Copious Notes

HorseMania 2010 isn’t the only equine-related art project that will ride again during the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. ­Horsetails, a project that the ­Lexington Philharmonic first ­orchestrated in 2003 and repeated the next three years, is returning to coincide with next year’s big event.

Big Brown by Peter Williams.

The public can get a look at the pieces for this year’s event starting Tuesday morning, when the Horsetails 2010 website is launched.

The idea behind Horsetails is to highlight the link between classical music and horses: Hair from horses’ tails is used in the bows of string ­instruments. The artworks in Horsetails use hair from the tails of famous horses including Big Brown, Funny Cide and Smarty Jones. Showpieces are by many local notable artists, including ­Lucinda Alston Chapman, ­Federico Pizzurro and Gary R. Bibbs.

All 54 pieces will have a premiere exhibition in April at L.V. Harkness and will be shown at other locations in and beyond Central Kentucky from April until WEG, Sept. 25 to Oct. 10. The pieces will be auctioned off during the games, with proceeds benefitting Partners in Education, a program that supports music education.

"Unicoi County" by Mike Smith. It will be featured in an exhibit of his work at the Art Museum at the University of Kentucky.

Mike Smith was on a Tuesday morning mission to show a friend some peacocks on a farm along East Tennessee’s Holston River.

He also knew he had a photo opportunity.

“I’d been there before and I knew it was gorgeous,” Smith said, less than an hour after the visit. “And I was right. There was fog coming off the river this morning with sunlight poking through.”

It was a moment that showed the East Tennessee State ­University photography professor’s enduring love for the landscape surrounding him, and a more directed way of working.

"Blountville, TN"

“I used to just drive slowly on the back roads around here, when I first came to Tennessee,” said Smith, who moved to Johnson City in 1981. “Now, I usually have a destination in mind.”

As part of the ­Robert C. May Photography ­Endowment Lecture Series, Smith will be in Lexington on Friday to talk about his work in conjunction with an exhibit of his photos in The Art Museum at the ­University of Kentucky.

Smith’s photos show a distinctly rural landscape, slowly changing with suburban development and businesses.

“You see new development adjacent to old farmlands,” he said. “I parallel familiar, ordinary stuff with things like gas stations and material more corporate in nature.”

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At Louisville's Flame Run Gallery you can blow your own glass holiday ornament. Photo by Anessa Arehart.

How often can you come up with something completely different for Christmas? Now giving Christmas ornaments and even making them are commonplace. But Flame Run, a Louisville contemporary glass art studio and gallery, is giving you an opportunity to blow your own glass ornament. During personal ornament sessions with Flame Run artists, you can choose your colors and then create your ornament.

“It’s a unique opportunity to create an original work of art to enjoy for yourself or to give as a gift,” Flame Run owner Brook Forrest White, Jr. said in a press release. “A one-on-one experience with a Flame Run artist will make a memorable holiday outing, and blowing your own ornament makes a great new family tradition.”

Sessions are available by appointment only beginning Nov. 27 through Dec. 22. Slots are available on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays as well as Dec. 21 and 22. The cost is $40 per person, per ornament. The gallery is located at 828 East Market Street, Louisville. Hours are 10 a.m-4 p.m. Tues.-Sun. Call (502) 584-5353 or visit the gallery website for more information.

Lexington Philharmonic music director Scott Terrell conducts a combined rehearsal of the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras' symphony orchestra and the Philharmonic Oct. 19. CKYO director Kayoko Dan stands at the back of the orchestra, in a black blouse. Photos by Matt Goins.

When I moved to Lexington in 1998, one thing that immediately struck me about the ­local arts scene was the prominence of children and organizations geared toward children.

The Lexington Children’s Theatre’s shows rated the same sort of attention as productions at Actors Guild of Lexington and other area stages.

The Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras’ events and personnel moves were prominent news. There were two institutions - the Explorium (then, the Lexington Children’s Museum) and the Living Arts and Science Center - geared toward children’s arts, particularly visual arts.

The School for Creative and Performing Arts had a prominent place in town, but there were stage, art and music programs at other schools also producing talented graduates who went on to arts careers.

Children’s Health magazine recently ranked Lexington No. 6 on its list of the 100 best places to raise a family. The criteria included crime and safety, education, economics, housing, cultural attractions and health.

I’d be willing to bet that if someone wanted to rank best places to be an artsy kid, Lexington would rate high on that list, too. By virtue of what is offered, we tell our children that the arts are something to do and be respected for doing.

Students Madelyn Nelson, left, Sara Arthur-Paratley, and Mary Rollins-Mathews rehearsed with the Lexington Ballet on Monday in preparation for Youth Arts Day.

The Lexington Philharmonic, the Horse Capitol of the World’s flagship arts organization, will celebrate young artists with its Youth Arts Day family concert at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Singletary Center for the Arts. It will include young singers from SCAPA, Fayette County Public Schools and the School of the Lexington Ballet.

The prominence of youth-oriented groups here is quite a bit more than other communities that I have lived in or observed. Over the nearly 12 years since I arrived, it has become clear that a big reason for that is quality.

Take the Children’s Theatre: In a town that has struggled with the concept of professional theater for adults, the Lexington Children’s Theatre has established itself with its own building on Short Street and a professional staff, including actors. What’s more, Larry and Vivian Snipes have developed a national reputation for the theater by being a venue that presents and creates new work. And the primary beneficiaries are kids.

And it really wasn’t terribly surprising that when the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras went looking for a new music director at the same time that the Lexington Philharmonic was trying to fill a similar job, it ended up attracting and hiring Kayoko Dan, also a candidate for the Philharmonic post.

CKYO has graduated numerous professional musicians, including Chicago Symphony Orchestra violinist Nathan Cole and hard-to-categorize cello soloist Ben Sollee.

Outside of groups directly geared toward kids, Lexington arts groups have been generous to kids.
Look at Paragon Music Theatre, which routinely loads the stage with kids, including Hello Dolly! this weekend, and even makes a place for them in its cabaret shows.

During years without a professional company, the Lexington Ballet featured its students in productions, and it and Kentucky Ballet Theatre, which has always had a pro troupe, always find ways to present students. Former Ballet Theatre dancer Adalhi Aranda Corn saw such value in Central Kentucky’s young artists she left and formed Bluegrass Youth Ballet and eventually built CulturArte, an arts facility that acommodates a variety of disciplines.

Possibly one of the biggest statements about valuing student artists was when the Lexington Singers’ ­Children’s Chorus was invited to perform in the Our Lincoln performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington in February.

And now LexArts has formed a Youth Arts Council to help focus young artists in the area.

Clarinetists Andrew Burton, 14, left, of the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras and Mike Acord of the Philharmonic rehearsed together Monday.

Full disclosure: My children have participated in some of these groups, and one is in the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras, although not the ensemble performing Sunday with the Lexington Philharmonic.

In addition, I’ve gotten to know many other kids who participate in groups. Maybe the most important thing these groups engender is enthusiasm for the arts they are participating in. I hear spirited discussions about play rehearsal and genuine interest in Bach sonatas.

Like anything, Lexington’s youth arts scene isn’t perfect. I remain baffled, for instance, why SCAPA does not have a theater of its own. Then again, SCAPA regularly solves that problem by putting its kids on stages usually graced by adults and pros.

It occurred to me as I left a CKYO rehearsal last week with my daughter that by virtue of her participation in the orchestra, she’s on the University of Kentucky campus every week. Most of us didn’t get used to being on a college campus until we had enrolled.

That’s just one of many ways that through our youth arts, regardless of whether the students pursue arts careers, by supporting such substantial programs, we’re preparing our kids for the rest of their lives.

"Milkless" (2004) -- Jahi Chikwendiu encountered this young mother in the Ouri Cassoni refugee camp just outside Baha'i, Chad. He recalls: "She's holding this baby under her veil. And through the veil, I can see the silhouette of her nursing the baby. So, I took a lot of photos before I approached her. But I'm sure she saw me taking pictures, she just went about her business. Then, when I finally approached her, she started to talk about her and her baby and nursing. That's when she tells me that she's nursing but she has no milk. And she thinks that she doesn't have any milk because of the trauma she experienced. Having her whole village bombed in the middle of the night. And having so many people killed in front of her face and having to scatter from her village." Descriptions and images courtesy of The Art Museum at the University of Kentucky. All images copyright The Washington Post.

I know I am not the only person at the Lexington Herald-Leader who knew Jahi Chikwendiu was a remarkable talent the moment I met him. So his award winning career at The Washington Post comes as no surprise, nor does the decision of the Art Museum at the University of Kentucky to show Jahi’s work as part of the prestigious Robert C. May Photography Endowment Lecture Series. To preview his exhibit, I caught up with Jahi earlier this week before he started a busy day on the job for the Post.

Click the play button to hear our podcast with Jahi Chikwendiu:

Copious Notes podcasts are available on iTunes.

Here are a few more images from the exhibit.

"Sally Sami, a blogger who left her home country of Egypt (reflected)" (2007) -- Digital print Courtesy of the artist and The Washington Post In Egypt, there are growing restrictions on bloggers who receive threats of arrest for expressing and publishing what are considered anti-government and/or anti-Islam views. Another Egyptian blogger, Karim Amer, was jailed by an Egyptian court for four years for “insulting Islam.”

"Wall of Thorns" (2004) -- Hawa Oosman Adam rests in her temporary home of thorns and twigs where IDP's (internally displaced people) have made an impromptu camp on the outskirts of Nera, Sudan. Some families, including Hawa's, have had to move six times during the course of this 20-month-old conflict where African settlements are being attacked by the government with the help of militias known as the janjaweed.

"Darfur Sandstorm" (2004) -- On his first day in a vast refugee camp in Darfur, Chikwendiu was standing on a water truck at the edge of the camp to survey the scene when a dust storm rolled up. He recalls: "I started noticing people's attention go to an area behind the camp ... I didn't even know what it was. So maybe within a few minutes I figured I'd better get off of this truck. I take off running, and within seconds, wham! I just get hit by this wall of wind, and the sand is moving so hard that it's kind of slicing against you.I just remember looking for shelter. I saw these guys walking and I saw them jump in a tent. So I just jumped in the tent with them. They seemed OK with my being there, because we started giving each other the thumbs up.I was just sitting there waiting for ... hoping, praying that I wouldn't be impaled by something flying. So then, I got myself together. I had a few handkerchiefs that I wrapped around my camera and my face. I fashioned a camera hood out of my handkerchiefs. I started walking around, looking through my camera. Not even taking pictures. Because it was the only way that I could see. The sand was just slicing at my eyes. So, for a while after that, my vision was blurry where the sand had just scarred my eye lenses."

“Black Hawk Down” (2003) — Mourners at the Washington D.C. funeral of a soldier killed in a Black Hawk helicopter crash in Iraq.

Click here to read our story about Jahi.

Click here to see more of Jahi’s work at his website.

Scott and guest soloist Evelyn Glennie head for the pre-concert chat in the President's Room in the Singletary Center for the Arts.

Photographer Matt Goins shot a lot more pictures of Scott Terrell preparing for his first masterclassics concert as the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra’s music director than we could get in Saturday’s paper. But here at le blog, where we have unlimited space (the webmaster may beg to differ), Matt is letting us share a few more photos from last week’s exhilirating season opener.

A phew more Phil photos also pheels like a phun way to celebrate Copious Notes’ 1,500th post. (I just toasted the occasion with a Carmilla at Coffea. Woo-hoo.)

Terrell leads the pre-show chat.

Terrell and Glennie take some questions.

Terrell straightens his tie.

Terrell goes over the score in his dressing room before taking the stage.

On the podium, in command of the orchestra.

More coverage:

• Loren Tice’s concert review.
• Coverage of opening night.
• Evelyn Glennie travels light.
• Terrell ready to go.

The installation of "Honoring America's Coal Miners" at Georgetown College's Cochenour Gallery. Photos by Thorney Lieberman.

Thorney Lieberman spent years in New York trying to shoot architectural images of the city that replicated the experience of being in the presence of the actual objects.

“I had this idea if you looked out a 50- by 60-inch window, you should be able to replicate that experience of seeing what you see out of that window,” Lieberman says.

Coy and Carrisa is one of the images in Lieberman's exhibit.

But it never quite worked. “I never quite conquered the scale of New York ­architecture,” Lieberman says.

But he has with coal ­miners, and that is the major point of his exhibit, Honoring America’s Coal Miners, which is at Georgetown College’s Cochenour Gallery through Oct. 7.

By creating life-size, ­detailed portraits of miners, Lieberman wants to put a human face on coal ­mining, which he thinks is often ­written off as a faceless industry.

Lieberman has come to ­regard the miners as ­“American heroes, engaged in dangerous work to supply us with energy,” he says in his artist’s statement.

The project began ­after ­Lieberman moved to ­Charleston, W.Va., where his wife, Anne, grew up. They were just settling into the Mountain State when the Sago Mine disaster of Jan. 2, 2006, took the lives of 12 miners.

The event garnered national media attention for days, and Lieberman became aware, “This was the reality of West Virginia, and this was my community.”

While living in Colorado, Lieberman had worked on a project creating life-size, sharply detailed portraits of Native Americans, and he ­decided he wanted to do something similar with ­miners. He went to the United Mine Workers office around the corner from his home to start looking for people ­willing to pose for him.

For Lieberman’s style of photography, posing is not a small request.
His life-size portraits are created from separate images shot on 8- by 10-inch film. For instance, Coy and Carrisa, a portrait of a miner and his daughter, is made up of 34 separate images.

Lieberman’s camera is mounted on a 10-foot-tall frame that he moves down and across the subject’s body to photograph each part in 1-to-1 scale. That requires the subject to stand relatively still for 15 ­minutes, hit repeatedly with a flash that is “brighter than the sun,” Lieberman says.

And we’re not talking models here. These were coal miners, right after work.

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I wanted to share a couple of photos Jonathan Palmer shot today of Lexington stained glass artist Laura Mentor installing her latest creation in the chapel of Louisville’s new Norton Brownsboro Hospital.  Here’s information on the piece and the installation, as relayed by the hospital’s public relations firm:

Stained glass artist Laura Mentor of Lexington, Ky. has been commissioned through the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft to have her work featured in the new Norton Brownsboro Hospital, the first new full-service hospital built in Louisville in more than two decades. Laura designed two original stained glass windows that were selected for the new Norton Hospital chapel. The stained glass windows are among the finishing touches being put on Norton Brownsboro Hospital, which will open on August 26th, 2009.

Hospital architects and designers have put an emphasis on artwork in the new facility as a means of enhancing the healing process by making the environment more aesthetically pleasing.

Of the Earth - Healing Plants and Trees of America measures 6-by-12 feet and features over 50 beautifully rendered flowering plants and trees used historically for healing. Above this, rising 28 feet over the chapel floor, Of the Heavens is reminiscent of Renaissance windows with its deep jewel-like colors and imagery of the sparkling universe.

British glass artist John Reyntiens photographs some of his glass work, a first look at pieces he is creating for the Myra Leigh Tobin Chapel in the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital, in the University of Kentucky's Boone Faculty Club. Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.

John Reyntiens developed his glass work for the chapel in the University of Kentucky’s new hospital with a keen sense of where it would be displayed.

“I didn’t want it to be ­mechanical,” Reyntiens said on the morning of May 22, showing samples of his work for the Myra Leigh Tobin Chapel at the Albert B. Chandler Medical Center. “People who are here will spend a lot of time around machines and medical equipment.

“It is important for people to have places to take time out and meditate and be quiet.”

Reyntiens' design for the sanctuary window of the Myra Leigh Tobin Chapel.

Reyntiens’ Springtime in Kentucky is one of many pieces of art being commissioned and bought for the new hospital, which is under construction and is expected to start opening in phases in 2010.

“The art is my favorite part of this project,” said Dr. Michael Karpf, executive vice president for health affairs at UK. “It humanizes the building.”

In filling the building with artwork, Karpf said, the hospital is taking cues from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and the Cleveland Clinic, which have made art a big part of their designs.

By incorporating art, both visual and performing, Karpf said, the hospital becomes more inviting and comforting for patients. The art is selected to reflect Kentucky. One piece, a 90-foot multimedia wall at the entrance, will be a constantly changing display of images from across the commonwealth.

The idea is to move away from a traditional, sterile hospital environment to something warmer and more conducive to healing. Karpf also talks about establishing music therapy and art therapy programs at the hospital.

“It is incredible what art and music do for people,” Karpf said, showing a virtual tour of the hospital.
In addition to visual art, the hospital will have a 300-seat, state-of-the-art education and performance theater, financed by the W. Paul and ­Lucille Caudill Little Foundation. All of the art initiatives in the hospital are privately financed, Karpf said.

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LexArts President and CEO Jim Clark, Horsemania 2010 co-chairs Steve Grossman and Becky Reinhold, and America's Fiberglass Animals owner Patrick Keough inspect horses like the ones that will be part of the forthcoming exhibit. Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.

A dark SUV with a trailer rolled up next to ArtsPlace Friday morning carrying some familiar figures: Horsemania horses.

The four fiberglass colts on Patrick Keough’s trailer were the first tangible sign that the popular 2000 public art exhibit will be returning to Lexington in 2010 for the World Equestrian Games.

“That’s the most frequent question I get, ‘When are the horses coming back?’” LexArts president and CEO Jim Clark said.

The 2000 exhibit of fiberglass horses decorated by local artists was displayed all over the streets of downtown Lexington and beyond. It was wildly popular, sending people on walking tours throughout the summer. Some of those horses can still be seen around the area at local businesses that bought them at a Keeneland auction late that fall.

Clark said 10 years was a good interval to wait for the next exhibit.

“If you do it too often, it may start to lose its charm,” Clark said.

Horsemania 2010 will work much like it did a decade ago, with around 80 horses being decorated by local artists. A notable exception will be the involvement of Lexington’s sister cities – Deauville, France; County Kildare, Ireland; Shinhidaka, Japan; and Newmarket, England. Each town will select an artist to decorate a horse, which will be part of the display.

The calendar will also unfold much like the original Horsemania. LexArts is currently soliciting sponsorships of horses at $5,000 each for the 79 local horses and $7,500 each for the four sister city horses. The call for artists will be in the winter of 2010, selection will be in the spring with the horses hitting the streets in July and the auction in December 2010.

Horsemania was at the beginning of a public art craze that started with decorated cows in Chicago and went on to include guitars in Cleveland and pigs in Cincinnati.

Keough, owner of Shelton, Neb.-based America’s Fiberglass Animals, which made the original Horsemania figures, said horses have been one of the popular figures he has done, with cities like Louisville and Ocala, Fla., staging horse projects.

“But we were the first,” Clark interjected.

Keough responded, “That’s right. It was you all that made the phone ring.”