Our Life, Our Stories

Community Connections: Our Life, Our Stories

Genesis Arts Senior Enrichment Group
Arts Reach Jewelry Making Studio

How can an old memory assist in creating a new one? That is the question explored in Our Life, Our Stories, an exhibition about each artist’s relationship to photographs from their life. The artists were asked to select images that reminded them of home, their upbringing, or their neighborhoods. These pieces of art show the emotion connected to their stories through color, shape, subject matter, and texture.

The artists are from Genesis Arts Senior Enrichment Group and Arts Reach Jewelry Making Studio, two groups with roots in West Louisville and Smoketown. Over the course of eight weeks, these two programs came together to create dynamic work while also building community with one another through the artistic process. Throughout the eight week time period they participated in a series of workshops led by printmaker Rudy Salgado, Jr. Each week, the artists discovered how to use various techniques and skills to create prints. The artists were tasked to select images that told a story about themselves and their life and recreate it as a print using only four colors: CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black).

The inspiration for this group was Loose Nuts: Bert Hurley’s West End Story artwork. Hurley’s Louisville roots and artwork connected with these artists. Instead of mimicking Hurley’s technique, the artists instead gleaned inspiration from his work to make their life’s memories colorful and impactful through the printmaking process. In the likeness of Hurley, these works tell a story of West Louisville and Smoketown through their individualized perspective.

Through the Community Connections program, the Speed Art Museum seeks to positively impact our community by creating artistic platforms that amplify the voice of individuals and groups that have been largely unheard. We do this by strengthening our connection with others by building reciprocal relationships based on shared understanding & compassion.

Grant funded by Aroha Philanthropies’ Seeding Vitality in the Arts initiative.