First Hand: Creative Placemaking At MidMountain
Creative Director Betsy Podsiadlo reflects on her weekend spent reclaiming Appalachian murder ballads and the importance of creative spaces in collectivized art making.
By Betsy Podsiadlo | 6/1/24
Over the last few months, River Peterson and I have been working together to plan, fund, and develop an arts and music festival at MidMountain Arts Retreat in Natural Bridge, VA. The festival will explore the impacts of Appalachian folk traditions imbued with tales of domestic violence while working to raise awareness, fundraise for action, and artistically avenge these storied deaths through song and a zine (that you can submit to, but more on that later). We are grateful for the support from the MidAtlantic Arts Central Appalachian Living Traditions grant.
River is the Curator and Executive Director of MidMountain and has infused every room with their interdisciplinary spirit and penchant for social justice action. Their passion for arts activism and know-how combined with MidMountain’s spacious, historic farmhouse invites artists who retreat there to expand their vision of what art can do.
My experience at MidMountain over Memorial Day Weekend left me filled with hope and inspiration. After developing a business relationship and friendship with River online, we were able to bring our artistry and connection to life IRL, so to speak, always a triumph in my book.
My days were spent noodling with my various instruments on the patio, drinking coffee and watching the clouds move over the mountains, rehearsing for a new show with River, and making pasta salad to be shared at the communal meals.
Each person at the house that weekend took up tasks that needed to be done, as collectivity is central to the values of those hosted there. Later in the evening on Saturday, MidMountain hosted film screenings of music videos created by a past participant and two climate change documentary films focusing on the Appalachian region. We all took turns discussing the beauty and power of these films, sharing our ideas about the environmental crisis, and sharing the experience of feeling further activated on this issue.
As the weekend continued, I spent time perusing the gallery spaces. After examining a carefully crafted possum mask made for a POWHR coalition protest, I began to understand more and more what MidMountain is truly best at: creative place-making for arts activists.
“It’s deeply important to share time and space for people to come together to imagine more inclusive futures because envisioning those futures is the first step towards creating them,” River said when asked to speak on MidMountain as a space for arts activism.
In my short time at MidMountain, I was able to build connections with other artists, dream about my own art and values combining to do good in the world, and work towards a project that explores topics I truly care about. After the weekend, I found myself wondering when I could return and what projects I could bring to this respite in the mountains. But most importantly I reveled in the fact that space and time were set aside for us all to engage with art and the issues we care about deeply.
I believe the first step in being able to create anything is having a place to do so. Whether that’s shifting your mindset and workload to develop more bandwidth for an artistic practice or quite literally needing a physical space to create your work, having a place is an obstacle that keeps many of us in the liminal space of will they/won’t they with our artistic practices.
To that end, I ask you, how can you be your own creative placemaker? What spaces do you feel comfortable creating art in, what makes those spaces feel comfortable? How does having safety in a space empower you to create art that speaks to your truth and values?
My experience at MidMountain helped me reconnect with passion and inspiration in the context of my values. I’m excited to return and continue to allow myself to be devoted to my artistic practice in such a special and important place.
To learn more about the project to reclaim Appalachian murder ballads or provide support, visit the MidMountain website.