The Official Kentucky Visitor's Guide - The Official Kentucky Visitor's Guide 2025
Art-Lovers Tour
2024-12-14 10:13:29
EYE CANDY
From a tribute to painter Henry Farny in the Old Seminary Square park to the annual Duveneck Art Show at Baker Hunt Art and Culture Center in May and several art tours in between, Covington is a visual feast.
SO MANY WAYS TO EXPERIENCE ART
Concerts, cinema, gallery talks, film festivals, community and creative programming, workshops and collections from the Art of Ancient Cultures to Contemporary Art — Louisville’s Speed Art Museum is Kentucky’s oldest and largest art museum.
UNDERGROUND ART
Follow the crushed limestone paths through Cave City’s Crystal Onyx show cave to see the artistic prowess of Mother Nature in the intricate speleothem: cave drapery and popcorn, flowstone and rimstone dams and showstopper formations like Alligator’s Mouth.
GLASS HOUSES
Amidst Danville’s open-air art gallery of murals, mosaics and sculptures, see masterworks of preeminent contemporary glass artists, including hot glass master of color Stephen Rolfe Powell, at the new GLASS National Art Museum. Visit Powell’s illuminated Memorial Sculpture Garden at Centre College.
FINE ART FLATWARE
A 21-foot-tall stainless steel eating utensil called the Fork in the Road. A 24-foottall butter knife named the Cutting Edge. No, it’s not dinner in the land of the giants, but Franklin-Simpson County’s public art installations. Driving and walking tours also stop at Blackjack Sculpture Park.
CAPITAL OF CREATIVITY
A Frank Lloyd Wright-designed structure (the only one in Kentucky), a Humpty Dumptyesque sculpture named Eggcited, the enchanting “Surprise!” mural — Frankfort’s public art mesmerizes with moments of delight that spring up all over the city.
SEEMYSET
Find uplifting messages from Dr. Seuss’ “The Lorax” and another from Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree” on Somerset’s Mural Trail, along with other whimsical depictions, including angel wings, a horse and the boating life, each adding visual energy to downtown.
BUILDING OR MURAL?
So realistic is the life-size 3-D rendering of Madison’s Montpelier home — Madisonville’s tribute to its namesake, James Madison, Founding Father and fourth president of the United States — that some visitors climb the stairs to the door to find out.
ART APPRECIATION
Take a class in traditional Appalachian arts and crafts presented by skilled artisans — blacksmithing, jewelry making and wood carving — at the Pine Mountain Settlement School in Bledsoe, a historic campus originally founded as a boarding school for mountain children.
GALLERY HOP
Wander in, meet the artists and explore their works when dozens of galleries, museums, artists’ studios and creative spaces fling open their doors during the LexArts HOP, an evening gallery stroll that takes place six times a year in Lexington.
TRADITIONAL TO CONTEMPORARY
Hundreds of artworks in its permanent collection; seven annual shows exhibiting a diverse range of artforms, styles and techniques; art-based programming, artist lectures, public gallery talks — Paducah’s Yeiser Art Center is an arts treasure in this UNESCO Creative City’s trove.
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