Category Archives: News

Town Branch bourbon barrel public art project ready to to roll

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By Rich Copley — Herald-Leader Culture Columnist

After two times around the track with horses, LexArts is basing its newest public art project on another Central Kentucky icon: bourbon barrels.

The idea was floating around for a while and was done by Paris in 2010. But LexArts’ president and CEO, Jim Clark, said it needed the right confluence of events to persuade him to get behind the project.

“We couldn’t think of how to do this in a logical space,” he said Tuesday afternoon at an event to match potential sponsors with barrels. “Then the mayor announced the Town Branch Commons. Town Branch ties into the bourbon industry, and Town Branch is an area we can highlight with the project.”

Town Branch Commons is a proposed 2-mile public space in downtown Lexington that would bring the historic, and buried, waterway to the surface for the first time in more than 100 years. A number of distilleries, including the Pepper Distillery, were along Town Branch; and Alltech, which is supplying barrels for the project, opened its Town Branch Distillery last year.

The process behind The Bourbon Barrel Project on Town Branch should be familiar to folks who followed Horse Mania in 2000 and 2010, or other mass public art projects presented by LexArts and others.

Artists submitted proposals for barrels. LexArts whittled the 120 proposals to 80 and then presented them to prospective sponsors.

Sponsors had a choice: Pay $5,000 to get the barrel made and retain ownership after the display was over; or pay $2,500 to get it made, displayed and offered for auction, with proceeds going to LexArts’ public art fund, other area arts and arts- oriented organizations and an honorarium for the artist.

Last week wrapped up the process of matching barrels to sponsors; as of Friday afternoon, 29 are set to be made.

At Tuesday’s sponsor reception, the remaining designs ran from purely visual designs to works that aimed to tell the stories of Lexington, bourbon and Town Branch. Several highlighted specific historic distilleries, primarily Pepper, although none focused on current operations. LexArts’ design guidelines prohibited designs that could be construed as advertising.

Some were hearty endorsements of Kentucky bourbon, such as Carla Terwilleger’s colorful Old Pepper.

Philip High’s Fire/Water played on a popular nickname for bourbon with a colorful blend of warm-hued flames and splashes of blue water. The phrase “barrel of monkeys” inspired numerous designs, including Melody Bock-Freeman’s Barrel of Monkeys With Shot Glass.

Just as designs in previous projects did, some played on the local landscape and cityscape. For instance, Ann Kindl’s Main Attraction, sponsored by WLEX, features The Kentucky Theatre marquee.

Some expand on the barrel form, such as The Lexington, a bourbon battleship by Damon Farmer, whose 2000 Horse Mania entry Stonewall sold at auction for a sale-topping $53,000.

Wade Christensen’s Kentucky Roots, sponsored by the University of Kentucky Federal Credit Union, will feature a tree design above and below the barrel and, like all the barrels, will rest on its side on a stanchion.

“I wanted them to be displayed in the same way they are when they are working and the bourbon is aging,” Clark says.

There is the bonus that on their sides, the barrels cannot be used as tabletops or for other utilitarian functions.

With the designs now selected, barrels are being distributed to artists. The next public step will be the preview of barrels Sept. 6 and 7. They will be set on the Town Branch trail Sept 10. Clark said the stands will include signs with QR codes that will allow viewers to get more information on the pieces and on the portion of Town Branch where they are. The barrels will remain on display for two months and then be sold at auction Nov. 16.

After that, are there other Lexington icons to be turned into public art?

Clark searches the air in the ArtsPlace theater, where the barrel designs are displayed. “With horses and bourbon barrels,” he said, “I think we have done the major ones.”

 

If you go 

‘The Bourbon Barrel Project on Town Branch’

What: Display of bourbon barrels designed by area artists along the Town Branch waterway that runs under downtown Lexington.

Schedule:

â–  Aug. 23: Artists deliver completed barrels.

â–  Sept. 6, 7: Public preview.

â–  Sept. 10: Barrels go on display.

â–  Nov. 16: Gala and auction.

Learn more: Bourbonbarrels.org.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/07/26/2733883/rich-copley-bourbon-barrel-public.html#storylink=cpy

 

Bourbon barrels canvas for new LexArts public art project

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By Rich Copley, Copious Notes

LexArts is inviting area artists to riff on another regional icon this fall: bourbon barrels.

The Bourbon Barrel Project on Town Branch will place authentic bourbon barrels embellished by area artists through downtown Lexington to highlight the waterway that flows under Vine Street and Midland Avenue. The display will take place this fall and coincides with the Kentucky Bourbon Festival and the Bourbon Chase, a 200-mile race along the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, Oct. 18 and 19. LexArts has been selected as a beneficiary of the Bourbon Chase and will pay the $1,500 entry fee for allotted teams that raise $6,000 or more for the arts.

 

LexArts has put out a call to artists seeking submissions of proposals for barrel designs. Like in the Horse Mania projects, design proposals will be presented to potential sponsors, who will choose designs they want to support. Selected artists will received a $1,200 honorarium to create their barrel. The deadline for submissions is June 17.

This will be the fourth public art project of this type presented by LexArts, formerly the Lexington Arts and Cultural Council, following the Horse Mania projects of 2000 and 2010 and Dynamic Doors in 2003. Another project, Wildcat Madness in 2001, was presented by the University of Kentucky Basketball Museum.

The Bourbon Barrell Project is being managed in partnership with Alltech’s Lexington Brewing and Distilling Company. Alltech opened the Town Branch Distillery last fall, where it produces Town Branch Bourbon and Pearse Lyons Reserve.

TOWN BRANCH NIGHT at Natasha’s

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Thursday May 30th 8pm at Natasha’s Bistro & Bar – Lexington

Come to Support Town Branch Trail!
Join us for a special evening of music and celebration supporting projects inspired by Town Branch, both as a scenic trail and as the beautiful new centerpiece of downtown Lexington.

  • Van Meter Pettit will discuss the Town Branch Trail, an eight-mile scenic route for bikes, runners, and pedestrians, past limestone springs, early distilleries, pioneer houses, ancient oaks, and the graceful landscapes of our home countryside. 
  • Jeff Fugate of the Downtown Development Authority will discuss exciting new designs for Town Branch Commons, which will open the watercourse to create central areas of natural beauty through the very heart of Lexington.
  • Music by Oldsmobile, featuring some of Lexington’s finest- Jim Gleason, Rex Hart, Ricky Baldwin, Missy Johnston, Marilyn Robie, and the outstanding songs of Tom Green. 

Gather with us as we support Town Branch of the Elkhorn. Together we celebrate our progress, we look into our future, and we learn how we can each take part.
$8

Town Branch Trail

Town Branch Trail

Events for Town Branch Commons Design Competition

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Upcoming Events for the TOWN BRANCH COMMONS DESIGN COMPETITION @ townbranchcommons.com

EVENTS
Discussion of “Landscapes of Confrontation”
Bradford McKee, editor, Landscape Architecture magazine
7 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 30
Gluck Equine Research Center auditorium, 1400 Nicholasville Road
Hosted by UK Landscape Architecture

Bradford McKee will lead a discussion on “Landscapes of Confrontation” covering how to deals with site contamination. McKee is the current editor of Landscape Architecture Magazine and a member of the Town Branch Commons Design Competition Jury.
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​Lafayette Seminar in Public Issues
11:30 a.m., Thursday Jan. 31
Hilary J. Boone Center, 500 Rose St.
Hosted by the Gaines Center for the Humanities

Speakers are local architect Van Meter Pettit and planner Stan Harvey. Sponsored annually by the Gaines Center for the Humanities at UK, this lecture will be an opportunity for Lexington community members, elected officials, and faculty and students to offer insights on the history of the Town Branch and examine large-scale projects from other cities and how they have been implemented. The Lafayette Seminar is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Lunch is free and the event is open to the public. Seating is limited, reservations required. To reserve a seat, please email Gaines.Center@gmail.com or call (859) 257-1537.

Design Adds Value to the Commons
Five Landscape Architects Discuss the Importance of Good Design for Downtown Development
4 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 31,
Lexington Children’s Theatre, 418 W. Short St.
Hosted by the UK College of Design

Each of the five design firms shortlisted for the competition will speak to how the implementation of large-scale public projects can increase a city’s value, citing past commissions as examples. The discussion will be moderated by Michael Speaks, Dean, UK College of Design
and will feature Aaron Betsky, Director, Cincinnati Art Museum, and Bradford McKee, Editor, Landscape Architecture magazine. This event is free and open to the public.


Designs on Display
February 4-22 (February 15 Gallery Hop Included)
City Gallery, Downtown Arts Center, 141 East Main Street

The designs each firm has created will be on display at the Downtown Arts Center from February 4-22 and will be displayed during the Gallery Hop on the 15th.