An appropriate motto for today’s Spalding University Creative Arts Department would be: If you have an idea of something you’d like to make, we have the tools you’ll need. Lots and lots of them.

The art program – and the capacity for students to bring their concepts to life – has been bolstered this academic year with the unveiling of the Spalding Makerspace, a series of large rooms in Mansion East that are newly equipped with both state-of-the-art digital art technology and a bevy of traditional wood- and metal-working machines.

“It’s a pretty exciting moment for the art program and the Spalding campus as a whole,” said Assistant Professor of Digital Media Josh Azzarella, who has overseen the acquisition of a 3D-printer, a laser cutter and other high-tech devices in the new Makerspace.

The high-tech pieces combine with the many saws, shears and welders in the new wood and metal shop to create a Makerspace that will be heavily integrated into the curriculum of an art department that’s focused on introducing students to design thinking and how it applies to a range of ways to build and make.

Shawn Hennessey welds in the Spalding Makerspace — Hennessey uses welding tools in the Spalding Makerspace.

“Oh, man, we are so lucky,” said Assistant Professor of 3D Art Shawn Hennessey, who is also Creative Arts’ studio technician and the manager of the wood and metal shop. “We have this great confluence of high and low tech. We have all these low-tech options, so that people can still work with their hands, and we also have all these high-tech things for students to utilize their technical prowess or use a computer to make something physical. I think it’s a cool program because you can go back and forth between the two.”

The goal is that by graduation, Creative Arts students who use the Spalding Makerspace will be proficient in using the array of high- and low-tech equipment and have a broad understanding of creative problem-solving. They will learn many ways to make art and manipulate materials while developing skills to land a job in a field that regquires design thinking and craftsmanship.

“The things that students do here at Spalding are concept-driven,” Hennessey said. “They have an idea of something they want to make, or a project they want to do, and that steers them, and they gather the skills along the way.”

LEARN MORE | Overview of Spalding’s Creative Arts program
RELATED | Read a Q&A with Creative Arts Professor Shawn Hennessey

Here’s a rundown of some of the equipment in the new Spalding Makerspace:

DIGITIAL/HIGH-TECH SPACES

3D laser-cutting printer: After a design is entered into a computer, the Glowforge laser cutter burns it onto wood – etching, engraving and cutting with very fine and precise lines and curves.

In the span of a few minutes on a recent afternoon, Azzarella cut and engraved a half-dozen wooden key chains.

A look at the @SpaldingU Creative Arts Department’s new laser-cutting printer in action, cutting and engraving a quick set of key chains pic.twitter.com/OBGxQd4bZV

— Steve Jones (@SteveJones_SU) February 19, 2020

3D printer: The Creative Arts Department is acquiring a Formlabs Fuse 1 3D printer that creates pieces using powdered nylon and a laser through a process called selective laser sintering.

The high-tech printers will enable Spalding art students and faculty to use their imagination to create not only interesting pieces of art but also explore how creativity and design thinking can be applied to make functional devices and inventions in all kinds of settings and fields.

Because that printer is capable of making products that are flexible and bendable, Azzarella foresees the Creative Arts Department collaborating with faculty from Spalding’s Auerbach School of Occupational Therapy to make assistive-technology devices and modifications for people with disabilities.

They’ve already had success.

Using a different 3D printer, Azzarella and occupational therapy Associate Professor Dr. Sara Story teamed up to design and build a small plastic attachment that fits on a toy baby stroller belonging to a 2-year-old girl who was born a limb difference and only one hand. With Azzarella and Story’s modified device, which cost only 42 cents to produce, the girl is able to use both arms to push and steer the stroller that she loves so much.

“If we’re able to do that for more kids or more people in the community, that’s amazing,” Azzarella said. “It’s fulfilling in a way that I haven’t really felt before. … We kind of changed the world of a little girl’s life.”

Hennessey, who builds puppets and puts on community puppet shows through Squallis Puppeteers, agreed.

“I want our students to understand that you don’t just have to make something to sell,” he said. “(By using your creativity) you can actually improve your community.”

A digital sewing machine: Students design a fabric pattern on a computer, which then sends the file to the sewing machine to stitch the pattern at a high speed. Azzarella said it’s a neat machine for students interested in embroidery.

Virtual reality technology: By wearing an HTC VIVE headset and using Google Tilt Brush software, students can paint virtually in a panoramic, three-dimensional setting. It’s a useful tool for students who are interested in designing video games or virtual environments. “Students can paint like they would on a canvas,” Azzarella said, “but we can enter that painting, walk into it and through it and around it and look at it from every different vantage point.”

Spalding Professor Shawn Hennessey uses a metal cutter in the Spalding Maker Space — Hennessey uses a metal cutter.

WOODSHOP/METAL SHOP

The large studio at the end of the lower level of Mansion East has been updated and equipped with nearly 20 new pieces of professional-grade wood- and metal-working machinery. The shop provides art students with a foundation for learning to use traditional three-dimensional materials in a safe, clean, well-supervised setting.

Hennessey said he’s had fun seeing dozens of students quickly gain confidence using saws, drills, metal shears, sanders and welding machines that may have originally felt intimidating.

“I’ve been really trying to challenge my students, ‘Go use the welder,’” he said. “I want to empower them to feel like that they can do it. Also, just teaching all students simple but important skills like how to use a tape measure and how to do these concrete things that will affect other areas of their life, I’m excited about that and proud of that.”

Here are some of the wood-working and metal-working machines in the Spalding Makerspace:

Table saw: The SawStop saw has an electronic braking safety system that instantly stops the blade if anything other than wood comes close to it.

Planer: For smoothing and planing the rough edges off boards.

Band saw: To make rounded and precise cuts on boards.

Belt/disk/spindle sanders: Capable of smoothing all sizes and shapes of wood.

Drill press: For drilling precise holes or making circular cuts.

Knife grinder: For sanding and sharpening knives and blades.

Compound miter (or chop) saw: For making cross cuts with circular blades – useful in building picture frames.

Shaper: For making joinery and complex cuts.

A Spalding Creative Arts student cuts a piece of wood on a table saw — A student cuts a piece of wood on a table saw.

Lathe: For turning wood.

Welders and plasma cutter: For manipulating and cutting metal with intense heat and flames.

English wheel: For rounding sheets of metal.

Shrinker stretcher: For stretching or shrinking metal.

Throatless shear: For cutting metal on a curve.

Sand blaster: For smoothing metal.

Combination sheer/brake/roll: For cutting and rolling metal.

With Commencement approaching on June 1, Spalding is publishing a series of stories and Q&A’s that highlight students from a range of degree programs who are set to graduate. First to be featured is Madison Ezell, a candidate for a bachelor of fine arts in studio art degree, who is also a Spalding residence hall advisor and social media ambassador.

What is your favorite Spalding memory?
My favorite Spalding memory is when I got the opportunity to go to New York with a group of art students. On that trip I was able to see so much cool art, eat some really unique food and made so many fun memories with my friends. This trip gave me the opportunity to see so much art in real life, and I loved being able to get inspiration from everywhere I looked. Having the opportunity through Spalding to travel helped me develop my work and expand my understanding of art and art history.

What accomplishments are you most proud of during your time at Spalding?
I am most proud of the work I have put into my job as an RA. I feel like I have had the opportunity to constantly learn and grow through doing, and I have been able to develop leadership and organizational skills that I will take with me into my future career. I value the work I have been doing to help residents and to make their campus living experience better.

What’s your favorite spot on campus?
My favorite spot on campus is the main gathering area of the Egan Leadership Center. I have spent so much time with my friends there eating lunch and hanging out. It’s always a good meeting spot for us, and of course the POD is very close by if we want to grab something to eat.

At Spalding, we like to say that, “Today is a great day to change the world.” For many of our students, Commencement is a world-changing experience. After graduation, how do you plan to change the world, big or small, and who inspires you to be a #spaldingworldchanger?
I want to be able to bring art to people. I hope that once I graduate I will have the opportunity to expose people to art that will inspire them. I also want to keep making art that communicates ideas and makes people think about important issues. I am inspired by my group of friends because we help one another to create and encourage one another to pursue ideas. I think having a good network of supportive and creative people in my life has greatly contributed to my development as an artist and as a person.

The new Spalding University Visiting Artist Series, sponsored by the Spalding art department, will continue with its second installment, Wednesday, Feb. 27, with a trip to campus by sisters Colleen and Maggie Clines, who are the entrepreneurs, social activists and textile artists behind the Louisville-based Anchal Project, which sells fair-trade textiles created by women artisans from other countries who are facing exploitation. (See full bio below.)

The free, public lecture by Colleen and Maggie Clines will take place 5-6 p.m. at the Egan Leadership Center’s Troutman Lectorium, 901 S. Fourth St. Food will be provided.

“I think (the lecture) will probably be about where the (Anchal Project) came from,” said Spalding associate professor of painting and drawing Aaron Lubrick, who helped organize the Visiting Artist Series. “They really care a lot about the artisans who work for them, so they may do a good bit talking about the artisans as well and the design process they go through to make these amazing quilts and other awesome textile pieces.”

The art department began the Visiting Artist Series this spring after receiving a donation to support it.

The artists meet with students, offer critiques and give public presentations or lectures about their work. Graphic novel illustrator Danica Novgorodoff was the first visiting artist on Feb. 19.

Here is the schedule for the remainder of this spring’s Spalding Visiting Artist Series, along with bios on the artists:

Feb. 27: Anchal Project (textile artists)

With backgrounds in design, sisters Colleen and Maggie Clines lead the brand by placing design at the center of Anchal Project’s everyday practice. Colleen earned her Master of Landscape Architecture degree from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 2010. During Colleen’s time in graduate school, she was inspired to start Anchal with three classmates after traveling to India and learning about the extreme oppression women faced as commercial sex workers and the economic opportunity presented by the region’s rich textiles.

“We felt compelled to take the project beyond the classroom with the conviction that our design training in collaboration with local leadership could address seemingly intractable social and environmental systems. The women we met became our sisters, sisters we had to fight for.” – Colleen Clines, Co-Founder & CEO

Shortly following the class trip to India, the co-founders raised $400 by selling handmade notebooks and note cards. These humble beginnings facilitated the purchase of a sewing machine, sewing instruction, materials, and a stipend for the artisans. During 2010, Anchal officially received 501(c)3 non-profit status in the United States and expanded the project by partnering with a second NGO, Vatsalya, in Ajmer, India.

In 2012 after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from the University of Kentucky, Maggie Clines joined her sister Colleen to co-lead Anchal as Creative Director. Together with our partners and artisans, Anchal creates innovative programs and eco-friendly textiles that facilitate impact.

The Clines sisters’ designs explore the synthesis of vernacular imagery, heritage artwork and a maker’s journey to empowerment. The contemporary geometric designs are defined by sophisticated patchwork and aggregated stitch patterns, revolutionizing traditional kantha quilting techniques.

March 6-7, 1 p.m., ELC: Aubrey Levinthal (figurative painter)

Philadelphia-based painter Aubrey Levinthal transforms the often mundane and routine into the revered. Using the content of her refrigerator as inspiration, she creates still lifes from her leftovers, milk jugs, and fruit salad. As a student of art history she incorporates an appreciation for traditional composition while altering the surface by scraping, sanding, stroking, and glazing. These techniques inject motion and temporality into her pieces. Working with such a relatable subject matter, her paintings conflate the human experience and fine art.

March 21: Archie Borders (filmmaker)

Archie Borders is a director, producer, and screenwriter working out of Louisville, Kentucky. He has built a niche as a regional filmmaker with work that has been distributed nationally and that usually has showcased his home State of Kentucky. In addition to his role as a director and screenwriter, Archie has also produced works for other filmmakers from around the country. HIs work has been featured at the Sundance Film Festival, Slamdance, South by Southwest, San Francisco Film Festival and many others.

April 1: Julie Leidner (gallery owner/artist)

Drawing from mythologies found in the Appalachian landscape, Julie Leidner is a Louisville-based artist who creates paintings and drawings that are part fantasy and part history. The character of the artist-cavewoman recurs in her work as an archetypal adolescent who moves through environments while learning to be human, and making/desiring things. Using paint as a primary medium, along with collage, performance, and publishing projects, Leidner’s practice digs into the layers of shared human impulses, and posits an alternate reality where time and distance can be collapsed.

Julie Leidner has participated in group exhibitions at KMAC Museum (2015) and Zephyr Gallery (2015) in Louisville, ACNY Spattered Columns in Brooklyn (2013), Samson Projects in Boston (2011), and UnSmoke Projects in Pittsburgh (2010). In 2013 she had a digital solo exhibition in 57Cell, curated by Gregory Kalliche, sponsored by Blonde Art Books, in Brooklyn, NY. She is currently a long-term Artist-in-Residence at St. Francis High School in downtown Louisville, and runs an experimental exhibition space in Old Louisville called Sheherazade. In addition to being awarded a grant from the Great Meadows Foundation to fund her participation at Residency Unlimited in 2018, Julie was recipient of a Mary Hadley Prize in 2015 and a Kentucky Foundation for Women Grant in 2014 and 2011.

April 8-9: Ben Santiago (graphic designer)

Benjamin Santiago is a multi-disciplinary performance artist. He recently graduated from the Cranbrook Academy of Art,from the 2D Design program under Elliott Earls.

He is currently exploring a body of work involving Spaundou, a language of his own creation. Spaundou is expressed in performance, music, and video, most recently troh-seht whah-zhej ee-woon-doo-zha-mah ah-yoo-ohb, a 30 minute performance at the Cranbrook Art Museum.

For this performance he received the Mercedes-Benz Emerging Financial Services Emerging Artist Award, for which he will be in Berlin for two months at Künstlerhaus Bethanien.

April 24: Rebecca Norton (Painter/sculptor and Spalding art adjunct professor)

Rebecca Norton, born 1981, received her BFA from the University of Louisville in 2004 and her MFA from Art Center College of Design in 2010. Norton’s studio practice encompasses 2D and 3D design, collaboration, digital modeling and animation. Her work explores theories of synthesis and connectivity as they relate to the activity of reconstructing reality in vision and thought. She takes a special interest in the formal mapping of mathematical and generative forms, color theory, the study of perspective in art and architecture, and theories of attraction. Norton has exhibited nationally and internationally, including shows at California State University, Long Beach, CA, The Carnegie Center for Art and History, New Albany, IN, and Schneiderel.Home.Studio.Gallery, Vienna, Austria. She has been a contributing writer for The Brooklyn Rail, Arts in Bushwick and Abstract Critical. Rebecca Norton currently lives and works in Louisville, KY.

May 15: Douglass Miller (Illustrator/printmaker and Spalding art adjunct professor)

Douglas Miller is a professional artist whose drawings are exhibited regionally and in galleries across the United States. Additionally, Douglas does freelance illustrations as well as private and corporate commissions. His artwork is in the collection of the Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, the University of Louisville, the Speed School of Engineering, and numerous private collections. Douglas lives and works in Louisville, Kentucky.

The Spalding University art department welcomes the entire Spalding community to an afternoon at the Speed Art Museum today, Friday, Feb. 8 for the first Winter Social at the Speed, with multiple activities organized by the Spalding art faculty and the Frazier History Museum.

The Winter Social will be held from 1-4 p.m. Like always, general admission to the Speed is free with a Spalding ID for all Spalding students and benefit-eligible faculty and staff through the university and museum’s educational institution partnership.

Spalding art history professor Dr. Flint Collins, who is in his first year as a full-time SU faculty member and who organized the Winter Social, said that the Winter Social serves as an invitation to students, faculty and staff from programs across the university to meet students and faculty of the art department while also enjoying the rich resources and art of the Speed, 2035 S. Third St.

“I would invite anybody to come out and just hang out, even if they don’t participate in some of the activities,” Collins said. “We invite anybody to come down and join us. We hope it’ll give folks a little break to get off campus and come hang out and interact with the art department. Community building is one of the goals of it.”

Activities planned included sketching, guided tours, an open-mic poetry reading and a screening at the Speed Cinema of Oscar-nominated animated shorts (extra paid admission required, though some free tickets are available for students, first-come, first-served). At 1:15, there will be an opportunity to sketch a live model, restaging a portrait from the collection, sponsored by the Frazier History Museum.

Collins hopes the Winter Social will raise awareness to the Spalding community of the benefit of its free access to the Speed. He said he takes students there all the time, hopping on the free TARC LouLift bus (stop on South Third Street near the Spalding Library) and making the short ride south to the museum.

“It’s a really great resource to have,” Collins said. “A part of this Winter Social is to help people understand that.”

Collins came to Spalding this fall after serving as an adjunct professor at multiple universities. He holds master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Louisville and also has worked at the Speed.

He has a background in museum education, “so I’m a big advocate for getting students in the museum and looking at actual artwork, as opposed to just slides,” Collins said.

Collins said he’s enjoyed his time so far at Spalding working under new art program director Deborah Whistler and teaching Spalding students. Collins is also working with art seniors on their senior theses and preparing for that year-ending show before commencement.

“It’s been great,” Collins said. “The students are real curious and responsive. We’ve dived right in.”

Here’s the full schedule of Spalding’s Winter Social at the Speed:

1-4 p.m. : Sketching in the galleries; gallery games; information table with “Slow Down at the Speed” mindfulness podcast; internship, membership and programming information.

1:15-2:15: Sketch a live model

2-3: “Secrets and Stories” guided docent tours

2:30-3:30: Open-mic poetry readings at the atrium.

3:30-4:30: Cinema screening of Oscar-nominated animated shorts (extra paid admission required, though some complimentary students are available first-come, first-served.)

Four years of study in Spalding’s studio art program will culminate Thursday night, May 10, with the opening reception of the Senior Thesis Exhibition. The exhibit spans two galleries – the 849 Gallery at 849 S. Third St. and Huff Gallery across the street at the Spalding Library, 853 Library Lane. Pieces are also on display on the third floor of the library.

The opening reception is a free, public, ticketless event. The exhibit runs through June 3 – the day after Spalding Commencement. The Huff Gallery is always open to the public during library hours. After the opening reception, pieces at the 849 Gallery will be viewable by appointment by calling 502-873-4357

The Senior Thesis Exhibit will feature the work of 25 candidates for a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art, and it will encompass all facets of art instruction, from foundational courses in painting and drawing to the practical application of newly acquired skills in the use of modern technology and creative problem-solving.

The Senior Thesis Exhibit acts as a training ground of sorts for students to learn how to create and run their own art show. They have installed their own work and produced the supporting written descriptions, and the opening reception will be an opportunity to explain their work to the public and interact with collectors or other members of the art community.

Here are the exhibiting seniors:

Cindy Armendariz

Maria Armstrong

James Bixler

Jessica Booker

Allison Bratcher

Hollie Collins

Amanda H. Ellison

Annalise Fegan

Lucas Futrell

Shamia Gaither

Hannah Goodwin

Kristin Husk

Cody Johnson

Virginia Kavanaugh

Sarah Kinslow

Sarah Knoop

Lei Lorimor

Emily Meredith

Miguel Rodriguez

Desi Sallee

Mikky Shaffer

Elizabeth Stevenson

Aaron Storm

Jace Stovall

Damien Vines

After a mural outside the entrance to Blue Lick Elementary School was recently vandalized, Spalding University art professor Skylar Smith and some student volunteers were there to lend a skilled helping hand.

Smith and students Kirsten Kircher, Amelia Huneke and Sarah Reynolds, all of the Spalding studio art program, as well as students Carla Johnson (liberal studies major) and Aprile Parry (business administration major) volunteered on Sunday, April 22, to repair and repaint the mural, which was tagged up on Jan. 12 with expletives and graphic images in black spray paint.

School staff and parents pressure washed and painted over the offensive words and images immediately after they were discovered on the storage building next to the student drop-off area, but for the past three months, the mural, which depicts the friendly Blue Lick lion mascot next to the words “Blue Lick Pride,” was mostly ruined.

Kirchner, who specializes in painting, took on the task of redoing the smiling lion, and the others, working with Blue Lick Elementary students, parents and faculty, did touch-up and repair painting. The volunteers also painted the adjacent wall with the Blue Lick Elementary motto – “Be safe, be kind, be respectful, be responsible. Be your best and help the rest” – in bold blue-and-yellow letters.

“I only live 20 or 30 minutes out from here, so I feel like this is my community, too,” Kirchner said. “I want these kids to see something better (than the damaged mural) and have something to smile about. … Knowing that they can come together and make something so beautiful and spark something within other students, that’s what artists love to do. We like to spark people and give them inspiration and make them feel like they can make a difference. Hopefully this kind of makes them believe in that.”

Johnson isn’t an artist, but she said she’s been a lifelong volunteer who always is looking for ways to help the community. She came to Blue Lick after seeing a Spalding campus email looking for volunteers.

It was the same for Parry, who brought along her two sons, ages 11 and 5. The younger boy went to Head Start at Blue Lick.

“I had a blast,” Johnson said. “The reason that we had to do this is bad, but overall everyone came together and corrected a wrong. … Everyone lends a hand. When someone’s struggling, you help them.”

Spalding got involved after Blue Lick Elementary Parent-Teacher Association President Erin Lush contacted Smith, who then began to organize student volunteers.

“I don’t think we could have had a better university come out to help our school community,” Lush said. “Spalding is one of the universities that prides itself on community outreach, and when they responded and, ‘Yes, we would love to help,’ it was a perfect fit. Skylar and all the Spalding students were engaged, polite, very talented. They stayed to get the job done, and it’s great. I can’t be more happy.”

Smith said she was proud that students volunteered their time to help repair a piece of public art, especially one that is such a point of pride to Blue Lick Elementary.

“I think it shows that our students want to be involved and that we have some students who are civic-minded and want to help out,” she said.

Extra thanks: Home Depot on Preston Highway and Sherwin-Williams Paint Store on Hurstbourne Lane donated paint supplies for the project, Lush said.

In the news: Here is the WHAS-11 story on the mural repair.

The Personal is Still Political art exhibit at Spalding’s Huff Gallery – a collection of political art by Skylar Smith and Lisa Simon that celebrates women’s marches and examines the challenges and stereotypes women have faced over history – will have its closing reception 1-3 p.m. Saturday, March 31.

The free exhibit has been on display throughout March, which is Women’s History Month, in the gallery in the lower level of the Spalding Library, 853 Library Lane.

Smith, a Spalding art professor, said the exhibit is a response to the 2016 presidential election and that she was inspired by last year’s Women’s March on Washington.

“It’s kind of clichéd, but to know where we’re going, we have to look at where we’ve been and know our history,” Smith said. “I’m fascinated by history and sometimes teach art history. Both of our work is looking back, but some of the things that happened a long time ago are still very relevant to where we are, and often it feels like we might be repeating history. It is just a celebration of what has been achieved for the women’s movement. I think the women’s movement is the most inclusive it’s ever been. In its current state, it’s unifying a lot of different backgrounds and agendas, but the common agenda is just equality and justice.”

In Smith’s portion of the exhibit, images from that march and others by women from history over suffrage and civil rights, are depicted and dispersed in eight brightly painted banners that are 9 to 11 feet long and hang from the ceiling of the gallery. Collectively, the installation resembles a march.

The banners pop with complementary colors – blues and oranges, yellows and purples – and Smith said she wanted the pieces to convey the solidarity and uplifting tone of the Women’s March.

Usually an abstract painter, Smith said it’s the first time since she was in college that she’s painted distinct human figures.

KyCAD professor Skylar Smith beside one of her long banner paintings for "Personal is Still Political" — Skylar Smith beside one of her paintings for “Personal is Still Political” at the Huff Gallery.

“It’s not been a prominent theme in my work,” Smith said, “but I just said, ‘Right now, I can’t make abstract paintings. I want to make art that speaks in obvious and literal ways to what’s going on.’

“The election happened, and I just thought, I need to make something that has a human form and represents a specific thing in a direct way.”

As for the more abstract, Smith’s work also includes six drawings hung on the wall that are inspired by the years in which countries allowed women to vote. The year of a particular country – 1920 for the United States, for instance – is drawn over and over again on handmade paper featuring the colors of the country’s flag.

Simon’s half of the exhibit is made up of numerous collages, hung on the wall, that feature portraits of women’s rights leaders as well as clippings of advertisements, news stories and other pop-culture imagery from over the decades that underscore the gender stereotypes and expectations that women faced.

Simon also has installed an array of stars with the names of significant women on a column in the middle of the gallery.

“Personal Is Still Political” is the third collaboration, including the second at the Huff Gallery, for Smith and Simon, who is also an art teacher. Their first joint exhibit at the Huff Gallery, called “With Child,” was about life for artists who have had children.

Smith and Simon are longtime friends who attended Ballard High School together.

“We’re on similar wave lengths with concepts, and our lives are similar in that we’re both artists and art teachers and moms,” Smith said. “It’s just easy to know where she is and what she cares about. … We think similarly but not always, so we challenge each other to keep making art and we’re cheerleaders for each other.”

The closing reception, which is a LEO Weekly Staff Pick for the weekend, features a Louisville Suffrage Walking Tour led by Marsha Weinstein. The walk will tour of sites near Spalding’s campus in which an event or meeting took place relating to the suffrage movement.

Personal is Still Political closing reception
Artists: Lisa Simon & Skylar Smith
When: 1-3 p.m., Saturday, March 31
Where: Huff Gallery, Spalding University Library, 853 Library Lane
Activities include: Louisville Suffrage Walking Tour led by Marsha Weinstein; and all-ages art–making activities, including “Make your own Nasty Woman Button” and “Make your own Suffrage Sash.” Suffrage tour starts at 2 p.m.

Various colorful collages, paintings and drawings, mostly of images of women, hanging on a white wall at the Huff Gallery — Some of artist Lisa Simon’s pieces from the Personal is Still Political exhibit at the Huff Gallery.