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SubscribeThe Kentucky Arts Council, with the Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea, launched the 2016 “Give a Gift Made in Kentucky” campaign today. The campaign, which features a variety of work by Kentucky-based artists, will run through Dec. 31.
Artists in Kentucky Arts Council’s Kentucky Crafted, Architectural Artists and Performing Artists directories as well as Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship recipients will feature their studios, galleries and shops for holiday open houses and other events showcasing their work. In addition, the Give a Gift Web pages will feature holiday events from the arts council’s Kentucky Arts Partnership organizations. These events will run through the entire “Give a Gift” campaign, and are located throughout the state.
The Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea, where visitors can purchase fine Kentucky-made products from more than 700 Kentucky artisans year-round, has a busy schedule of artist demonstrations, book signings, musical performances and more throughout the holiday season.
Shoppers interested in purchasing Kentucky-made items can visit more than 20 businesses designated as Kentucky Crafted Retailers. These businesses carry items from Kentucky artists, including those in the arts council’s Kentucky Crafted program, Architectural Artists Directory and Performing Arts Directory. Many retailers have special events, promotions and discounts throughout the holiday season.
For more information on “Give a Gift,” contact Tom Musgrave, arts council communications director, at 502-892-3122 or tomr.musgrave@ky.gov; or Gwen Heffner, artisan center information specialist, at 859-985-5448, ext. 230 or gwen.heffner@ky.gov.
The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, fosters environments for Kentuckians to value, participate in and benefit from the arts. Kentucky Arts Council funding is provided by the Kentucky General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts. The arts council is celebrating 50 years of service in 2016.
Angel’s Envy™, the super-premium Kentucky Straight bourbon whiskey of uncompromising character and quality, will officially open its new distillery and visitor center to the public for guided tours beginning Saturday, November 19. Online reservations, which are required, are now being accepted at www.angelsenvy.com. Admission is $15 per person and includes a tasting.
Located at 500 E. Main Street at Jackson, (the former Vermont American and Baer Fabrics Building), the new state-of-the-art facility is the first full-production whiskey distillery in downtown Louisville. Having completed a $27 million renovation since breaking ground in 2013, the brand home center houses the Angel’s Envy distillery operations (including everything from milling of grains to blending and bottling on site), as well as a visitor center and gift shop. From the exterior walls to the vaulted ceilings and arched windows, their architects worked diligently to preserve every possible feature of the original building. Their breathtaking, one-of-a-kind 35-foot-tall column still, pot still and doubler were sourced locally from Vendome Coppery & Brass Works—just four blocks away.
The small batch artisan bourbon is the culmination of the late Master Distiller Lincoln Henderson’s storied career. Each of the brand’s three current expressions (flagship Angel’s Envy Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey finished in Port Wine Barrels, Angel’s Envy Cask Strength and Angel’s Envy Rye finished in hand-selected Caribbean rum casks), exhibit his passion for experimenting outside of conventional norms by producing unique whiskey steeped in tradition, but finished with a twist.
“Opening the Angel’s Envy distillery and visitor’s center in downtown Louisville was a dream Dad (Lincoln Henderson) and I had,” said Wes Henderson, Co-founder/Chief Innovation Officer, Louisville Distilling Company. “He would be so proud of what we’ve accomplished in such a short amount of time. My sons and I proudly carry on his legacy. The distillery is a must-see experience.”
“We are delighted that Angel’s Envy chose downtown Louisville for its new distillery and visitor center,” said Louisville Mayor, Greg Fischer. “It is evident that Angel’s Envy is not only committed to quality craftsmanship, but also the greater Louisville community.”
The Angel’s Envy distillery and visitor center is open for tours every Monday and Wednesday through Saturday from 10:00am – 5:00pm, and every Sunday, from 1:00 – 5:00pm. Tours will not be available on Tuesdays.
For more information, please visit us at www.angelsenvy.com or on facebook https://www.facebook.com/AngelsEnvyBourbon and twitter https://twitter.com/Angels_Envy (@angels_envy).
Mayor Greg Fischer announced today that His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama will return to Louisville in April 2017. And to spotlight the significance of the visit, the 22nd annual Festival of Faiths will move to April 19-24 and culminate with talks by the Dalai Lama.
The Mayor, joined by 2017 Festival chairman Owsley Brown III, made the announcement during a press conference today at the George Garvin Brown Garden, 415 W. Muhammad Ali Blvd.
The title of the 2017 Festival is “Compassion: Shining like the Sun.” His Holiness the Dalai Lama will deliver talks on universal human values and nonviolence at the Yum! Center on Sunday, April 23, and at a large youth event on Monday, April 24.
The visit is being planned by several local organizations involved in the city’s compassion initiatives, including the Mayor’s office, the Center for Interfaith Relations, Drepung Gomang Center for Engaging Compassion, and the newly formed International Center for Compassionate Cities.
Since taking office in 2011, Mayor Fischer has helped champion a city-wide campaign for compassion, including his Give a Day week of service, Compassionate Louisville and the Compassionate Schools Project. He has been a longtime supporter of Louisville’s signature interfaith event, the Festival of Faiths, and worked with the Festival’s Brown, as well as Jefferson County Public Schools Superintendent, Dr. Donna Hargens, to launch the Compassionate Schools Project here in 2015.
The Festival of Faiths is a nationally acclaimed interfaith event of music, poetry, film, art and dialogue with internationally renowned spiritual leaders, thinkers and practitioners. It is designed as a platform for holding conversations on meaning in a time of multiple crises of meaning; and respecting the essential union between thinking globally and acting locally.
Theologian Richard Rohr calls the Festival “the Sundance of the Sacred,” and the Huffington Post included it among America’s top 7 spiritual travel destinations. www.FestivalofFaiths.org
Drepung Gomang Center for Engaging Compassion, a Tibetan Buddhist dharma center, hosted His Holiness in Louisville in 2013. Under the Dalai Lama’s advice and guidance, DGCEC’s Compassion Education Center provides presentations, workshops, retreats and classes that inspire everyday people to grow loving-kindness and deep compassion in the movement from understanding to personal engagement. Programming is based in universal human values using inclusive, non-religious and inter-religious language. www.DrepungGomangUSA.org
The International Center for Compassionate Cities (IC3) will launch with the 2017 visit. The IC3 will serve the ever-growing global community of cities that have signed the Charter for Compassion by providing tools to measure compassion, resources to help implement compassion-based city programing and a space to share stories. Overall, the center will serve to amplify compassion in cities around the world.
The site of today’s press conference announcing the 2017 visit was steps away from Merton Square, the historic site of Thomas Merton’s 1958 epiphany in downtown Louisville. He wrote of that event: “[I]n Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut [now Muhammad Ali Blvd.] … I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs. … There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.”
Merton was a Trappist monk who is world renowned as a Christian writer, social critic and interfaith pioneer. In 1968 Merton met with the young Dalai Lama and forged an important kinship that continues to “shine like the sun.” Merton wrote that he felt “a real spiritual bond” with His Holiness. The image of the two at this 1968 meeting hangs over the door at the Center for Interfaith Relations.
Even today the Dalai Lama often speaks about Merton as THE Christian monk who broadened his understanding of the profound commonalities between traditions. His Holiness commented in a New York Times opinion piece in 2010: “The focus on compassion that Merton and I observed in our two religions strikes me as a strong unifying thread among all the major faiths. And these days we need to highlight what unifies us.”
More details about themes and programming, as well as ticketing, for the April event will be released in January 2017, and news and updates will be posted on the www.FestivalofFaiths.org and www.DalaiLamaLouisville.org websites.
The University of Louisville Dance Theatre continues its beloved, holiday tradition with the 21st annual performance of “Clara’s Dream” Dec. 2-4 at the School of Music’s Comstock Hall.
“Clara’s Dream” is the familiar story of “The Nutcracker” from the time that Clara starts dreaming of snow and the land of sweets. There are cotton candy angels and toy soldiers, as well as the variations from foreign lands and, of course, the Sugar Plum Fairy appears. Her dream takes the audience along for a joyful ride through fantasy.
Directed by Cynthia Bronner and Chuck Bronson, UofL Dance Theatre is the elite level of the UofL Dance Academy. The ULDA is a pre-professional, civic level ballet company that focuses on preparing middle and high school age dancers to pursue ballet after they graduate from high school. About 50 dancers from all levels of the academy will have roles in the show.
There are four chances to catch “Clara’s Dream” this season: 7 p.m. Dec. 2, 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Dec. 3 and 2 p.m. Dec. 4.
The production is appropriate for all ages. Reserved tickets are on sale and available by mail through the UofL Dance Academy website: $15 for adults and $10 for children under age 13 or adults over age 65. Group rates also are available for ten or more.
For more information and to order tickets, call 502-852-6878 or visit the UofL Dance Academy website at www.uldanceacademy.com.
While the 2016 NAILE continues through November 17, providing ample opportunity to visit the Giant Country Store, see livestock including cattle, goats, sheep, and swine, tonight marks your last chance to experience the thunder of the North American Championship Rodeo in the circuit finals of the Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA).
Top cowboys and cowgirls from Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin are competing for over $80,000 in prizes as well as the title of Regional Champion.
The circuit finals include a variety of events including the bucking of bareback and saddled bronco riding, the action of roping and wrestling calves and steer, the speed of barrel racing. The night culminates with the thunder of bull riding as cowboys seek to hang on for a full ride of eight seconds as a bucking bull weighing up to a ton or more tries his best to shake the cowboy from his back.
The rodeo starts at 7:30PM tonight with tickets starting at $32 for adults and $10 for children. Be sure to show up early to experience everything else that the North American International Livestock Expo has to offer, including more animal excitement like the Draft Horse show and Cowboy Mounted Shooting events, in which Cowboys and Cowgirls race through the arena at full speed atop their horse while attempting to hit all of the targets with real firearms (shooting specialized blanks, of course) in less time than their opponents. Continue reading
The Sale of Champions celebrates accomplished young exhibitors who have raised award-winning market animals and serves as the capstone event of the North American International Livestock Exposition (NAILE). This year’s Sale of Champions will take place at the Kentucky Exposition Center on Nov. 17 at 6:30 p.m. in East Hall.
A total of six animals will hit the auction block, as the winning Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion hogs, lambs and steers are sold. Last year’s auction sales totaled a record-breaking $110,000. Ten percent of sales are donated to charitable organizations. The remaining 90 percent of the proceeds are split, with 10 percent going to promote the expo and 80 percent being divided amongst the young exhibitors. More than $1.75 million has been raised through the auction to promote youth involvement in agribusiness and fund charitable endeavors.
The involvement of young people remains a central focus at NAILE — from its 10 youth judging contests to its agriculture curriculum for school groups to the 4-H/FFA members who show livestock at its event. The Sale of Champions is one more example of NAILE’s commitment to the youth who will serve as future leaders of the agriculture industry.
For more information, visit www.livestockexpo.org.
The Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) will dedicate two new historical markers in November. One, in Jefferson County, marks the Kentucky Soldiers’ Home site. The other, in Paducah, recognizes a Boy Scout troop founded in 1910.
The Kentucky Soldiers’ Home was the only institution in Kentucky established for Union Civil War veterans. Its purpose was to provide a home for those who were aged, infirm and unable to support themselves. J.T. Boyle Post No. 109 of the Grand Army of the Republic proposed the home. It was chartered in 1890 and opened in 1891.
Former Union Gen.Speed S. Fry served as the home’s first superintendent and director. He died in 1892. Catherine E. Hirst of the Ladies’ Aid Society headed the facility until it closed several years later. During its brief time in operation, it housed 35 veterans. Five of them died at the home.
The Kentucky Soldiers’ Home marker dedication will be at 11 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 12, at 6319 Upper River Road, Harrods Creek.
In 1910, Rev. Clinton S. Quin, rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Paducah, organized Boy Scout Troop 1. The Boy Scouts of America was incorporated on Feb. 8 of that year. Troop 1 is the seventh-oldest troop in the United States. Grace Episcopal Church continues to sponsor the troop, providing meeting facilities and volunteer leadership. The troop is a member of the Lincoln Heritage Council, one of the older local councils serving both urban and rural areas in the nation.
The Boy Scout Troop 1 marker dedication will be at 11:30 a.m. (CST), Sunday, Nov. 13, at 820 Broadway, Paducah.
More than 2,400 historical markers statewide tell Kentucky’s history. More information about the marker application process and a database of markers and their text is available at history.ky.gov/markers. Also available on the site is the Explore Kentucky History app, a source of supplemental information about marker topics and virtual tours of markers by theme. KHS administers the Kentucky Historical Marker Program in cooperation with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
