Artists Talk with LVA: March 12, 2025

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.

Artists Talk with LVA: March 6, 2025

Jamarr Cox opens an exhibit at Kore Gallery on March 7 & Suzanne Sidebottom opens one at Pyro on March 8. Both will join us this week. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Dreaming in the Dark and Beyond by Jamarr Cox, opens Friday from 6 - 8:30 pm at Kore Gallery.

Jamarr Cox was one of the artists in the 2023 Art in City Hall exhibit. Cox is a Louisville native who has been creating art as far back as he can remember. He holds a degree in Commercial Art and is currently a web / UI developer by day. 

Pyro Gallery opens Just Imagine, from Suzanne Sidebottom &. Beth Sharpe. There will be a reception Friday from 5:30-8:30 pm, and an Artist Talk Saturday, March 8, from 2-3 pm.

Suzanne Sidebottom is a trompe l’oeil clay artist. The artworks are not real, yet they still evoke a memory of time and place for the viewer. Everyday objects are realistically crafted from clay and printed with underglazes using antique and artist-designed printing blocks and artist-made decals. These objects are rich with texture and make the viewer want to reach out and touch them as if they are real. She has exhibited across the U.S. over the past seven years in over 60 juried and invitational exhibitions; had two solo exhibitions; and was published in “500 Prints on Clay: An inspiring Collection of Image Transfer Work.” Her sculptures are in numerous public and private collections.

Artists Talk with LVA: February 27, 2025

The Kentucky Center for African American Heritageexhibits “From Red Earth to Prophetic Creations: James G, Bennett Paintngs 1976-2024” and the artist and his daughter, Dr. Jabani Bennett, joined us this week. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

James G. Bennett is a seasoned and self-taught interdisciplinary artist, whose creative journey spans over four decades. A master of diverse mediums, he experimented for decades while working full-time as a chemical technician for industrial plants in Rubbertown, Louisville’s district.

As a community photographer, he was mentored by the legendary Bud Dorsey and a cadre of unsung local photographers. His deep-rooted connection to the city is further cemented by his role as a co-founder of the groundbreaking Black-led modeling, entertainment, and photography collective, Black Exposure (1970s-1980s.) 

Artists Talk with LVA: February 13, 2025

Tonight (February 13, 2025)t Louisville Visual Art unveils the SPARK Sculpture and its designers, Laura Haddad & Tom Drugan joined us to talk about it live in the studio. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Laura Haddad & Thomas Drugan specialize in conceptually driven public art that is often integrated into large-scale infrastructure projects. Past and current work includes art for roadways, bridges, transit stations, public utilities, architectural facades, industrial artifacts, museums, libraries, and urban plazas and parks. Working in the public realm, the artists pursue their interest in using site conditions as inspiration for art concepts. Haddad|Drugan strives to create poetic one-of-a-kind artworks that on one level act as place-making icons but on another are layered with subtler complexities that unfold over multiple viewings.

The studio’s site-specific approach to new projects includes research and investigations about a site’s physical, functional, natural, social, and historical aspects. 

From this the artists establish a conceptual framework for the art and develop specific forms and materials that best express the idea. Haddad|Drugan operates at the scale of both sculpture and planning and approach the thematic or sequential linking of individual artworks as a form of conceptual art unto itself.

Artists Talk with LVA: February 6, 2025

Pandora Productions opens "She Kills Monsters" on Feb. 7 and Gil Reyes & Kate Holland Ballowe came to the studio to talk about it this week. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

For more than 25 years, Pandora Productions has been the only theatre company in the Louisville Metro area and most of Kentucky exclusively dedicated and most trusted to tell the stories of the LGBTQ+ communities.

Gil Reyes is the current Artistic Director of Pandora Productions and has directed several productions there in the last 2 years. Previously he was a co-founder of Theatre [502], worked with Stage One Family Theatre and Jon Yarmuth and was the winner of the Moth Story Slam in 2013.

Kate Holland Ballowe has been an important behind-the-scenes presence in Louisville theatre for years, primarily as a stage manager. But has also been featured onstage in Godspell and Little Shop of Horrors for Pandora.

She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen opens February 7 and runs through February 23  at The Henry Clay Theatre  An epic D&D campaign brings Agnes closer to her sister. Fantasy meets dramatic comedy in this homage to the geek and warrior within us all.