Artists Talk With LVA: July 21 2022

It's time again for the Louisville Fringe Festival and Nick Hulstine, Cris Eli Black, & Hannah DeWitt talk about what's in store for 2022. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Nicholas Hulstine (he/him) is a Louisville, Kentucky- based theatre artist. On stage he’s appeared in Tuesday Night Poker (Theatre Row, NYC), Foreign Gothic (FringeNYC), The Dazzle (John Cullum Theater, NYC), The Flick (The Alley Theater), Nobody Bunny and the Golden Age of Animation (Theatre 502), Tales of the 4th Grade Nothing (StageOne). He’s directed productions of Abramovic (Richmond Shepard Theater, NYC) and The Principles of Dramatic Writing (Slant Culture Theatre Festival). As a playwright, his plays have been produced in Chicago and NYC.

Cris Eli Blak is an award-winning and internationally produced writer for the page, stage, and screen. His work has garnered him a Bronze Remi from the Worldfest Houston International Film and Video Festival, the Christopher Hewitt Award in Fiction, a Pushcart Prize nomination, and honors from Vectis Radio, Negro Ensemble Company, Clocktower Players and A is For. His work has been produced, performed, and/or published worldwide, from Off-Broadway, California, London, Australia, and Ireland. He continues to strive to create work that reflects the world that we live in, with all of its different and diverse colors, creeds, and cultures, through his artistic endeavors and work with organizations such as TedxBroadway, Fine Arts Forward, and the Black Theatre Caucus.

Hannah DeWitt is a young artist working on her MFA at the Hite Art Institute in Louisville, Kentucky, and has a BFA from Spalding University. She is a multimedia artist with an emphasis on conceptual performative works, both live and digital. Her works are often participatory, deeply personal, and ethically fraught as she fumbles in the dark in search of anyone to witness. Blurring the line between public and private space, her work balances radical vulnerability and exhibitionism.

Artists Talk With LVA: July 14 2022

Multi-disciplinary artist Colleen Toutant Merrill’s work examines the simultaneously personal and social history of textiles. Her adorned, embellished, and sometimes garish composite forms scrutinize the beauty and tension of our most interdependent relationships

She has exhibited her work here in Kentucky in  Lexington & Louisville but also in New York, San Francisco, and Pittsburgh, and at the International Textile Biennial in Haact, Belgium. Merrill has received grants from the Kentucky Federation for Women and the Great Meadows Foundation. She has been awarded fellowships for the Byrdcliffe Artist Residency in New York, and the Pentaculum Textiles Residency at the Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts in Tennessee. 

Merrill is currently an Associate Professor of Art at Bluegrass Community & Technical College and a part-time Instructor in Fiber & Material Studies at the University of Kentucky.

Her latest body of work, Day In & Day Out, opens at  WheelHouse Art  Saturday, July 16, 3:00 - 5:00 pm. The exhibition continues through September 3, 2022.

Artists Talk With LVA: July 7, 2022

Graphic Pioneer: The Early Poster Designs of Julius Friedman, 1965-1980 will be in the Ekstrom Library on beginning July 14. Curator Elizabeth Ellis Reilly & Project Archivist Haley-Marie Ellegood talk about the exhibit this week on Artists Talk with LVA. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com Thursday at 10 am.

Elizabeth Ellis Reilly - Curator, Photographic Archives, Archives & Special Collections at the University of Louisville Libraries. For 5 years she hosted FUZZBOX on  WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com. 

Haley-Marie Ellegood is a Project Archivist at the University of Louisville Libraries, She earned her Master of Library Sciences at Indiana University.

Graphic Pioneer: The Early Poster Designs of Julius Friedman, 1965-1980

The Opening Reception for the exhibition will be in the Ekstrom Library on July 14 and will include a ribbon-cutting and dedication of the Julius Friedman Gallery at 5:30 pm.

Artists Talk With LVA: June 30, 2022

Lance G. Newman II is the recipient of the 2022 Bill Fisher Prize for Visual Arts. We talked with him about the impact he expects the $7000 award will have on his practice. tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Lance G. Newman II, is a writer, poet, host, actor, performing, visual, and teaching artist. His experience is the culmination of a 16-year career performing around the country. As a playwright, he helped create plays such as the “Smoketown Poetry Opera,“ ”The Westend Poetry Opera” and “The Blood Always Returns.“ Under the name, SpreadLovEnterprise, he teaches his creative writing and public speaking curriculum in schools, community centers, and service-providing organizations. He co-hosts the largest and longest-running poetry slam in Louisville; created the public art “LITS Project” on 4th st; just managed the annual Southern Fried Poetry Festival here in Louisville, and last night was presented with the 2022 Bill Fisher Prize for the Visual Arts by the Community Foundation of Louisville and Louisville Visual Art.

Artists Talk With LVA: June 23, 2022

After 30 years of leading Bunbury Theatre, Juergen Tossmann will be passing the torch to Skylar Vest and Hannah Brooks. All 3 talked with us about the importance of transition in the arts. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Juergen Tossmann has been Bunbury's Producing Artistic Director since 1991. Thirty years ago, he guided a struggling fledgling company to health and artistic prominence.

Under Juergen's leadership, Bunbury developed two venues most recently in 2007 the company turned an old gymnasium in The Henry Clay building into a 140-seat state-of-the-art theatre. The theatre currently serves two companies; Bunbury, Pandora Productions, and until very recently,  The Liminal Playhouse.

Before Bunbury, Juergen worked as an artist-in-residence, teacher, actor, freelance director, assistant director, production stage manager, stage manager, prop master, acting coach, and co-founded an improvisational theatre company. The myriad positions at theatres all over the country prepared him for a job that would last over 30 years. At Bunbury Juergen has produced over 200 shows.

In 2020 he received the Kathi EB Ellis Lifetime Achievement Award from Louisville Visual Art. ​

Skylar Vest attended Georgetown College where he earned a BA in Theatre and Directing. Since 2017 he has been working with Bunbury Theatre, most recently as an Artistic Associate.

Hannah Brooks is a local prop and costume designer who has been active in the Louisville theatre community for the last five years. They have worked primarily with Bunbury Theatre on shows including The Green Book, Grace and Glorie, Boatwright, and Visiting Edna. Recently Hannah has been a dresser for the Kentucky Opera and worked for Commonwealth Theatre Company.