Growing appreciation for the Hill Country's architectural heritage and unique rural settings is a strong attraction.

APPALACHIAN CULTURE (CON'T)

Ohio's Hill Country Heritage Program is a new project that hopes to foster effective planning and community development in the state's Appalachian counties by identifying conserving and developing cultural, recreational and economic resources of the state's southeastern region. The Ohio Arts Council is leading the administrative efforts, facilitating the involvement of several other state and local agencies. The Ohio Appalachian Arts Initiative is the only project in Ohio specifically serving Appalachian artists, arts organizations and communities in a 19-county region of Southeastern Ohio; it also is involved in urban Appalachian communities in Dayton and Cincinnati.

The two-year-old Ohio Hill Country Heritage Area Program made its first Community Assistance Awards last October. "The amounts are not large, but the impact is," says Pat Henahan, Ohio Arts Council coordinator for the project. For example, the Muskingum River Parkway will use a $1,000 grant to create an audio-guided tour of a four-county state park that incorporates the only remaining hand-operated lock and dam system in the United States. Other efforts include converting a railroad depot in Haydenville to a local history museum and a statewide effort to identify and document Ohio sites associated with the Underground Railroad.

Development of heritage areas is gaining wide acceptance throughout the country as a way to encourage sustainable community development promote the arts and the unique culture of place, encourage historic preservation, promote travel and tourism, improve transportation and develop outdoor recreation and conservation efforts. There are approximately 150 heritage initiatives nationwide. As part of this effort, OAC has become a member of the National Center for Heritage Development. Programs and projects of the Appalachian Arts Initiative include a traveling cultural exhibition called Perceptions of Home, a directory of Appalachian artists, oral history projects, arts in education artist residencies in the region's schools and sponsorship of heritage festivals and mural projects. Since its inception in 1994, the initiative has served more than 100,000 citizens of Ohio's Appalachia.