The Downtown VIP Card will be set up during the Trolley Hop outside (weather permitting) on East Market Street somewhere between Hancock and Campbell.
The Downtown VIP Membership Card rewards downtown workers, visitors and residents for supporting participating stores with special discounts or value-based offers. It’s a good way to encourage people to support the downtown area and save money in the process. For a $25 annual fee, cardholders can receive multiple use discounts at nearly 100 downtown businesses all year long, and the number of participants continues to grow. Some of the participating businesses include: Actors Theatre, Bistro 301, Ri-Ra Irish Pub, Bell of Louisville, Bearno’s, The Louisville Science Center, Center for the Arts, The Bodega, Sully’s Tavern, Proof on Main, Intermezzo at Actors Theatre, BLU and Champion’s at the Marriott, Red Tree, Red Star Tavern, A Taste of Kentucky and many more. For more information and a complete list of businesses and the details of their offers, click the card on the left.

Cookie-lovers travelling the Downtown Trolley Hop on March 6th will still be able to purchase the classic Thin Mints, Samoas, Tagalongs, Do-si-dos, Trefoils, Lemon Chalet Crèmes and the sugar-free Chocolate Chips cookies.
In addition, Girl Scouts would also like to introduce a new member of the cookie family—the Dulce de Leche (DEWL-say deh LAY-chay). The Dulce de Leche cookie is a caramel-lover’s dream, containing caramel chips and caramel icing.
All Girl Scout Cookies contain zero trans fats per serving.
There will be three stops featuring local troops selling all of your favorites; visit them at the Paul Paletti Gallery on Market, Actors Theatre on Main and at the Kentucky Museum of Arts and Crafts. Bring your cash, cookies are $3.50 per box.

Now the First Friday Trolley takes you right to the front door of The Galt House Hotel & Suites!
Stop in to enjoy the art and entertainment, then take advantage of the specials on food and drink. This is also a great time to visit the retail shops:

• Regalo;
• Dolfinger's;
• Necessities--Spirits, Sundries & Souvenirs;
• Nichola's Boutique;
• KOI Gallery;
• Mint Julep Tours

Artist Rebecca Simpson will be here as well as Zach from Akron as our musical guest.
David Domine is signing his books with Mint Julep tours www.ghostsofoldlouisville.com

The Mayan Cafe, 813 E. Market St.,
Stop by the Mayan Cafe this Friday to try our authentic Mayan cuisine - dishes rich with chilies, roasted peppers, pumpkins seeds, oil infusions, and roasted meats. This is Mexican food you've never imagined could be so complex and flavorful. If you can't make it into the restaurant this weekend, call us to cater your pirvate party or art reception!

Seeing Strength, Seeing Power
MA Thesis Exhibition - Denise Furnish, Zhanna Goldentul & Albert Webb
Cressman Center for Visual Arts Gallery
March 6 - 28, 2009
Reception: Friday, March 6, 6 - 9 p.m.

Denise Furnish, Zhanna Goldentul and Albert Webb are not interested in making overt political statements in their work. But, their artworks reveal a shared interest in perceptions of power, or strength.
For Denise Furnish the quilt has become an emblem she uses to reevaluate and assert the strength of women. Furnish incorporates discarded quilts, and other elements of craft media associated with women’s domestic work, into her acrylic paintings and her collages, in an effort to defy the old narrative of art history as an exclusive “boys club” focused on painting. In her most recent work, she covers deteriorating quilts with layers of paint to create a metaphor for the invisibility of aging women—worn, but held together by the enduring quilt stitches beneath the surface.
In her series of costume coats, Zhanna Goldentul explores the image of the Femme Fatale as it relates to high fashion, garment evolution, and identity. Goldentul, a theatrical costume designer, applies a new material, polyurethane, to women’s fashion forms reminiscent of the early 20th Century, a period that changed how women viewed themselves and their sexuality. She also includes some futuristic designs, implying that the image of the Femme Fatale may never be a thing of the past.
Albert Webb is interested in war and military history, but also the cultural mystique they hold. Some of his prints resemble military maps, games and toys. And, many of his more recent prints and paintings feature images of tanks that take on human and animal characteristics and include the accoutrements of medieval knights.
All Cressman Center events are free and open to the public.

The Gallery at Actors Theatre, 316 W. Main St.
PHOTO ESSAY BASED ON THE WRITINGS OF WENDELL BERRY by James Baker Hall
March 3 - April 26, 2009

James Baker Hall
Former Kentucky poet laureate, James Baker Hall has published many books of poetry and fiction. Hall has also been a working art photographer most of his adult life. Presently, a retrospective of his work is up at 21C Museum in Louisville. He has also published a number of photography collections, inlcuding one with Wendell Berry, Tobacco Harvest: An Elegy. Hall and Berry have been close friends since the 1950s and Hall's photographs of Wendell Berry span his entire life.

Guinever Smith
Smiths' work has been in various solo shows and exhibitions throughout Kentucky. This series focuses on creating the sensation of walking through the woods. By limiting herself to black and white, Smith was able to focus more on the use of line, value, light and texture as means for description.

March 5 at 7 p.m. — 33rd Humana Festival of New American Plays Opening Party
Sample cuisine from local restaurants, peruse memorabilia from Festivals past and enjoy music by Justin & Justin,
performances by Specific Gravity Ensemble, Voces Novae and Actors Theatre Apprentices.
Food tastings provided by Intermezzo Cafe, Avalon, Bistro 301, Bravo Cucina Italiana, Mayan Café, Saffrons,
Varanese, Volare and Z's Fusion

Also, during the run of the Humana Festival we will have a photographic retrospective of past Humana Productions and a prop exhibit featuring props from past Humana productions.

The Green Building Gallery is proud to present 25 exceptional works of contemporary art by Bryce Hudson Through March 27th
In October of 2008 Hudson was invited by NY Arts Magazine to be an artist in residence at their contemporary arts project space NY Arts Beijing in Beijing, China. There, he started work on his Holding Pattern series. Exhibiting along side this series is an on-going body of work titled Equilibrium (Deco), which Hudson started in early 2008. Hudson lives in Louisville and has an extensive exhibition history. His work is in many important private and corporate collections in the US, South America and China.
In the Holding Pattern series Hudson’s subjects are young women in their mid 20s to late 30s. Superimposed upon their faces are chromatic decorative patterns, the combination of which brings to the surface ideas of symmetry, objects of decoration and femininity. Furthermore, the experience of being a young woman in modern society and the associated pressures are examined.
In the Equilibrium (Deco) series Hudson has begun to juxtapose two movements in the history of art and design – Minimalism and Rococo– opening up each piece to the viewers’ own interpretations on the depths of decoration, pop art, trend and pattern. Hudson’s work frequently explores balance, symmetry and harmony and their relationship to contemporary society in a post-painterly minimalist style.The exhibition will open in conjunction with the release of Bryce’s new book, Bryce Hudson: Explorations in the Shadow of Pop Culture from Holland Brown Books. The artist will be present at the opening for discussion and book signing.Renovations are nearly complete in The Green Building, home to The Green Building Gallery. The 110- year old former dry goods store houses a contemporary art gallery, office space, event spaces, and a restaurant, 732 Social.

Flame Run, 828 E. Market Street
Flame Run exhibit showcases “The Human Formed”
Show runs from Feb. 6 to March 28. The human form as a theme in glass art of all kinds is the subject of an exhibit at Flame Run contemporary art glass studio from February 6 to March 28. An opening night reception begins at 6 p.m. The show called “The Human Formed” was inspired by the work of Susie Slabaugh White who owns the studio and hot shop with her husband, Brook White. Susie said she hatched the idea when she noticed the human forms as a recurring theme in the work of glass artists she admired. “I have worked with the human form for years, and I continue to explore its definition. The human formed has not only to do with defining lines but with the soul and inner dimension of each subject.” White said.

The show includes works by Brook and Susie. Nine additional artists are participating:
Eoin Breadon of Cleveland, OH; Stephanie Trenchard of Sturgeon Bay,WI; Paul Nelson of Louisville, KY; Matthew Cummings of Normal, IL; Ross Richmond of Seattle, WA; Casey McMains of Jericho,VT; Dave Walters of Seattle, WA; D.H. McNabb of Seattle, WA; Anessa Arehart of Louisville, KY

Join Carr+Waite Studio, 221 S. Hancock this Friday, March 6th from 6-9pm.
I'm showing some recent photography done in Santa Fe and Caroline is displaying some Mail Art envelopes she has produced using found objects and collage materials.

Hello Friends,
March has arrived and with it comes the first Friday of the month on next Friday. Since I assume most of you have been caught up in the stimulus/ bailout news in recent days I feel that it is time to do our part here at the winery. I have heard somewhere that our new President has targeted agri-business subsidies for elimination, I doubt that the wine industry will get any bailout money which I feel will eventually mean higher prices for you our customers. In order to offset these higher prices I propose to lower the prices that I have control over. I will lower all bottle prices at the winery to $15.00 and all glass prices to $4.00 each until the economy returns to some semblance of order. I hope that you share my desire to “bailout” the wine drinkers in Louisville. If you have the time come by on Friday and get your share of the Felice Vineyards wine lovers bailout.
Jeff Tatman
Felice Vineyards