Winter has been a spiritual time for humans for millennia. Our species—just like all the others—has deep-rooted traditions during this season. For many of us, those include gathering together during the shortest days of the year, contemplation, reflection, sharing tokens of affection and appreciation, and filling our spaces with greenery and light. All are customs to get us to the winter solstice, the turn of the year, when the shortening days start to lengthen.

This weekend, we’ll offer such an opportunity for a community gathering at a Free Family Day celebration. On Sunday, December 17, from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m., museum admission is free and open to all—courtesy of our underwriting sponsor, Walmart. We’ve decked the museum’s halls and we’ll have loads of special holiday programs, including explorations into Colombian Christmas traditions, the heritage of Hanukkah, and the seven principles of Kwanzaa. We’ll offer photo ops with Santa and the Grinch, a pop-up marketplace, a food truck serving Colombian cuisine (Con Aji y Café), plus art activities, special tours, and more. You can check the full schedule here.

Our December 17 Free Family Day is offered in partnership with our friends at I Would Rather be Reading, a local nonprofit that provides literacy support to children and their families. We’re thrilled to be working with them to further their mission of providing free youth programming, literacy tutoring, and engaging enrichment activities. Please join us this Sunday if you can!

As you’ll read in today’s Frazier Weekly, we’ve got a lot to offer this month and heading into the new year. Mindy Johnson teases the next Late Night Wednesday, December 13, featuring Kentucky Peerless, Male High School Choir, the Frazier Madrigals, and local vendors to meet your holiday shopping needs. Rachel Platt spotlights a 1980 painting honoring Denny Crum just loaned to the Frazier, Andy Treinen reveals the next Bourbon Limited shipment, and Amanda Egan announces our Winter Book Club.

Thank you for reading!

This Week in the Museum

Late Night Wednesday to Feature Peerless, Pop-up Market, Madrigals, and More

If you don’t know about our Late Night Wednesdays here at the Frazier during the month of December to celebrate Lights on Main, you are missing the boat—make that party!

Here’s your official invitation to our next one this Wednesday, December 13, with our extended hours from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. for the discounted admission of $10.

The Frazier has partnered with I Would Rather be Reading for this exhibition and fun.

Kentucky Peerless Distilling Co. will join us with Bourbon tastings and batched cocktails. With the cost of admission, you’ll get a tasting and a Boulevardier. (You don’t have to pronounce it, only drink it!) The Male High School Choir will perform at 6:30 p.m., and our Frazier Madrigals will close the night out with “Silent Night” at 7:30.

Our spectacular Museum Shop will be open, we’ll also have several vendors who will join us throughout the evening for a special pop-up marketplace on the first floor.

Assorted delicacies and baked goods prepared by Creative Queen. Credit: Creative Queen.

Let’s start with dessert! And for that, we have Creative Queen and her creations for all occasions like birthdays, weddings, even a new job—because no job is too small!

A regular at the Frazier and a fan favorite, Georgia’s Sweet Potato Pie Company is back with their treats. Their mission is to promote literacy and provide books to children.

Honeybears is serving up a variety of unique flavors and honey products.

Triple J Farm is bringing it with local jams, jellies, and homemade spreads for your holiday event and beyond. Get ready for pimento cheese, Benedictine, as well as olive and nut spread.

Bluegrass Bowls uses reclaimed wood, sourced locally, to create beautiful wood products.

And Luanne Smith Fine Art showcases the beauty of flora and fauna with watercolor images and ornaments.

We hope you are ready to party and shop until you drop!

Join Us Sunday for Member-Exclusive Program Create Your Own Winter Décor!

If you haven’t made it into the museum yet to see our new exhibitions Lights on Main and Spirited Design, come this Sunday! While you’re here, join us for another Member Exclusive Program—Create Your Own: Winter Décor! Don’t forget to take advantage of our December Membership BOGO campaign as well! Now is the time to truly experience more for the price of one! If you are looking for family- or children-oriented art events and programs, visit the Frazier on our Family Days or enroll your children in our educational camps, where members (Family level and above) receive a discount on their registration!—Amanda Egan, Membership Manager

Come down to the Frazier and learn how to create your own winter décor!

My name is Paul, and I will be here showing everyone the ropes on how to tackle a creative hobby and to make it the outlet you need during stressful times! Since before I started my creative booth, Glitter and Bows, I have been in the creative world as a professional hair stylist since 1983. Several years ago, I decorated the salon for the holidays and a client of mine absolutely loved what I did and asked me to decorate her own home for the holidays. I still decorate her home today along with many other people’s homes.

Wreaths, florals, and succulent gardens are now a constant passion of mine. I have attended many craft shows throughout the years as well as farmers markets and pop-up markets to share my one-of-a-kind creations with our community.

I’m filled with excitement, and I cannot wait to share my passion and creative talents with the members of the Frazier History Museum. Doors will open at 11 a.m. Coffee and other light refreshments will be served with the program beginning at 11:30 a.m.

Become a member today in order to attend this member-exclusive program!

Paul Harrett
Founder, Glitter and Bows
Guest Contributor

1980 U of L Basketball Floor Painting Honoring Denny Crum to Remain at Frazier

Last week, the Frazier History Museum welcomed a special guest: Susan Sweeney Crum. Both Susan and her late husband Denny loaned us items for our Kentucky Rivalries exhibition, which closed December 3.

University of Louisville basketball head coach Denny Crum was featured in the exhibition with his two national championships. His rivalry and friendship with University of Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall was also spotlighted. It has been a difficult year for Susan with the loss of her beloved husband, and a tough year for Cards fans who had to say goodbye as well to such a community treasure. We are grateful that Susan will continue to loan us the commemorative 1980 Championship floor painting. It will eventually find its way into our Cool Kentucky exhibition, which already features a signature red coat worn by Coach Crum.

Thank you, Susan—and go Cards!

Bourbon Limited Club to Ship Whiskey Thief 11th Anniversary Bourbon Next

Just in time for the holidays, the Frazier’s Bourbon Limited Club is shipping its next release next week. If you want to secure a very limited Whiskey Thief 11th Anniversary Bourbon to be shipped directly to your home, sign up here. Membership has no cost—and it’s the only way to purchase this amazing selection for your collection.

Celebrating its 11th year as a Kentucky Craft Distillery, Whiskey Thief has hand-selected this nearly 9-year Single-Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey exclusively for Bourbon Limited. Uncut and unfiltered, this 123-proof powerhouse starts with wood, maple, and butterscotch on the nose and then surprises with chocolate, sorghum, and ginger on the palate. Finishing with a velvety smooth Kentucky hug, this Bourbon is sure to be the star of your next Bourbon get-together.

Whiskey Thief Distilling Co. is the first and only Kentucky distillery to offer every visitor a single barrel tasting/thieving experience straight from the barrel, at barrel strength. It has only been available at the Franklin County Distillery until now. Sign up for a Bourbon Limited Club membership to have this 11th Anniversary Bourbon, and others, shipped directly to your home.

Museum Shop: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer . . . Bourbon!

Reindeer and Bourbon t-shirt sold in the Frazier’s Museum Shop and online. Credit: Frazier History Museum.

Presenting the Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Bourbon shirt: Santa’s newest ally! Elevate your holiday wardrobe with this perfect Christmas shirt, crafted for the Bourbon aficionado in your life. It’s available in the Museum Shop and online.

YPAS Wind Ensemble Invited to Perform at Midwest Clinic in Chicago

We love it when Kentuckians get recognized for outstanding work, especially when they get recognized on a live performance stage in front of an international audience! Dr. Kevin Callihan has led his students at Louisville’s Youth Performing Arts School to receive just such recognition, and we’ve invited him to share even more good news.—Kent Klarer, Grant Manager & Writer

It has been a banner year for the Youth Performing Arts School band program. YPAS students performed at the Kentucky Music Educators Association Conference and the Music for All National Concert Band Festival in Indianapolis. What’s more, the YPAS Wind Ensemble was selected as a National Winner in the Foundation for Music Education’s “Mark of Excellence” Project, a national music competition that recognizes music ensembles for high standards in performance.

To round out this impressive calendar of achievements, the YPAS Wind Ensemble will perform at the seventy-seventh annual Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference on December 20 in Chicago, Illinois. The Midwest Clinic is the world’s largest instrumental music education conference, annually drawing approximately 17,000 attendees from all fifty states and as many as forty countries. Only six high school bands in the country were selected as featured performers. Being invited to perform at Midwest is a testament to the diligent work and determination of this ensemble. I am extremely proud of my students, and I know they will represent themselves, and Kentucky, well when they take the international stage.

You can hear the YPAS Bands for yourself at our upcoming Winter Concert on Thursday, December 14, at 7 p.m., in the YPAS Polly St. Clair Theater, located at 1517 South Second Street in Louisville.

Kentucky Schools Compete in NCAA Women’s Volleyball Tournament

It’s an exciting time in the Ville for volleyball fans as the NCAA tournament kicked off the first and second rounds last week. For possibly the first time ever there are three teams from Kentucky who are top ten seeds in the tournament. Number 2 seeds Louisville and Kentucky began their battle for the title at home with Louisville facing Wright State and Kentucky facing Wofford. Both teams battled hard in the first and second rounds, moving on to the third round. Number 6 seed WKU was the third team from the Bluegrass with their eye on the title. While the Hilltoppers won in the first round after a hard-fought three sets, they fell to #3 seed Tennessee.

Louisville plays Wright State at the KFC Yum! Center in the first round of the NCAA Volleyball tournament, November 30, 2023. Credit: Frazier History Museum.

The Cardinals are eyeing their first ever Championship title after losing last year to Texas in the title match. Meanwhile, Kentucky is hoping to add a second Championship title to their program after their win in 2020. Each team has a tough road ahead of them as Louisville faces a possible semifinal matchup with rival Pitt while Kentucky shares a bracket with volleyball powerhouse Nebraska who has five championship titles under their belt—one of which the team won when current coach Dani Busboom Kelly was a player. The tournament continued Thursday as Louisville traveled to Pittsburgh to face off against #3 seed Creighton and after a hard-fought five sets moves on to the next round where they’ll possibly face longtime rivals Pitt. On Thursday, Kentucky travels to Nebraska to battle #3 seed Arkansas.

As both a fan and a former player, I’ve been excited to watch the popularity of the sport grow. Once, I could hardly find a game on TV; now, over 12,760 fans fill the Yum! Center. While I’m a longtime Cardinals volleyball fan I will be cheering on both the Cards and the Cats as the battle to make it to the championship in Tampa continues where hopefully the Cards take the crown for the first time.

Video: Storyteller Byron Crawford Reads “A Teacher’s Christmas” at the Frazier

Byron Crawford speaks during An Evening with Byron Crawford at the Frazier, October 20, 2023. Credit: Frazier History Museum.

’Tis the season to give, so consider this my gift to you: a link to our Evening with Byron Crawford program that happened a few weeks ago at the Frazier with our partners from Kentucky Living magazine.

The evening celebrated his new book The Back Page, a compilation of the columns he writes for Kentucky Living.

Crawford is a masterful storyteller, and during the course of the program (at the 49:10 mark) we had him read one of his columns titled “A Teacher’s Christmas.” Spoiler alert: have a tissue ready.

Take an hour to watch this. You won’t be sorry.

Rachel Platt
VP of Mission

Our First 2024 Member-Exclusive Program is Winter Book Club!

Winter Book Club graphic. Credit: Frazier History Museum.

Our members are SEW into our exclusive book club!

Were you on vacation during our Summer Book Club, had to work, or just couldn’t make it? Now is your chance to mark your calendar! For our winter book club discussion, we will be reading Kentucky Quilts and Quiltmakers: Three Centuries of Creativity, Community, and Commerce by Linda Elisabeth LaPinta. As LaPinta says, we’ll consider quilts “through the lens of Kentucky history, women’s history, social history, the history of race relations, gateways to our past and doorways to our current state.”

You can purchase your copy ahead of time, as we have limited quantities. Members always receive 10% off in the museum shop (exclusions apply) but on Wednesdays this month, our members receive 20% off—in store only.

Kentucky Quilts and Quiltmakers has been making a big splash!

The fall 2023 issue of the Kentucky Humanities magazine reviewed the book, saying there “is a lot of meaning attached to a seemingly commonplace household object and LaPinta reveals more of interest about [quilts] ranging from utilitarian to artistic. Choosing to focus on Kentucky was not parochial. Quiltmaking has such a rich tradition in the state . . . [Kentucky] had the first statewide quilt documentation project and has a history of spawning quilt organizations and exhibits.”
The December virtual edition of Garden & Gun featured the book in their Arts and Culture section. They spoke about how this “new book dives deep on generations of women and their artful archive of the state’s history.”
The January 2024 issue of AQ (American Quilter) magazine, the largest circulation quilt magazine in the world, will feature the book by the editor in chief in her “Fabulous Finds” column. LaPinta was even invited to write an article for next November’s issue of AQ!

ALL members are welcome to participate in this program. RSVP to aegan@fraziermuseum.org.

The Winter Book Club discussion will take place prior to the Reading and Q & A on Sunday, January 14, at 2 p.m. Your RSVP to the Winter Book Club will serve as an RSVP to the Reading and Q & A.

Click here to find more details about the book, public reading, and Q & A program.

Find more information about our Winter Book Club here.

Sunday Free Family Day, Pop-up Holiday Market, Next Bourbon Limited Shipment, and More

Eliza Tevis Exhibit, Lights on Main’s Next Late Night Wednesday, Musical Kentucky: Trigg–Woodford, and More

Derby City Gaming, Lights on Main Late Night Wednesdays, Frazier Madrigals to Sing “Silent Night,” and More