The 2026 LVA Honors is on March 20th, and this week, Education Honoree Ying Kit Chan will join us in the studio. Tune into Artists Talk with LVA on WXOX 97.1 FM each Thursday at 10 AM.
Ying Kit Chan has served on the University of Louisville faculty in the Hite Institute for Art + Design since 1984, dedicating over four decades to art, teaching, and service at the university and in the profession.
His research and creative practices across multiple media focus on a philosophical approach to nature, the environment, and sustainability. He has participated in over 200 solo and group exhibitions in the United States and internationally, including museums and galleries in Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, Ecuador, Colombia, Germany, Korea, Japan, England, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Portugal. Chan’s art projects have earned numerous honors, including two Kentucky Arts Council Al Smith Visual Arts Fellowships (1994, 2002), a National Endowment for the Arts/Southern Arts Federation Visual Arts Fellowship (1992), and two Great Meadows Foundation professional development travel grants.
In recognition of his teaching, Chan received the Distinguished Teaching Award from the College of Arts and Sciences (2017) and the Outstanding Faculty Mentor of Master's Students Award from the Graduate School (2024).
Chan has regularly led student trips to visit New York and Chicago. He has also taken students to study in Paris, Hong Kong, and China, and will lead a group to Japan in the summer of 2026. He also established an exchange program with the Academy of Visual Arts at Hong Kong Baptist University, enabling a dozen UofL students to study for a semester in Hong Kong. Through museum visits and travel experiences, students directly engage with diverse artistic and cultural traditions. These experiences extend classroom learning to a richer and deeper understanding of art and the world, empowering students to become global citizens.