News

What does the Ohio River bring to mind?

Is it a biome? A threat? A provider of livelihoods?

For students participating in “36 Miles: Revealing the Ohio,” a collaborative, creative research project, the river is all of these things and more.

Gresham, Smith and Partners’ Urban Design and Landscape Architecture Studio hosted “36 Miles” in partnership with UofL’s Hite Art Institute and the University of Kentucky Department Of Landscape Architecture.

The purpose of the project is to bridge art and design education, increase environmental awareness and connect people with Louisville’s hallmark waterway.

“The goal is to reconnect the general public with the history and culture of the river by telling its story in an approachable, highly visual way,” said Louis R. Johnson, project manager with Gresham, Smith and Partners. “The team will reveal important moments in Louisville’s River History and special places unknown to many residents.”

The project resulted in an exhibition at the newly opened Louisville Visual Arts, 1538 Lytle St., through May 13. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

Nine students from Hite’s advanced photography class, taught by associate professor Mary Carothers, participated in the project and have pieces on display.

“My artwork examines the river as the backbone of Louisville,” said Hite student Kelsi Wermuth. “Its vital existence is the reason human beings settled in the area. Just as the spine is the main neurological delivery system in our bodies, more cargo is delivered through the Ohio River than any other water system in our nation. This photographic sculpture references the life this geographical feature gives humanity.”

Two Hite students have fathers who are both river boat captains, which inspired their pieces.

Chelsea Wolfe used texts and pictures of her father’s location on his boat’s route with coordinates to compile a large-scale photo map of his trip.

Kathryn Harrington worked with her father to choose their favorite images from his trips to create an archive of what the river means to him as a captain: a livelihood, way of life and home away from home.

Carothers, who has also created art tied to the river, said she was impressed with what the students accomplished through the project, and hopes to continue the work in the future.

“I’d love to design a class around it,” she said.

Courier Journal:
http://www.courier-journal.com/story/entertainment/arts/visual/2016/05/05/ohio-river-defined-via-art-and-design/83833484/

Fine Arts graduating senior Katlyn Brumfield’s honor thesis “A World in Flux: Envisioning Climate Change from an Ecocentric Perspective” received the “Best College Honors Thesis Project” award in the Humanities Division. This thesis is truly multidisciplinary: her thesis director is Professor Ying Kit Chan (Fine Arts), and committee members are Professor John Gibson (Philosophy) and Professor Margaret Carreiro (Biology).

Katlyn will be graduating magna cum laude in May 2016. She has produced a large charcoal drawing entitled “Bioverse I” as part of her thesis.

Image: Katlyn Brumfield, "Bioverse I," 72” x 45”, charcoal on paper, 2016.

Since last summer, the peer-reviewed Art Journal has published an archive project featuring art historians’ bookshelves that highlight their current research. For the month of March this year, Professor Jongwoo Jeremy Kim was invited to share his bookshelf.

About the journal:

"The mission of Art Journal, founded in 1941, is to provide a forum for scholarship and visual exploration in the visual arts; to be a unique voice in the field as a peer-reviewed, professionally mediated forum for the arts.” (http://artjournal.collegeart.org/…).

Archipedia Kentucky is Live! Hite Art Institute Assistant Professor (term) Cristina Carbone and her team of scholars, including fellow University of Louisville faculty Benjamin Hufbauer and Daniel Vivian, have just published over 50 essays on the architecture of Kentucky for the Society of Architectural Historians Archipedia, the open-access encyclopedia of American architecture. This nation-wide project is sponsored by a National Endowment for the Humanities “We the People Grant” and the Graham Foundation for the Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and is published by Rotunda: University of Virginia Press. http://sah-archipedia.org

Temple Adath Israel, Paducah, KY. 1877-1878, architect unknown. Photo by Mitch Eckert.

The Cardiovascular Innovation Institute (CII) and the Department of Fine Arts/Hite Art Institute will host “The heART Show,” featuring displays on research from the CII and art from the Hite institute. The event will be held 5:30-8:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 24, at the CII, 302 E. Muhammad Ali Blvd. Admission and valet parking are free.

Featured art will be provided by UofL faculty and students who are enrolled in the Department of Fine Arts. Associate Professor of Art Scott Massey, head of both the Studio Programs and Sculpture Programs, organized the art display.

“Both the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute and the Hite Institute want to engage people outside of our usual audiences to encourage awareness of our respective programs,” Massey said.

Among the artists displaying their work are Nicholas Cook, showing a digital color print; Jackson Taylor with a silkscreen print; and Jenee Sue Rastry, showing a black and white photo superimposed with a digital design.

The heART Show is supported by Lenihan-Sotheby’s International Reality. For additional information, contact Danielle Jostes, 502-852-7448.

About the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute

Since opening its doors in 2007, the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute has focused on the discovery, development and implementation of innovative treatments for cardiovascular disease. The CII’s main goal is to foster a world-class collaborative, integrated, multi-disciplinary enterprise encompassing basic, translational, clinical and population research in cardiovascular disease, affecting individuals throughout their entire lifespan, from prenatal life to death. The CII is a partnership effort of the University of Louisville and the Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence.

About the Hite Art Institute, Department of Fine Arts

Established in 1937 at the University of Louisville Department of Fine Arts and endowed as the Hite Art Institute in 1946, the institute is the most comprehensive fine arts program in Kentucky. Twenty-four full-time faculty members guide 400 undergraduate and graduate majors in the combined studio, art history and critical and curatorial studies areas. The institute offers a wide array of study specialty areas, including art history, ceramics, drawing, fiber, glass, graphic design, interior design, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture and critical and curatorial studies. The institute was endowed in recognition of the bequest of Allen R. and Marcia S. Hite of Louisville.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The University of Louisville plans to house its master of fine arts program studios in renovated Portland warehouse space near a growing community of arts-related businesses and organizations.

The University of Louisville Foundation will lease 27,000 square feet, which is about a third of the vacant two-story brick building at 1606 Rowan St., for 10 years from Rowan Downstream LLC.  Interior renovations will revamp the first floor and second-floor mezzanine, with completion planned by the spring 2017 semester. The 1880s building formerly served as a floor-covering distribution business, storage warehouse and a senior nutrition center, among other uses.

“We are proud to be a university tied closely to its larger community, and this expansion into western Louisville’s revitalization is another example of how we all benefit from working together,” President James Ramsey said.

UofL’s MFA degree in studio arts and design was approved and launched in 2014. The 60-credit-hour program is intended to be selective, rigorous and professional with small classes to ensure participants have substantial access to studios and faculty members. MFA students can participate in a variety of media, moving across disciplines, or focus on one area.

Courses include ceramics, drawing, fiber, glass, painting, printmaking, sculpture, design, mixed media, book arts and interior architecture.

“The location in the historic Portland neighborhood will not only provide MFA students and our studio art faculty members with a ‘home’ but it also will extend our university’s presence in west Louisville,” said Kimberly Kempf-Leonard, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “So this is not just about a new space for us. It’s about giving our faculty and students a way to infuse community into their art and art into the community.”

Rowan Downstream’s partners include Gill Holland, a developer noted for leading revitalization efforts in Louisville’s NuLu and Portland neighborhoods. Other Rowan partners are Jacob Brown and Justin Brown, both of The Marian Group, Chad Middendorf, Ashley Blacketer, Gregg Rochman, Matt Gilles and Jonathan Bevan.

“Adding the University of Louisville program to the neighborhood is key to enhancing the cultural vitality and economic revitalization of Portland,” Holland said. “The MFA students and faculty will enliven the redesigned space and contribute to the area’s positive growth. It shows great leadership on the part of our state’s leading institution of higher education to establish a presence west of Ninth Street.”

“We are excited our MFA studios will be part of the larger renewal of a unique community,” said Ying Kit Chan, fine arts department chair. “Portland is a meaningful place for Louisville, rich in historic landmarks and in close proximity to downtown and the river.”

For more information, check http://uofl.me/as-mfa-studio

Press:

SEE IT: University of Louisville's new home for the Hite Art Institute

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/entertainment/arts/2016/02/11/u-l-have-artists-studios-portland/80235202/#

http://insiderlouisville.com/lifestyle_culture/u-of-l-eyes-portland-warehouse-to-relocate-its-art-studios/

http://brokensidewalk.com/2016/uofl-portland/

http://wfpl.org/u-l-approves-studio-art-mfa-program/

http://insiderlouisville.com/business/real-estate/gill-holland-plans-apartments-retail-for-portland-corner/

The University of Louisville’s Schneider Hall Galleries is pleased to present an exhibition exploring the relationship between feminism, craft, and socially engaged art. Featuring the International Honor Quilt exhibited for the first time in its entirety, “Capturing Women’s History” celebrates Judy Chicago’s significant and ongoing impact on the history and production of feminist art. The International Honor Quilt was facilitated by Susan Hill and Diane Gelon, and is composed of 539 individual triangular quilts produced by women and groups from around the world.Each panel celebrates a woman, organization, or issue central to feminist engagement, and combined they map an expansive network of voices in solidarity.

In addition to the Quilt, the exhibition features the 1985 Hot Flash Fan, a work initiated by Ann Stewart Anderson and Judy Chicago. Like the Quilt, the Fan is a collaborative project, and features mixed media quilting contributions from 50 Kentucky artists. The exhibition also includes historical documentation of the projects and material related to the history of socially engaged art. In 2013, the Hite Art Institute was gifted the International Honor Quilt and its ephemera by Through The Flower, a non-profit organization created by Judy Chicago in 1980. The Hite Art Institute in association with the University of Louisville is charged with utilizing the project to promote social engagement and inspire change.

Capturing Women’s History: Quilts, Activism, and Storytelling

Schneider Hall Galleries, Belknap Campus
Hite Art Institute | University of Louisville
On view: February 1 - March 19
Opening reception: February 12, 6 - 8 p.m.
Remarks by Suzanne Lacy at 7p.m.

Judy Chicago: Fire Works

Cressman Center for Visual Arts
Hite Art Institute | University of Louisville
100 East Main Street
On view: February 18 - April 16
Opening reception: March 4, 6 - 8 p.m.

A Judy Chicago Trifecta in Louisville
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/A-Judy-Chicago-Trifecta-in-Louisville.html?soid=1102329572044&aid=BPfcoLoh1Jw

Great interview by Professor Margaret Leininger on Good Day Live.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9kdit9-Y0U&feature=youtu.be

Interview with Shelly Zegart on the The International Honor Quilt!
http://www.pbs.org/video/2365619304/

Feminist quilt to be displayed at U of L
http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2016/01/15/feminist-quilt-displayed-u-l/78848054/#

Courier Journal
http://www.courier-journal.com/story/entertainment/arts/visual/2016/02/15/international-honor-quit-gets-rare-showing/79614064/#

LEO
http://www.leoweekly.com/2016/02/hot-flash-fan-and-international-honor-quilt-on-display/

International Quilt Database
http://uofl.me/intl-honor-quilt

The Hite Art Institute continues to actively participate at the College Art Association (CAA) conference every year. At the 2016 annual conference in Washington DC, the Hite Art Institute is represented by one current PhD student, one PhD graduate, and two faculty members.

• Professor Margaret Leininger will present her conference lecture:
"Bridging the Gap: Using Social Practice to Connect Disparate Communities"

Mayor Greg Fischer will unveil the new exhibit in a press conference Friday at 11 a.m., and the public is invited to a celebration that day at 6 p.m., on the Louisville Loop, between 8th and 12th streets.

Artists were invited to help transform the stretch along the Ohio River, which has been slated for improvement, with temporary art installations that will remain on display for three months. The art is meant to inspire the public to conceive of the space in new and innovative ways.

Carothers’ piece, “Beneath the Surface,” features more than 2,300 porcelain casts of doorknobs affixed to rods of various heights, arranged into a flowing topography, each representing an individual’s story in the community.

Carothers, whose work focuses on photography, collaborative projects and urban a public art, said she chose porcelain as a way to acknowledge the white clay of the Ohio River. The topography of doorknobs is meant to recognize various people and industries connected to her chosen site.

“The installation's form is inspired by the movement of a river,” she said. “Examining them individually, the knobs each stand like a map pin, marking the land's forgotten stories of life along this part of the Ohio River.”

Twenty-five doorknob designs can be found in the installation. Some have been collected and some have been designed by Carothers as a way to “surface official and unofficial history,” she said.

Among those she created include a small hand holding a banana.

“Local historian Tom Owen informed me that this area was once known as Little Panama. Bananas were shipped from Panama, up the Mississippi, on to the Ohio River and then distributed from this area to various states in the Midwest,” she said.

Carothers designed a hair bun doorknob in honor of Elmer Lucille Allen, the first African American to work as a chemist for Brown-Forman. Allen is now in her 80's and a current student in UofL's Fine Arts Department.

Another doorknob features a lion from Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is from the door of St. Marks Church and was writer C.S. Lewis' inspiration for the character Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia.

“Including this knob provided me the opportunity to recall Bloody Monday- an act of mob violence toward Irish Catholic immigrants that occurred here in 1855,” Carothers said.

Carothers worked with three assistants to complete the project: Marie Elena Ottman, an M.F.A. candidate; Luke Seward, recent B.F.A. graduate and Oty Stewart, a ceramics specialist.

Distillers Brandon O'Daniel and Alan Bishop discuss our unique, small batch gin distillation and barrel aging.

Only 500 x 375mL bottles will be produced and sold at the distillery store. The original label art is illustrated by renowned artist Douglas Miller Art who will be on hand to sign bottles.

“You can have so much fun distilling, Gin is not really our thing, truthfully. But we have experimented occasionally, and this turned out really fantastically. The apple-brandy base gives a natural “Old Tom” style profile, and one barrel in a cellar is essentially a stray – so we called it the Stray Cat. We also have a very strong affection for Brian Setzer.” - Founder Joe Heron.

“We don’t dabble at distilling. For us to release a gin it needed to be exceptional, something that reflects what we do with our American brandy and absinthe, something that we can be very, very proud of. This is spectacular, it’s a ballsy, confident, independent feline of a gin.” - Head Distiller Brandon O'Daniel.

http://www.copperandkings.com/spirit/stray-cat-gin/

"10,000 Thoughts" consists of forty small sketches and photographic prints embedded with philosophical contemplations of the state of global environmental conditions. He continues to explore the theme of deep ecology, an ecocentric rather than anthropocentric worldview, which emphasizes interconnectedness and harmony of the universe. In addition to the deep ecology philosophy, the work interprets Taoist and Buddhist thoughts, as well as Jewish ideas of nature, rain, tree, soil and the Sabbath.

An original etching by Professor Chan, entitled Palm Trees, will be available for sale. Proceeds will go to the University of Louisville Hite Art Institute Printmaking Scholarship Fund.

Our Art History Professor Jongwoo Jeremy Kim's essay “A Foot and a Sink” appears in the current issue of a leading arts, culture, and politics journal The Brooklyn Rail, celebrating Linda Nochlin's contribution to the field. Professor Nochlin who delivered our 2011 Allen R. Hite Endowed Lecture was Dr. Kim's dissertation advisor at NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts. The Brooklyn Rail’s CRITICS PAGE also marks the publication of The Linda Nochlin Reader (Thames and Hudson, 2015).

Professor Kim’s essay is featured in the journal, together with contributions by Sarah Douglas (Editor-in-Chief of ARTnews magazine), Agnes Gund (President Emerita of the Museum of Modern Art), Elizabeth C. Baker (Editor-at-Large for Art in America), Gerda Tardo (from the Guerrilla Girls), Carol Ockman (Professor of Art History, Williams College), Maura Reiley (Chief Curator at the National Academy Museum and School), and other important figures in the arts.

http://www.brooklynrail.org/2015/07/criticspage/a-foot-and-a-sink

One of Kentucky’s top artists has been honored with a $7,500 Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council for exemplifying excellence in the respective creative disciplines.

The prestigious award, named in honor of former arts council chair and Kentucky journalist Al Smith, recognizes professional artists who have reached a high level of achievement in their careers. Since its beginning in 1983, the program has provided more than $2.5 million in funding to artists in the visual arts, literary arts, media arts, composing and choreography.

In recognition of artistic excellence, Douglas Miller is the recipient of an Al Smith Fellowship Award from the Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, which is supported by state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The 2015 recipient for Visual Arts in Drawing is:
Douglas Miller, visual arts (drawing), Louisville, Jefferson County

“This fellowship provides an exciting opportunity to explore larger, more diverse projects that I would be unable to accomplish without this generous support,” said Louisville-based Miller, whose work has been exhibited throughout Kentucky and in Los Angeles, Cincinnati, and Portland, Oregon. “I’m truly honored.”

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, along with the NEA, is celebrating 50 years of service in 2015, which the arts council is recognizing as the Year of the Arts in Kentucky.

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/entertainment/arts/visual/2015/06/11/julie-leidner-hadley-prize-visual-art/71059798/

http://www.leoweekly.com/2015/06/a-qa-with-glass-artist-and-academic-che-rhodes/

Review of the exhibition ‘Beauty of a Block,’ curated by the students from Yasmeen Siddiqui’s class.  The student curators are Megan Bogard Gettelfinger, Whitney Mashburn, Jessica Oberdick, Elizabeth Smith and Leanna Smith. 

http://www.leoweekly.com/2015/06/art-beauty-of-a-block-women-printmakers-at-hite/

http://arts-louisville.com/2015/06/08/unique-worlds-of-women/

By Benjamin Hufbauer

Obama’s library will no doubt be the grandest temple of spin ever created. When will the falsifying of history stop?

It’s that time again. Two years after George W. Bush dedicated his $500-million Presidential Center at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, President Obama reportedly plans to announce, with considerable fanfare, the site of his own (likely even more expensive) library. Perhaps we should be asking ourselves: Why do all American presidents now get to create these colossal temples of spin dedicated to themselves that, although mostly built with privately-raised money, are largely run by the federal government? Presidential libraries are in some ways like Stephen Colbert’s old show—often surreal in their megalomaniacal self-promotion—but unlike the Colbert Report there’s no irony at these shrines. At the April 24, 2013 dedication of his library, George W. Bush declared that “this beautiful building has my name above the door, but it belongs to you.” Yet should we be grateful?

Read more about Politico

MA student Zhe Dong, an advisee of Prof. Delin Lai (Chinese Art and Architecture), has been accepted to the doctoral program in the Constructed Environment in the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia with a full fellowship that will cover his entire tuition and all other expenses. UVA¹s School of Architecture is placed as high as number 10 in the national ranking for architecture schools, ahead of UC Berkeley, U Penn, and Princeton.

Professor James Grubola has been awarded the 2015 College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Faculty Award in Teaching.

Professor Delin Lai has been awarded the 2015 College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Faculty Award in Outstanding Scholarship, Research, and Creative Activity in the Humanities.

In addition to the awards, Jim and Delin will represent the College to compete for the University-wide awards.