What makes the place you live different from every other place out there? It’s not the Taco John’s out on the strip. It’s not the dollar store, or the strip mall, or the Starbucks. It’s the red brick commercial buildings around the courthouse square, in so many American communities built in that common pattern. It’s […]
How Authentic Rural Experiences Shape Identity and Belonging
From Storytelling to Slow Craft: How Communities Build Resilience Through Authentic Rural Experiences In small towns and rural communities around the world, the most powerful stories are often the quietest ones. A grandmother teaching her grandson how to make jam from fruit grown on ancestral land. A blacksmith showing a class of fifth graders how […]
The Power of Heritage: Fueling Rural Identity and Growth
September Sneak Preview As we turn the corner into September, we’re pausing to focus on a theme that blends past, present, and future in rural places: the power of heritage tourism. In towns across America, heritage isn’t just what you find in a museum—it’s the main street brickwork, the fall festivals, the oral histories passed […]