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Lakshmi Sriraman of Lexington built a career as a performer and teacher of classical Indian dancing, but in February 2017 she added another layer to her artistry when she started painting.
Sriraman split her time between dance rehearsal and the canvas, and eventually decided in 2018 to apply for the Kentucky Arts Council’s Kentucky Crafted arts marketing program. In September, she was one of nine Kentucky artists juried into the elite program.
Kentucky Crafted is an adjudicated arts marketing assistance program that provides opportunities to Kentucky visual and craft artists through arts business training, networking, sales, exhibit and promotional opportunities. Adjudicated visual and craft artists become eligible to exhibit at The Kentucky Crafted Market, March 15-17, 2019, at the Kentucky Horse Park’s Alltech Arena in Lexington.
“It’s a tremendous validation of an artist to be selected for Kentucky Crafted, especially since I’m a self-starting artist,” Sriraman said. “I literally started painting in February 2017 and I’ve had a lot of feedback from friends who said I should apply. I was hesitant in the beginning, but I said, ‘I’m going to do it.’ The worst that could happen is that I’d get good constructive criticism on how to improve my application in the future.”
Sriraman was already familiar with the arts council’s jurying process, having been adjudicated into the Performing Artists Directory in 2013.
“I’m very grateful for the support and infrastructure the Kentucky Arts Council provides to artists here,” she said. “When I see the care the arts council takes with the adjudication process, I realize it’s all there for a reason. The arts council highlights the best in Kentucky art, and it’s a great honor to be included in that list.”
Teresa Webb is another relatively new artist who was juried into Kentucky Crafted. She creates unique dolls in her home-based studio in Berea. She agreed with Sriraman that there’s a validation in carrying the Kentucky Crafted brand.
“I’m no longer a hobbyist,” she said. “I can finally say I’m a maker.”
Webb is looking forward to joining the community of Kentucky’s finest visual and craft artists, and is interested in expanding her business.
“I would love to be able to contact someone and say, ‘I know you do woodworking, but how can what you’re doing relate to what I’m doing?’ I want to keep learning. It’s a whole new world. I want to learn from others so I can apply those lessons to my craft.”
The new Kentucky Crafted program artists are:
- Robert Bridges (Rob Bridges Illustration), Georgetown, painting
- Margaret Cooney (Cooney Pottery), Elizabethtown, ceramics
- Michelle Hayden (Michelle Hayden Fine Art), Richmond, sculpture
- Edward Lawrence (Zedz Press), Frankfort, photography
- Sharon Matisoff, Frankfort, painting
- David Neace, Nicholasville, painting
- Lakshmi Sriraman (Lakshmi’s Studio), Lexington, painting
- Teresa Webb (Worker Bee Sewing Co.), Berea, fiber art
- Mary Ann Woolery-Bussey (Blue Lick Hollow), Berea, fiber art
Applicants to the program must be visual or craft artists who have a well-developed body of work in any medium, full-time residents of Kentucky, and over the age of 18. For more information on the Kentucky Crafted program, contact Dave Blevins at david.blevins@ky.gov or 502-892-3120.
The Kentucky Arts Council’s celebration of Kentucky Writers’ Day April 24 at Louisville’s Spalding University will cap off a week of literary events around the state that recognize the Commonwealth’s literary tradition.
The Kentucky General Assembly established Kentucky Writers’ Day in 1990 to honor Kentucky’s strong literary tradition and to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Kentucky native Robert Penn Warren, the first poet laureate of the United States and winner of three Pulitzer Prizes.
Current Kentucky Poet Laureate Frederick Smock will be among the readers and panelists at the Kentucky Arts Council’s Kentucky Writers’ Day celebration, beginning 6 p.m. in Spalding University Library’s Kentucky Room, 853 Library Lane in Louisville.
Following poetry readings by Smock and former poets laureate Maureen Morehead (2011-2012) and Joe Survant (2003-2004), poet Lynnell Edwards, Spalding’s associate program director for the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program, will moderate a discussion about Kentucky’s literary tradition.
As Kentucky’s literary ambassador, Smock urges all Kentuckians to celebrate Writers’ Day, no matter where they are.
“On Kentucky Writers Day, turn off the phone. Log off the computer. Do not turn on the television. For a few minutes, just read a poem. Let it sink in,” Smock said. “Follow where your mind goes with it, for you are the only authority on what the poem means to you.
“As with love, the feeling of having read a good poem can induce a certain inner radiance. The poem sinks in and transforms itself from words on a page to a deep interior shift. After all, we go to poetry not to find out about the poet’s life, but to find out about our own.”
In addition to the main event at Spalding, several organizations around Kentucky have organized their own Kentucky Writers’ Day celebrations leading up to the main event on April 24.
In Frankfort, Paul Sawyier Public Library will host a Kentucky Writers’ Day celebration featuring former Kentucky Poet Laureate Richard Taylor on Wednesday, April 18. Taylor will be joined by award-winning writers Leatha Kendrick and Jeff Worley beginning at 6:30 p.m. EDT. Local poets are invited to share their original poems at an open mic beginning at 6 p.m. Contact Diane Dehoney at diane.dehoney@pspl.org or at 502-352-2665.
The Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning will host Lexington’s celebration of Kentucky Writers’ Day with readings by three former Kentucky poets laureate – Gurney Norman, Frank X Walker and George Ella Lyon – at 6 p.m. EDT on April 23. Also invited to read are some of Kentucky’s newest writers from the University of Kentucky’s MFA in Creative Writing Program. For more information, contact the Carnegie Center at 859-254-4175.
Observance of Kentucky Writers’ Day in Murray is scheduled for April 23, at 6 p.m. CDT, in the Calloway County Public Library meeting room. The event is designed as a community gathering to honor Kentucky writers, celebrate National Poetry Month and observe William Shakespeare’s 402nd birthday. Families are invited to select favorite poems to read aloud. The festivities will also feature poems by Kentucky’s Robert Penn Warren, and current Kentucky Poet Laureate Frederick Smock. Contact Sandy Linn at sandy.linn@callowaycountylibrary.org or at 270-753-2288 for more information.
Kentucky Humanities will present “Paint the Town Red,” another celebration of Warren’s birthday. During the event, Kentucky Humanities will announce an upcoming statewide literacy initiative featuring Warren’s work. “Paint the Town Red” will start at 11 a.m. CDT April 24 at the Robert Penn Warren Birthplace Museum in Guthrie. For more information, contact Brooke Raby at brooke.raby@uky.edu or at 859-257-4317.
“‘Kentucky is a writerly state,’ Jim Wayne Miller used to say, and right he was,” Smock said. “Kentucky Writers’ Day is being celebrated across the state, from Frankfort to Murray, from Lexington to Guthrie. And in Louisville, in the Kentucky Room of Spalding University where I will be joined by recent poets laureate Maureen Morehead and Joe Survant.”
For more information about Kentucky Writers’ Day and the April 24 event at Spalding, contact Tamara Coffey, arts council individual artist director, at 502-892-3121 or tamara.coffey@ky.gov.
Retired Brig. Gen. Nolen Bivens will present the plenary session at the Kentucky Arts Council’s fourth annual Kentucky Creative Industry Summit, Dec. 5 in Morehead.
Bivens presentation, titled “Building an Arts and Military Community, Health & Wellness Ecosystem,” will focus on national efforts to promote opportunities for artists, arts organizations and communities interested in supporting the well-being of military service members, veterans and their families.
Bivens, a 32-year United States Army veteran and former chief of staff for the U.S. Southern Command, is the founder and president of Leader Six, a company that provides management and operational support for business, government and nonprofit organizations. In the past decade, Leader Six has been a key proponent in promoting arts in health and military healing for ill, injured and wounded military service members and their families. In addition to his role at Leader Six, Bivens is the Senior Policy Fellow for Arts and Military for Americans for the Arts.
“The arts promote communication between military service members, veterans, their families and caregivers, allowing each one of them to accept and share the unique story of their military service with each other and with the community at large through the visual and literary arts, performance, dance and music,” Bivens said. “The arts also build resiliency across the military continuum, teaching skills to process grief and loss, to work through moral conflict, and to reduce stress.”
An ardent advocate for strong arts and military community engagements from grassroots to the national level, Bivens has testified before Congress and led congressional briefings on arts and military health on behalf of the National Initiative for Arts & Health in the Military, a collaborative effort led by Americans for the Arts. Bivens regularly consults with the arts community, utilizing his unique understanding of operational perspectives of commanders, enlisted noncommissioned officers and family members, along with the cultural sensitivities of the veteran population, to promote connections and help develop new arts programming for military and veteran communities.
Among the successful examples of collaboration between arts communities and the military are the Oklahoma Arts Council’s Oklahoma Arts and Military Initiative, a partnership involving Oklahoma’s Department of Veterans Affairs and the Firehouse Art Center in Norman, Okla. This collaboration piloted a series of eight- to 12-week hands-on learning courses, including photography, creative writing and visual arts.
Another successful collaboration Bivens points to is the Tennessee Shakespeare Company’s initiative bringing together service veterans with theater professionals using William Shakespeare’s plays to address combat-related traumatic and reintegration issues.
Bivens is just one of several arts leaders on the Summit agenda. Morehead State University art instructor and gallery director Jennifer Reis will give presentations on branding and marketing and using social media. The Summit will also include panel discussions on the arts council’s “Homegrown Handmade” initiative that has integrated artists into farmers markets in two Kentucky counties, as well as a conversation with educators, artists and workforce development specialists on preparing youth to be a part of the creative industry workforce using arts and technology.
The Kentucky Creative Industry Summit is 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Dec. 5 at the Morehead Conference Center, 111 E. First St. in Morehead. For more information or to register, visit the arts council website.
Louisville printmaker Elizabeth Foley’s work titled “Mandala.” Foley is one of eight Kentucky artists recently adjudicated into the Kentucky Arts Council’s Kentucky Crafted program.
Earlier this year, printmaker Elizabeth Foley retired from a 20-year art teaching career to focus more on her craft. Her new full-time career got a recent boost when she was named among the eight artists added to the Kentucky Arts Council’s Kentucky Crafted program.
Kentucky Crafted is an adjudicated arts marketing assistance program that provides opportunities to Kentucky visual and craft artists through arts business training, networking, sales, exhibit, and promotional opportunities. Adjudicated visual and craft artists are the only eligible Kentucky artists to exhibit at The Kentucky Crafted Market.
Foley, who owns FoleyPrints Studio, worked as a printmaker for about 20 years while she taught and said making the transition from teacher to full-time artist was an adjustment.
“Being associated with Kentucky Crafted will allow me to figure out how to create a business and reach a bigger audience,” said Foley. “I’m looking for this experience to raise my standards and give me a sense of community with other artists.”
Foley said she will also take advantage of the professional development and networking opportunities that come with the Kentucky Crafted brand.
“I’m hoping my work will get seen by communities that might not otherwise see it, and being with this program will push me to the next level to get out there,” Foley said.
The new Kentucky Crafted program artists are:
- John Dixon (Dixon Design), Danville, mixed media
- Elizabeth Foley (FoleyPrints Studio), Louisville, printmaking
- Patricia Grenier (HeartFelt Fleece & Fiber), Cynthiana, fiber
- Brad Holman (Rocky Woodland Forge), Beattyville, metal
- Chao Ma (Three Land Studio), Lexington, painting and graphics
- Gena Mark, Lexington, fiber
- Justine Riley, Mayfield, fiber
- Ted Tarquinio (TLT Photography), Louisville, photography
Applicants to the program must be visual or craft artists who have a well-developed body of work in any medium, full-time residents of Kentucky, and over the age of 18. For more information on the Kentucky Crafted program, contact Dave Blevins at david.blevins@ky.gov or 502-892-3120.
Kentucky Arts Council staff will offer informational workshops throughout the state during November for artists, teachers, community members and other arts stakeholders interested in learning how to apply for grants, get involved with programs and otherwise work in partnership with the state arts agency.
Arts council staff will discuss and answer questions about the arts council’s Al Smith Individual Artists Fellowship, Emerging Artist Award, Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grant, Performing Artists Directory and the various arts education grant, program and directory opportunities, like Teaching Art Together, Arts First Aid, Showcasing the Arts, Specialists With Arts Tactics, TranspARTation and the Teaching Artists Directory.
The workshops for the Al Smith Fellowship and Emerging Artist Award will focus on the literary arts, including fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, playwriting and screenwriting.
“Serving artists in our programs is an important part of what we do, but we also want to reach artists who are not in those programs, and who may not be aware of what the Kentucky Arts Council has to offer,” said Chris Cathers, arts council acting executive director. “These sessions have been carefully mapped out to hit every region of the state in order to be accessible to as many Kentuckians as possible.”
Workshops will be on the following dates in these Kentucky communities (with programs to be discussed):
- Nov. 8, 2 p.m., at the Boone County Public Library main branch, 1786 Burlington Pike in Burlington (Al Smith Fellowship, Emerging Artists Award, Performing Artists Directory, Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship, Teaching Artists Directory, arts education grants)
- Nov. 13, 10 a.m., at the Rowan County Arts Center, 205 E. Main St. in Morehead (Al Smith Fellowship, Emerging Artists Award, Performing Artists Directory, Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship, Teaching Artists Directory, arts education grants)
- Nov. 13, 3:30 p.m., at the Boyd County Public Library, Kyova branch, 10699 U.S. Highway 60 in Ashland (Al Smith Fellowship, Emerging Artists Award, Performing Artists Directory, Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship, Teaching Artists Directory, arts education grants)
- Nov. 16, 1 p.m., at the Hardin County Public Library, 100 Jim Owen Drive in Elizabethtown (Al Smith Fellowship, Emerging Artists Award, Performing Artists Directory, Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship, Teaching Artists Directory, arts education grants)
- Nov. 16, 5:30 p.m., at the Louisville Free Public Library Main Branch, 301 York St. in Louisville (Al Smith Fellowship, Emerging Artists Award, Performing Artists Directory, Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship, Teaching Artists Directory, arts education grants)
- Nov. 20, 1:30 p.m., at the Lexington Public Library main branch, 140 E. Main St. in Lexington (Al Smith Fellowship, Emerging Artists Award, Performing Artists Directory, Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship, Teaching Artists Directory, arts education grants)
- Nov. 28, 1 p.m. CST, at the Glema Mahr Center for the Arts, 2000 College Drive in Madisonville (Al Smith Fellowship, Emerging Artists Award, Performing Artists Directory)
- Nov. 28, 5:30 p.m. CST, at The Carson Center, 100 Kentucky Ave. in Paducah (Al Smith Fellowship, Emerging Artists Award, Performing Artists Directory)
- Nov. 29, 10 a.m. CST, at the John L. Street Public Library, 244 Main St. in Cadiz (Al Smith Fellowship, Emerging Artists Award, Performing Artists Directory)
- Nov. 29, 5 p.m. CST, at the Warren County Public Library main branch, 1225 State St. in Bowling Green (Al Smith Fellowship, Emerging Artists Award, Performing Artists Directory)
For more information on these events, contact Tamara Coffey, tamara.coffey@ky.gov or 502-892-3121.
The Kentucky Arts Council has awarded 19 grants to 12 Kentucky schools to fund student transportation to and from arts-related field trips for students through the popular TranspARTation Grant.
The TranspARTation Grant is awarded annually by the arts council. The program is now in its fourth year. Grants are based on the mileage from the school building to the arts organization or performance venue and the number of buses necessary.
Collins Lane Elementary School in Frankfort will use its TranspARTation grant to send all of its students to StageOne Family Theatre in Louisville for a production of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.”
Principal Jennifer Perkins said the staff and teachers want to make that field trip available to every student at Collins Lane, where 50 percent of the student body is on free or reduced lunch.
“We are given a limited amount of funds to pay for field trips each year, and it does not cover the amount of field trips we take over the course of the year,” Perkins said. “This grant helps fund this field trip by removing the transportation cost as a barrier to student participation.”
“We went to see ‘Click, Clack, Moo’ at StageOne last year, and to see the kids faces as they ride the buses together and sit in the audience together is amazing,” Perkins said. “A lot of our families can’t afford to do something like this on their own, and Collins Lane is a big proponent of building community in classrooms and the school. Being able to do this, and not have to worry about the cost of transportation, helps us accomplish that goal.”
Schools that received grants, listed by county, arts activity and amount awarded, are:
- Clarkson Elementary School, Grayson, “Dragons Love Tacos and Other Stories” at RiverPark Center, $544; “My Father’s Dragon” at RiverPark Center, $544; “Are You My Mother?” at RiverPark Center, $272; “The Nutcracker” at RiverPark Center, $544; “Pete the Cat” at RiverPark Center, $1,088; “Where in the World” at the Speed Art Museum, $552
- South Warren High School, Warren, Louisville Orchestra Coffee Concert, Kentucky Center for the Arts, $1,000
- Forest Heights Elementary School, Nelson, “American Tales” at StageOne Family Theatre, $516
- Bondurant Middle School, Franklin, “Where in the World” at the Speed Art Museum, $416
- Collins Lane Elementary School, Franklin, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” at StageOne Family Theatre, $2,448
- Southern Elementary School, Scott, Music Builds Discovery with the Canadian Brass at Singletary Center for the Arts, $112
- Kingston Elementary School, Madison, “Elephant and Piggie’s We Are In a Play” at Lexington Children’s Theatre, $328
- Toliver Elementary School, Boyle, “Where in the World” at the Speed Art Museum, $328; “Sacgawea: Discovering History” at Lexington Children’s Theatre, $188; “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” at Lexington Children’s Theatre, $376
- Daniel Boone Elementary School, Madison, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” at Lexington Children’s Theatre, $240
- Russell County Middle School, Russell, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” at Lexington Children’s Theatre, $880
- Livingston County Middle School, Livingston, “Mr. Molecule’s Bing, Bang, Boom! Science Show” at The Carson Center, $728
- Brodhead Elementary School, Rockcastle, Arc Attach Science Arts Performance at the EKU Center for the Arts, $280
Any Kentucky public or private school that supports grades pre-K through 12 may apply for a TranspARTation Grant.
Schools receiving TranspARTation Grants must attend arts events presented by one of many preapproved TranspARTation organizations.
For more information about applying for a TranspARTation Grant, visit the TranspARTation webpage, or contact Jean St. John, arts council arts education director, at jean.stjohn@ky.gov or 502-892-3124.
The Kentucky Arts Council has added two acts to its Performing Artists Directory.
Louisville-based Spanish language theater group Teatro Tercera Llamada and Louisville Irish and bluegrass roots music ensemble Cloigheann join the 76 other Kentucky individuals and groups who make up the arts council’s Performing Artists Directory.
The Performing Artists Directory is an adjudicated online roster of performing artists used by in-state and out-of-state presenters and others as a resource for identifying artists for performance bookings and projects.
Inclusion in the directory represents Kentucky’s recognition of artistic excellence in an individual or group of performers. It also boosts the profile of the region where those artists are from, as well as Kentucky’s profile when those performing groups travel out of state.
Teatro Tercera Llamada, which means Theater Third Call in Spanish and takes its name from the Latin American theater tradition in which third call means lights down, curtain up, is a Spanish language theater group. “Everyone was very excited to learn we’d been added to the directory,” said cofounder Haydee Canovas. “It’s a big deal. It was important that we be recognized as a theater group by Kentucky.”
In addition to the all-Spanish theater productions, the Louisville-based group presents bilingual children’s plays.
“Our largest audiences are for the bilingual children’s plays. You get everyone from grandparents who want to come enjoy the play with their grandchildren to single people because they know it’s going to be entertaining,” Canovas said. “We really want families to come enjoy the theater together.”
The Irish and bluegrass music group Cloigheann, based in Bardstown, has been around for about 30 years, said founding member and guitarist Mark Rosenthal.
“We have several of our members who are part of other bands who’ve already been in the Performing Artists Directory, but we’re excited to be part of it as Cloigheann,” Rosenthal said. “We love sharing our music, and finding a new audience for it is something else we’re excited about. We’ve written a fair amount of new material, but haven’t recorded it yet. Getting in the directory will help breathe some new life into the band.” The arts council endeavors to promote, showcase and provide professional development opportunities to a diverse selection of Kentucky’s finest contemporary and traditional performing artists through the Performing Artists Directory.
For more information on the Performing Artists Directory, contact Tamara Coffey, individual artist director, at 502-892-3121, or tamara.coffey@ky.gov or visit the arts council’s Performing Artists Directory page.
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.
