Happy New Year from the Kentucky Arts Council!

I’ll kick this first newsletter of 2022 off with some exciting news about Kentucky Poet Laureate Crystal Wilkinson. Her book, “Perfect Black,” has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award in the Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry category. The awards show will be 8 p.m. Eastern, Feb. 26 on BET. Please join us in wishing Crystal good luck!

Our traveling exhibit, “Our Kentucky Home: Hispanic/Latin American Visual Art in the Commonwealth,” is now at the Murray Convention and Visitors Bureau, where it will stay through Jan. 28. You can learn more about this exhibit, which showcases art by Hispanic, Latinx and Latin American Kentuckians, and see examples of work on the “Our Kentucky Home” web page.

We’d like you to save the dates, March 12-13, for The Kentucky Crafted Market. The Market is returning to the Kentucky Horse Park’s Alltech Arena. It will feature dozens of Kentucky’s finest visual and craft artists, representing all regions. In the coming week, we will post a link on our social media platforms and in a mass email to purchase tickets to The Market. In order to ensure a contactless ticketing experience, tickets to The Kentucky Crafted Market will only be available for purchase online. You will be emailed a QR code, which we will scan at the door on the days of the event. You may show this code on your phone, or print it out and bring it with you. At this time, masking is required at Alltech Arena, so please come prepared. We look forward to seeing you there!

Recently, our regional partners at South Arts announced their 2022 Emerging Leaders of Color cohort and we’re pleased to say that two Kentuckians are among them. Elizabeth Colón Nelson of Louisville and Tassa-Nieta Wigginton of Lexington will join 16 other southern artists and arts administrators in a group that creates professional development and networking opportunities for arts and cultural workers of color.

Last month, Mid Atlantic Arts and the Appalachian Food Summit announced the recipients of the Appalachian Foodways Practitioner Fellowships. Two of the three fellowships were awarded to Kentuckians. Travis and Rebecka Fugate of Emmalena and Wayne Riley of London were selected as fellows in this inaugural program, which honors, celebrates and supports foodways tradition bearers and practitioners in central Appalachia.

And we’d also like to recognize Kentucky Humanities, one of our partner agencies within Kentucky’s Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet. In 2022, Kentucky Humanities celebrates its 50th anniversary, and has a special lineup of programming scheduled throughout the year. We congratulate Kentucky Humanities on a half-century of service to the commonwealth.