Open Studio: Comic book artist Justin Stewart

Lyndy Franklin-Smith, co-founder and artistic director of the Lexington Theatre Company joins Tom Musgrave to talk about the company's upcoming production of White Christmas, November 19th through the 22nd at the Lexington Opera House.

In 1867, professors at the newly formed land grant university in Kentucky assembled a museum as an instructional aid for faculty teaching geology, zoology, and botany. Gradually, “curiosities” were added to the natural science holdings including paintings, garments, and weapons from various cultures. Museum curator Dr. Rachel Hooper talks with Tom about a retrospective exhibit bringing together art, insects, meteorites, minerals, and anthropological collections from across campus.

In 2019, the regional arts organization, South Arts, launched the Southern Prize for Visual Arts program to spotlight outstanding and meaningful work by visual artists from 11 member states, which Kentucky is among them. One artist from each state was selected as a state fellow and their works were evaluated by an independent panel for consideration for the $25,000 Southern Prize. Lexington based artist Diana Settles is not only this year's Kentucky State Fellow, but she is also the 2026 Southern Prize winner, making her the first Kentucky artist in the award's eight year history selected for that distinction. She's Tom's guest this week on WUKY's Open Studio.

Last month, the film Other Houses made its Lexington premiere at the 12 Lions Film Festival. This film was produced in Lexington and features many local cast members. Today on Open Studio Tom Musgrave goes behind the scenes with Katarina Stoykova, who has the lead role, and Thomas Sutherland, who co-directed.

This week on WUKY's Open Studio Tom Musgrave welcomes illustrator, graphic designer, comic book artist and graphic novelist Justin Stewart. He talks about his superhero origin story with art, the challenges of the kind of storytelling that he does, and what makes Kentucky such a good setting for these stories.

2026 is the 50th anniversary for the University of Kentucky College of Fine Arts and Tom welcomes back Mark Shanda, Dean of the college, to talk about how it plans to celebrate this milestone, as well as how the college has evolved in five decades and where it's going from here.

Woodford Theatre's third and final weekend of Footloose runs October 2nd through the 4th. Executive Artistic Director Daniel Ellis joins Tom to talk about this show and the rest of the season.

An exhibit that explores visual art as a mode of spirituality is opening September 18th at Christ Church Cathedral in Lexington. Co-curator Melissa Bright joins Tom Musgrave to talk about this free exhibit, which is part of Lexington Art League's Gallery Hop.

This week on WUKY's Open Studio, Tom Musgrave gets a preview of this year's Festival Latino de Lexington from organizers Francie Chassen-Lopez and Betty Abdmishani of the Foundation for Latina American Culture and Arts which puts on the festival in cooperation with Lexington Parks and Recreation.

Saturday's From the Front Porch Jazz series in Lexington's East End represents a homecoming for Michael Cruse. In addition to being an accomplished jazz musician, arranger, composer and educator, Michael is also a jazz at Lincoln Center performing artist and a headliner at Dizzy's club in New York city. He's also collaborated with Wynton Marsalis among others. In this week's Open Studio, Tom Musgrave talks with promoter Jim Embry and the artist himself.