Visual art abounds this month, as we launch a new traveling exhibit titled “Continent to Commonwealth: Asian/American Kentucky Art.” It debuts during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. This exhibit, which we are presenting in partnership with Asia Institute-Crane House and the Kentucky Chinese American Association, will be in the Capitol Rotunda through June 15 before it begins a yearlong road trip around the commonwealth. Visit the exhibit web page to get updates on when the exhibit will be near you.

The Blue Star Museums initiative kicks off on May 20. This partnership between the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families and the Department of Defense offers free admission for active duty military members and their families to participating museums across the United States. You can find those museums on an interactive map on the NEA website. Museums in Kentucky that are participating in Blue Star Museums are the Behringer-Crawford Museum in Covington, Liberty Hall Historic Site in Frankfort, Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in Harrodsburg, the Pennyroyal Area Museum in Hopkinsville and the Kentucky Gateway Museum Center in Maysville.

Gov. Andy Beshear has issued a call to artists for the Team Kentucky Gallery at the State Capitol in Frankfort. The deadline for artists to submit work for consideration is June 2, and work will be on exhibit from July 1 through Dec. 31.

Our regional partners at South Arts have launched a new initiative, the Southern Prize and State Fellowships for Literary Arts. Take a look at the guidelines and apply today. We'd like to see Kentucky well represented among the applicants. 

South Arts is also taking applications on a rolling deadline for its Express Grants and Professional Development & Artistic Planning Grants.

We congratulate Kentucky’s Poetry Out Loud state champion Sarah Gamble of Allen County-Scottsville High School for her performance in the semifinals round of the Poetry Out Loud National Finals on May 9. Poetry Out Loud is a poetry recitation competition sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. Kentucky is proud of you, Sarah!   

And finally, we want to say “thank you” to our two interns this spring, Ashanti Grace Castleberry of Kentucky State University and Sophie DeCorte of the University of Kentucky. They recently completed their internships with us. You may have had the opportunity to meet them at some of our public events, like The Kentucky Crafted Market, and seen firsthand their contributions to the arts council and to the commonwealth. You can look forward to hearing them on two upcoming episodes of KyArtsCast, conducting interviews they prepared themselves. We wish them luck as they begin their respective senior years in the fall. Thanks, Ashanti and Sophie, for your service to Kentucky!