Mary Carothers, new chair of the Hite Institute of Art & Design, & Kat Cox, the new Ceramics/Fiber instructor, join us this week to discuss new growth at U of L. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Keith Waits talk with artists.
Mary Carothers has been a professor at Hite Art Institute, Louisville, Kentucky since 1998 and is currently the Department Chair. Her artworks are often site-specific. Carothers’ collaborative project with Sue Wrbican , The Frozen Car (2008) was featured on the Discovery Channel, Floating Seeds (2013), juried by COD+A (Commission of Design and Architecture) received an international merit award and most recently, her sculptural commission Beneath the Surface was recognized by Americans for the Arts as one of 38 of the most outstanding public art projects created in 2015. Beneath the Surface was reinstalled permanently at Great Meadows Estate owned by Al Shands in 2016.
Originally from Southern California, Kat Cox joined the Fine Arts faculty at University of Louisville in the middle of 2021. Previously, Kat was living and working in Northern California as an Art Lab Technician and Adjunct Professor. She is a 2019 graduate from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with her Masters of Fine Arts in Art focusing on ceramics. She received her Bachelors of Fine Arts from California State University Long Beach in the spring of 2015. She has worked in clay and fibers since a young age and uses both mediums within her work. Kat’s work has been exhibited at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, and The Epperson Gallery.
Vidalia Unwin, Joyce Barbour, & Alexis Kite talk about their work and the experience of being a trans artist in Louisville. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday to hear Keith Waits talk with artists.
Joyce Barbour (She/They) is a transfeminine multimedia artist focusing primarily on sound and installation. Conceptually, Barbour’s work often explores the therapeutic possibilities of art and the idea of creativity as a communal effort. Collaboration is a strong part of her creative practice.
Alexis Kite is a Louisville artist in the mediums of music, cartooning, and being an Art Hoe. Her main work in the ongoing diary comic Is Life. She was the guitarist for the trans radical punk band Bathroom Laws, and will eventually re-establish her current music project, Syldra. Lexi is also known for being a bimbo and loving 80's era video gaming.
Vidalia Unwin is an actress and playwright who studied creative writing at the University of Louisville and studied theater unofficially at Bellarmine University. Her full length credits include Domesticate, Punk Snot, Broken Iris, and The Ballad of Night Moose (co-written by Lex Mitchell). Her short plays include Cruise Control, Hunting For Jackalopes, and Hiding on Jupiter. She has worked with several Louisville theatre companies including Derby City Playwrights and Looking for Lilith Theatre Company.
Raphaela Platow assumed her new role as the Director of The Speed Museum on August 30, of this year. Platow has served as the Alice & Harris Weston Director of the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in Cincinnati, Ohio since 2007. This week she came to speak with us about it. Join us at WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am.
During her 14 years at the CAC, Platow increased annual attendance fourfold. This growth follows two major initiatives driven by Platow to enhance the CAC’s physical space and improve visitor experience through renovations and the implementation of free admission for all in 2016. Under her leadership, she doubled its annual operating budget through substantial increases in earned revenue and private support and made both environmental sustainability and diversity, equity, and inclusion key priorities.
Desmone Stepp is an artist and the Outreach Coordinator for Louisville Visual Art. She joins us to talk about her work and the new initiatives she is developing at LVA. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear artists talk about their work.
Desmone Stepp is the new Outreach Coordinator for Louisville Visual Arts. She is a recent graduate from the University of Louisville, earning her Bachelor's Degree in Art with a minor in Psychology. Her artwork consists of oil paintings and charcoal drawings that express the beauty of Black women and Mother Nature. Desmone has a background in bringing stress resilience and coping skills to her community in the form of mindfulness and meditation, working 2-years as a Health Advocate Leader for UofL’s Health Promotion Department. In this space, she learned to use art as a means for creating loving and rejuvenating atmospheres for others, as well as herself. As a Health Advocate Leader, Desmone also worked in outreach, organizing and facilitating workshops that connected the campus community. She has also worked as an artist and volunteer with the Healing Walls Project, an organization of BIPOC artists who travel across the United States promoting healing and justice, for those who have been marginalized and oppressed, through the use of public art.
The University of Louisville Theatre department has opened a production of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at The Playhouse and runs through November 21 It is directed by Jennifer Pennington and engages with ideas about gender fluidity and non-binary identity in creative ways that follow Shakespeare’s text. Three of the cast members talked with us about their experience with the production.
Allie Firell is a playwright, actor, journalist, who has worked with or written about a good majority of arts groups and artists in the Louisville area. They are a candidate for an MFA from the University of Louisville Theatre Dept.
Sarah Chen Elston is an actor, director, and educator from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She holds a BA in Theatre from both Point Park University and Guilford College.. Currently a candidate for an MFA from the University of Louisville Theatre Dept.
Jahii Bogard is an actorfrom Atlanta, Georgia. He studied theatre at Greensboro College and is currently a candidate for an MFA from the University of Louisville Theatre Dept.
