The Official Kentucky Visitor's Guide - The Official Kentucky Visitor's Guide 2023
Visual Arts: Artisans, Crafts & Literature
2022-12-20 12:13:10
Indoors and out, from a little shop around the corner to entire towns, Kentucky isn’t shy about celebrating its culture and history through artistic and literary works.
At Bowling Green’s Downing Museum, travel through the lifework of a Kentucky abstract artist and a collection of decorative arts set amidst the backdrop of Baker Arboretum.
For small towns with a big arts scene, check out the Arts Center of the Bluegrass in Danville, find artisan-made primitives and furniture at the Screen Door & Country Market in Greenville or stroll more than 20 independent shops in Murray offering local art, jewelry, home décor and more. That charming town is also your base for exploring more than 60 large painted quilt squares on the nearby Calloway County Quilt Trail.
Can there ever be too many murals, statues and sculpture parks? Nope! Play on the art at Frankfort’s Josephine Sculpture Park. Make like a zombie and sneak up on the world’s largest Walking Dead Mural in Cynthiana. Greet Civil Rights pioneer Alice Allison Dunnigan in Russellville, where her bronze statue stands outside the SEEK Museum.
See a bas-relief sandstone sculpture carved into a boulder and hidden in a hillside in Owsley County. The Abraham Lincoln Statue is larger than life, just like the 16th president, and was carved circa 1935 as a thank-you gift.
Behold the vision – a 680-pound stainless steel fork rising 21 feet above a rural landscape. The Fork in the Road is among several sculptures adding quirky fun to Franklin’s public art scene, which also includes The Cutting Edge, a 24-foottall butter knife.
Within Manchester’s historic Rawlings/ Stinson Park is the Red Bird Petroglyph, a well-known yet mysterious rock containing ancient inscriptions, including the alphabet of an ancient kingdom in northwest South Africa. The mystery is … why?
It seems only natural that a state with such strong handcrafting lineage would have a “Folk Arts & Crafts Capital” (it does: Berea) and worldwide recognition (that too: Paducah, a UNESCO Creative City that’s one of only nine in the country).
Silas House, Bobbie Ann Mason, Wendell Berry – these authors add their voices to a rich literary tradition that travels across the state. Explore their stories and others at Greenup’s Jesse Stuart State Nature Preserve and La Grange’s Windy Meadows Equestrian/Event Center.
ONE-STOP ARTISAN SHOP
Kentucky’s handcrafting tradition is as old as the hills and hollows of the Cumberland Plateau, which provides a scenic setting for the Kentucky Artisan Center in Berea.
Situated on a lush 10-acre campus complete with hiking trails, the center is home to a vast array of unique art and craftworks by more than 800 Kentucky artisans – from traditional to modern – plus specialty foods, music, DVDs and books by Kentucky authors.
See original sculptures, paintings, traditional furniture, pottery, glass art and more representing juried artists from more than 100 counties in Kentucky. Admission is free and the center welcomes hundreds of guests, seven days a week, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.
With its arts showcase, musical performances, artist demonstrations and café serving traditional American cuisine, the center is a full Kentucky immersion experience.
GREAT GALLERIES
Travel around the world, from the 15th century to the present, at the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art. See works of art inside a work of art at Louisville’s Speed Art Museum, Kentucky’s oldest and largest art museum.
Appalachian art and artists, musicians and dulcimer makers grab the spotlight at Hindman’s Appalachian Artisan Center. Exquisitely crafted miniatures, semi-precious jewelry, bibelots … bib-a-whats? See these tiny treasures at Lexington’s Headley-Whitney Museum of Art.
More precious pieces may be seen at Maysville’s Kentucky Gateway Museum Center as part of the Kathleen Savage Browning Miniatures Collection of art objects, room boxes and more – including the magnificent re-creation of Princess Diana’s ancestral home.
KENTUCKY CREATOR
Wyatt Severs, 3D Woodworking Artist (Murray)
Wyatt Severs grew up playing in the woods behind his house.
“The time I spent among the trees instilled in me a respect and love for the beauty and wonders of nature,” he recalls.
Today, the former Murray State University student and Kentucky Lake resident travels and teaches nationally, bringing that influence into his woodworking with a portfolio that includes fine furniture and sculpture.
“Each piece of wood is distinctive, and I make aesthetic choices in tandem with the unique traits of grain pattern found inside each tree organism,” Wyatt says. “Trees are more than a material resource and are a vital component to the stability of our environment. My turned pieces are made from local fallen trees that I find myself.”
Wyatt’s mission is sharing craft knowledge and creating educational experiences for children and adults, and he recently bought a home on Kentucky Lake to build a studio for creating and teaching.
“Art changed my life for the better and I am passionate about exposing people to visual art and providing opportunity for personal growth through hands-on woodworking classes,” he adds. “I chose to put down roots in Western Kentucky so I can be a resource for the region.”
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