It's almost time for LVA Honors & LVA Executive Director Angela Hagan joined us to talk with two of this year's Honorees: Chuck Swanson & Juliet Taylor. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Dr. Angela Hagan became the Executive Director of Louisville Visual Art in September 2024. For over a decade, she worked in leadership functions including development, marketing and communications, and community engagement for nonprofit organizations focused on affordable and fair housing, education, youth development, and art (KMAC Museum) before spending a decade at Louisville-based Fortune 60 health plan Humana, where she led functions and teams in member engagement and community health strategy and insights.

Chuck Swanson is an artist, primarily a painter, but he is also one of the pioneer gallerists in Louisville, having opened a gallery on Bardstown Road in 1982 and then in 1998 on East Market Street in what would eventually become the celebrated NuLu neighborhood. For the record, Swanson opened the space near Market and Clay well ahead of the rechristening of the area, so he must be counted as one of the reasons why the once-neglected and depressed environs became a hot spot for redevelopment.

Juliet Taylor is an interdisciplinary artist working with quilting & wearable art. She was a featured designer in the 2024 KMAC Couture and was a part of the Material Obsessions exhibit in the fall of 2024 at KMAC Museum. Most recently she has worked as the lead fabricator on the SPARK sculpture scheduled to be unveiled on the LVA building in February 2025. Juliet was a student in LVA’s Children’s Fine Art Classes and at DuPont Manual Visual Art Magnet.

Public Radio

Artists Talk with LVA: March 16, 2023

Keith Waits · March 19, 2023

LVA Honors is March 22 and this week we talk with two of the Honorees, Doug DeWeese (Visual Art Educator) & Ceirra Evans (Emerging Artist). Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com at 10 am each Thursday to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Douglas DeWeese was born and raised in Louisville and has taught art in that community for Jefferson County Public Schools for nearly 27 years. Doug earned his Bachelor’s degree in Georgia, a Master of Art in Teaching the visual arts from the University of Louisville, and is a National Board Certified teacher.

He has been a part of the visual art faculty at duPont Manual High School for 21 years where he teaches painting, drawing, and printmaking classes. He has been vital in modernizing and continuing high standards for the visual art magnet program and school, serving on the Admissions Committee, Instructional Leadership Team, Hiring Committee, and former sponsor of the National Art Honor Society at duPont Manual High School.

Ceirra Evans is a Louisville-based painter depicting Appalachia and the working-class southern narrative. Ceirra’s work has been reviewed by Hyperallergic, The New Yorker, and other publications. Her work is exhibited in 21c Louisville and is held in multiple private collections.

Born and raised in Eastern Kentucky, Evans’ body of work depicts scenes directly from her early life in the foothills of the Appalachian region. Her work depicts stories of generational poverty, trauma, rural queerness, and familial relationships. Ceirra’s work uses humor and illustration to sift through the discourse critiquing the region.

Public Radio

Artists Talk with LVA: December 15, 2022

Keith Waits · December 15, 2022

LVA’s The Local Muse will be at the Flea Off Market's Holiday Bazaar at The Henry Clay Building! Saturday, December 17th, & 18th. Featured artist, Katlyn Thompson will have her artworks on display and available for purchase. and we talked with her this week. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

"The subjects of my work can be whimsical in nature and invite the viewer into a brightly colored, dream-like universe. From turtles nesting in clouds to manta rays swimming in moonbeams, the creatures living in this universe are expanded with each piece I create.

I am also a local graduate of DuPont Manual High school in 2013. I went on to earn an Elementary Education degree. I am now a JCPS Art Teacher passionate about working with Elementary students to cultivate a creative, trauma-informed, and equitable culture for our future artists of Louisville."

Visit The Local Muse booth at the Flea Off Market's Holiday Bazaar at The Henry Clay Building! Saturday, December 17th, 11 am-6 pm, and Sunday, December 18th, 11 am-5 pm.

Mixed Media

Vignette: 2021 Academy Outstanding Seniors

Keith Waits · May 10, 2021

“God is the Greatest”, Tarina Henry, duPont Manual

By Keith Waits

How we measure academic development has been a somewhat controversial topic for quite some time now, but when we step into the arts the range of progress can be especially difficult to determine unless you know the student. If we follow a rubric for skills in draughtsmanship or understanding of color it can seem a dry and impersonal method to summarize what is expected to be a highly personal means of expression. These students were recognized in an awards presentation at the Opening Reception for the 2021 Academy at LVA Exhibition:

Academy at LVA student Elaina Render, a senior at duPont Manual, has many still life studies in her portfolio that allow us to track her earnest growth, but it is in her “Poe” that we see the cumulative results. The B&W pen and ink drawing is almost perfectly composed, a cleanly executed graphic illustration that displays a sensibility following in the footsteps of the legendary Edward Gorey.

Elaina was accepted into a whole roster of top schools, and has decided to attend Georgia Institute of Technology.

North Oldham senior Malva Wieck’s pencil study of a wrapped peppermint shows an attention to detail and accomplished comprehension of dimension. The thought of spending a few hours looking intently at a piece of candy might sound like the epitome of boredom, but that patient observation is an instructor’s dream.

In the fall Malva will attend the “school of my dreams”: Amherst College, where she has been awarded significant financial aid and intends to double-major in Environmental Science and Art History.

“Minty Fresh”, Malva Wieck, North Oldham HS

Raegan Coots spent five years in the LVA Children’s Fine Art Classes (CFAC) and four in the Academy, all while staying on the Honor Roll and being consistently recognized for outstanding achievement at Trinity High School. His “Clipper Ship” has the straightforward narrative thrust that places us in the pages of a book; the vessel moving off the edge of the page suggesting a continuing story.

Raegan has been accepted into Indiana University Southeast where he expects to major in Fine Arts with a concentration in Graphic Design.

“Clipper Ship”, Raegan Coots, Trinity HS

In contrast to these first three young artists, Tarina Henry has come to the Academy at LVA in just her last semester before college, but she was clearly busy at the Visual Arts Magnet at duPont Manual and being a Governor’s Scholar. Her “God is the Greatest” is a stunning expression of islamic culture that shows off a very sophisticated use of color.

Tarina has committed to the University of Kentucky’s College of Design for Architecture. She has received a Diversity Scholarship and Provost Scholarship on top of KEES, Federal Pell Grant, and other financial support.

Since 1925, LVA visual art education programs have been not only training the next generations of artists but also building an arts rich education for future leaders in all walks of life. Congratulations to all Academy at LVA seniors!

The 2021 Academy of LVA Exhibition
May 7 - 20

Monday through Thursdays 1 - 4 pm

LVA Gallery
1538 Lytle Street
Louisville, KY 40203
(502) 584-8166

Scroll Down to view more images

“Watermelon Haze”, Tarina Henry, Academy at LVA and duPont Manual student

“Northern Lights”, Malva Wieck, Academy at LVA and North Oldham HS student

“Apple a Day”, Elaina Render, Academy at LVA and duPont Manual student

“Eagle”, Raegan Coots, Academy at LVA and Trinity HS student

Written by Keith Waits.
In addition to his work as Operations Director at the LVA, Keith is also the Managing Editor of a website, Arts-Louisville.com, which covers local visual arts, theatre, and music in Louisville.

Drawing

Feature: 2020 Academy at LVA Senior Recognition

Keith Waits · June 21, 2020

Brendan Taylor - Vision Award - $500 cash scholarship
Elizabeth Hill - Portfolio Award - $75 Preston’s gift card
Megan Smith - Community Award - $50 Preston’s gift card
Claire Vicars - Inspiration Award - $25 Preston’s gift card

The journey from 14 to 18 years of age is a time of discovery and finding one’s self; identity forms but doesn’t ever finish. For artists, it is when the simple pleasure of drawing becomes a vital and intentional means of expression. A newly found focus on medium and technique points to the next level of growth and maturity.

As the greatly disrupted schoolyear came to a close, Louisville Visual Art is pleased to have finished out Academy classes online and is proud to recognize the accomplishments of four Academy Seniors.

Megan Smith graduated from DuPont Manual High School

Because of that interest in identity, self-portraits are common. Megan Smith’s “To The Center” highlights the Pop Art colors of a hard candy sucker in contact with analogously colored lips by allowing the face to remain in black and white. The image balances illusion and reality, surrealism and naturalism, and is striking, simple, declarative, and fun.

Megan will be studying at IUS this fall, majoring in Psychology.

Elizabeth Hill graduated from Corydon Central High School

Elizabeth Hill explores the fundamental relationship of structure in nature and how humankind has followed it in design and architecture. Every child anthropomorphizes their toys, seeing a giraffe in every crane, and an elephant or rhinoceros in every earthmover, because their perception remains intuitive. If the observation that adult artists are often trying to reconnect with the innocent perspective of childhood, The playful hybrids seen here suggest that Elizabeth hasn’t yet lost that vital connection, combining a solid design foundation with a fine conceptual wit.

Elizabeth will be a student at the Kentucky College of Art + Design.

Claire Vicars graduated from DuPont Manual

Design is prominent in Vicars’ work, most notably a poster for a theatrical production of Antigone that might be the envy of a professional. The imagery is highly evocative of Greek tragedy overlaid with romantic textures, and the visual detail of an errant black line extending up from the title is inspired in how it invited the viewer to complete the allusion to the fiery sun as a balloon, a motif that reflects the conflict between earthly and divine power in the play.

Claire will enter the Hite Art Institute BFA program at the University of Louisville.

Brendan Taylor graduated from Eastern High School

Brendan offers evidence of one of the most crucial qualities for the young artist: observation. The detail of texture and color overlays a developing exploration of space and dimension. The connection between seeing and drawing can move to a profound level once the artist liberates themselves from a fixation on mark-making; the ability to get lost in the visceral reality of even a seemingly mundane subject such as a ceramic mug and some fruit. The relationships of the objects include the harsh contrast of very green bananas against the warm wood grain of the table and the analogous color of the mug and the table. The viewer can identify with Taylor’s absorption in the almost forensic study of all of these elements.

Brendan has applied and was accepted into the University of Louisville Hite Art Institute as a Studio Art Major.

Brendan Taylor, “Kitchen Table”, acrylic

In addition to his work at the LVA, Keith is also the Managing Editor of a website, Arts-Louisville.com, which covers local visual arts, theatre, and music in Louisville.

DuPont Manual

Artists Talk with LVA: March 12, 2025