KyArtsCast

The Kentucky Arts Council welcomes a new host, and celebrates Arts & Humanities Month in the Commonwealth

It's been my pleasure for the past five years to produce this podcast. It started out as a wild idea, and has evolved into an amazing mode of communication that allows us to more thoroughly tell the Kentucky Arts Council's stories. Today, my time as producer and host comes to an end. I've had a wonderful time on this podcast journey, and now it's time to turn it over to other voices as it continue...

Amy Roblero-Perez is ending her one-year term as the first Kentucky Youth Poet Laureate. We chat with her about her reaction to beign named to the position, what she's been doing the past year, and hear readings of her work. We'll also talk with Jordan Campbell, executive director of Gateway Regional Arts Center in Mt. Sterling, which sponsors the Kentucky Youth Poet Laureate program. He'll discus...

For a long time, the world of school band directors was largely dominated by men. This demographic has shifted over the years to include more women and increased diversity. Dr. Sue Creasap, professor emeritus and former associate director of bands at Morehead State University, leads a robust conversation that includes retired Jefferson County Schools band director Nan Moore, University of Louisvil...

We are getting closer to The Kentucky Crafted Market, March 9-10 at the Kentucky Horse Park's Alltech Arena. It is. perhaps. the Kentucky Arts Council's most visible event each year. In this episode we chat with four artists in the Kentucky Crafted program who are exhibiting and selling work at The Market: Dodie Wrocklage-Harp, Rob Bridges, Addison Williams and Michelle Hayden. Learn about their w...

What should Kentucky's public school students know about the arts by the time they have graduated? Jessica Greene, a performing and visual arts consultant to the Kentucky Department of Education, discusses that topic and talks about how Kentuckians can weigh in on those standards. Cynthia Warner, the Kentucky Arts Council's arts education director, interviews Jessica for this important conversatio...

Kentucky Arts Council spring intern Ashanti Grace Castleberry and arts council communications director Tom Musgrave learn more about Hip Hop Into Learning (HHN2L), a Louisville-based nonprofit arts education organization that received a $500,000 Accelerator Award from The Lewis Prize for Music. Ashanti chats with The Lewis Prize CEO Dalouge Smith and Tom continues the conversation with HHN2L cofou...

The Kentucky Arts Council's Chris Cathers and Tom Musgrave travel to the Kentucky Artisan Center's Todd Finley and Aly Norton about holiday gift giving, what the Artisan Center has planned for the season, and how you can give the gift of Kentucky-made art. Episode footnotes: Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea Kentucky Crafted Directory List of Kentucky Crafted Retailers

In this seasonal episode, we explore the intersection of the arts and the macabre with a trio of segments featuring storyteller Octavia Sexton, folklorist and podcaster Camille Maria Acosta and theatre professional Bo List.  Episode footnotes: Octavia Sexton's links Performing Artists Directory Teaching Artists Directory Floaties for Krakens Podcast site Leeds Center for the Arts Haunted Theatres...

In this episode of KyArtsCast we introduce the new Kentucky Arts Council arts education director Cynthia Warner, and talk to teaching artist Jane Dewey and high school student Cooper Bartlett, a member of Kentuckians for the Arts' Youth Arts Council. Episode footnotes: Kentucky Youth Arts Council Instagram   Kentuckians for the Arts website Contact Jane Dewey: jane.dewey@danville.kyschools.us

In early 2023, the National Endowment for the Arts announced its first round of funding for the year, which included $350,000 awarded in Kentucky. Among those awards were two for Kentucky literary artists. Poet makalani bandele received a $25,000 Literature Fellowship for creative writing, and Kristen Renee Miller received $10,000 for a Literature Fellowship for translation projects. Listen as Ken...

The holidays are upon us and our hearts and minds turn toward gift giving. We join Todd Finley and Aly Norton on location at the Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea to talk about giving the gift of Kentucky-made art and craft, recordings of your favorite Kentucky musicians and storytellers, season tickets to Kentucky theatre organizations or musical groups, memberships to Kentucky museums and galleri...

Asia Institute Crane House in Louisville was one of 17 organizations to be designated a Southern Cultural Treasure by South Arts. In this episode we talk with AICH Executive Director Joel Buno and South Arts Vice President of Programs Dr. Joy Young. We'll learn about what it means to be a Southern Cultural Treasure and how Asia Institute Crane House fits into that tapestry. BONUS AUDIO: Dr. Joy Yo...

In this episode, which is taken from the Kentucky Arts Council's Arts Day(s) in Kentucky presentations in March, Community Scholars and curators Maxine Ray and Wathetta Buford join Kentucky Museum Director Brent Bjorkman to discuss joining forces to rescue treasured art, artifacts and documents of Bowling Green's African American Museum in the aftermath of the December 2021 tornado. Episode footno...

We return to presentations from Arts Day(s) in Kentucky for this episode, which focuses on the impact of the devastating tornado that tore through western Kentucky in December 2021. In this presentation we'll hear from Ice House director Nanc Gunn about efforts to re-establish space for the gallery while continuing to serve the artists, arts community and the region in the wake of the disaster. We...

We're excited to be recording in-person again, and in this episode we go on the road to the University of Kentucky campus to talk with Crystal Gregory, an associate professor in the university's school of art and visual studies. Crystal was recently named the Kentucky State Fellow in the 2022 South Arts Southern Prize Competition. That distinction carries a $5,000 cash award and puts Crystal in th...

This episode is a audio from a presentation during Arts Day(s) in Kentucky. It features three artists whose work is in the Kentucky Arts Council's traveling exhibit "Our Kentucky Home: Hispanic/Latin American Visual in the Commonwealth." You can view a slideshow of the entire exhibit on the arts council website. Episode footnote: Online slideshow of "Our Kentucky Home: Hispanic/Latin American Visu...

Today, Oct. 21, has been designated by the National Endowment for the Arts to be a day to focus on health and wellness in the arts as we celebrate National Arts and Humanities Month. We thought it would be a good idea to highlight an important grant program, the Rauschenberg Medical Emergency Grant, administered by the New York Foundation for the Arts. This program provides one-time grants of up t...

  "Don't turn yourself down." That's advice Joyce Garner gives to her fellow Kentucky artists about taking opportunities to advance and promote their work. Joyce was recently named the Kentucky State Fellow in the South Arts Southern Prize competition. Her work will be considered, along with state fellows from each of the South Arts member states, for the $25,000 Southern Prize, which will be anno...

"Everyone asks me, especially when I'm traveling around the country...'What is it? feel like you all have something special there in Kentucky. Why is it that this idea of a Kentucky writer is such a special thing?' And I think it's special because we're always reaching out for the next wave of writers. That's been part of the tradition." Learn more about the woman who will be Kentucky's literary a...

Arts Week in Kentucky is coming, Feb. 22-26! On this episode of the podcast we get a taste of what to expect during Arts Week with Lori Meadows, chair of Kentuckians for the Arts, and Mark Brown, the Kentucky Arts Council's folk and traditional arts director. Each of them will have a role in bringing the great programming on tap for Arts Week in Kentucky, and they are just the tip of the iceberg....

The Kentucky Arts Council's communications and technology branch manager Sandie Lawrence is retiring at the end of 2020, closing a chapter on her 25-year career at the Kentucky Arts Council. She recently chatted with coworkers Tom Musgrave and Emily Moses about building the arts council's first website, the advent of that strange new communications method called email, what she'll miss about worki...

Last year, we spent time with the folks who lead Consolidated Baptist Church's Summer Enrichment Program, a unique education program, which includes the arts among other academic disciplines. This program serves the youth of Lexington, lasting for several weeks, and we supported it with funding last year. When they wanted to go virtual for this summer, we provided assistance again in the form of a...

This past spring, the Kentucky Arts Council, with our friends at the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, entered into a partnership with the for-profit group Artrepreneur. Founded in 2015, Artrepreneur is an e-commerce platform that serves more than 40,000 visual and craft artists from more than 50 countries. Joining us are Steve Schlackman from Artrepreneur, Heather Pontonio of the Emily Hall Tremain...

Kentucky's connection to poetry will be the subject of a an upcoming episode of the documentary series "Poetry Unites America." On this episode of KyArtsCast, we talk with Ewa Sandrzynska, the documentary filmmaker behind the series, about how Kentuckians can contribute to the episode via an essay contest she is conducting. Deadline for submission to the contest is Sept. 15, so listen to this epis...