Payne Hollow on the Ohio is pleased to offer its inaugural Payne Hollow Symposium, which will take place at Hanover College and the surrounding communities of Hanover, Madison, Milton, and Bedford from October 9-11, 2026.
Our theme this year is “Drifting Forward.” In his lyrical book about his friends, Harlan and Anna Hubbard, the celebrated author Wendell Berry writes:
“One cannot drift with intention - or, at least, in intending to drift and in drifting, one must accept a severe limitation on one’s intentions. But in giving oneself to the currents, in thus subordinating one’s intentions, one becomes eligible for unintended goods, unwished - for gifts - and often these goods and gifts surpass those that one had intended or wished for.”
The Hubbards were, for Berry, the perfect example of people who learned to give themselves over to their beloved Ohio River and, in doing so, reaped many unintended or surprising gifts.
In a similar way, as the organization that now cares for the historic Trimble County, Kentucky home and land of the Hubbards, Payne Hollow on the Ohio is exploring the unexpected ways the Hubbard legacy continues to unfold. We believe there are countless ways to inspire new and energetic advocates for the Ohio River Valley’s people, cultures, and environment.
At this 2026 Symposium, we hope that scholars, students, scientists, creatives, and community members will consider what it means to them to “drift forward” in such a way. How can we, like the Hubbards, learn from the stream of time and carry the ideas of creativity, curiosity, and stewardship into a bright and bountiful future?
DAY ONE - Friday, October 9, 2026
9 AM - 10 AM
Historic Marker Dedication @ 11 Cooper’s Bottom Road, Milton, Kentucky
Celebrate Trimble County’s fifth State historic marker, awarded by the Kentucky Historical Society, which is dedicated to the lives and legacy of Harlan and Anna Hubbard at Payne Hollow. Visitors are encouraged to walk to the dedication ceremony via the Anna and Harlan Hubbard Memorial Walkway, across the bridge from Madison, Indiana to Milton. Parking is also available near the marker site.
10 AM - 12 PM
Hubbard Art Trolley Tour @ Farmers Bank of Milton, 41 Ferry Street, Milton, Kentucky
Get to know Harlan Hubbard’s artwork in the area, including publicly available murals and paintings in a major private collection. This driving tour, led by Corey Beatty, will begin directly following the State historic marker dedication in downtown Milton, stopping at the Farmers Bank of Milton, the Mt. Byrd Christian Church, the Milton Baptist Church, the Bedford Loan and Deposit Bank, and the private collection of Bob and Charlotte Canida in downtown Madison, Indiana. The ADA-accessible trolley, provided by Visit Madison, has limited seating, so additional registration and an add-on is required for this event.
1 PM - 3 PM
“Paint Like Harlan” Watercolor Workshop @ 361 Rodgers Road, Milton, Kentucky
Join Tracy Barnes for this beginner-friendly watercolor class. Attendees will learn basic watercolor techniques and apply them to the unique and beautiful way Harlan Hubbard used watercolor to capture his beloved Ohio River Valley landscapes. All materials are provided for registrants. This event has limited seating, so additional registration and an add-on fee of $20 is required for this event.
1 PM - 4 PM
Payne Hollow History Harvest @ Trimble County Public Library, 35 Equity Drive, Bedford, Kentucky
Do you have stories about Harlan and Anna Hubbard, Paul Hassfurder, or Payne Hollow that you would like to share with future generations? Stop by the Trimble County Public Library’s oral history recording center and record your thoughts and memories. No registration required.
Shantyboat Visits with Wes Modes and “Dotty” @ Madison Waterfront
Explore Wes Modes’ handbuilt, Hubbard-inspired shantyboat, “Dotty,” and talk with him about his ongoing work to preserve and understand contemporary American river culture, as compiled in his innovative Secret History of American River People. Learn more about Modes’ work here. No registration required.
Payne Hollow Open House @ 361 Rodgers Road, Milton, Kentucky
Visitors are invited to explore the landscape, structures, and history that Harlan and Anna Hubbard called home at Payne Hollow. At the Payne Hollow trailhead, view historic artifacts from the Payne Hollow on the Ohio, Behringer-Crawford Museum, and Filson Historical Society collections, with opportunities to ask questions from historians and curators who care for and interpret them. Docents are also available to orient and guide visitors on the hike to the historic Hubbard homestead. Enjoy the beauty and wild character of Payne Hollow that has inspired countless visitors for generations. This event has limited space, so additional registration is required for this event (at no charge, first-come, first-serve).
6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Opening Reception @ Lobby, Center for the Fine Arts (CFA), Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana
Enjoy heavy appetizers and a cash bar during Friday evening’s Symposium check-in. Registrants can mingle, hear traditional folk music performed by Wes and Donna Griffin, take in the Driftwood: The Life of Harlan Hubbard panel exhibit, and browse books and other merchandise from Payne Hollow on the Ohio, the Berry Center Bookstore, and composer Daniel Gilliam.
7:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Welcome and Performance @ Recital Hall, Center for the Fine Arts (CFA), Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana
Hear welcoming remarks from Payne Hollow on the Ohio and Hanover College before the Indiana premiere of Daniel Gilliam’s Piano Trio No. 2: “Payne Hollow.” This arresting piece of classical music inspired by the lives of Harlan and Anna Hubbard at Payne Hollow will be performed by Cecilia Huerta-Lauf (cello), Sara Callaway (violin), and Andrew Fleischman (cello) of the NouLou Chamber Players. A previous recording of the piano trio will be available for purchase on Vinyl and CD at the opening reception or can be ordered here.
DAY TWO - Saturday, October 10, 2026
8 AM - 8:30 AM
Check-in and Refreshments @ Lobby, Center for the Fine Arts (CFA), Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana
Enjoy a continental breakfast during Symposium check-in. Registrants can mingle, take in the Driftwood: The Life of Harlan Hubbard panel exhibit, and browse merchandise and information from Payne Hollow on the Ohio.
8:30 AM - 10:30 AM
Plenary Sessions @ Recital Hall, Center for the Fine Arts (CFA), Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana
(These sessions are intended to be experienced by all registrants and will help set the tone and themes for the day of learning.)
PLENARY A(8:30-9 AM): “The Hollow Across the River: Harlan and Anna Hubbard and Payne Hollow”
Jessica K. Whitehead, Founding board member of Payne Hollow on the Ohio and author of Driftwood: The Life of Harlan Hubbard (2025)
Learn about the unique connection shared between Harlan and Anna Hubbard’s home at Payne Hollow and the campus, staff, students, and faculty of Hanover College through the years.
PLENARY B (9-9:45 AM): “Place, Resonance, and Meaning: Looking Forward and Back from an Algorithmic Age”
Dr. Patrick Lewis, President and CEO of The Filson Historical Society
Cratering intersocial connections, crumbling institutions, and algorithmically stoked despair confront us at every turn. Yet seeds of hope are sprouting in new institutional collaborations and commitments that take inspiration from the Hubbards, Wendell Berry, and others to undertake the sophisticated contemporary work of repairing frayed fabrics of community and meaning.
PLENARY C (9:45-10:30 AM): “Drifting Forward: Harlan Hubbard, Payne Hollow, and the Ohio River”
Dr. David Wicks,Chairman of Payne Hollow on the Ohio
Susan Griffin Ward, Board member of Payne Hollow on the Ohio and representative of Kentucky Waterways Alliance
Explore Harlan Hubbard’s art, writing, and philosophy as a lens for the Ohio River, tracing how the Hubbard ethic of ecological attentiveness can and should continue to shape the region’s identity. The discussion will connect the Hubbard legacy of Payne Hollow with current river initiatives related to recreation, interpretation, and ecological restoration.
10:30 AM - 10:45 AM
Break @ CFA
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM
Breakout Session @ CFA Classroom 107
SESSION A (10:45-11:45 AM): “Aunt Anna and Uncle Harlan”
The Bartnick Family, relatives of Anna Wonder Eikenhout Hubbard
Understand the legacy of Harlan and Anna Hubbard through the eyes of those who knew them best: their family. Join members of Anna Hubbard’s Bartnick descendants as they share intimate family stories, photos, and artifacts related to this influential couple. The presentation will especially illuminate the upbringing, relationships, and character of Anna Hubbard.
Breakout Sessions @ CFA Classroom 138
SESSION B (10:45-11:15 AM): “Toward Official Recognition: Nominating Payne Hollow to the National Register of Historic Places”
Dr. Daniel Vivian, Associate Professor, Department of Historic Preservation, University of Kentucky
This session will describe the process of preparing a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places for Payne Hollow. During the Fall 2025 semester, students in Professor Daniel Vivian’s “National Register and Local Landmark Nominations” course at the University of Kentucky conducted research on Harlan and Anna Hubbard and Payne Hollow. They also collected information about the landscape and buildings of Payne Hollow, later compiling the data to prepare a National Register nomination for the site currently under review by the Kentucky Heritage Council. The session will discuss the main components of the nomination and the historical arguments it makes. It will also summarize the results of listing and explain how the nomination may assist with the long-term management and interpretation of Payne Hollow.
SESSION C (11:15-11:45 AM): “Of the River, Worthy Work, and the Collection of Old-Timers”
William Ray
This is a session about what it is to be part of an unbroken thread—about how seeking out co-called “old-timers” brings enrichment and understanding of a tradition and place. William Ray discusses how this exploration has played out in his life, encouraging him to champion the importance of multi-generational sharing as it relates to a sense of place and strong community in the Ohio Valley. Using examples of his own experiences, as well as poetry of the region to offer context and beauty, this presentation reinforces Harlan Hubbard’s words that there is much to be found in “comrades, in farmers and laborers, and those who live on the fringe of society,” in whom he found “faith, health, loving-kindness and peace.” Ray indicates how this can still be found in our river valley today.
11:45 PM - 12:15 PM
Boxed Lunch Pick-Up @ Lobby, Center for the Fine Arts (CFA), Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
Breakout Session @ CFA Classroom 107
SESSION D (12:15-1:15 PM): “Anna and Harlan, Monastery of Two”
Morgan C. Atkinson, Filmmaker and creator of Wonder: The Lives of Anna and Harlan Hubbard
In producing varied documentaries over the past 40+ years, Morgan Atkinson has had the opportunity to observe and record life at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky as well as Redwoods Monastery in northern California. This experience deepened his appreciation for the monastic way of life, as well as the monks who embrace it. In studying the lives of Harlan and Anna Hubbard, Atkinson recognized striking similarities to the ways life at Payne Hollow intersected with monastic culture. Both monks and the Hubbards lived on the margins of mainstream culture—not shunning the world, but rather enriching modern society by their unique perspective on it. The presentation will explore some of these similarities, using concepts of sublimity to unpack the intentional and well-examined life of Harlan and Anna Hubbard.
Breakout Sessions @ CFA Classroom 138
SESSION E (12:15-12:45 PM): “Driftwood, the Hubbards, and Education: Establishing a Legacy in the Next Generation”
Dr. Mark Tarpley, Director and Senior Fellow, Trinity Hall
Cultures throughout history have understood that bright and bountiful futures cannot exist apart from the proper education of youth, for it is in the lived lives of the next generation that a legacy lives on. In the case of the Hubbards, we are left with the difficult question: “How will their legacy be woven into the fabric of the education of our youth today?” The formation of river driftwood, itself, can reveal the answer. Driftwood, just like a lived legacy in the lives of the next generations, takes patience and time to be formed. There are no short cuts. Within this context, Dr. Mark Tarpley offers reflections on his experience of bringing the Hubbard legacy into his high-school classroom in Texas. The presentation meditates on the importance of the Hubbard example in the education of young people.
SESSION F (12:45-1:15 PM): “Through My Lens: Living Close to the River”
Melissa Burkhardt, Photographer
Through photographs taken while living along the Ohio River, Melissa Burkhardt explores the quiet rhythms of river life, morning light, changing seasons, farms, towns, wildlife, flooding, and the small details often overlooked in everyday life. After marrying and raising her children on a farm just around the river bend from Harlan and Anna Hubbard’s homestead at Payne Hollow, Burkhardt now uses photography to reflect on how living close to the land and water shapes the way we see, notice, and understand the world around us.
1:15 - 1:30 PM
Break @ CFA
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
Breakout Session @ CFA Classroom 107
SESSION G (1:30-2:30 PM): “Listening to Place: What the Ohio River Taught America to Hear”
John Schlipp, Small Business & Career Navigator Librarian, Kenton County Public Library
Before music could be recorded, broadcast, or streamed, it existed only where people gathered—along riverbanks, in homes and churches, on riverboats, and in communal worship spaces. This presentation explores the Ohio River as a living cultural and musical corridor, where diverse traditions met, overlapped, and evolved through attentive listening and shared experience. Drawing on regional research into Indigenous sound traditions, Shaker sacred music, African American spiritual and labor songs, and immigrant religious and vernacular music, the session frames the river not as a boundary but as a sonic highway—one that shaped how Americans learned to sing, move, worship, and listen. The presentation aligns closely with Payne Hollow’s focus on place, attentiveness, and vernacular creativity, treating music as lived practice rather than performance spectacle. Rather than presenting a chronological survey, the session invites participants to listen with the river—to consider how sound, rhythm, and communal expression grew directly from the landscape, labor, belief, and restraint.
Breakout Sessions @ CFA Classroom 138
SESSION H (1:30-2 PM): “The Palette and Process of Harlan Hubbard: A Technical Analysis of His Paintings”
Mike Detisch, PhD, Staff Research Assistant, University of Kentucky EduceLab
To understand what characterizes a Harlan Hubbard painting from a material perspective, a selection of paintings from different periods of Harlan’s life are being studied using the tools at UK’s EduceLab Heritage Science research center. Particular colors used in a painting appear the way they do because of the chemistry of the paint itself. Using X-ray fluorescence mapping, the palette of pigments Harlan worked with in his paintings has been studied across his work and career. With specialized photography with UV, visible, and infrared light, pigments and materials can be distinguished, and some hidden materials can be made visible. With this sort of information, new details of the artist’s technique can be brought to light, and future work in provenance and authentication can be compared to these insights for consistency within Harlan’s known habits and process. This presentation elucidates this process and gives early updates of the findings of this groundbreaking study of Hubbard artwork.
SESSION I (2-2:30 PM): “Visitors: A Screening”
Evan Sennett, PhD, Photographer
Anna and Harlan Hubbard lived “on the fringe of society” and welcomed many visitors to their home, deep in the woods of Payne Hollow, Kentucky, where they created art together for nearly half a century. Now, you are invited to pay them a visit through Evan Sennett’s new film, Visitors. Just as their home rejected modern conveniences, this short documentary chronicles the lives of the Hubbards without the aid of electricity—just a hand-wound 16mm camera documenting the world in all four seasons: sun, rain, and snow. This film combines new interviews (including Kentucky luminary Wendell Berry), and archival audio (some of which is being presented publicly for the first time, including rare recordings of Anna and Harlan playing music togethe
2:30 PM - 2:45 PM
Break @ CFA
2:45 PM - 3:45 PM
Breakout Session @ CFA Classroom 107
SESSION J (2:45-3:45 PM): “Listening at the Waterline: Shantyboats and America’s Contested Rivers”
Wes Modes, Artist and Educator
This presentation draws on twelve years of river fieldwork conducted from a hand-built shantyboat as part of A Secret History of American River People. Artist and educator Wes Modes examines the overlooked histories of shantyboaters, squatters, and other river communities who lived at the social and economic margins, often leaving little trace in official archives. Framing listening as a way of knowing, the talk explores the river as contested space: a site of Indigenous removal, working-class refuge, urban clearance, environmental change, and ongoing displacement. Bringing together oral history, artistic practice, and embodied travel, the presentation asks how we might recover histories that survive less in documents than stories, memory, and place.
Breakout Session @ CFA Classroom 138
SESSION K (2:45-3:45 PM): “The Ohio River Watershed and the Making of America”
Paul A. Tenkotte, PhD, Professor of History, Northern Kentucky University
This presentation explores how the vast 204,000 square mile Ohio River basin has shaped national history—and why its story has too often been fragmented, overlooked, or misinterpreted. Drawing on the work of ORVILLE (the Ohio River Valley Innovation Library and Learning Engagement Project), this session invites participants to “drift forward” by reimagining the watershed as a unified region whose people, ideas, and innovations have profoundly influenced the United States. Like Harlan and Anna Hubbard, who embraced the river’s currents to discover unexpected gifts, we too can learn from the flow of time, place, and community. Attendees will discover new open access resources, collaborative opportunities, and ways to participate in a growing interdisciplinary effort to tell the watershed’s full story—one that honors creativity, curiosity, and stewardship across the Ohio Valley.
3:45 PM - 4 PM
Break @ CFA
4 PM - 5 PM
Breakout Session @ Recital Hall, Center for the Fine Arts (CFA), Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana
SESSION L (4-5 PM): “Practical Applications of Historic Preservation: the Belle of Louisville and the Howard Steamboat Museum”
Travis Vasconcelos, Director and Curator of the Howard Steamboat Museum
Mike Fitzgerald, Captain and Former Master, Carpenter, and Executive Director on the Belle of Louisville
Kenny Howe, FormerChief Engineer on the Belle of Louisville
Stephen Settles, Engineer, the Belle of Louisville
The participants in this discussion all have to tackle unique and nuanced historic preservation challenges in their day-to-day work. This session aims to illustrate broad ideas regarding preservation and operation, using examples from the Belle of Louisville riverboat and the Howard Steamboat Museum. Like Payne Hollow, these organizations share a common mission: to preserve historic properties while also making them accessible to the general public. Understand, through this broad discussion, how these organizations are rising to the challenges of their missions.
Talkback Session @ CFA Classroom 107
SESSION M (4-5 PM): “The Future of Payne Hollow: Thinking Big from the Simple Ideas of the Hubbards”
Dr. David Wicks, Payne Hollow on the Ohio Chair
Payne Hollow on the Ohio has made major progress preserving the land, structures, artifacts, and legacy of Harlan and Anna Hubbard. This interactive session invites participants to help imagine the short-, medium-, and long-term future of Payne Hollow’s programs, partnerships, visitor experience, and ultimate purpose.
5 PM - 5:30 PM
Exhibit Unveiling @ Duggan Library, Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana
Join members of Hanover College’s Archives & Special Collections, Payne Hollow on the Ohio, and the Filson Historical Society as they officially open a refreshed installation of the College’s collection of Harlan Hubbard’s artwork. The exhibit, “Like the Driftwood: The Hubbard Collection at Hanover College,” uses this important collection of artwork to illuminate the unique and formative relationship between the Hubbards, Hanover College, and the surrounding communities. Brief remarks will accompany the opening, and the exhibit will be open to the public moving forward.
5:30 PM - 6:30 PM
Closing Reception @ Lobby, Center for the Fine Arts (CFA), Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana
Enjoy heavy appetizers and a cash bar during Friday evening’s Symposium check-in. Registrants can mingle, take in the Driftwood: The Life of Harlan Hubbard panel exhibit, and browse merchandise from Payne Hollow on the Ohio.
6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Closing Remarks and Performance @ Recital Hall, Center for the Fine Arts (CFA), Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana
Hear closing remarks from Payne Hollow on the Ohio and enjoy a very special performance by celebrated Kentucky musician and river advocate Bonny “Prince” Billy (Will Oldham and accompanying musicians) to close out the formal programming of the Symposium.
DAY THREE - Sunday, October 11, 2026
9 AM - 11 AM
Frottage Workshop with Al Gorman @ 361 Rodgers Road, Milton, Kentucky
Join artist and educator Al Gorman as he leads a workshop in “frottage,” or artistic “rubbings,” using found and created materials from and inspired by the Ohio River landscape and Payne Hollow. Attendees will understand the long-standing practice of documenting history and place through taking rubbings, gaining special insight into the landscape and material surroundings of Payne Hollow and Harlan and Anna Hubbard. This event has limited space, soadditional registration and an add-on fee of $20 is required for this event.
9 AM - 2 PM
Payne Hollow Open House @ 361 Rodgers Road, Milton, Kentucky
Visitors are invited to explore the landscape, structures, and history that Harlan and Anna Hubbard called home at Payne Hollow. At the Payne Hollow trailhead, view historic artifacts from the Payne Hollow on the Ohio, Behringer-Crawford Museum, and Filson Historical Society collections, with opportunities to ask questions from historians and curators who care for and interpret them. Docents are also available to orient and guide visitors on the hike to the historic Hubbard homestead. Enjoy the beauty and wild character of Payne Hollow that has inspired countless visitors for generations. This event has limited space, so additional registration is required for this event (at no charge, first-come, first-serve).
10 AM - 2 PM
Shantyboat Visits with Wes Modes and “Dotty” @ Madison Waterfront
Explore Wes Modes’ handbuilt, Hubbard-inspired shantyboat, “Dotty,” and talk with him about his ongoing work to preserve and understand contemporary American river culture, as compiled in his innovative Secret History of American River People. Learn more about Modes’ work here. No registration required.
12 PM - 2 PM
“Paint Like Harlan” Watercolor Workshop @ 361 Rodgers Road, Milton, Kentucky
Join Tracy Barnes for this beginner-friendly watercolor class. Attendees will learn basic watercolor techniques and apply them to the unique and beautiful way Harlan Hubbard used watercolor to capture his beloved Ohio River Valley landscapes. All materials are provided for registrants. This event has limited seating, soadditional registration and an add-on fee of $20 is required for this event.
Our official Symposium hotel is the Fairfield by Marriott Inn & Suites Madison, Historic Eagle Cotton Mill. Registrants are offered a special rate of $229/night for the Symposium block, while rooms last. Be sure to make your booking before Tuesday, August 25, 2026. BOOK NOW.
Visit www.paynehollowontheohio.org or join our mailing list to stay on top of the latest news about the Symposium.
Many thanks to our generous sponsors for this event, including:
Gene and Linda Marshall (In memory of Bill Caddell)
Bob and Charlotte Canida
Hanover College
The Filson Historical Society