Ellerslie subdivision to host Red Cross benefit
On Oct. 3 -
4 and 10 - 11, Barlow Homes and the Wheeler Group at Bluegrass Sotheby's International Realty will present the Ellerslie Holiday House, a benefit for the Bluegrass Chapter of the American Red Cross. The event will feature holiday dÈcor created by Lexington decorators and designers, including Ed Botkin, Design Link, Corman and Associates, E. Stephen Hein, and A Blooming Miracle, as well as a boutique featuring trendy gifts and furnishings from local stores such as A.J.'s Casuals, Just Us Girls, Rooster and Rose, Fayette Gallery, Sugar and Spice and The Toy Shop.
Tour hours are from 9 a.m. -
5 p.m. Saturdays and 1 -
5 p.m. Sundays. The Ellerslie subdivision is located on Richmond Road across from Jacobson Park. Admission to the Ellerslie Holiday House is $10 and all proceeds benefit the Bluegrass Chapter of the American Red Cross.
For additional information call (859) 253-1331 or visit www.redcrosslexky.org.
Ashland Park home tour planned for late October
In conjunction with the Ashland Estate, 14 Ashland Park homes will be open for tour from 1 - 5 p.m. Oct. 25. Special activities will be planned at the Ashland Estate as well. Included in the tour this year is "Art in the Park," which will feature local artists and various mediums in the Hanover medium.
For more information, call (859) 268-8169.
New art gallery to open on North Limestone
Institute 193, an art gallery dedicated to enriching the cultural landscape of the Lexington-area by exhibiting emerging and mid-career professional artists from the Southern region of the United States, is scheduled to open in mid-October with an exhibit by Louis Beckett titled, "Selections from the Archive."
Gallery organizers say the space, located at 193 North Limestone, will serve as a point-of-departure for artists, providing them with professionally installed exhibitions, color catalogs and their work and scholarly essays pertaining to their show. The underlying goal of the gallery is to advance the careers of regional artists in the more relevant markets found in New York, Paris, Los Angeles and London.
For more information, call (859) 229-0454, or visit www.institute193.org.
Keeneland's new traffic calming device: Jazz
Concerned about contributing to the Versailles Road Friday evening rush hour following its popular opening day, Keeneland will experiment with an idea to encourage people to linger at the track after the last race of the first day of the annual fall meet on Oct. 9.
The first race of the day has been scheduled approximately one hour later than usual, at 2:15 p.m. After the final race, a mobile stage will roll onto the track in front of the grandstand to present "Swinging at Sunset," featuring classic American jazz performed by the 17-piece Kentucky Jazz Repertory Orchestra. Food and drink specials will be offered.
"Starting an hour later gives our customers a greater opportunity to enjoy more of opening day, which features two important graded stakes races and a variety of fun events," said Keeneland President Nick Nicholson. "There will be more racing when people aren't working."
"The later post time has other advantages," he added. "Out-of-town guests will have additional time to travel to Keeneland for the weekend and our customers won't be exiting into rush hour on Friday, the most challenging traffic day of the week."
Trail offers perspectives on local history and fitness
The first part of Town Branch Trail (TBT), a 1.8-mile section, was officially opened on Sept. 12 by Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry and many enthusiastic bicycle riders. Town Branch Trail showcases Lexington's earliest history, following the westward course of the Town Branch of Elkhorn Creek, on whose banks the town developed. Historical markers offer glimpses of Lexington's history and ecology as the trail passes by rare stands of cane and old trees.
The trail was created through the cooperative efforts and work of a number of people. The local nonprofit group Town Branch Trail, Inc., which started in 2001, is headed by visionary local architect Van Meter Pettit, the son of former Lexington Mayor Foster Pettit. The next one-mile section of the trail is funded, with construction expected to be completed within a year. "In the best of all worlds, Town Branch Trail will be finished in three to five years," Pettit said. The trail's sections "will be put in place in such a way that they'll be here 200 years from now," he added.
Now TBT is working with the Manchester Development Company to design the final miles of the trail, which will run along Manchester Street through the Distillery District. RJ Corman Railroad Group is also involved, as TBT hopes to build trails along rail lines that run through some of the prettiest land in the Bluegrass. Pettit said that feasibility studies are underway for 15 more miles of trail, either additions to Town Branch Trail or associated with it.
Working with the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government and local developer Dennis Anderson, the nonprofit group has written grants, raised funds of about $2 million, and secured land donations worth more than $1 million.
To learn more about Town Branch Trail, see www.townbranch.org.
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Margaret Buranen
UK to participate in National Solar Competition
The University of Kentucky was one of 20 universities across the world chosen to participate in the Department of Energy's fourth biennial Solar Decathlon on Oct. 9 -
18. The teams were each asked to create an 800-square-foot, or less, solar-powered house, built by students on their home campus, and then move and rebuild the house for the competition, which takes place in the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The homes will be evaluated on 10 specific areas: architecture, engineering, market viability, lighting design, communications, comfort, appliances, hot water, energy balance and home entertainment.
The design of UK's competing house, called S*KY BLUE, makes strong reference to the Kentucky vernacular, and is based on an open and porous loft concept anchored by the home's hearth, the kitchen core and a series of seamlessly integrated outdoor rooms that envelope the house to form an engaged landscape.
For more information, visit www.solardecathlon.org.
Endowment to make UK sports archive available to public
The University of Kentucky Libraries, with help from UK Athletics and fans, are using advanced technologies and archival techniques to preserve and make available to the public the Wildcats' storied history.
UK Archives has preserved one of the finest college sports archives in the country and is home to more than 4,000 videotapes, 1,500 audiotapes, 1,500 films, 10,000 photographs, 30 scrapbooks and 150 boxes of clippings, programs and media guides. While the collection has been heavily used by researchers, most of the materials have not been readily available to the general public. With the support of an endowment for the Big Blue Sports Archives, UK Libraries will make the UK sports archive available to the public worldwide via the Internet.
The UK Big Blue Sports Archive Endowment will provide much needed resources for collecting, presenting, digitizing and providing access to fans and sports history researchers worldwide.
There will be a celebration for The Big Blue Sports Archive beginning at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 13 at the Griffin Gate Marriott Resort. Anybody interested in attending should call (859) 257-1742 or e-mail eedwards@uky.edu.
WRFL celebrates 21 years with three-day festival
On Oct. 9 -
11, Lexington will host an international roster of independent musicians as WRFL 88.1, celebrates 21 years of independent programming with Boomslang: A Celebration of Sound, Art and Other Curiosities. A three-day, multi-venue festival, Boomslang will host music, art, literary and multi-media events across town, focusing on visionary, experimental and underground artists from Kentucky and from around the world.
Headlining artists range from acclaimed Boston art-rockers Mission of Burma to Brazilian psychedelic maestros Os Mutantes. Other events include a solo piano show by Louisvillian Rachel Grimes; a free hip hop show at Duncan Park; a literary event featuring Ed McClanahan at The Carnegie Center; an electronic music workshop and showcase; and a carnival featuring local sideshow acts, a local art bazaar and a circus-themed fashion show.
Participating venues include Buster's Backroom & Billiards, Natasha's Bistro, CD Central, Hop Hop, The Carnegie Center, Void Skateshop, Al's Bar, Duncan Park, Devassa and the Second Presbyterian Church.
More information about artists and events can be found at www.boomslangfest.com. Day passes and weekend passes are available at that Web site and also at Buster's box office; many events are free and open to the public.