Our eleventh annual Portland Art and Heritage Fair might go down as our most memorable yet due to its opening act: The AHOY Groundbreaking Ceremony. We’ve been working on our immersive children’s museum project for years now, and this was a huge moment marking the beginning of its physical construction. Thankfully the rest of the fair didn’t miss a beat! Read on to see the many offerings and celebrations of this historic day (as officially recognized by Louisville Metro, at that!).
2024:
It’s aBOAT Time
Before getting to October 5th, we should give a shoutout to the Sunday before on which we brought a piece of AHOY to KET’s Be My Neighbor Day at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park. There we not only showed off our cool AHOY letters, but took a Catfish-Club survey of the event’s many attending kids, asking them “What is an adventure to you?” They then wrote their answers on letterpress posters and hung them up as all good art should be. We’ve since archived their answers and will be using them in the further development of AHOY, so thanks to both KET and all the families who visited us!
We’d also like to mention the Louisville Orchestra’s Music Without Borders series, which on Friday October 4th turned the gym of Portland’s Neighborhood House into a concert hall. We were honored to feature the event alongside the Portland Art and Heritage Fair this year and hope to see Louisville Orchestra “across the divide” (as the concert series is subtitled) here in Portland even more in the future!
And lastly before the day’s main event: the Portland Almost 5K! This is perhaps our favorite tradition of the Portland Art and Heritage Fair, and we have to give huge thanks to our Board President Kacie Chase, our graduate-student intern Elijah Humble, and the run’s sponsoring business Fleet Feet, without whom it would be impossible. Attendance on the beautiful fall morning was wonderful, and after venturing to and from Shippingport island many runners walked away with a Fleet Feet prize. Alongside the gendered and age-grouped winners, awardees also included most colorful outfit in honor of AHOY, runner with the largest water bottle, and even last place!
Speaking of Kacie Chase, she was one of the AHOY Groundbreaking Ceremony’s many speakers! The big moment kicked off at 11AM and our backyard was filled to the brim with spectators and media; we couldn’t have been more thankful. Alongside those AHOY letters featured at KET we had visual panels revealing new information about the upcoming AHOY House, large-scale pieces from our new neighbors Squallis Puppeteers, and a full-scale shantyboat built right here in Portland! If you’d like to see bits of the ceremony for yourself, check out these reports on it from Spectrum News, WDRB, and WHAS11.
Kacie wasn’t the event’s only speaker though, alongside our directors Katy Delahanty and Danny Seim we were honored to host words from Kentucky’s Secretary of the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet Lindy Casebier, Louisville Metro Councilperson for Portland Donna Purvis, and Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg. Secretary Casebier brought with him tributary words from Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, and Mayor Greenberg denoted the day, October 5th, as AHOY Children’s Museum Day here in Louisville Metro! We couldn’t be more thankful to this all-star lineup for supporting us and AHOY.
Taking the ceremony home were Portland Art and Heritage Fair favorites: the Louisville Leopard Percussionists! They performed an amazing set of tracks featuring children of all ages, a perfect match for AHOY.
Marking the occasion was this year’s new exhibit, also titled It’s aBOAT Time, which features three different miniature exhibits related to AHOY! In our Comstock gallery is an art show featuring works from parent artists alongside pieces from their children. Some artists even created collaborative works! The central hallway of Beech Grove was right after the ceremony made the new home of the informational AHOY panels, featuring exclusive design drawings from Wolfgang and Hite, plans for a Tiktaalik walkway, before-and-after photos of the Lighthouse Education Center, and more! Beech Grove’s rightmost room is all about the exhibit namesake, showcasing artifacts and information about a handmade shantyboat which backdropped the groundbreaking ceremony and a full-sized shrimping boat soon to be moved to our backyard. Check out the exhibit for yourself now here at the Portland Museum!
Soundtracking the event was once again Shawn Hennesey of Squallis Puppeteers, who as always rocked the house. This year was especially, well, special though given their recent move-in to the Lighthouse Education Center!
While still a work-in-progress, a few lucky fair visitors got the opportunity to peek inside the new, magical home of Squallis Puppeteers. They’ve transformed their fourth of the Lighthouse into something truly special, where their back catalogue of puppets can be permanently displayed, and new entries can be created. We hope to see the space opened up to the public more in the future, as it’s beautiful.
The event’s closing performance was perhaps the most special thought, being a jam-band style rock act by the aforementioned Elijah Humble and his son, and Louisville Leopard alumni, Charlie Humble. It was a family treat befitting of AHOY, and we’re endlessly thankful to Elijah and Charlie.
Keeping the music going all day was the Louisville Academy of Music, who brought back their instrumental petting zoo! Visiting kids got the opportunity to learn a crash course in various acoustic instruments from experienced players. Multiple impromptu concerts broke out in the backyard!
Returning to the fair this year was also Tip It Forward and their Plus Bus! They brought free information and acupressure to our visitors and we thank them for it!
We’d also like to shout out A Place To Print, who has become a repeat collaborator of ours through both the Portland Art and Heritage Fair and our spring events like Paperview and CeLOUbrate Print. They brought a piece of those printmaking events’ spirit to the Fair!
This year’s Fair was a record-setter for vendors, with our backyard totally covered in art, craft, information, and more from the Portland neighborhood! Thanks to all who gave their time and set up shop here in our backyard.
And hey, as we say every year in these write-ups: what’s a Fair without food? This year visitors were treated to pizza from newcomers Tommy’s Pizza, tacos from Haitian Exotica, and lemonade from Amiracle Ade.
We’d like to give special shoutout to the return of Maria McGary and Micheal Weinert’s sweets shop Sugar, who served up crepes! McGary broke her foot only a few days before the fair and still made it to our kitchen, we couldn’t believe it and are still so thankful!
This is just a small sample of all the different people and organizations who were working out of Portland Museum’s backyard that day. New and returning faces alike shared their art, clothes, jewelry, information, and more with our community! Find the full list of vendors her.
We mentioned Squallis’s home in the Lighthouse earlier here, but there’s still three other units to be explored in the Education Center! Thanks to artist Mia Hanson the entire Lighthouse was an open house during this year’s Fair, and we hope to see even more people visit it over the years and year of programming to come. Our AHOY Director Danny Seim also got to show off the new cobblestone path he installed in the Lighthouse’s backyard made from real, historic bolder blocks salvaged from here in the Portland neighborhood by Corn Island Archeology. Come see it for yourself, we’ll soon be installing a plaque with further information.
Let’s talk some more about the AHOY Groundbreaking’s centerpiece: a shantyboat built by Art Baltes (pictured) and Jerry Steimel which was recently featured in a documentary on KET titled Shantyboat – Rediscovering a River Way of Life. How’s that for a wraparound? We’d also like to thank Hand in Hand Community Ministries who not only helped us relocate the boat for the ceremony but provided volunteers who invaluably helped us pluck weeds and gussy up our flowerbeds for the big day.
Closing time at 5PM on October 5th wasn’t even the end of the festivities! Thanks to local artists Ken McCormick, the Portland Wharf was brought to life with his installation art exhibit Wild Bison Boulevard. Many pieces of art mounted on wood and yard sign alike told the story of our natural past, present, and potential future through the lens of the historical Buffalo trace which once marked the Portland Wharf long before portaging and commerce did. WFPL did a nice report about some recent Wharf happenings, including Wild Bison Boulevard, which can be read online here.
Ken also tabled at the Art and Heritage Fair, and event set up a portion of the Boulevard in our backyard before Sunday’s full installation. We were honored to help Ken bring this project to life, and hope to see more from him in the future!
Lastly we’d like to give a peek to the future, where this shrimping boat will find its home in our backyard, and eventually, the AHOY outdoor playground! Stay tuned for more information, eagle-eyed readers may even notice that this boat, originally christened as the Draco, was on this year’s Fair poster. Call it foreshadowing! We’d like to thank fair sponsor Pace Contracting for making this project possible, without them that boat would undoubtably still be in the waters of the Ohio.
Before we go, we’d also like to thank this year’s other fair sponsors. Without them, this would all be a lot less possible!
Richard Meadows & Suzi Bernert
In Memory of Edward K. Meadows