What do an award-winning chef, a rising young country music star and a reigning champion trainer have in common?
All three are featured in the Common Wealth of Kentucky Project, an exhibit going on now through Oct. 1 at LexArts Gallery in Lexington, Kentucky. Along with chef Ouita Michel and singer Walker Montgomery, trainer Brad Cox is one of 70 Kentuckians who shared their life story for the collection, which is the culmination of a year-long project for impressionist painter Kelly Brewer and partner Beth Pride, a writer and digital storyteller.
Visitors can explore the gallery and connect with each Kentuckian on a multi-sensory level as they observe the portrait of the participants, read a short summary of their lives, and even scan a QR code with a smart-phone camera to listen to the participant's voice as they share portions of their own story.
The project was inspired by Brewer's mother, Jo B. Robertson, who passed away in 2020. Brewer decided that she wanted to paint portraits to honor her mother and raise money for the Jo B. Robertson Charitable Foundation, which was established to continue Robertson's legacy of helping to educate, house, clothe and feed the less fortunate. Brewer turned to Pride, the wife of Godolphin's Dan Pride, for assistance.
“We decided that we would call it the Common Wealth of Kentucky and that it would reveal the richness that the people who comprise this state are made of and the commonalities that we all have,” said Pride. “We hoped to do our best to break down these artificial barriers that really, at the end of the day, are not real.”
Together Pride and Brewer, along with advocate Jill Johnson, spent the next year traveling throughout the Commonwealth as Brewer painted Kentuckians from all walks of life while Pride collected their stories.
They met with Jeff Broadwater, a United States Army major general who served in Kuwait during Desert Storm and was deployed to Iraq twice, and Lou Anna Red Corn, the first Native American Commonwealth Attorney in Kentucky. They talked to Pedo Mann, a coal foreman in Eastern Kentucky, and Gentille Ntakarutimana, who was a Burundian refugee as a child and is now a legal assistant for Morgan and Morgan.
Louisville native Brad Cox is not the only racing industry member to appear in the collection. The sport is a common theme throughout the exhibit. Keeneland is represented by President and CEO Shannon Arvin along with well-known ringman Cordell Anderson. Other members of the sport who are featured include Lane End Farm's Bill Farish, Airdrie Stud's Bret Jones, Phipps Family Stable racing manager Daisy Phipps Pulito and Hall of Fame jockey Steve Cauthen.
“What we really tried to do is build a unique impression of who these people are and find something that maybe everyone doesn't know about them,” explained Pride. “Daisy was in the sports television industry for years and Bill was a personal aide to President George H.W. Bush. Everyone has something unique that really differentiates them, but we also found that we have so many things in common as human beings and we're all connected through our humanity no matter our background or where we're going.”
Participants also included political figures like Lexington mayor Linda Gorton as well as Kelly Craft, the former United Nations Ambassador who recently launched her campaign for Kentucky governor. Lexington locals will recognize names like Kentucky Sports Radio's Matt Jones and Bluegrass Hospitality Group founders Brian McCarty and Bruce Drake.
Each of the portraits on display are available for purchase through a super silent auction format where the bid amount is hidden from the public and managed confidentially. The auction will continue through Friday, Oct. 1.
“We're very grateful for the response,” Pride said. “We had about 400 people there on opening night and LexArts has told us that the traffic for the exhibit has been triple what they are accustomed to.”
The exhibit has also been encapsulated in the form of a book, which was written and sound-produced by Pride and features the original artwork by Brewer (the book is available in the gallery, at the Keeneland Mercantile in Lexington or can be purchased here).
As Pride reflected on the project, she said that in many ways, Kentucky horse racing represents a microcosm of the Commonwealth as a whole.
“The horse business is one of those industries where there is a lot of competition within the industry, but it's also an industry that has external criticism,” Pride said. “It's the same with bourbon, parimutual betting and coal mining. What happens is that the people in the industry are friendly competitors because they know they need to be bonded in a singular purpose of promoting and advocating for the horse and for the industry. That spirit where everyone is in it together is reflected all throughout Kentucky.”
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