The School of Media & Communication is proud to announce the opening of the latest exhibition Feels Like Home: Williamsburg, Whitley County, Kentucky at the Gallery in Jody Richards Hall.

JRH Gallery Through February 21

• M-W: 9:00 am – 7:00 pm
• TH-F: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
• Gallery is closed when WKU is closed.

In the Southeast corner of Kentucky near Tennessee and Virginia, Whitley County is a mountain landscape sliced by Interstate 75 and the Cumberland River. The city of Corbin is on the north end and Williamsburg, the county seat and home to the University of the Cumberlands, lies in the center. This is an Appalachian community with a rich past where friendly, hard-working people are trying to figure out their future.

“This is my community, this is my people and this is what is important to me,” local resident Laurel West said. “It feels like home; it’s good people here and that makes a difference.”

Directed by Western Kentucky University’s Visual Journalism & Photography program, 77 student and professional photographers and videographers from around the nation, along with a staff of nearly 60 educators, editors and assistants, spent the last week of October 2024 capturing the stories of this distinctive American community.

“You need a little swagger,” Williamsburg Mayor Roddy Harrison said. “Larger cities might have more swagger, but we can swag with the best of them. You have to see our community to understand our community.”

Come and see the swagger now through February 21 on the campus of WKU at Jody Richards Hall.