Amanda Thompson has been a Visual Art teacher at Western Middle School for the Arts since 2010. She joined LVA’s Children’s Fine Art Classes the same year. She was recently awarded the Baird Excellence Award Outstanding Teacher for Middle School 2023. She served as a Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence Teacher Fellow in 2022 and Classroom Teachers Enacting Positive Solutions fellow in 2020. In collaboration with LVA and PNC Broadway, her classes have participated in 3 separate art installations at Kentucky Center for the Arts for Blue Man Group, Little Mermaid, and Anastasia, the Musical.
Western Middle School
Artebella On The Radio: May 21, 2020
Western Middle School Art Teacher Amanda Thompson talks about the challenges of visual art NTI, and artist/curator Ashley Cathey tells about the 3-D virtual reality version of her "Black Before I Was Born" exhibit that she is building. Tune in each Thursday to WXOX 97.1 FM, or stream on Artxfm.com to hear Keith Waits talk with artists and teachers!
Amanda Thompson has a background in fine art, community outreach, and education. She currently holds a BFA in Mixed Media from the University of Kentucky and an MAT in art education and MS in human development from the University of Louisville. She is in her ninth year of teaching Art at Western Middle School for the Arts and Children’s Fine Art Classes with LVA . She has shown artwork, participated in art exhibits and programs throughout the US, Ireland, Italy, and China.
Ashley Cathey is a painter whose creative journey began with performing arts before she was eventually encouraged to develop her visual art talents, which, up until then had been purely for her own personal edification, by exhibiting in Chicago before returning to her native Louisville. She came to prominence when ArtsReach commissioned Cathey to create a series of portraits for their annual Keepers of the Dream celebration at the Kentucky Center for the Arts. In 2016 her work was featured on the cover of LEO Weekly as part of an extensive story on artists of color in Louisville. She recently curated the exhibit, Black Before I Was Born, still up at Roots 101.