ABOUT US
MISSION:
To educate and serve the community through the promotion and preservation of traditional folkways, contemporary craft and fine art. To support economic development by assisting the area to grow through cultural tourism opportunities.

HISTORY:
The Appalachian Arts Center is located in Tazewell County, Virginia. Just three miles north of the main campus of Southwest Virginia Community College, the Arts Center is housed in the Old Archie Helton Store. Locals have fond memories of “Archie’s place” which opened in 1948 as a general store selling everything from hams to milk to eggs to razor blades. According to Clyde Helton, Archie’s son (who still lives next door and grew up helping out at the family store), the Archie Helton Store functioned as a natural community gathering place: stories were swapped in the back room as locals sat around the pot bellied stove in winter; in summer folks would sit on the long covered front porch and watch cars go by on Route 19 when it was just a two lane road. According to many, if Archie didn’t have it, he would find it! By the 1970’s the Archie Helton Store had become THE place to buy western wear. Towers of jeans piled atop tables rose nearly up to the ceiling, and many remember purchasing their first pair of cowboy boots at the store, or just coming in to cool off with a bottle of pop. Southwest Virginia Community College acquired the building in 1988, renovated the space and opened it as the Appalachian Arts Center in the spring of 2006.

TODAY:
The Appalachian Arts Center is a showplace and retail space that celebrates the culture and heritage of the region through the exhibition of locally made craft and fine art.

The Appalachian Arts Center houses a rotating gallery space featuring regional artists and hosts educational workshops, demonstrations, professional development seminars and craft courses. A new classroom and photographic documentation area was completed in the summer of 2007.