Butler and Edmonson County Art Guilds host reception for “Celebrating the Black Excellence” art exhibit

MORGANTOWN, Ky. – The Butler and Edmonson County Art Guilds held a reception for a traveling exhibit making its way to Morgantown that celebrates black experience through art.

It’s called Celebrating the Black Excellence, and it spotlights African-American artists in the commonwealth of Kentucky.

The featured artist, Jes Allen of Louisville, shares more about one of her works, Expansion:

“It speaks really about the experience of colonialism and the looking back and also moving forward type aspect and… I guess like confusion and also a realization,” she says.

Allen adds it’s incredibly important to spotlight culture in ways like this, especially in the times we live in currently.

“We live in a world where voices like ours have been in the background and have been silenced, or have other people have taken credit. So it’s important to be able to bring these narratives from the background to the foreground, to be able to expose people that what to know, but don’t necessarily know how to ask, or don’t necessarily know how to express or people that do that are black people that don’t necessarily know how to express that to people that are not. It’s super duper important for people to be able to experience this and be able to start a conversation,” she says.

The Butler County Art Guild is located at 115 West Ohio Street in Morgantown.