Current Exhibits

Breaking Tradition, Forging Ahead: WPA Prints from the Collection

Through September 15

This exhibition is a student-organized project under the direction of the museum staff and the instructor of UK’s Museum Studies class. In 1943 the University was given a significant collection of WPA works to preserve and share with the community. Celebrating the 75th anniversary of the WPA, these works on paper reveal the creativity of the artists as they experimented in style and form, helping to define a uniquely American approach to art. University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington. 859/257-5716, www.uky.edu/ArtMuseum.

Magic in the Weaving: The Churchill Weavers Collection Revealed

Through September 6

The Churchill Weavers collection, including products, patterns, and tools from the largest handweaving operation in the country, is the focus of a new preservation exhibition at the Kentucky Historical Society. This preservation exhibition shows how curators and archivists are saving the collection for future generations and is featured in several KHS programs in the coming months. The exhibition introduces the history of the company, the story of its founders, D. Carroll and Eleanor Churchill, the Churchill Weavers employees, and the products created by the company. Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History, 502/564-1792, www.history.ky.gov.

From Picasso to Warhol: Modern and Contemporary Prints from the Collection

May 25 - August 24

This exhibition showcases more than 50 stellar works from the over 1400 prints owned by the museum. Graphic images by major artists such as Alexander Calder, Chuck Close, Jim Dine, Jasper Johns, Alex Katz, Roy Lichtenstein, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol will fill the galleries with intense color, bold images, and bravura techniques. University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington. 859/257-5716, www.uky.edu/ArtMuseum.

Audubon at the Falls 1808 – 2008

Through August 10

Two hundred years ago, John James Audubon and his new bride Lucy Bakewell Audubon moved from Philadelphia to Louisville where he established a business. While here, through the barrel of a rifle he sharpened his skills sketching birds at the Falls of the Ohio and surrounding areas. This exhibit focuses on Audubon’s life, the Kentucky-connection and his ties to conservation later in life. Visitors can look at several dozen bird mounts and study skins of species he would have seen – and sketched – while here. The exhibit features two original portraits drawn by Audubon in 1819 (to help him get out of bankruptcy) and bird books from the 17^th to early 19^th centuries. Where else can you see three extinct resident birds - an ivory-billed woodpecker, Carolina parakeet and passenger pigeon - in one display case? Falls of the Ohio State Park, Clarksville, IN, 812/280-9970.

Expressions: The Art Quilt

Through July 8

This stunning international art quilt competition and exhibition features over 230 entries from quilters from across the US and as far away as Japan, Australia and Switzerland. Internationally renowned quilter and musician Ricky Tims, owner of the Tims Art Quilt Studio & Gallery in LaVeta, CO, curated the exhibit. The Expressions exhibit began in 2006 with its initial showing at Tims’ Gallery and has toured the country for the last two years. The Museum is its last stop before these incredible quilts are returned to their owners. The Museum of the American Quilter’s Society, Paducah, 270/442-8856, www.quiltmuseum.org.

Reach for the Stars

Through July 6

The Behringer-Crawford Museum is proud to announce another exciting exhibit in collaboration with the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame. The exhibit will feature a collection of memorabilia, photographs, and artifacts and will highlight more than 70 athletes who have demonstrated dominance both on and off the field. The athletes, who were chosen by a committee consisting of members of the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame and the Behringer-Crawford Museum, represent the best of Northern Kentucky athletics. Honorees include 2006 NFL MVP Shaun Alexander, Super Bowl XLII Champion Jared Lorenzen, two-time World Series Champion David Justice, Olympic diver Becky Ruehl Amman, Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame jockeys Steve Cauthen and Eddie Arcaro, Basketball Hall of Fame member Dave Cowens and Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Bunning, who will speak at the exhibit opening at 1 p.m. on April 5. Behringer-Crawford Museum, Covington. 859/491-4003, www.bcmuseum.org.

Raw Loop

Through June 29

Austrian artist Werner Reiterer turns the world upside down and creates new rules in works that question perception while playing with art's proximity to everyday reality in this exhibition. In drawings, objects, and installations he engages the viewer as an active agent in a play of ideas that unsettle our expectations and, while often seeming absurd, throw new light upon the complex nature of our experiences. Admission is free. The Speed Art Museum, Louisville. 502/634-2700. www.speedmuseum.org.

Harlan Hubbard: Life in the Landscape

Through June 22

Put yourself in the Kentucky landscapes of Harlan Hubbard, artist, self-sufficient farmer, author and shanty boat river traveler. This unique exhibit is a compilation of Harlan Hubbard’s works interspersed with excerpts from his writings. Hopewell Museum, Paris. 859/987-7274.

The Inner Eye: Folk Art of India from the William and Ann Oppenhimer Collection.

Through May 11

As a pendant to the Miniature Worlds exhibition, this exhibit features Indian folk art created by two contemporary art groups. $8 general admission, $5 senior citizens, FREE for all students, UK faculty, staff, and alumni. University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington. 859/257-5716, www.uky.edu/ArtMuseum.

Miniature Worlds: Art of India

Through May 11

This major exhibition includes watercolors, drawings and sculpture spanning 400 years of Indian history. $8 general admission, $5 senior citizens, FREE for all students, UK faculty, staff, and alumni. University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington. 859/257-5716, www.uky.edu/ArtMuseum

Kentucky's HistoryMobile Features a Lincoln Exhibit

Lincoln’s life in Kentucky is featured in a new HistoryMobile exhibit. The tractor-trailer traveling exhibit, has been redesigned to tell the story of “Kentucky’s Abraham Lincoln.”

This 300-square-foot exhibit sponsored by the Kentucky Historical Society explores Lincoln’s frontier childhood, his career from log house to the White House, and his struggles to end slavery and lead the nation through the Civil War. The exhibit contains artifacts, images, as well as audio, video and interactive elements to appeal to a variety of learners.

The HistoryMobile will visit communities throughout the state and a limited number of school campuses during the next two years. Pre-visit classroom materials will be available for intermediate and middle school teachers to provide background information and teaching ideas to enhance school group visits to the exhibit.

Learn more about the HistoryMobile and its traveling schedule at www.kylincoln.org/events/historymobile.

Adversity to Equality: The Journey of the African American Mounted Soldier

This exhibit explores the role of African American mounted soldiers. Shortly after the Civil War, Congress authorized the formation of the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 38th, 39th, 40th and 41st Infantry Regiments, six all black units. The four infantry regiments later merged and formed the 24th and 25th Infantries, and were comprised of former slaves, freemen and African American Civil War soldiers. These units conducted campaigns against Native American tribes on a western frontier that extended from Montana in the Northwest to Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona in the Southwest. Throughout the era of the Indian Wars, approximately twenty percent of the U.S. Cavalry troopers were African American, and they fought in over 177 engagements. Their combat prowess, bravery, tenaciousness, and looks on the battlefield, inspired the Native Americans to call them Buffalo Soldiers. The Patton Museum, Ft. Knox. 502/624-3812 or www.generalpatton.org.

Lincoln and Farmington: An Enduring Friendship

This exhibit at Farmington Historic Plantation presents the Kentucky hemp plantation as experienced by the young, Illinois attorney during his three week visit in 1841. As a guest of the Speed family at Farmington, Abraham Lincoln participated in the luxurious lifestyle enjoyed by Southern planters and experienced, first hand, the complex and intimate relationships between the Speed family and nearly 60 enslaved African Americans. The exhibit highlights the significance of Lincoln's enduring friendship with Joshua Speed, who, along with his brother, future Attorney General James Speed, worked to keep Kentucky in the Union. Farmington Historic Plantation, Louisville. 502/452-9920 or visit http://www.historichomes.org/.