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.
Artists Talk with LVA: February 29, 2024
The 2024 LVA Honors takes place on March 21, 2024 at the LVA Building. This week is the 1st of 3 conversations with Honors recipients, C.J. Pressma (Legacy Award), Jon Cherry (Community Impact), Amanda Thompson (Teaching), & Sheila fox (Emerging Artist). You may purchase tickets to this fundraiser HERE.
In 1970 C.J. Pressma founded the Center for Photographic Studies – an alternative school of creative photography. The Center provided a learning experience for those seeking to explore photography as creative expression. During its eight- year existence the center attracted students from over 35 states and foreign countries to its full-time resident program and provided part-time instruction and darkroom access for hundreds of students in the Louisville metropolitan area. Its two galleries provided monthly photographic exhibits featuring the works of local, regional, and internationally acclaimed photographic artists including Ansel Adams and Minor White. In 1978 he was awarded a National Endowment Fellowship in Photography.
In 1979 Pressma embarked on a career as a multimedia producer and marketing communications specialist. In 1984, his seven part series Witness to the Holocaust, was released in the U.S. and Canada where it remains in distribution today. One of the first productions to use survivor interviews as the exclusive content to tell the story of the Holocaust, Witness to the Holocaust has received numerous national awards
Jon Cherry is a photojournalist based in Louisville, Kentucky. Jon works as a stringer with Getty Images, Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg News, and The New York Times and has been published independently by The New York Times, Sierra, TIME Magazine, Vanity Fair, The Guardian, New York Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, and others. Jon was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography as a part of the Getty Images team for “comprehensive and consistently riveting photos of the attack on the U.S. Capitol” with Win McNamee, Spencer Platt, Drew Angerer, and Sam Corum.
Artists Talk with LVA: February 22, 2024
Donna R. Charging, Suyun Son, & Chloe Cheng are all MFA candidates at the University of Louisville's Hite Institute and they joined us in the WXOX studio this week. Tune into Artists Talk with LVA every Thursday at 10 am on 97.1 WXOX-FM or stream on Artxfm.com
Donna, Suyun, & Chloe all have a thesis exhibition scheduled at the MFA building in the Portland neighborhood.
Donna’s exhibit, That Limbless Sign, is now open and closes on February 23.
Suyun Son’s exhibit, Authentic Fake, runs from March 5 through April 1, with a reception on Friday, March 8 from 5-7 pm.
Chloe Cheng’s exhibit, Alabaster Glory, runs from April 12 through May 12 with a reception on Friday, April 12 from 6-8 pm.
Artists Talk with LVA: February 15, 2024
Paul Lenzi & Geraldine Ann Snyder will be honored with the Kathi E.B. Ellis Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 Arts-Louisville Theatre Awards and they were in the WXOX studios to talk about their work. Tune into Artists Talk with LVA every Thursday at 10 am on 97.1 WXOX-FM or stream on Artxfm.com
Paul Lenzi and Geraldine Ann Snyder returned to Louisville where they were hired by the Louisville Children’s Theater (now Stage One) to develop new musical programming for pre-schoolers while Paul ultimately became executive director. In 1976, the couple broke away to form the Blue Apple Players, continuing for a time a weekly children’s program on WAVE-TV. Blue Apple, for the first decade, operated on a “for profit” business model, performing locally and regionally for children sometimes in large halls or occasionally developing a didactic performance for a corporation. After becoming a non-profit, the theater company focused exclusively on creating musicals on cutting-edge social topics for Kentucky school groups. Blue Apple merged in 2015 with the Walden Theatre to form the Commonwealth Theatre Center.
Artists Talk with LVA: February 8, 2024
This week on Artists Talk with LVA Maureen Lane and Heather Potter joined us in the studio to talk about curatorial mission and practice with the Filson Historical Society.
Maureen Lane is the Curator of Museum Collections & Exhibits Coordinator at The Filson.
“I’m interested in collecting strategies that develop culturally diverse collections and better represent previously marginalized individuals in our communities; new ways to engage and collaborate with visitors in object based learning; multiple points of view in the interpretation of history, culture, and art; collaborative storytelling; and helping people discover and preserve their family and community history.”
Curator of Photographs and Prints Heather J. Potter received a BA degree from Washburn University and a MLS from Indiana University Bloomington.
Since its founding in 1884, The Filson Historical Society has preserved the region's collective memory, not only of Kentucky but also of the Ohio Valley and the Upper South. The Filson continues to collect and share the significant stories of the region. An independent historical society, The Filson serves the public through its extensive research collections and numerous educational opportunities. The Filson is headquartered in the Ferguson Mansion in Old Louisville and offers research facilities, event, and rental space.