Join Louisville Visual Art in celebration of individuals

that have made a significant impact in our visual art community

at the Louisville Visual Art Honors luncheon.

Louisville Visual Art Honors is already an eagerly anticipated landmark on the city’s Art calendar. Drawing energy from the past, present, and future, the LVA Honors strengthen bonds between successive generations of artists, educators, and appreciative audiences. Recognizing educators and patrons alongside artists, the Louisville Visual Art Honors embrace the entire ecosystem of visual culture, every part of which enhances the prominence, quality, and purposes of Art in our visually vibrant city. Last year’s Honorees will present the Awards to this year’s Honorees, a demonstration of the intergenerational connections necessary to keep art alive in Louisville.

THE 2020 LOUISVILLE VISUAL ART HONOREES

Legacy Award - Billy Hertz

The Legacy Award will be given to an individual that has positively impacted and improved the arts community in many different ways for a time period spanning decades. This individual truly represents what it means leave the world a better place than you found it and their positive impact will be felt, seen, heard, and remembered for generations to come.

A prominent figure of progressive cultural momentum in Louisville often highlighted in national media, Billy Hertz is a path-breaking artist and gallery owner, whose first exhibition space opened at 632 East Market Street in 1991, long before the neighborhood now known as NuLu was fashionable. A passionate gallerist and sought-after painter, Hertz’s loyalty to those he represents and to the highest professional standards – even in the face of daunting health and financial challenges - have inspired and nurtured generations of artists.

Benefactor of the Year Award - Nana Lampton

This award will be given to an individual (at least in the beginning, possibly later to an organization) that has gone above and beyond in giving back to the local artist community. Whether it be through funding education initiatives, sponsoring events, or through personal/familial/estate gifts, this individual has left a lasting impact on the arts community over the past year. 

Poet, painter, philanthropist and life-long resident of Louisville, Nana Lampton holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.A. from the University of Virginia. She is the Chairman of Hardscuffle, Inc., the holding company for American Life and Accident Insurance Company of Kentucky, Sterling Thompson Company, and Hornbeam Insurance. Her charitable interests include downtown development, land conservation, and the arts. A Berea College Trustee who has served on more than thirty non-profit boards, including Yaddo, University Press of Kentucky, KET, and Fons Vitae, Ms. Lampton lives on a farm in Goshen, Kentucky.

Visual Art Educator Award - Professor Ché Rhodes

This award will be given to an individual in the Kentuckiana region who has had a longstanding and important impact on developing, teaching, and inspiring artists. This individual will be recognized for their dedication to enriching the lives of students of all ages by meaningfully and continuously educating people in the world of art. 

Ché Rhodes received his MFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Formerly, he was an assistant professor and Head of Glass Art at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. Currently he is an Associate Professor and Head of Studio Glass at the University of Louisville, Allen R. Hite Art Institute. He is a former member of the Glass Art Society Board of Directors, and a current member of the Penland School of Crafts Board of Trustees.. He has demonstrated at the 2006, 2010, and 2015 Glass Art Society Conferences and has been an instructor at the Penland School of Craft, Penland North Carolina, the Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York, Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA; UrbanGlass, Brooklyn, NY, and at Scuola del Vetro: Abate Zanetti, in Venice Italy.

Emerging Artist Award - Liz Richter

This award is an annual recognition of an emerging artist in the Kentuckiana region. The artist receiving this distinction will be considered a new and or up and coming artist, however, age will not be a determining factor. The winner of the award will separate his or herself from the rest of the candidates by demonstrating a widely acknowledged expert skill set in their respective field. Commercial success will help in distinguishing candidates, however, it will not be the most determining factor. The Emerging Artist recipient will be an individual who's future is bright both in terms of commercial success, but as well as impacting the local artist community. 

A sought-after Louisville artist and muralist, Liz's exuberant use of color, repetition and pattern enliven the many references and symbols in her imagery.  Primarily self-taught as an artist, Liz draws upon her experience as an educator to imbue her murals with cultural and historical meaning that she carefully researches and presents from a feminist perspective committed to making a positive impact.

THE 2019 LOUISVILLE VISUAL ART HONOREES

Legacy Award - Ed Hamilton

The Legacy Award will be given to an individual that has positively impacted and improved the arts community in many different ways for a time period spanning decades. This individual truly represents what it means leave the world a better place than you found it and their positive impact will be felt, seen, heard, and remembered for generations to come.

Raised in Louisville, Ed Hamilton attended Louisville Visual Art’s Children’s Free Art Classes in middle school. At the start of his career, he was mentored by Barney Bright, the city’s great sculptor of the preceding era, and Ed has now mentored many young artists in his own right. His Spirit of Freedom Memorial in Washington, D.C. is an iconic tribute to the African America Soldiers and Sailors of the Civil War. Alongside the representational monuments to Booker T. Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and many others for which he is best known, his studio practice includes Junkology, a series of abstract sculptural collages. His generosity and enthusiasm for art and art-making are truly infectious.

Benefactor of the Year Award - Reverend Alfred Shands III

This award will be given to an individual (at least in the beginning, possibly later to an organization) that has gone above and beyond in giving back to the local artist community. Whether it be through funding education initiatives, sponsoring events, or through personal/familial/estate gifts, this individual has left a lasting impact on the arts community over the past year. 

Reverend Al Shands III became enthralled with visual art as a child visiting museums like the Phillips Collection, in Washington, D.C. In the early 1980s, the purchase of three works by Louisville potter, Wayne Ferguson, started Al and his wife, Mary, on the path to developing one of the most important privately-owned collections of modern and contemporary ceramics and sculpture in the United States. His Great Meadows Foundation supports national and international travel by artists seeking to expand their horizons or pursue art study in locations away from Louisville.

Visual Art Educator Award - Professor James Grubola

This award will be given to an individual in the Kentuckiana region who has had a longstanding and important impact on developing, teaching, and inspiring artists. This individual will be recognized for their dedication to enriching the lives of students of all ages by meaningfully and continuously educating people in the world of art. 

James Grubola has taught studio art at the University of Louisville for more than forty years. In that time, many of his former students have gone on to distinguished careers as artists and as university art faculty. Throughout, he has maintained a vigorous studio practice centered on drawing the human figure. Professor Grubola is among a disappearing breed of artists who are also experts in anatomy. He has shown his drawings in many exhibits sponsored or organized by Louisville Visual Art, and lauds the organization for supporting local visual artists and building professional and social connections among them.

Emerging Artist Award - Monica Stewart

This award is an annual recognition of an emerging artist in the Kentuckiana region. The artist receiving this distinction will be considered a new and or up and coming artist, however, age will not be a determining factor. The winner of the award will separate his or herself from the rest of the candidates by demonstrating a widely acknowledged expert skill set in their respective field. Commercial success will help in distinguishing candidates, however, it will not be the most determining factor. The Rising Star Award winning will be an individual who's future is bright both in terms of commercial success, but as well as impacting the local artist community. 

An MFA candidate in her last semester at the University of Louisville Hite Art Institute, Monica Stewart is an artist who’s evocative use of materials and thoughtful engagement with subject matter create visually compelling works imbued with deeply resonant meaning. Stewart is interested in the ways that our patriarchal society subjects girls and women to experiences which are often oppressive and repressive. She looks for inspiration to stories where females find strength in each other and in community, and happily recognizes that she is her best self when making and sharing artwork.

THE 2018 LVA HONORS HONOREES

Benefactor of the Year Award - Porter Watkins

Porter Watkins is a Louisville native who inherited a strong sense of community involvement and philanthropy from her family. Her grandmother, Nora Iasigi Bullitt, was President of the Ladies' Auxiliary in 1913, and her uncle, Eugene “Bud” Leake, became the director of The Art Center, now know as LVA, and held the position for a decade. Porter was a precocious child whose upbringing was a mix of the rural and the urban, characterized by adventures on horseback up and down Lime Kiln Lane and exposure to an arts and culture scene experiencing tremendous growth. Porter and her husband, George Bailey, follow their passion when it comes to the arts, and Porter put her “time, talent, and treasure” to work for several organizations over many, many years, serving on the boards of Louisville Visual Art, Sister Cities of Louisville, English Speaking Union, The Zoo, Kentucky to the World and YouthBuild-Louisville, and she has been significantly involved with Food Literacy Project at Oxmoor Farm and has recently taken an interest in the Waterfront Botanical Garden.

Visual Art Educator Award - Wilma Bethel

Wilma Bethel graduated with a BFA from Morehead State University in 1971, then went on to receive her MAT in Art Education from the University of Louisville in 1975. She taught with JCPS at Crosby Middle School from 1971-2012, as well as at Bellarmine University from 2008-2012. For Louisville Visual Art, she has taught in the CFAC program since 1973! Her goals as a teacher have always been for her students to take away an appreciation of the different genres of Art. Through the use of different mediums, she imparts knowledge of the elements and principles of art and design, and the confidence to discover each young artists’ creative potential.

Rising Star Award, Vinhay Keo

Vinhay Keo is originally from Cambodia, where he spent his first 10 years. He earned his BFA from the Kentucky College of Art + Design at Spalding University. He received the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship to study at Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art, is a Great Meadows Foundation recipient, and participated in workshops such as Anderson Ranch Art Center and Anne West’s writing reflection. His work has been exhibited throughout galleries in Louisville, Kentucky with a recent solo exhibition at Moremen Moloney Contemporary Gallery. That exhibit, “Confront”, was one of the more important exhibits of 2017, a commentary that spoke to the chaos in American society, the worth and importance of the immigrant in that chaos, and the very core value of diversity that lies at the heart of the United States of America.

Legacy Award, Elmer Lucille Allen

Elmer Lucille Allen, born in Louisville, Kentucky, is a ceramic artist and chemist who graduated from Nazareth College (now Spalding University) in 1953. She became the first African-American chemist at Brown-Forman in 1966. Allen retired from Brown-Forman in 1997, after which she devoted more time to her art. Starting in 1981 she began to study art at the University of Louisville, receiving her Masters of Creative Arts with a focus in ceramics and fiber in 2002. Allen's textile work incorporates Japanese Shibori dyeing techniques. She states, "When I rented my first studio in 2005 at Mellwood, I knew that I was truly an artist." In 2011 Allen's work was included in the show “Powering Creativity: Air, Fuel, Heat” at the Carnegie Center for Art and History in New Albany, Indiana. Allen's work was part of the 2016 Women's Artist Exhibition: The African Heritage Experience at the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage.