pike County Homeless Shelter, local media and area churches.

Pike County Extension for Fine Arts and Pike County Schools collaborated to form the Pike Arts Cooperative Extension initiative, which enhances the resources available to advance the creative arts in every school, for every child. The initiative has established a professional development plan to make a noticeable difference in day-to-day learning, improve testing scores and utilize the arts across the curriculum. An arts and humanities resource library is available to educators and opportunities were created for students to create artwork for patient rooms at Pikeville Medical Center.

Pike Arts was instrumental in opening the Pike County Artisan Center in May, 2006 which encourages all artistic endeavors with classes, performances and a revolving visual art exhibit highlighting a different local artist each month. It has also worked with the Artist Collaborative Theatre, home of the highly successful Kentucky Women’s Playwright Festival, in its capital campaign to raise funds to complete the construction of a 5,000 square feet, 120-seat black box theatre in Elkhorn City. Pike Arts has also focused on the needs of the medical community by providing innovative programs at the Pikeville Medical Center. Some of the highlights have been art exhibits, journaling classes, ballroom dance lessons and play productions.

The Pike County Extension for Fine Arts has been the organizing force to bring an already arts-rich county together to improve the quality of life for its residents, strengthen community ties and leverage the arts’ potential to enhance the area’s economy.

Previous recipients: Senator David Karem, Mayor Scotty Baesler, Representative Jody Richards, Congressman Ron Mazzoli, Representative Harry Moberly, Sue Larison, Louisville Regional Airport Authority, Senator Wendell Ford, Mammoth Cave National Park, Mayor Pam Miller, Secretary Ann R. Latta, Center for Economic Development, Entrepreneurship & Technology, City of Paducah Artist Relocation Program, City of Berea, the Hindman/Knott County Community Development Initiative and The Governor's School for the Arts.