About Latitude Artist Community

Latitude Artist Community serves all people - with an emphasis on those thought by some to have a disability - by creating meaningful, inclusive community interactions which allow participating artists to contribute culturally and politically to the life of their community.

Friday, January 16, 2009

A look back at 2008 and upcoming events

Latitude artist Della Mae Bullens with some of her work
Welcome to Latitude Artist Community!

A look back at an incredible 2008 and some upcoming events!

Beverly Baker on the international scene:
Latitude artist Beverly Baker exhibited work in Paris France. Beverly's work was also featured in two exhibits in NYC as well as in an exhibit inher home town of Versailles Kentucky
Paris gallery exterior thanks to Phil Jones

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Jessie Dunahoo on the national scene:
Latitude artist Jessie Dunahoo's artwork was featured on the hit ABC television show Extreme
Home Makeovers
.
The show included footage of Jessie and EHM co-star Michael Molone here at Latitude! Jessie also had a solo exhibit of his
work at the Andrew Edlin Gallery in NYC and was a featured artist and grand prize winner ($500.00) at a LexArts exhibit called "Folk Art Takes a New Form" in Lexington.



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Latitude artists Tony Dunn, Meg Pike, Kenny Taylor, Heady Spalding, and Albert Moser exhibited artwork in a group show at the Andrew Edlin Gallery in NYC.
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On the local scene:
Every Latitude artist was very active in improving our community by creating and exhibiting art, enhancing our own skills as personal advocates and by continuing to promote accessibility awareness through our Project Easy Access Lexington (PEAL) program. Here are a few favorites from 2008!
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Third Street Coffee:
Almost every Latitude artist created artwork which was displayed throughout the year at our permanent space at Third Street Coffee at 257 North Limestone Street in Lexington. When you visit Third Street don't forget to check out our mural!

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PUSH America:
Latitude hosted bicyclists from the PUSH America, who embark on an annual 4,000 mile cross country bike trip organized by members of the national philanthropy arm of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity. The purpose of the trip is to raise awareness for disability issues. Latitude artists hosted a community forum during which riders shared travel stories. Afterward PEAL led the riders on one of our "Inaccessibility Tours". At the end of the day Latitude had a big cookout for everyone at Third Street Coffee. We will be hosting PUSH again this summer! (photo Lexington Herald-Leader)
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Community Gardening:
As most of you know Latitude is an avid fan of community gardens, in fact Latitude is credited with beginning one of Lexington's first community gardens! Since then we have moved to a building where there is no access to a garden area. We have solved that problem by creating portable community gardens on wheels (our current one is known as Mobile Community Garden Unit #3). Additionally Latitude grew tomatoes at Southland Community Garden and everyone who attended Latitude was able to take home fresh tomatoes! This spring Latitude is partnering with the Southland Community Garden and UK to distribute 500 tomato plants to group homes throughout Kentucky! Our long term goal is to try to get just about every group home in the state to have a garden.




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Latitude's 2nd Health and Wellness Awareness Presentation Series:

Throughout much of last spring speakers presented a variety of informative workshops related to health, wellness and personal advocacy. All were open to the public and very well attended. We plan to do this again this coming spring- more info about this in the near future
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PARK(ing) Day:
is a one-day, global event where artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks. This year Latitude brought the event to Lexington and other organizations participated as well. We are working with LexArts to make this an even bigger event this year.



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2nd District Councilperson Don Blues visits:

In October we welcomed 2nd District Councilperson Don Blues to Latitude.
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Project Easy Access Lexington: (PEAL)
PEAL was very active this year. LFUCG's Commission on People with Disabilities (which PEAL helped found) continues to do very good work, especially around transportation issues. Currently PEAL/Latitude members Belinda Sellers and Bruce Burris serve on it.

PEAL- LFUCG entrance advocacy update:
An important project for PEAL has been trying to convince the city to create an accessible entrance to our government building. Three years ago PEAL participated in an agreement that was to make the entrance accessible. Recently we have helped to finally get to get this important process underway.

PEAL's Day of the Dead Shrine: commemorated those who have been involved in accidents at the corner of North Broadway and Short Streets. We displayed our shrine on the sidewalk at N. Broadway near the Lexington Opera House on November 3rd.
more on our Day of the Dead Shrine here:
http://latitudeart.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html

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LFUCG (Lexington City Council) Portrait Project:
Currently Latitude artists are in the midst of creating a portrait of every member of our city council. These portraits and related artwork will be installed and on display at Artsplace from March 5- 31st. Here is portrait of Chuck Ellinger



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Much thanks to Phillip Jones for lots of help this year
Happy 8th Birthday Latitude Artist Community!