The Arts at KET

Art and Nature Come Together on Kentucky Life

This week's Kentucky Life includes two segments about artists who incorporate natural elements into their work.

First, the community of Henderson honors its famous former resident, artist and naturalist John James Audubon, with bronze sculptures created directly from his drawings.

The sculptures, which include 13 birds and one of Audubon himself, are placed throughout downtown and at John James Audubon State Park. Sculptor Raymond Graf of Louisville talks about the work and the importance of public art.

Also in this program, a passion for plants, architecture, and trains come together in the miniature worlds created by Paul Busse’s Applied Imagination Workshop in Campbell County.

The Applied Imagination team builds large-scale garden railway designs that include tunnels, waterfalls, intricately detailed cityscapes and iconic structures, including the U.S. Capitol, Yankee Stadium, and the Brooklyn Bridge—and everything is constructed entirely out of plant materials.
• Saturday at 8/7 pm CT on KET

Great Performances at the Met presents "The Enchanted Island"

This extraordinary new work combines some of the world’s best singers, the glorious music of the Baroque masters, and a story drawn from Shakespeare. The lovers from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream are shipwrecked on the other-worldly island of The Tempest.
• Friday at 10/9 pm CT on KET

See a complete listing of this week's arts programs.

Arts on Teachers' Domain

KET Teachers’ Domain offers an extensive library of FREE digital media resources designed for classroom use. KET has recently added more than 60 arts videos to Teachers’ Domain.

Look for
• Arts in the Renaissance
• African/African-American Culture
• Japanese Culture
• Native American Culture
• The Civil War Era, and more in the Special Collections area of Teachers' Domain.

Each video resource includes a background essay, teaching tips, discussion questions, and alignment to national standards.

Arts Anniversary

May 17 is the anniversary of the birth of composer Éric Satie. Satie was born in 1866 in Normandy, France.

He was a colorful and influential figure in the Parisian avante-garde of the early 20th century.

Satie's eccentric, impressionistic works are considered precursors to later artistic movements such as minimalism, repetitive music, and the Theater of the Absurd.

His most famous composition is the Gymnopédies, a series of three piano works published beginning in 1888.

Find out what happened in the arts today and every day in the Arts Toolkit's This Day in the Arts calendar.

State of the Art

Later this summer, visit A Day In The Country, Kentucky’s original folk art fair and one of the largest annual gatherings of contemporary folk artists.

More than 50 folk artists will take part this year, showing off their works and offering them for sale.

The event takes place Saturday, June 2, 9 a.m. through 4 p.m. at the Morehead Conference Center, and is presented by Morehead State University's Kentucky Folk Art Center.