August Brings Books, Quilts, And Opera To Locust Grove

Afternoon Lecture Series
Sandy Staebell: Faces and Places in Kentucky Quilts
Wednesday, August 1, 1:15 pm

Quilts and other textiles frequently use faces and places that are tied to memory and provide a sense of identity, family, or place. In some, these images were based on real-life individuals such as President George Washington and Kentuckians Henry Clay, George Rogers Clark, and Robert Penn Warren, while in others they were inspired by fictional characters such as Don Quixote or children, real or imagined. Examples of “places” found in textiles include state quilts, governmental buildings, churches, and honeymoon cottages.

Sandy Staebell is the Registrar and Collections Curator at the Kentucky Museum at Western Kentucky University. This program was funded in part by the Kentucky Humanities Council, Inc. and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Locust Grove Afternoon Lecture Series is held the first Wednesday of each month. Dessert and coffee are served at 1:00 pm with the lecture immediately following at 1:15 pm. Admission is $6, $4 for Locust Grove members. Reservations are not required.

The Summer Used Book Sale
Friday, August 17, 10:00 am – 7:00 pm
Saturday, August 18 and Sunday, August 19, 10:00 am – 4:30 pm

The region’s best book sale! 25,000+ used, antiquarian, and new books in all categories will be offered for sale. All categories-history, biography, mysteries, reference, science fiction, travel, cookbooks, children’s, Kentucky, romance, crafts, gardening, and much, much, more! Prices begin at $1 for paperbacks, and $2 for most hardcover books, with a large selection of illustrated books, rare books, and sets, priced individually. A special selection of remainders will be on sale, selected by the former Hawley-Cooke remainders buyer. All books are sorted by category and are in good condition. Because of the volume of donations, books may be added to the display during the sale. Special discounts on Sunday.

Members’ Preview: Thursday, August 16, 5:00 pm – 7:30 pm

Locust Grove members get the first look at the Summer Used Book Sale.  Memberships can be purchased at the door at the preview, or in advance online at our membership page or by calling Locust Grove at 502-897-9845.

Summer Thursday Concert Series with Kentucky Opera 
Locust Grove and Opera: A Musical Timeline
Thursday, August 30, 6:30 pm

Enjoy your opera favorites as explored through the history of Locust Grove. Settler William Croghan was calling Louisville home by 1784. That same year, Mozart became a Freemason in Austria, personally adapting ideals that not only influenced the American Founding Fathers, but would later embed themselves in his acclaimed opera, The Magic Flute. When The Magic Flute premiered a few years later in 1792, Italian opera legend Gioacchino Rossini was born in Italy, and back in Kentucky, William and Lucy Clark Croghan were building their home, Locust Grove. The Croghan family sold the land to riverboat captain James Paul in 1878, when productions of Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S Pinafore premiered in the states, inspiring great interest in light opera throughout the country. When the site was purchased by Jefferson County and the Commonwealth of Kentucky and subsequently restored and opened to the public in 1964, Kentucky Opera was producing Bizet’s Carmen, Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte and Verdi’s Rigoletto.

Admission: $16/$14 for members. Doors open at 6:00 pm; performance begins at 6:30 pm. Bring your own blankets and chairs. Against the Grain Brewery and Sweet ‘N Savory Food Truck will sell concessions.