Artistic Creativity Is Part of the Culture Here
Published May 08, 2009
Warren A. May crafts a dulcimer in his Berea workshop.
Gwen Childs likes to brag about the fact that the arts are alive and well in Madison County.
For evidence, the executive director of the Berea Arts Council has to look no further than her own community. Berea is known as the Folk Arts and Crafts Capital of Kentucky, with about 100 artisans working in 40 galleries and studios around town.
“First of all, the Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea, conveniently located off Interstate 75, is one of the top tourism stops in the entire state,” Childs says. “It’s filled with folk crafts, music, literature, history and heritage souvenirs. But the center is merely one of many spots in Madison County that is devoted to the arts.”
One of those spots is the Berea Arts Council building on College Square. It features seven different art exhibits each year, primarily showcasing local and regional talent.
“Our motto is ‘Art for Everyone,’ so we try to represent as many interesting artistic styles as we can,” Childs says. “We also present an annual Young at Art show for children in the community and sponsor a two-week art camp each summer. If it has to do with visual art, we are involved.”
More Outreach to Youngsters
Also involved is the Richmond Area Arts Council, which has been around since 1989 and presents a number of stage shows along with its visual arts lineup.
“We schedule 20 live performance activities each year, with most of our plays occurring in the current auditorium at Eastern Kentucky University,” says Marie Fore, executive director of the Richmond Area Arts Council. EKU has begun planning a 2,000-seat performing arts center.
“Our council is actually headquartered in an old Episcopal church, and we don’t have room to stage plays,” Fore says. “But we do have two classrooms where we provide 47 weeks of after-school educational programming for children in grades one through five.”
She says the Richmond Arts Council contracts with 12 teachers to conduct classes in, for example, performing and visual arts, folk art, pottery, and clogging.
“We have classes for two hours after school every weekday, and some parents enroll their children all five weekdays while other kids simply take one class on one day during the week,” Fore says. “It’s simply a way for kids who have an interest in art to expand their exposure to it, beyond what they get in a normal school setting.”
Other art venues in Madison County include a black-box theater in Berea that seats 80-100 for a variety of performances. “I can honestly say that the arts scene is quite vibrant here,” Childs says.
Story by Kevin Litwin
Photo by Antony Boshier
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