Art of the Rural
Podcast Description
The Art of the Rural podcast highlights the work of individuals & organizations across rural America & Indian Country. Join us for conversations expressing visions and futures across the wide field of non-urban art, culture, and community.Founded in 2010, Art of the Rural is a collaborative arts non-profit organization that works to resource artists & culture bearers to build the field, change narratives, and bridge divides. Learn more and support our work at artoftherural.org
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast embraces a wide range of topics focused on rural arts, community development, and cultural narratives, exemplified by episodes such as Faye Dant's exploration of Black history in Hannibal, MO, and discussions on the impact of art in non-urban settings. Themes like cross-cultural understanding, historical preservation, and community empowerment are prevalent throughout the series.
The Art of the Rural podcast highlights the work of individuals & organizations across rural America & Indian Country. Join us for conversations expressing visions and futures across the wide field of non-urban art, culture, and community.
Founded in 2010, Art of the Rural is a collaborative arts non-profit organization that works to resource artists & culture bearers to build the field, change narratives, and bridge divides. Learn more and support our work at artoftherural.org
On this episode, meet Brian Harnetty, an interdisciplinary sound artist, composer, and author.
Brian is known for his archival recording projects, socially-engaged works, sound & video installations, live performances, and writings, including his book, Noisy Memory: Recording Sound, Performing Archives (University of North Carolina Press, 2025).
Brian works with sound archives and the communities connected to them, creating projects that are centered on place and listening. This conversation dwells on many of these projects, including his recent recording Words and Silences, which is a musical portrait of Kentucky monk and writer Thomas Merton that combines archival recordings of Merton's voice with newly composed music.
Since 2010, many of Harnetty’s projects have brought together myth, history, ecology, and economy in Appalachian Ohio, informed by his family's roots there. Brian has released 10 albums and EPs, and his installations have been exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally. He is a recipient of the Creative Capital Award, two Map Fund awards, and the Blade of Grass Fellowship for Socially-Engaged Art, among many other honors.
Resources
- Episode transcript
- Episode webpage
- From Brian:
- Brian's website
- Sound is Magic Substack & podcast
- Noisy Memory: Recording Sound, Performing Archives (University of North Carolina Press, 2025)
- Shawnee, Ohio(2021)
- Words and Silences (2022)
- The Workbench (2024)
- Lewis Hyde, The Gift (1983)
- Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance (2024)
- Mallory Catlett & Aaron Landsman, The City We Make Together (2022)
We are grateful to folks across the country who have made tax-deductible contributions to Art of the Rural to make this conversation possible, and to the Ford Foundation and Good Chaos Foundation for their support of Art of the Rural’s media programs.
Disclaimer
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