Louisville’s South End is the location for an art crawl this weekend.
During the South Louisville Art Crawl on Sunday from 2 to 8 p.m., people can take a trolley around the area to experience its diverse arts groups, capping off the event with a free abridged performance of “Julius Caesar” from Kentucky Shakespeare.
It’s the latest event in a new series called “Arts in Neighborhoods.” Local artists in different regions of Greater Louisville design and produce the events with some financial backing from the Fund for the Arts, about $5,000 – $10,000 to support production needs and keep admission free.
Maria Tinnell, a fiber artist participating in the Sunday event, told WFPL News events like this are important because, “art is made everywhere.”
“I’ve lived in the South End my whole life,” said Tinnell, whose specialty is tiny baskets woven from linen thread and nylon cord. “My family and everybody has been artists…, my mother, my grandmother and my great grandfather. So it’s a lifelong thing for me.”
She added that, “the South End is a gem” when it comes to its businesses and cultural offerings.
Rebecca Katz, executive director of the nonprofit Southwest Dream Team, hopes the art crawl, “will encourage the rest of the city to come to a different part of town and explore parts of Louisville that they may have never even known or heard about.”
“The south and southwest part of Louisville has been plagued by negative narratives and stereotypes… I hope that people will come with an open mind,” she said.
Katz appreciated that the Fund gave creative license to the neighborhood arts groups to come up with an event they felt best-suited the area. She said they landed on an art crawl because they wanted people to have the chance to get to know the different neighborhoods in that part of the Metro.
The first Arts in Neighborhoods event was Feb. 21 at Central High School. Artists and arts groups with ties to the West End, such as Keen Dance Theatre and the West Louisville Women’s Collaborative, performed and showcased their talents.
“We want you to walk across the street, and get engaged in arts with your neighborhood,”
Fund for the Arts president and CEO Andre Kimo Stone Guess said during a Monday press conference at the Little Loomhouse in the South End.
“And one of the things that we wanted to make sure that we do, we have these wonderful neighborhoods in our city, and we wanted to create a patchwork quilt that showcases the arts in each one of those neighborhoods,” he continued.
Michelle Amos, executive director of the Little Loomhouse, which has been in existence for more than 80 years and is also participating on Sunday, has been excited for the South End to get its turn at producing an Arts in Neighborhoods event.
“I think this initiative is one way to showcase artists where they are, and bring them out and celebrate the individual neighborhoods,” she said.
She’d like to see the South End edition grow in the future so the “neighborhoods themselves even take ownership of that.”
Sunday’s South Louisville Art Crawl featured artists and businesses also include the Academy of Flamenco Arts, River Lotus Lion Dance, Louisville Dance, Norma Drish, Gregory Acker and Fernando Moya, Leiser Tito Quesada, The Rosewater bookstore, Americana Fiberworks, Thang Long Grocery Store, Colonial Gardens, Caribbean Cafe, Liberty Tattoo and Art Parlor and others.