Artebella On The Radio: January 9, 2020

Alonzo Ramont, Shaquille Towns & Marcus Fischer joined Keith in the studio to talk and sing about Choir Boy from Pandora Productions, which opens January 10. The result was an insightful discussion of inclusion in Louisville and Southern Indiana theatre. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM, or stream on Artxfm.com at 10am each Thursday to hear Keith Waits talk to to artists about their work.

Alonzo Ramont is Owner and Artistic Director of Redline Performing Arts. He is also the Executive Pastor of All Nations Worship Assembly Louisville. Alonzo's experience as Spotlight Theatre Camp Director, Asst. Director of Early Childhood Education at the Jewish Community Center of Louisville, Artistic Director at SC Theatre and New Albany Riverstage Productions. He recently appeared in Beauty and the Beast and directed Dreamgirls, both at CenterStage at JCC.

Shaquille Towns studied at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York. he has appeared in Hairspray, A Raisin In The Sun, and in Dreamgirls at CenterStage at JCC.

Marcus Fischer has worked with CenterStage at JCC, TheaterWorks of Southern Indiana, Kentucky Black Repertory Theatre, and Faithworks Studios.

Choir Boy by Tarell Alvin McCraney with Guest Director: Alonzo Ramont

Race and sexuality collide with the gravity of history at the Charles R. Drew Prep School for Boys is dedicated to the creation of strong, ethical black men. The sweet harmonies of spirituals and gospel unite the fractious voices of the young men but when they raise their voices in unison, they offer a glimpse of a world in which the cruelty that can divide and destroy is dissolved in a graceful order.

January 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25 @ 7:30 pm; 12 @ 2:30 & 19 @ 5:30 pm

Artebella on The Radio: January 2, 2020

Katherine Martin

Jack Wallen

None of these talented thespians will be there, but the man who created these images, photographer Bill Brymer, was Keith's first guest of 2020 talking about his current exhibit at Kore Gallery. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM, or stream on ARTXFM.COM every Thursday at 10:00am to hear Keith Waits talk with artists.

INSPIRED LOUISVILLE: ACTORS is a photography exhibition in celebration of Louisville’s theatrical community. The show opens at Louisville’s KORE Gallery (942 E. Kentucky Street, Louisville, KY 40204) January 2 and runs through February 2, 2020. Photographer Bill Brymer asked 40 local actors and artistic directors to sit for portraits in either the role that most inspired them to become actors, or in the role they’d most like to play some day. The actors also provided brief commentary illuminating their choices.

Meg Caudill

There will be an Artist’s Reception at KORE Gallery Saturday, January 4, from 6:00-8:30 pm.

Bill Brymer has been photographing local performing arts groups since 2009: his photographs have appeared in The New York Times, The Courier-Journal, American Theatre, Opera News, LEO Weekly, Arts-Louisville and elsewhere. Bill lives in Louisville, KY with his wife Sarah and daughter Ruby.

Artebella On The Radio: December 19, 2019

Playwright, poet, and Artistic Director of Stage One Family Theatre Idris Goodwin and spoken word artist Morgan Allison were in the studio with Keith this week reading from, among others, idris' new collection, "Can I Kick It?" Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM, or stream on Artxfm.com each Thursday to hear Keith Waits talk with artists.

Idris Goodwin is an award-winning playwright, director, orator and educator. He is the Producing Artistic Director of Stage One Family Theater in Louisville, KY for which he penned the widely produced And In This Corner: Cassius Clay. Other widely produced plays include: How We Got On, This Is Modern Art co-written with Kevin Coval, Bars and Measures, The Raid, and Hype Man: a break beat play which was just produced by Actors Theatre of Louisville. His poetry collection, Can I Kick It?, has just been published.

Morgan-Allison is a Louisville native and a graduate of Lane College and Vanderbilt University. She has been a spoken word artist for 7 plus years and spoken word is just a portion of who she truly is. Her particular interest is to use her voice to ask the hard questions or join into conversations that most people want to avoid.

She leads by example as her goal with her poetry is to inspire others to be open and walk in their truths, which she does through her poetry.

Artebella On The Radio: December 12, 2019

Mountain Landscape. Breathitt County Kentucky, 2015. Bob Hower

Photographers Bob Hower & Ted Wathen were with us in the studio this week to talk about the Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project and “Looking at Kentucky Anew…” the Louisville Visual Art exhibit at Metro Hall featuring that work. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM, or stream on Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to listen to Keith Waits talk with artists.

Bob Hower

The Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project is the state’s third photographic recording done in 40-year increments. Taking inspiration from the work of the Farm Security Administration (1935–1943) and building on the success of the original Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project (1975–1977), which included Bob & Ted, The Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project will go into each of the state’s 120 counties making a contemporary visual record of Kentucky. This will be the third time in an eighty year period that photographers have roamed the state recording the landscape and how Kentuckians live, work and play.

Bob & Ted’s Gallery Talk about the exhibit is Friday, December 13 at Noon in the 4th floor Mayor’s Gallery at Metro Hall, 527 West Jefferson Street, Louisville.

Ted Wathen

Bob Hower is a Louisville based photographer who was born in Boston and educated at Middlebury College. ... His work is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The International Center of Photography, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Kentucky Historical Society, and The Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Ted Wathen was born in 1947 in Louisville, Kentucky. He graduated from St. Xavier High School in Louisville, received a BA in history at the University of Virginia, and an MFA in photography from the University of Florida. Prior to receiving his MFA, Wathen was a naval officer serving on the U.S.S. Yorktown.

Other photographers who have worked on this new phase of the project and are featured in the Metro Hall exhibit are Ross Gordon, Sarah Lyon, Zed Saeed, Alyssa Schukar, Brittany Greeson, Rachel Boillot, & Harrison Hill.

Public Art Spotlight: Hogan's Fountain by Enid Yandell

Photo: Metro Louisville Commission on Public Art

 We call attention to Enid Yandell at the end of 2019, which was her 150th birthday, and as we move into 2020, which is the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote. Yandell was an ardent member of the suffragist movement and an internationally recognized artist who studied with Frederick MacMonnies and Auguste Rodin in Paris. In 1898 she became the first woman inducted into the National Sculpture Society.

Yandell created some of Louisville’s most venerable and familiar public sculptures and her birthday was recognized with seven exhibits at various locations throughout the year, and in March her Hometown Hero banner, one of the last of that series, was installed on the Harbison Condominiums building near Fort Nelson Park, located at Seventh and Main streets in Louisville Kentucky.

The Metro Louisville Committee on Public Art (COPA) website relates the history of Hogan’s Fountain:

“In 1903, not long after the completion of Ruff Memorial Fountain and Wheelman's Bench, Yandell was approached by General John Breckinridge Castleman (1841—1918), founder of the Louisville Parks Department and a close friend of the Yandell family, to design a fountain for Cherokee Park. Hogan's Fountain was commissioned by prominent merchant William J. Hogan and his wife, who actively collaborated with Yandell about the choice of subject matter. By that time, Yandell was living and working from her studio in Paris, where she created the Louisville work and had it shipped to the States for construction.” 

“Hogan's Fountain, which was originally intended as a watering fountain for horses and dogs, is topped with a small bronze figure of the mythical Pan, god of nature, the wild, shepherds, flocks, and goats, among other things. Pan, who has the body of a human but the hindquarters and legs of a goat, appears to dance in a patch of lily pads and cattails, holding his famous lute above his head, presumably having just used it to call the animals of the nearby park. Yandell represents Pan's "flock" below, where bronze turtles spout water into the large basin and, located underneath at the base of the fountain, several small dog heads act as water fountains for park—goers' leashed dogs. Yandell, always intent to capture her subjects accurately, is said to have modeled the bronze turtles from live turtles she found near Louisville.” (KTF)

For many who came of age in Louisville, the fountain was a touchstone for after school gatherings and family events, the broad, open space surrounded by trees with its nearby pavilion comprising arguably the most welcoming spot in Cherokee Park.  

And, not surprisingly, Hogan’s Fountain is the subject of an urban legend that allows that, at every full moon the statue of Pan comes down from the perch to wander the park, creating mischief for innocent passers by.

Hogan’s Fountain
1905
Bronze/Vermont Granite

Scroll down for more images

Hogan's Fountain/Pan, c. 1906-1916

Hogan’s Fountain at Cherokee Park, 1905. Historic photo provided by the University of Louisville Archives and Special Collections, Claude C. Matlack Collection.

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Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2019 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved. In addition to his work at the LVA, Keith is also the Managing Editor of a website, Arts-Louisville.com, which covers local visual arts, theatre, and music in Louisville.