Thank you to everyone who joined us for Appalshop's 23rd annual Seedtime on the Cumberland on June 11-13. Seedtime involved some 775 participants during its June 11 through June 13 run in Whitesburg, drew together participants from Italy, Illinois, Virginia, West Virginia, Mississippi, Minnesota, North Carolina, Indonesia, Tennessee, Indiana, Georgia, Missouri, Wisconsin, California, Ohio, and Kentucky.

Using a formula developed by Appalachian State University for MerleFest, Seedtime organizers calculated a local economic impact of $177,300 from Seedtime. Data from interviews with 37 festival participants indicated that they attended an average of two days of the festival and spent one and a quarter nights in Letcher County. Not counting tickets, the average Seedtime attendee spent $118 in Letcher.

A happy gathering of more than 200 people for John McCutcheon and the Carcassonne Square Dance at on Saturday the 13th capped this year's festival, which celebrated Appalshop's 40 years with performances and workshops by June Appal Recordings artists as well as many friends and colleagues that have enriched our work in education, media, arts, and regional culture. Seedtime 2010, also part of Appalshop's 40th anniversary celebration, is scheduled for June 10 through 12.

For more about Seedtime please visit the festival website at appalshop.org/seedtime.

Four Appalshop board members, Caron Atlas, Dee Davis, Carlton Turner, and Roadside Theater's Dudley Cocke joined a group of grass-roots activists representing arts, environmental and social justice organizations who met on May 13 with White House officials to discuss how they could collaborate with the administration on its economic recovery and general policy plans.

Appalshop collaborator Liz Lerman described the meeting of artists and administration officials as "a think tank ... [that] tried to make personal connections."

Read more at washingtonpost.com