Artists Talk with LVA: May 1, 2025

Dr. Angela Hagan & Dr. Debra Clary

Debra Clary will be the keynote speaker at the LVA Centennial Luncheon on May 9. She and LVA Director Angela Hagan join us this week to discuss the power of education. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM / Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Dr. Debra Clary is an executive with three decades of leadership experience with prominent companies such as Frito-Lay, Coca-Cola, Jack Daniel’s, and Humana. Her broad-based functional expertise spans from global operations & marketing, strategy development, human resources, to corporate board and investor relations.

Debra has translated her message into the theatrical realm as a testament to her creativity and passion. She wrote and performed the play 'A Curious Woman' off-Broadway in 2023, showcasing her ability to communicate and engage through multiple mediums.

LVA Executive Director Dr. Angela Hagan grew up in southeastern Illinois, but claims Louisville as her adopted hometown after moving here in 1997. Her academic and career path, which has never taken her far from the Ohio River Valley, has related to the ecosystem supporting healthy, vibrant, thriving communities.

 For over a decade, she worked in leadership functions including development, marketing and communications, and community engagement for nonprofit organizations focused on affordable and fair housing, education, youth development, and art (KMAC Museum) before spending a decade at Louisville-based Fortune 60 health plan Humana, where she led functions and teams in member engagement and community health strategy and insights.

Artists Talk with LVA: March 12, 2025

It's almost time for LVA Honors & LVA Executive Director Angela Hagan joined us to talk with two of this year's Honorees: Chuck Swanson & Juliet Taylor. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Dr. Angela Hagan became the Executive Director of Louisville Visual Art in September 2024. For over a decade, she worked in leadership functions including development, marketing and communications, and community engagement for nonprofit organizations focused on affordable and fair housing, education, youth development, and art (KMAC Museum) before spending a decade at Louisville-based Fortune 60 health plan Humana, where she led functions  and teams in member engagement and community health strategy and insights.

Chuck Swanson is an artist, primarily a painter, but he is also one of the pioneer gallerists in Louisville, having opened a gallery on Bardstown Road in 1982 and then in 1998 on East Market Street in what would eventually become the celebrated NuLu neighborhood. For the record, Swanson opened the space near Market and Clay well ahead of the rechristening of the area, so he must be counted as one of the reasons why the once-neglected and depressed environs became a hot spot for redevelopment.

Juliet Taylor is an interdisciplinary artist working with quilting & wearable art. She was a featured designer in the 2024 KMAC Couture and was a part of the Material Obsessions exhibit in the fall of 2024 at KMAC Museum. Most recently she has worked as the lead fabricator on the SPARK sculpture scheduled to be unveiled on the LVA building in February 2025. Juliet was a student in LVA’s Children’s Fine Art Classes and at DuPont Manual Visual Art Magnet.

Artists Talk with LVA: July 11, 2024

As we begin the Centennial year for Louisville Visual Art's Children's Fine Art Classes, LVA opens an exhibit of work from some of the teachers, and 2 of them, Wilma Bethel and Claire Krüeger join us in the studio. Tune in to 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Analog experiments, a love of camp, and melancholy humor inspire Claire Krüeger. Her work includes videos, photographs, illustrations, and zines and she is passionate about community arts, printed matter, and accessible media. She received an MFA in Photography & Film from VCU in 2013. Claire is based in Louisville, KY.

Wilma Bethel has taught for LVA in the Children’s Fine Art Classes for 52 years. She taught for JCPS for over 40 years. She was the first recipient of the LVA Honors in Visual Art Education.

The LVA Teacher’s Exhibit runs July 12 through August 22 at Louisville Visual Art at 1538 Lytle Street. An opening reception with the artists is scheduled for July 12 from 5 - 7 pm.

Artists Talk with LVA: March 7. 2024

Amanda Thompson has been a Visual Art teacher at Western Middle School for the Arts since 2010. She joined LVA’s Children’s Fine Art Classes the same year. She was recently awarded the Baird Excellence Award Outstanding Teacher for Middle School 2023. She served as a Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence Teacher Fellow in 2022 and Classroom Teachers Enacting Positive Solutions fellow in 2020. In collaboration with LVA and PNC Broadway, her classes have participated in 3 separate art installations at Kentucky Center for the Arts for Blue Man Group, Little Mermaid, and Anastasia, the Musical. 

Artists Talk with LVA: August 24, 2023

LVA staff members Grant Johnson & Kristian Anderson will be in the studio this week to talk about LVA's past, present, & future. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Kristian Anderson has 18+ years’ experience in the arts and culture sector, including as Senior Policy Advisor to the Mayor of Salt Lake City. Prior to that, Kristian was for four years the Executive Director of the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art and Executive Director for the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries in Seattle. He was the founder and host of “SLC Culture” – a weekly radio show highlighting arts, culture and social issues.

For the past 3 years he was the Executive Director of LVA where he achieved fiscal stability and growth during a time when a global pandemic brought unprecedented challenges to all non-profit arts organizations. He oversaw the first phase of renovations for the LVA facility in Portland, which focused on bringing the building up to code and giving it greater accessibility, developed the Artist Resource Series providing advice and instruction for practicing adult artists, and in partnership with artist and donor Clare Hirn initiated the Curate Purchase and Inspire (CPI) program designed to foster curatorial practice and install permanent exhibits of art purchased from local artists in community non-profits. 

Grant Johnson is Strategic Communications Coordinator for LVA. He holds an MFA in Printmaking from West Virginia University, and a BA in Religion from Williams College. His work life includes 13 years’ experience teaching all studio art disciplines, art history, film, and art education at the college level. He has also worked as a freelance graphic designer, in online retail, and in a variety of sales and management positions.

A working artist, Grant’s studio practice focuses on commissioned oil portraits, but also includes sculpture, video, printmaking, and drawing.

Grant’s passions for writing and for LVA’s mission find additional purpose in his role as the organization’s in-house Grants Administrator. His lifelong commitment to promoting the value of visual art and art education has never been more at home than it is at LVA.