The 2nd group of Hadley Creatives. Photo: CFL

By Keith Waits

Entire contents are copyright © 2018, by Keith Waits. All rights reserved.

The Community Foundation of Louisville (CFL) has announced the members of the 2nd cohort for the Hadley Creatives. In what the Foundation has labeled their, “signature program”, Hadley Creatives, local artists are chosen to participate in a comprehensive 6-month professional development program. In the description on the CFL website: “…we intend to cultivate a supportive community of diverse, multi-disciplinary creatives committed to professional best practices, career planning, and advocacy.”

The 2019 group consists of:

Theresa Bautista (dance)                 Andy Cenci (software designer)
Erica Codey-Rucker (writer)           Erica De La O (dance)
William Duffy (visual art)                Morgan Eklund (writer)
Allie Keel (playwright)                         Keith McGill (theatre)
Adrienne Miller (visual art)             Irene Mudd (visual art)
Brandon Ragland (dance)                Tatiana Rathke (visual art)
Gibbs Rounsavall (visual art)          Sanjay Saverimuttu (dance)
Richard Sullivan (visual art)

In the first month, the fifteen individuals will go through an intensive orientation session that at 21c Museum and Hotel that will, in part, determine what other activities will occupy the remaining six months. Last year, the inaugural cohort eventually decided to mount an exhibit at Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft at the end of their time together.

Theresa Bautista. Photo: Abdul Sharif

With such a focus on dance in the new cohort (3 are company members of the Louisville Ballet, and Theresa Bautista is the co-founder of Moving Collective), and with two other performing arts artists, we can only speculate about what sort of finale this gathering will conjure up, but some sort of stage would seem inevitable.

Previously, Adrienne Miller, who works at The Speed Museum, was awarded the M.A. Hadley Prize for Visual Art, granted by the Community Foundation of Louisville in collaboration with Louisville Visual Art.

Andy Cenci. Photo: Abdul Sharif

The ambition for Hadley Creatives is fluid but large. Again from the CFL website: A 6-month learning and engagement experience where creatives cultivate a community committed to professional best practices, career planning, expanded peer networks, and personal reflection. Developed in partnership with Creative Capital, a New York-based nonprofit that supports innovative and adventurous artists across the country.”

The individual artists were selected through a competitive application process, with an emphasis on identifying individuals who are “…at pivotal points in their careers.”

The Hadley Creatives is funded by the George & Mary Alice Hadley Fund at the Community Foundation of Louisville.

Keith Waits is a native of Louisville who works at Louisville Visual Art during the days, including being the host of LVA’s Artebella On The Radio on WXOX 97.1 FM / ARTxFM.com, but spends most of his evenings indulging his taste for theatre, music and visual arts. His work has appeared in Pure Uncut Candy, TheatreLouisville, and Louisville Mojo. He is now Managing Editor for Arts-Louisville.com.