Hip Hop Artist Ekknowledge performs during a folk arts showcase at the Little Loomhouse during KY RUX 2023. Photo credit: M. Tyler McDaniel.
The Rural-Urban Exchange (RUX) was founded in Kentucky in 2014 by Savannah Barrett and Josh May as a partnership of Art of the Rural and Appalshop. RUX is guided by our core values, and is supported by a distributed leadership structure through a statewide Steering Committee and dozens of local, regional, and statewide partners.
In Kentucky, RUX has hosted eight cohorts in 25 community intensives across 16 host communities. After a two-year learning exchange and technical assistance process between Kentuckians and Minnesotans, MN RUX was launched in 2022 and has been hosted in St. Paul, Mahnomen County, Winona County, and across the White Earth Nation.
The RUX network now includes 300 Kentuckians from 65 counties and 32 Minnesotans from 16 counties and Native Nations. These alumni are artists, educators, farmers, attorneys, factory workers, bankers, nurses, elected officials, small business owners, retirees, and more. RUX connects them through a network of deep relationships that bridges cultures, expands social capital, and unites diverse leaders towards a common vision.
RUX is grateful for ongoing support from Appalshop, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the National Endowment for the Arts, Kentucky Arts Council, Kentucky Folklife Program, Kentucky Foundation for Women, The Greater Clark Foundation, Marilyn & William Young Foundation, and Owensboro Health.
Meet KY RUX's 2024 microgrant recipients from the Artists Respond and Intercultural Microgrant programs.
Hear from 10 years of Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange alumni, partners, and supporters, and learn about this nationally celebrated program's approach and impact.
From the Rural-Urban Exchange and Bridging Network, read this field scan of civic innovation across Kentucky.
Check out this feature in The New York Times about the Rural-Urban Exchange and bipartisan division.
External website for the Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange (KY RUX), including blog updates and announcements about the program, cohort, and upcoming events & opportunities.
External website for the Minnesota Rural-Urban Exchange (MN RUX), including information about the program, cohort, and upcoming events & opportunities.
Hear about the program from our cohort members from throughout RUX's first decade.
A guide to the RUX approach and results in bridging difference & distance across the state of Kentucky.
An overview of MN RUX’s first year and first cohort, with two Community Intensives in Rondo and Frogtown in St. Paul, and in Mahnomen and the White Earth Nation.
A statewide film series celebrating racial justice actions in rural Kentucky.
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