The Blue Ridge Collaborative was founded on the belief that truly meaningful change happens when we push beyond the expected.
We are a team of storytellers, producers, and advocates dedicated to funding and producing creative projects that bring these untold stories to light. We believe that arts, culture, and education are powerful forces that can shape our world, and we partner with creators to share vital new narratives.
We collaborate with creators to turn their passion into progress, providing the resources and support to help them realize their vision. We give a platform to unheard voices to spark critical conversations and foster understanding of ourselves, our communities, and our shared world.
Every organization needs a why, and ours is simple. We want to serve the greater good through storytelling, whether it’s a documentary film, a museum exhibit, or a curriculum project that contributes to the public good.
And what is that good? It’s in our vision, our mission, and our values, which capture our abiding sense of purpose at Blue Ridge Collaborative.
A deeper understanding of where we’ve been, who we are, and what our future holds–together.
BRINGING VOICES TO UNTOLD STORIES.
THE POWER OF INCLUSION: KNOWING THAT THE MORE STORIES WE TELL, THE GREATER OUR SHARED STORY BECOMES.
IT's NOT ABOUT US: CENTERING STORIES ON PEOPLE AND PLACES, NOT OURSELVES.
COMMITMENT TO THE NEW AND UNTOLD: AVOIDING THE MAINSTREAM NARRATIVE, WHILE UNCOVERING THE UNTOLD STORIES.
AUTHENTIC STORYTELLING: DOING WORK THAT CONFRONTS HARD TRUTHS, WHILE LIFTING US UP.
BEING TRUE TO OURSELVES: ENGAGING AS A TRUSTWORTHY PARTNER TO THE PEOPLE AND PLACES WHO BECOME THE SUBJECTS OF OUR STORIES AS WELL AS THE CREATIVES WHO TELL THEM.
Photo by Jones Media Company
Our network of creative resources spans virtually every creative discipline and allows us to operate within touchING distance in virtually any part of the country.
FILMMAKING
GRAPHIC DESIGN
WRITING
RESEARCH
WEB AND APP DESIGN
PODCASTING
PUBLISHING
BOOK ART
PUBLIC RELATIONS
ADVERTISING
We provide a multi-dimensional funding platform that helps changemakers fund their vision for groundbreaking work.
GRANTS
CHARITABLE DONATIONS
CROWDFUNDING
CORPORATE SPONSORSHIPS
Blue Ridge Collaborative Founder and Executive Director Annie Newton is a historian and nonprofit leader based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Annie holds a bachelor’s degree in History and Art from Randolph Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia, as well as master’s degrees in Teaching Social Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and History from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. While at VCU, Annie received the university’s Graduate School Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award for her study of television icon Donna Reed and Reed’s role in shaping modern feminism.
She has spent her career working for a pair of nonprofit organizations dedicated to preserving and uncovering histories of geographic regions and specific peoples. As the Development and Program Director at the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough, she led the Governor’s Award-winning Telling the Full Story project, an effort to illuminate the contributions of Black and Indigenous residents and leaders to the history of Hillsborough, North Carolina.
More recently, Annie led groundbreaking work at another NC Triangle-based nonprofit, Indigenous Memories. Part of the America 250 celebration of American History, Common Ground in Orange County takes viewers through a multimedia journey through time to better understand the experiences of Black enslaved and Indigenous people during our nation’s formative years up to the Civil War.
Via documentary films, museum exhibits, or multimedia experiences, Annie is deeply committed to telling the often neglected or buried stories kept out of our mainstream narratives. She believes that everyone’s story is worth telling and centered on their perspective, and that the work of the Blue Ridge Collaborative is to fill in the missing elements of the American mosaic. Annie splits her time between Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, sharing life with her husband, Andrew, and dog, Teddy.
Blue Ridge Collaborative founder Brian Castle is a writer and creative strategist based in Charlotte, North Carolina. He lives a life inspired by his love of music, film, art, dance, and history, as well as an abiding connection with nature.
A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Asheville, Brian is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Parklife, a creative agency and studio that works with entrepreneurs, social innovators, thought leaders, and artists. Brian and his team at Parklife are the creative force behind multiple award-winning projects, from short horror films to multimedia history exhibits focused on the Black and Indigenous experience in the North Carolina Piedmont.
In addition to his work at Parklife, Brian is also an Operating Partner at 2 the Moon Ventures, a boutique venture capital firm in Dallas, Texas. At 2 the Moon Ventures, Brian manages deal flow and the firm’s Strategic Resource Group of advisors across multiple business disciplines.He performs as a fractional Chief Marketing Officer to participating ventures at StartupStage, a global online resource for entrepreneurs.
Brian serves in a number of advisory roles to organizations across the Tar Heel State, including People’s Medical Care and Ensemble LGBTQ+ Entrepreneurial Hub (both based in Raleigh), He also serves in multiple volunteer and advisory roles at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, including the National Alumni Association Board of Directors.A Certified Diversity Executive, Brian resides in Charlotte, North Carolina with his wife, Jeanette, and son, Ezekiel.
Our board of directors doesn’t just govern and give strategic guidance to our professional staff. This group of all-stars pulled from the diverse ranks of nonprofit, academia, and entrepreneurial ventures offers the advice and connections to keep the work of the Blue Ridge Collaborative on-mission and high-impact.
Director
Highland Park, Texas
Secretary
Dallas, Texas
Vice Chair
Durham, North Carolina
Director
Apex, North Carolina
Director
Hillsborough, North Carolina
Chair
Dallas, Texas
Treasurer
Hillsborough, North Carolina
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