Civic Artist Residency
What is the Civic Artist Residency?
In 2021, we embedded three Fayette County based artists in LFUCG to reimagine how the city can interact with its residents.
The Civic Artist in Residence (CAIR) program was built in partnership with the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government and the Blue Grass Community Foundation through funding from the National Endowment for the Arts ‘Our Town’ Program.
Program Updates
Lexington’s first Civic Artist in Residence (CAIR) program is now complete! Artists Tony Gilmore, Debra Faulk, and Hannah Allen have finished their 13 year terms in three different city departments, and our program evaluation process is now underway. Check out the CAIR blog below to learn more about their final projects!
Chronicles from CAIR artists and staff:
Meet Lexington’s Civic Artists in Residence
After 18 months of preparation, CivicLex, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, and the Blue Grass Community Foundation are delighted to welcome Hannah Allen, Debra Faulk, and Tony Gilmore to Lexington’s first ever Civic Artist in Residence Program!
We are so excited to have these artists spend the next year working with LFUCG employees to explore new ways to engage with city residents, celebrate the labor of city employees, and develop creative, new approaches to people-government participation. So, without further ado, meet the artists!
Debra Faulk - Department of Social Services
Faulk, a native of Lexington, spent many years in Los Angeles as a stand-up comedienne and actress and returned to Lexington to continue her theatrical work. She has been a guest lecturer with the University of Kentucky Department of Theatre and Dance and with the Theatre of Hearts in Los Angeles. Faulk currently works with Kentucky Humanities portraying Nancy Green, the Kentucky activist, philanthropist and missionary whose likeness became known as “Aunt Jemima.”
Tony Gilmore - Department of Environmental Quality and Public Works
As an adoptee, Anthony’s work has focused on international social issues regarding transracial and intercountry adoption, human rights in Asia, and reclaiming cultural identity. Through his art, Anthony brings awareness to Asian and Asian-American issues often overlooked in Western society. He has found entrepreneurial success in companies he founded in South Korea, Japan, and the United States. His award-winning films have screened at numerous international festivals, including SXSW, Hamptons International Film Festival, and Busan International Film Festival
Hannah Allen - Department of Finance
Hannah Allen is a quilter and fiber artist living in Lexington, Kentucky. Having grown up in the Lexington art community as a visual art student at SCAPA, Hannah experienced a variety of mediums from a young age, discovering a love of sewing and textile arts. After a long hiatus from art, instead studying and working in Architectural History, she re-discovered her love of sewing in 2018. In 2019, she was a part of the Rita’s Quilt project, contributing the embroidered Kentucky square. The quilt was displayed at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY in March 2020, and was featured on NPR, BBC, and Atlas Obscura. Her current work expresses the comfort of a handmade quilt, the joy of creative freedom, and the unexpected happiness in rediscovering past interests.
Overview
This is the inaugural Civic Artist in Residence program in Kentucky and is a partnership between CivicLex and the City of Lexington. We believe artists of all practices and educational levels are uniquely able to provide new perspectives on solving challenging social and civic issues. In this program, three artists in residence will collaborate with three LFUCG departments (Environmental Quality & Public Works, Finance, & Social Services) to reimagine how they work and engage with the public.
We hope this program will create new approaches for how the city engages with the public. We will encourage projects that bring marginalized community voices into city decision making and find creative solutions to problems or “stuck” aspects of how the city works. We want this program to benefit city government by celebrating city employees' labor and helping departments communicate more effectively.
Residency Planning Team
Advisory Group
Project Work Team & Staff:
Kit Anderson, Megan Gulla, Ashley Hanson, Michele Huggins, Mark Kidd, Casey Lyons, Heather Lyons, & Richard Young.
City of Lexington Advisors:
Nancy Albright, Rob Allen, Chris Ford, Amber Luallen, Theresa Maynard, Elizabeth McGee, Angela Poe, Ashley Simpson, & Deborah Slone.
Artistic & Community Advisors:
Jason Akhtarekhavari, Jessica Breen, Devine Carama, Raaziq El-Amin, Kurt Gohde, Chester Grundy, Brandy Shumake, Lakshmi Sriraman, DeBraun Thomas, & Kremena Todorova.
Work Team
Ashley Hanson - Civic Artist in Residence Consultant
Ashley is the founder of PlaceBase Productions, a theater company that creates original, site-specific musicals celebrating small town life and the founder of the Department of Public Transformation, an artist-led organization that collaborates with local leaders in rural areas to develop creative strategies for community connection and civic participation. She was recently named a 2018 Obama Foundation Fellow and a 2019 Bush Fellow for her work with rural communities. She believes deeply in the power of play and exclamation points! See More: Public Transformation, PlaceBase Productions, Ash Hanson
Mark Kidd - Evaluation Consultant
Mark facilitates community workshops and residencies that incorporate theater, low-cost media, and cultural organizing. Mark was one of six national recipients of the Theatre Communications Group’s New Generations / Future Leaders Fellowship in 2012 and 2013 on the basis of his work in the coalfields of Southwest Virginia and Southeast Kentucky. Mark co-created the “Appalshop Innovation Lab” curriculum for community leaders to use public narrative and low-cost media practices to link community expertise with policy issues and to create opportunities for change from the ground up.