What do an award-winning chef, a rising young country star and a reigning champion coach have in common?
All three are featured in the Kentucky Commonwealth Project, an exhibit that will run between now and October 1 at LexArts Library in Lexington, Kentucky. Along with chef Ouita Michel and singer Walker Montgomery, trainer Brad Cox is one of 70 Kentuckians who have shared their life stories for the collection, the result of a year-long project for the collection. Impressionist painter Kelly Brewer and partner Beth Pride, a writer and digital storyteller.
Visitors can explore the gallery and connect with each Kentuck person on a multi-sensory level as they view the participants’ portraits, read short summaries of their lives, and even scan codes QR with a smartphone camera to hear from participants as they share parts of their own story.
The project was inspired by Brewer’s mother, Jo B. Robertson, who passed away in 2020. Brewer decided that she wanted to paint portraits to honor her mother and raise funds for the project. Jo B. Robertson Charity Foundation, was established to continue Robertson’s legacy of helping with education, housing, clothing and food for the less fortunate. Brewer turned to Pride, wife of Godolphin’s Dan Pride, for support.
“We decided that we would call it the Commonwealth of Kentucky and it would reveal the wealth that the people of this state make and the things we all have in common,” Pride said. “We hope to do our best to break down man-made barriers that are really, at the end of the day, not real.”
Along with Pride and Brewer, along with supporter Jill Johnson, spent the next year traveling around the Commonwealth as Brewer painted Kentuckians from all walks of life while Pride collected their stories.
They met Jeff Broadwater, a U.S. Army major general who served in Kuwait during Desert Storm and was deployed to Iraq twice, and Lou Anna Red Corn, the first Native American Commonwealth Attorney first in Kentucky. They spoke with Pedo Mann, a coal industry manager in Eastern Kentucky, and Gentille Ntakarutimana, a Burundian refugee as a child and now a legal assistant to Morgan and Morgan.
Brad Cox, a native of Louisville, is not the only member of the racing industry to appear in the collection. Sports are a common theme throughout the exhibition. Keeneland is represented by Chairman and CEO Shannon Arvin along with famous boxer Cordell Anderson. Other members of the sport include Lane End Farm’s Bill Farish, Airdrie Stud’s Bret Jones, Phipps Family Stable racing manager Daisy Phipps Pulito and Hall of Fame racer Steve Cauthen.
“What we’re really trying to do is build a unique impression of who these people are and look for something that people might not know about them,” explains Pride. “Daisy has worked in sports television for many years and Bill is a personal assistant to President George HW Bush. Each one has something unique that is truly different from them, but we also find that we have a lot in common as humans and we are all connected through our humanity. regardless of where we come from or where we’re going. “
Participants also included political figures such as Lexington mayor Linda Gorton as well as Kelly Craft, a former United Nations Ambassador who recently launched his campaign for governor of Kentucky. Lexington locals will recognize names like Matt Jones of Kentucky Sports Radio and Bluegrass Hospitality Group, founders Brian McCarty and Bruce Drake.
Each portrait on display is available for purchase through a super-silent auction, where auction proceeds are hidden from the public and managed in secret. The auction will continue through Friday, October 1.
“We are grateful for the feedback,” Pride said. “We had about 400 people there on opening night, and LexArts has told us that traffic to the exhibition has tripled compared to what they are familiar with.”
The exhibit is also encapsulated as a book, written and sound produced by Pride and featuring Brewer’s original artwork (the book is available in the gallery, at the Keeneland Mercantile in Lexington, or can be purchased for purchase. Okay here).
When Pride reflected on the project, she said that in many ways the Kentucky racecourse represented a microcosm of the Commonwealth at large.
Pride says: “The horse business is one of those industries where there is a lot of competition in the industry, but it is also an industry that has a lot of criticism from the outside. “The same goes for bourbon, odds betting and coal mining. What happens is that the people in the industry are friendly competitors because they know they need to stick with the sole purpose of promoting and campaigning for the horse and for the industry. The spirit that everyone is in it together is reflected throughout Kentucky. “
