Friday, May 1, 2009

Art on E. Third St

Last week I attended the kick off party for the Issac Murphy Memorial Art Garden. This garden will be located at the intersection of E Third St and Midland Ave. This garden is dedicated to the memory of probably the finest jockeys of his, of maybe even all time. Murphy's skills on the race track are legendary.

The Art Garden is situated between the iconic Thoroughbred Park and the site of the old Kentucky Association race track, in an area that would now be known as "the backside", an area that jockeys know well. There will be space for both passive and performing art to be displayed and an interactive wall of art and information.

It is also the starting point for the Legacy Bike trail, to be built as a legacy project for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. This trail will wind through town, out Newtown Pike, past the Coldstream Research Park and on to the Kentucky Horse Park. Along the way the trail will pass the Lyric Theater on the corner of Third and Elm Tree Lane, and another long awaited addition to the cultural scene of downtown and the East End. Funding for the construction is in place but operational support is being raised.

So much for the "big ticket "items. Also on the horizon is the latest "art style" bus shelter, or art stop. Diagonally across from the Lyric, on a sliver of property between Elm Tree and the Episcopal Cemetery, will soon rise Lexington's newest art stop.

Art in Motion, as I understand it, has received funding and has a preliminary design(the same guys that did the Newtown Pike shelter) and needs to have a substantial portion of the work completed by the end of June. From the sketch that I've seen, with a few tweaks here and there, it is going to be a great artistic addition to E Third St.

On the other side of the block from this location, at the Living Arts and Science Center, they have started receiving the next batch of Horse Mania statues for the summer of 2010. I wonder if they have thought about placing some of these along the Legacy Bike trail.

This should be only the start for art on E Third St.

2 comments:

John said...

Hi,

Just found your blog while reseaching Issac Murphy for a posting on my blog. I was looking for a current picture of east third near the location of Murphys house and I believe your photo in the post is nearby. Woudl you mind if I use the photo in my post; I will link to your post as the source.

The Lexington Streetsweeper said...

John, I hope that you like what you have seen and will come back often. You may link to any and all photos that I post, with appropriate acknowledgements.