Erin Keane

From scrappy upstarts to established cornerstones of our community, 2012 offered up more intriguing and exciting arts events than one person can even count. Here is my admittedly incomplete, with apologies to what I missed,  in no certain order or rank, list of the year's memorable arts events: 

PosSoupBility, the meal-based initiative that pairs a soup dinner with presentations from community artists, organizations and activists seeking micro-grants, will celebrate its first anniversary next month.  With three dinner events under its belt in its first year, the Louisville affiliate of Sunday Soup has directed an average of $900 per event to community projects. 

Every Sunday, a men’s gospel choir visits University of Louisville Hospital to sing for the patients and the staff. The tradition has been going strong since 1931. WFPL’s Erin Keane dropped in last Sunday to listen.

This week on our audio diary series, The Big Break, two of our emerging artists see their stages from a different perspective. Louisville Ballet trainee Claire Horrocks takes a leap of faith in herself to create a piece for the ballet's Choreographer's Showcase, and Actors Theatre of Louisville apprentice Samantha Beach takes us backstage at the revolving set of "A Christmas Carol." Kentucky Opera studio artist Brad Raymond is on hiatus and traveling until January. 

The Fund for the Arts launched the online fundraising platform Power2Give in Kentucky and Southern Indiana last December. In its first year, the platform has helped raise more than $700,000 in additional funds for the region’s arts organizations.

Christmas stories take the larger Nativity narrative—the arrival of an ambassador of peace, goodwill and redemption—and put the metaphor to work on individual transformations, those personal moments when generosity of spirit triumphs over our meaner, selfish natures. The best results are both heartwarming and as unique as the transformed individuals themselves.

This week on our audio diary series, The Big Break, Actors Theatre of Louisville apprentice Samantha Beach gets some sage advice on second careers from the cast members of each of the theater's productions, while Louisville Ballet trainee Claire Horrocks opens her first full-length production of "The Nutcracker." Kentucky Opera studio artist Brad Raymond is on hiatus and traveling until January. 

When the three artistic directors of Theatre [502] launched their first season in 2011, they weren’t sure if Louisville would buy what they were selling—newer plays by buzz-worthy playwrights whose work speaks to theater-goers hungry for recent, relevant work, like Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's "Hunter Gatherers" (season one) and Annie Baker's "The Aliens" (season two).

Kentucky Arts Council chair Todd Lowe is the recipient of the 2012 James Welch, Sr. Arts Leadership Award. Lowe was honored by the Fund for the Arts Saturday night at the opening of Louisville Ballet’s “The Brown-Forman Nutcracker” for his commitment to volunteer arts leadership.

Praising the broad reach of his work and leadership in Louisville and across the Commonwealth, Fund for the Arts president and CEO Barbara Sexton Smith says Lowe is “the quintessential servant leader.”