Louisville Visual Art

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Louisville Visual Art exists to support artists at every stage of their creative lives. From a child’s first Children’s Fine Art Classes to adult figure drawing, from public art commissions to gallery exhibitions where 100% of sales go directly to the artist, LVA meets people wherever they are on their creative journey, and stays with them. 

Art has a way of shaping a life long after the class ends. That’s the idea behind this year's Give for Good campaign theme, Where Are They Now? We’re revisiting CFAC alumni decades later to see where that first class led them: into studios, classrooms, hospitals, and careers no one could have predicted. But CFAC is really just the beginning of the story. LVA continues supporting artists well into adulthood, through professional development, public exhibitions, and a citywide creative community that includes generations of Louisville artists

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Kelley Luckett

Kelley began taking Children's Fine Art Classes around third grade in 1989. There she found a creative community, a mentor who challenged her, and the confidence to pursue a life in the arts. It was in middle school that she met Ms. Bethel, who taught her both in school and at CFAC. While middle school can be a hard time for creative kids, Ms. Bethel's classroom became her refuge where Kelley found her people - she's still in touch with several of those classmates today. 

She strongly remembers Ms. Bethel always making art herself, modeling what it means to be a lifelong artist. Ms. Bethel became so close with the family that Kelley's dad built her a stained glass window for her house, and they would joke that she wasn't allowed to retire until Kelley's little brother finished middle school. She almost made it. 

After some time as a graphic designer, Kelley took Ms. Bethel's advice and pursued art therapy. Today she works in prevention at the YMCA and is a practicing artist represented at Revelry Gallery. 

"I honestly don't know if I would be the artist- or the person- I am today without her" - Kelley Luckett 

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Colleen Gates

Creativity was always a part of Colleen's life. In third grade, her teacher, Ms. Mimi, recommended her for Children's Fine Art Classes. While excited, Colleen remembers feeling a bit of imposter syndrome, questioning whether she was a "real artist." Through years of CFAC classes, she gained not only technical skills but the confidence to see herself as an artist and embrace the vulnerability that comes with sharing creative work. 

That foundation inspired Colleen to pursue a degree in Arts Administration at Bellarmine University, spend three years teaching art, and build a career supporting the arts through development and marketing at Louisville Visual Art. She is currently pursuing a master's degree in Arts Administration at the University of Kentucky. Throughout her journey, she has carried forward one of the most valuable lessons she learned through art: that failure is not the opposite of success, but an essential part of the process.

"CFAC challenged me to not only become a better artist, but to see myself as an artist." - Colleen Gates

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Erin McGee Ferrell

Erin began Children's Fine Art Classes in 1986, while attending the Brown School, after a friend invited her to try and Saturday class. Her teacher, Marsha Guesquier told her she was a "natural colorist," comparing her use of color to Kandinksy. For a teenager, hearing that was transformative, someone had seen something in her before she could see it in herself. 

Erin continued CFAC through high school and went on to study painting at Mount Holyoke College, then pursued postgraduate work in Philadelphia and studied art in Italy and West Africa. Her career has taken her across the world, including exhibitions in South Korea and Bahrain and teaching in Saudi Arabia. 

Today, Erin has returned to Louisville as a professional painter represented by Garner Narrative, Cross Gate Gallery, and Washington Gallery, with work headed to Amsterdam this fall. She still protects a Saturday studio practice - a rhythm that started in that first CFAC classroom nearly forty years ago. 

"Their belief in a child can change the direction of an entire life. I know this because it happened to me." - Erin McGee Ferrell