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Louisville is making a bid for national attention with the splashy OMA-designed Museum Plaza complex, which will open in 2011. 21c's adjoining eatery, Proof on Main, was chosen as one of Esquires best new restaurants in 2006. The arty milieu extends to the bar at Proof on Main, featuring works by Larry Shank, Shayne Hull, and Annie Sprinkle. Rooms with a view: 21c's guest suites feature original artworks from the Wilson collection. |
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Most people’s image of Louisville doesn’t stray far from Churchill Downs’ julep-steeped parade of sleek Thoroughbreds and their blue-blooded, extravagantly hatted owners come Derby Day. But among the city’s younger residents, a foremost source of pride these days is Louisville’s dynamic contemporary-art scene, which some liken to the heyday of New York’s SoHo. With its creative class reaching critical mass, Louisville is poised for national recognition with Museum Plaza, a new 62-story multiuse skyscraper that will serve as an anchor for the city’s art institutions.
Museum Plaza is just the latest example of Louisville’s commitment to expanding its cultural boundaries. “There is a willingness and eagerness to embrace change and seek out a little more sophistication,” says Steve Wilson, a philanthropist, art collector, and real estate impresario who with his wife, Laura Lee Brown, is a major backer of the $500 million project. As conceived by Joshua Prince-Ramus of Rem Koolhaas’s Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), the multipronged skyscraper, scheduled for completion in 2011, will contain several galleries and art foundations, a glassblowing facility, a hotel and restaurant, offices, and luxury residences. A plaza and park will link the skyscraper to the Frazier International History Museum, the Louisville Science Center, and the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft.
Wilson and Brown (a member of the family that owns Brown-Forman, the spirits and wine producer whose brands include Southern Comfort, Jack Daniel’s, and Finlandia vodka)—are no strangers to shaking up Louisville’s artistic landscape. Two years ago they opened 21c, a hotel whose lobby includes 9,000 square feet of gallery space designed to showcase guest-curated exhibitions of works from their extensive collection of blue-chip contemporary artists. (Pieces by Louise Bourgeois, Bill Viola, Hedi Slimane, Vik Muniz, and Andres Serrano are currently on display.)
“A sense of solidarity has developed among Louisville's arts community,” says Jay Jordan, director and curator of the New Center for Contemporary Art. “People here have something to prove, and there is a real interest in making Louisville a great place for artists to be.” It all started, he says, in the late 1990s, when several galleries popped up on Market Street and young artists began staging group shows in lofts and warehouses. Jordan also credits the city’s “really strong and serious” collectors of contemporary art. “They show a lot of support for and interest in regional artists, not just internationally renowned names,” he says.
Louisville’s cultural renaissance isn’t confined to its arts scene. Beyond the city’s art patrons, a 30-ish group of movers and shakers is raising the area’s profile. They include Gill Holland, a film producer whose documentary Flow: For Love of Water, about the world’s dwindling water supplies, made a stir at this year’s Sundance Film Festival; Matthew Barzun, a media entrepreneur who is one of Barack Obama’s biggest financial backers; and Jonathan Blue, chairman of Blue Equity, whose holdings include a talent agency representing tennis ace Andy Roddick.
The city’s dining scene is getting equally creative. Louisville boasts a number of notable restaurants making innovative use of local farms’ abundant bounty—a prime example being 610 Magnolia, whose six-course prix fixe dinners put a modern slant on Southern cuisine. They are the handiwork of chef Edward Lee, an ex-Manhattanite who chose Louisville for its proximity to farm-fresh goods. “Here I can just hop in a car and be at a farm in 20 minutes,” says Lee, who works directly with local growers to source ingredients.
Craig Greenberg, a developer involved in the downtown revitalization and a partner in Museum Plaza, observes that Louisville “for its size, has a lot of young, energetic, civic-minded self-starters who want to take the ball and run with it and really make an impact. And in this town, that is possible.”
STAY
21c Museum Hotel
Rooms are accessorized with contemporary artwork, iPods sporting a customized mix, 42-inch HDTV flat-screen TVs, 500-thread-count sheets, and, for a little touch of the traditional, silver-plated mint julep cups. Rates from $109. 700 West Main Street, 502.217.6300.
The Seelbach Hilton Louisville
It doesn’t get much grander than the century-old grande dame of Louisville hotels, which made a cameo appearance in The Great Gatsby and features suites worthy of the White House. Rates from $299. 500 Fourth Street, 502.585.3200.
The Brown Hotel
No slouch in the grandeur department either, the Brown Hotel has the charm of a sprawling Derbyshire estate. Rates from $159. 335 West Broadway, reservations: 888.888.5252
SEE
Gallery NuLu Owned by Gill Holland, an independent film producer who splits his time between New York and Louisville and makes a point of forging connections between the two cities’ art scenes. 632 East Market Street, second floor; 502.561.1162
New Center for Contemporary Art The New Center provides regional artists with the chance to share wall space with artists shown at the Whitney and Venice biennials. 742 East Market Street, 502.552.2994
Swanson Reed Contemporary This versatile space spotlights video, installation, photography, conceptual art, painting, performance, and sculpture with oft-changing exhibitions. 638 East Market Street, 502.589.5466
Zephyr Gallery Come face-to-face with the creative forces behind this cooperative gallery, which is owned and operated by 24 local artists who work in two- and three-dimensional mediums. 610 East Market Street, 502.585.5646
EAT
610 Magnolia
Chef Edward Lee serves up Asian-inflected Southern dishes in a cozy frame house overlooking Louisville’s Central Park. Try: grilled Hawaiian prawns with carrot-orange puree, spring-lamb loin with country-ham gratin, or sweet-potato bread pudding with caramel and Earl Grey ice cream. 610 West Magnolia Avenue, 502.636.0783
Basa Modern Vietnamese
One of the city’s handful of James Beard award nominees, Basa puts an unabashedly modern, sophisticated spin on Vietnamese cuisine, with an emphasis on locally sourced ingredients. Try: tuna tartare with lime-cilantro crème fraîche, aged balsamic, pickled ginger, and Kentucky paddlefish caviar, or the caramelized catfish clay pot with smoked bacon and tamarind broth. 2244 Frankfort Avenue, 502.896.1016
Proof on Main
Not only does 21c’s restaurant serve Southern-accented dishes shot through with the clean, bold flavors of Italy, it boasts plenty of eye-popping acquisitions from the Wilson-Brown collection. Try: baked octopus with bagna cauda, a pestolike sauce of butter, parsley, and garlic; striped bass in an aromatic sunchoke broth; or bison tenderloin with fingerling potatoes, smoked sea salt, and buttered leeks. 702 West Main Street, 502.217.6360
Kristen Carr Jandoli is a Philadelphia-based writer whose work has appeared in Women's Wear Daily and Town & Country
Photography Credits:
1. Courtesy Ramus Ella Architects
2, 3. John Nation/Courtesy Proof on Main
4. Courtesy 21c Museum Hotel
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