In a unique collaboration between Kentucky Opera and Louisville Visual Art, students enrolled In The Academy of LVA during the spring semester were engaged in a contest to create artwork inspired by Kentucky Opera’s Brown-Forman 2018/19 Season — "The Magic Flute," "Enemies, A Love Story," and “Rigoletto." The winning submission best represented the upcoming season.
Congrats to Madelynn Hicks, a 17-year-old junior at North Oldham High School, who studied under teacher Sunny Ra. She will be awarded a $250 cash prize by LVA. Additionally, Kentucky Opera will make a commemorative season poster to feature this winning submission.
LVA and Kentucky Opera greatly enjoyed collaborating on this incredible opportunity for a high school student's works to be selected!
LVA was thrilled to join the Waterfront Development Corporation, Mayor Greg Fischer, city council members and organizers of some of this summer's biggest events taking place on the Waterfront, including LVA's new "Waterfront Adventures"!
Pictured above: LVA's Outreach Program Manager Ehren Reed, WDC President David Karem, and LVA's Executive Director Lindy Casebier.
Mixed Media Artist Ashley Cathey and Photographer Zed Saeed were my guests this week. They are part of Looking Up: Heroes For Today – An LVA Exhibit at Metro Hall. Join us by tuning into WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10am.
Ashley Cathey is a Louisville native whose paintings have brought her to prominence in a fairly short time after moving back to Louisville from Chicago. When she returned, she quickly found her footing and exhibited work in a group show at the Louisville Community Center, one of the Metro Parks community centers overseen by Portia White. From there, Cathey caught the attention of ArtsReach’s Julia Youngblood, who commissioned Cathey to create a series of portraits, which ArtsReach used for posters for their annual Keepers of the Dream celebration at the Kentucky Center for the Arts.
Zed Saeed is an art and documentary photographer currently working with recent refugees and immigrants that have settled in Kentucky. In Louisville, he connects with these individuals mostly through the Catholic Charities-Migration and Refugee Services. Saeed believes strongly in the power of photography to create connections and to alter perceptions about people, places and things.
Looking Up: Heroes For Today – An LVA Exhibit at Metro Hall, May 14, 2018 – January 11, 2019
"Looking Up: Heroes for Today" is the title of the new art show LVA coordinated at Louisville Metro Hall. Artists Brianna Harlan, Ashley Cathey and Zed Saeed are all on display, and anyone visiting Metro Hall can ask to see their pieces through January 11, 2019.
Zed Saeed is an art and documentary photographer currently working with recent refugees and immigrants that have settled in Kentucky. In Louisville, he connects with these individuals mostly through the Catholic Charities-Migration and Refugee Services. Saeed believes strongly in the power of photography to create connections and to alter perceptions about people, places and things.
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.
Brianna Harlan describes herself as, “a mixed media artist that creates Radically Vulnerable art to invite transformative dialogue. Themes of her work include identity, social/cultural dynamics, intimacy, oppression, and self-suppression. Brianna works primarily with participants, inviting them to share and unpack sensitive topics through questions and actions. The discoveries that come from these mindful investigations shape the concept and inform the work's medium. She creates with people, not just about them, and views the process and resulting work as a tool for a moving experience and constructive conversation.
Each year, Louisville Visual Art hosts a gallery exhibit of the work from the Middle School student artists in our Children’s Fine Art Classes program. Every student from that year has work on display, providing them a chance to see their work in exhibition and to share that experience with their families.
The Children’s Fine Art Classes program engages and inspires the next generation of creative leaders by providing intensive, in-depth art experiences to visually talented and motivated elementary and middle school students.
Since 1925, the program has offered concentrated studies in two-dimensional art that include studio practices in drawing, painting, and mixed media; art history; critiquing skills; and aesthetics.
The exhibition will be on display from May 20 through May 30.
Gallery hours are Mon - Thu 12-4 p.m.
Email info@louisvillevisualart.org if you want to make an appointment to see the exhibition.
The new Kroger in Jeffersonville has extra beauty thanks to artist Carrie Johns! LVA is so happy to have helped this happen, part of our long series of collaborations with Kroger stores around our region.
Eileen Yanoviak is the new director of the Carnegie Center for Art & History in New Albany. She joined us to talk about the challenges of a new job and the community of artists she has worked with for the past few years.
Spalding Instructor Ezra Kellerman also came on with student Miguel Rodriguez to discuss the Senior Thesis exhibit for KyCAD/Spalding. Tune into WXOX 97.1/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10am for LVA's Artebella on the Radio.
All of us at Louisville Visual Art bid a fond farewell to Sunny Ra, a local artist who has been involved with us for many years as a teacher. She will shortly be on her way to take up the post of Museum Educator for K-12 and Community Programs at The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College in upstate New York.
Sunny is a Louisville native who received her BFA from the University of Pennsylvania and earned an MFA from Hunter College CUNY. She exhibited with LVA in 2014 and taught Painting and Developing Concepts in our Academy program for high school students. Additionally, she was an instructor for the Governor’s School for the Arts.
We are extremely grateful to have had Sunny as an important part of our family for the last several years, and we wish her the best in her new adventure!
Each year, Louisville Visual Art hosts a gallery exhibit of the work from The Academy of LVA in the late spring/early summer. Each student has work on display, providing them a chance to see their work in an exhibition and to share that experience with their families. Students have the option to sell their own artwork, with 80% of all sales going directly back to the student artist and 20% going back to LVA to help provide scholarships for future students. Students can also list their work as NFS (not for sale).
LVA's CFAC & Academy Director Annette Cable, Wilma Bethel, LVA Executive Director Lindy Casebier, Andrew Preston, and William Duffy presented awards to Academy graduates.
Claire Mundy received the Community Award, sponsored by Preston Arts Center and presented by their store manager, Andrew Preston.
Payton Sprau received the Portfolio Award, sponsored by Artist & Craftsman Supply and presented by teacher Wilma Bethel.
River Skipworth received the Vision Award, sponsored by LVA and presented by teacher William Duffy.
LVA Board Chair Marti Kuehn enjoyed the perfect weather with Board Members Wilma Bethel, Lisa Huber, and Executive Director Lindy Casebier.
Another productive semester of LVA's Academy!
Art brings everyone closer!
Another productive semester of LVA's Academy!
A great crowd gathered to celebrate the 2017-18 Academy of LVA success stories. Join us again for more:
Upcoming Events May 20 from 2-4 PM: CFAC Middle School reception June 3 from 2-4 PM: CFAC Elementary School reception
May 9-16: The Academy of LVA (High School) exhibition May 20-30: CFAC Middle School exhibition June 3-13: CFAC Elementary School exhibition Gallery hours: Mondays - Thursdays from 12-4 PM or by appointment.
The warm spring weather has reinvigorated our mural painting at the California Community Center! Friends and family joined us on Saturday to help paint accents and trim and we're making steady progress! Thanks to our friends at Louisville Metro Parks and Recreation, Fund for the Arts, and all the folks from the neighborhood who have stopped by with encouraging words!
Some of LVA's finest employees and friends - Outreach Programs Manager Ehren Reed, teacher Janet Britt and artist Victor Sweatt - have been working hard all spring on giving the nearby California Community Center a fresh coat of love (in mural form!). Special thanks to our partners at Louisville Metro Parks and Recreation, and to the Fund for the Arts and the Center for Neighborhoods for their generous support on this project.
Alphaeus Green, Jr. preparing for the upcoming Faithworks Studios production of August Wilson's "Fences" directed by Kristi Papailler. He was in the studio with me on May 10 to talk about the production, which opens May 23, Tune in at 10am each Thursday for LVA's Artebella On The Radio on WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com.
The kids at the Bellewood Home for Children have really loved printmaking! Instructor and ceramic artist Lisa Simon says they have done some wonderful monoprints and callographs and group printing. Her photos here show the kids doing group printmaking. They discovered that they also like to print on themselves!
Special thanks to Art for Kosair Kids® through Kosair Charities in partnership with Fund for the Arts for their generous support of this program!
"Poetry in Motion: The Equine Art of Jaime Corum and Richard Sullivan" is on exhibit at The Brown Hotel through July 1. What better Derby week guests to have for LVA's Artebella On The Radio! Tune in Thursday at 10am on WXO 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com.
"Gabi + Izzy" by Jaime Corum
Jaime Corum is an equine artist based in Louisville, Kentucky. Jaime's equine art is inspired and refined by her own experience with horses, especially her own horse Chesapeake. She has been drawing horses since she can remember and riding ever since she could talk her parents into it. Jaime's art evolved from doing portraits of friend's horses for fun to a full time career of commissioned portraits and original compositions. Jaime's work can be seen at Kentucky Fine Art Gallery in Louisville, KY, New Editions Gallery in Lexington, KY, and Tilting at Windmills Gallery in Vermont and Saratoga, NY
Richard Sullivan is an artist and former professional baseball player with the Atlanta Braves. Born and raised in Louisville, KY, he studied at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) where he received a BFA in Illustration. He had the opportunity to play baseball at SCAD and to continue his interest in art and illustration. In 2008, Richard was drafted by the Braves in the 11th round as a junior and played 6 years of minor league baseball. He returned to SCAD in 2014 to finish his degree and focus exclusively on his artwork.
His work has been accepted into the permanent collection of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the Yogi Berra Museum and exhibited by the Louisville Slugger Museum and the Kentucky Derby Museum.
In 2017 the Atlanta Braves commissioned Richard to create 18 original watercolor paintings and 20 prints for their new stadium SunTrust Park. The paintings line the corridors of the Champions suite and the Executive Offices.
Artist Steve Heine of Cranium Glass hung his new piece “Honeycomb Clouds” at NuLu's new AC Hotel. LVA helped bring local artists Heine, Ewa Perz and Kate Mattingly to the hotel, where most work will he accessible to guests and the public for 6 months. Steve Heine's installation is permanent.
Details for “Honeycomb Clouds”: 4’-0” x 4’-0” x 4” each, laser-cut steel, maple, LED panel [variable color and a remote wi-fi controller], from his current series of “Cloud Panels”.
Can you find Charlie Sexton and Donald Kimmel in this picture from 1977? They came in the WXOX 97.1/Artxfm.com studios with Keith Waits April 26 to talk about their history with Walden Theatre, and then later that night they were performing as a part of A Night Of Acting Up! at Commonwealth Theatre Center (Walden Theatre/Blue Apple Players).
