Pioneering pARTnerships

At a recent Louisville Visual Art Association luncheon, quilt expert Shelly Zegart, one of Louisville’s most admired residents, reflected on her 30-year journey to international fame. “At what point do you say ‘enough’?” she quips, eliciting a swell of laughter from an audience of her peers in a gallery at the organization’s riverside tower.

 

Zegart, of Crescent Hill, is executive producer and host of “Why Quilts Matter.” She was promoting the nine-part documentary at Food for Thought, the monthly LVAA midday eat-and-meet that has featured articulate artists since 2005. 

 

It’s a familiar space and audience for Zegart, a past LVAA board member whose ambitions have been nurtured by a wide circle of close friends. 

 

Zegart credits LVAA for another milestone in her journey: the transition from academic to interactive. “Being a part of this organization gave me the opportunity to look inside the creative mind, the creative person, their struggles, how they make a living,” she says. “It gave me that other side.”

 

Likewise, Food for Thought gives a sometimes eye-popping portrait of the artist. It’s billed as a luncheon “lecture,” but that’s a stiff misnomer, according to LVAA facility manager Keith Waits. “The idea is that it’s an intimate environment,” he says. 

 

All the better for cultivating relationships, which is LVAA intern Sarah Stalker’s raison d’etre. “I love Louisville; my husband loves Louisville; it’s a great place to raise a family, and I just want to build a community,” says Stalker. 

 

Mindful of that civic-hearted spirit, LVAA gave Stalker carte blanche to expand the Food for Thought series – “to take this and run with it,” Stalker says – into the night. Hence, the working title of the first off-site evening installment of the series: Food for Thought After Dark, which takes place Saturday, January 14.  

 

The venue? Greenhaus, an eclectic Schnitzelburg store that opened in November 2010. “This is a great place in your community that you should know about,” says Stalker, who tapped owner Daniel Duncan as the obvious partner for her brainchild. “I’ve built good relationships with a lot of people who come in here,” says Duncan, against the backdrop of his upper-level showroom filled with primitive and mid-century furniture, housewares and local artwork, which he cycles anew every two months.

 

Duncan’s connections with fellow business owners, artists, and loyal customers such as Stalker have set the stage for him to host the event. His personal aspirations also play a role. “I’m a musician, so I understand what it is to be an artist,” he says. “And having places where you can hang your stuff – and hopefully try to sell something so you can buy more supplies to paint – is important.” 

 

Both Duncan and Stalker are kindred spirits and frugal parents – youthful at 30ish – who can’t afford frequent outings. Accordingly, they want to offer a good value – an ambition that seems guaranteed by the amorous clamor of sponsors, the affordable price ($10 for LVAA members; $15 for non-members) and their zest to co-pioneer an event worthy of the neighborhood in which they reside with pride. “I like to give people experiences instead of objects they’ll forget in three years,” says Stalker. 

 

Both proprietor and patron echo the “buy local first” cri de coeur. “The only way to boost people’s thought of shopping locally is by interconnecting everything,” Duncan says, with evident authority.

 

The front section of his store, located at 2227 S. Preston St., is a den of decadent delights, featuring beers to mix and match, wines (half of which are priced below $11), Argo Sons Coffee and Cellar Door chocolates – both of which will sponsor the January event, where participants will be able to sample wine and bourbon as well as food from Eiderdown (see January calendar for details). 

 

Duncan and Stalker expect to seat as many as 50 guests at the evening event featuring artist Daniel Pfalzgraf, who was recently named director of the Green Building Gallery on East Market Street. 

 

Stalker met Pfalzgraf through LVAA and was transfixed by his signature use of motor oil, not for the sake of being avant-garde, “but because it’s interesting and it works,” she says.

 

Pfalzgraf, a Clifton resident, says the idea came to him when he changed the oil in his truck as gas was spiking near $5 a gallon. The concurrence of the Gulf oil spill with an impending Swanson Reed Contemporary Gallery exhibit titled “Oil and Water Don’t Mix” inspired him to paint images of BP board members with motor oil. Likewise, he painted hijackers over portraits of a super model and a star athlete to illustrate the terrorists’ contempt for American culture.

 

Pfalzgraf says he welcomes the opportunity to relate to a live audience by showing “what I do, why I do it and how I do it” in the intimacy of Greenhaus. “Otherwise, all you get is what you get by looking at it.”

 

And the artist is grateful to Stalker for the exposure. “She’s really trying to get something going for the city, using her energy to advance everyone around her,” he says. “I hope she kicks ass.”