Breweries often serve as a catalyst for revitalization and community development, but they are also small businesses operated by individual entrepreneurs. Collaboration within the industry is common, but collaboration on regional tourism marketing is not. With this project, UNC Greensboro partners from the University Libraries (Well Crafted NC) and the Bryan School of Business and Economics will work with the Triad Brewers Alliance and its members to preserve their history, develop their stories, and build a regional marketing plan promoting the Triad as a craft beer destination based on those stories.

This three year project is funded by a 2019 Community-Engaged Pathways and Partnerships Collective Scholarship Fellows Award from the UNC Greensboro Institute for Community and Economic Engagement.

Beer history is American history. It's a story of community engagement, entrepreneurship, community building, and cultural change. Crawling the sites of craft breweries across the United States will capture a snapshot of the range of breweries, the changing landscape of American brewing, and the ways in which these breweries are affecting and being affected by their communities.

Beer bloggers and writers are a crucial part of the brewing industry as they connect brewers and consumers, yet there is no systematic collection of these blogs. Beer blogs demonstrate changes in the production and marketing side of an American industry that is today in a massive boom period. By archiving the work of the beer bloggers and writers who are documenting this industry and the changes taking place within it, we can better understand how the beer and brewing industry is evolving over time.

These two projects are both funded through in-kind awards from Archive-It as part of their first ever "Pitch a Collection" competition, and awarded to Erin Lawrimore on behalf of Well Crafted NC and the Brewing History Consortium.

Documenting Women in the NC Craft Beer Industry features a series of oral history interviews with women brewers and brewery owners in North Carolina. This project ensures that the voices of the women in the industry are heard, that their stories are recorded in their own words, and that they are included as a vital piece of the history of beer and brewing in our state.

This project is funded by a 2018 Faculty First Award from UNC Greensboro, and awarded to Erin Lawrimore.