The new South Central Regional Library in Okolona, which opened last Friday, is not just a place where people can check out books and movies.
Louisville Free Public Library Director Jim Blanton says the location will also host an innovative artist-in-residence program called COLLIDER.
COLLIDER serves to connect the general public with art and the people who create it by providing special studio space within the library for artists to create on-site while encouraging patrons to drop in, interact, and learn about different artistic processes.
“That can be any number of mediums,” Blanton says. “We have, for example, our first artist in the Collider is a ballet dancer and there will be people who do more traditional things like paint on canvas, but we’ll have poetry, we’ll have sound designers.”
Here’s a full list of the participating artists:
August: Ashley Thursby Kern (ballet)
September: Lance Newman (spoken word)
October: Jennifer Palmer (visual art)
November: Alex Serpentini (socially engaged art)
December: Rhythm Science Sound / Jared & SCZ (digital music and sound art)
January: Alyson Theil (visual art)
February: Dixie Chaco (Afro-Caribbean dance)
“People can come in and interact with them informally while they are creating on-site and there will also be structured programming throughout the month where there will be classes,” Blanton says.
According to Blanton, project funding from Councilwoman Madonna Flood makes the COLLIDER Artist-In-Residence program possible. More on the program and the participating artists can be found here.