Amanda Thompson has been a Visual Art teacher at Western Middle School for the Arts since 2010. She joined LVA’s Children’s Fine Art Classes the same year. She was recently awarded the Baird Excellence Award Outstanding Teacher for Middle School 2023. She served as a Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence Teacher Fellow in 2022 and Classroom Teachers Enacting Positive Solutions fellow in 2020. In collaboration with LVA and PNC Broadway, her classes have participated in 3 separate art installations at Kentucky Center for the Arts for Blue Man Group, Little Mermaid, and Anastasia, the Musical.
Louisville art teachers
Artists Talk with LVA: December 15, 2022
LVA’s The Local Muse will be at the Flea Off Market's Holiday Bazaar at The Henry Clay Building! Saturday, December 17th, & 18th. Featured artist, Katlyn Thompson will have her artworks on display and available for purchase. and we talked with her this week. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.
"The subjects of my work can be whimsical in nature and invite the viewer into a brightly colored, dream-like universe. From turtles nesting in clouds to manta rays swimming in moonbeams, the creatures living in this universe are expanded with each piece I create.
I am also a local graduate of DuPont Manual High school in 2013. I went on to earn an Elementary Education degree. I am now a JCPS Art Teacher passionate about working with Elementary students to cultivate a creative, trauma-informed, and equitable culture for our future artists of Louisville."
Visit The Local Muse booth at the Flea Off Market's Holiday Bazaar at The Henry Clay Building! Saturday, December 17th, 11 am-6 pm, and Sunday, December 18th, 11 am-5 pm.
Artists Talk with LVA: April 28, 2022
This week we talk about "Seeing Sam Richards Sculpture", the new book by Frances Kratzok, and others, including Melinda Walters & John Begley. Tune in to WXOX 971.1 FM/Artxfm.com Thursdays at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.
Sam Richards was a prolific sculptor. His experimentation was broad, deep, and lifelong. He was knowledgeable, articulate, and down-to-earth, a man of sparing speech, and personal and artistic integrity. Richards taught at the University of Louisville for almost 19 years and making most of his sculptures in his campus studio.
Louisville sculptor Frances Kratzok received a B.F.A. in sculpture from the Tyler School, Temple University, and an M.F.A. in sculpture from Rinehart School of Sculpture of Maryland Institute College of Art.
She has taught sculpture and art classes at several colleges in the Louisville area and exhibits regionally. She was married to sculptor Sam Richards.
Melinda Walters is currently a special education teacher in Louisville. She received her BA in Fine and Studio Arts with a concentration in Sculpture from the University of Louisville where she studied with Sam Richards. She went on to earn an MFA from the University of Albany SUNY before returning to U of L to get a Masters in Education.
John Begley is a freelance art worker (artist, curator, art services provider) He was Gallery Director, Assistant Professor of Art (Emeritus), Critical and Curatorial Studies graduate program coordinator for the Allen R. Hite Art Institute, University of Louisville 2001 – 2014 (Retired). He was also the Director, Louisville Visual Art Association 1983 - 2001
Artists Talk with LVA: March 10, 2022
LVA Honors is right around the corner and this week we talk with two of the people being recognized in 2022: Visual Art Teacher Janet Britt and Legacy recipient William M. Duffy. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Keith Waits talk with artists.
A graduate of Hanover College, Janet Clements Britt obtained a Masters in Art Therapy at the University of Louisville. A door opened for an art educator at St. Francis School in Goshen and she walked through. In many ways her young students became her teachers and together they grew. Nineteen years later, Louisville Visual Art became her second home and for the past 12 years she has worn many hats.
She’s taught CFAC classes, summer camps, directed enriching projects in many public schools through the TAG grant program, led art groups for children living at St. Joseph Children’s Home through Open Doors and is currently teaching K-6th Holy Trinity Clifton Campus students.
In meeting each child where they are, Janet gives her students quality materials, lots of love, and continues to grow with them!
William M. Duffy is a lifelong resident of Louisville, KY. He earned a BFA in Painting at the Louisville School of Art in Anchorage, KY. Duffy has primarily devoted his creative energy to producing poignant paintings, silkscreen prints, and drawings that conveyed his African ancestry, his personal experiences within African-American culture, and the elemental experiences of humanity that connect us all.
Best described as small yet monumental, Duffy’s figurative and abstract sculptures have won numerous purchase and merit awards in exhibitions throughout the United States and have been purchased by several private, corporate, and public collections In 2021 he worked with IDEAS X-Lab, Louisville, KY (On the Banks of Freedom Slave Memorial Stone Benches-2021).
In February 1997, he received an official commendation from the Board of Education for "sharing his outstanding artistic gifts with students and staff in the Jefferson County Public Schools". In the beginning of 2018, Duffy was one of the first artists to be awarded Imagine Greater Louisville 2020 grants, one for his "Portraits of Pride" project, working with the West End School students on paper collages.
Celebrate with us at LVA Honors – a unique annual event in celebration of individuals that have made a significant impact in our community. March 24, 2022 from 5PM – 7PM, Art Sanctuary at 1433 S Shelby St, Louisville, KY 40217
Artebella On The Radio: December 23
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.