Coming up on Kentucky Life, we'll give you an inside look at the operations of WRFL , a student- run radio station on the University of Kentucky's campus.

We'll take you to Flame Run, a glass studio in Louisville where you'll get a start to finish glass blowing demonstration ; an interview at the Speed Art Museum about late Kentucky artist Helen LaFrance ; and finally, embark on a trip to the Hensley Settlement in Bell County.

That's next on Kentucky Life.

Hey everybody, and welcome to another great episode of Kentucky Life.

I'm your host, Chip Polston.

Today we're in the Kentucky Gallery at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville.

Now this gallery is dedicated to artists and art from Kentucky.

And a little later on, we'll give you a special look at Helen LaFrance, one of the artists featured here.

But before that, let's take a little trip to Lexington.

For our first story, we visit WRFL, the student- run radio station on the University of Kentucky You can find them at 88.1 FM or, as their slogan will tell you, All the way to the left of the dial.

WRFL has been operating as a radio station since 1988.

But even more than that, they've been an important source of creative expression for the community members and students who work and volunteer there.

[rock music playing] Mary: WRFL is a student run radio station on campus.

It was started in 1988 and first went on air in March of that year, and that's pretty much it.

So the radio station runs seven days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and never stops.

It just gives students a chance to learn all about radio and all about working in a workplace before they actually have to go do it.

Kakie: So, WRFL, which gets its call letters from Radio Free Lexington, we took that from REM which had its Radio Free Europe tune out at that time, is a student run radio station on the FM dial.

It's a broadcast station.

It is 7900 watts.

It reaches about nine counties.

We have 14 student members at WRFL who are called our board of directors.

So those are our paid student leaders and they get to work up to 20 hours a week in these roles.

There are 14 of us on the board.

And without us, without each other, we couldn't do anything.

Programming can't have live on air stuff without production.

What's the point of having live on air stuff if we're not going to promote it?

We can't do anything if we don't have our music director and what's the point of having music if we're not gonna have local music?

And if we're not gonna have local music, why are we gonna bother having programming, you know?

It's all about the culture at WRFL.

It's all about the things that we do for each other and what we've been for the last 35 years.

That's what we're about, is working together and building something bigger than ourselves.

It's honestly one of the best things that's ever come out of UK.

WRFL is so unique that a lot of people, the reasons they come here are not reasons that they would want to go work at a lot of other radio stations.

We get a lot of freedom and flexibility to play what we want here.

And that's just not going to be the case at most radio stations.

I've had a lot of friends at other college radio stations say, "They just tell me what to play and I quit after a semester because it's not fun and I don't get to express myself."

And I think that's one of the amazing things about WRFL is there's so much more creativity and community that is created when people have that creative freedom.

The original plan was to be able to get students really involved in hands-on radio production and also to bring musical types that were not being heard in the market.

So we don't have a specific format.

We're not a country station, we're not a rock station.

So, every two hours, it's going to change.

And sometimes, it is a complete pivot.

so you might hear two hours of Latin music and then, you might hear two hours of heavy metal right after that.

So, even if you don't like what you currently are tuning into, you know that you can tune in two hours later and it'll be something entirely different.

It gives students hands-on experience in developing ideas, presenting ideas, and also really engaging in something that the students and the community members who are part of it love, which is music or other audio expression.

Local bands and businesses and people and ideas are found here because we are like a vehicle to transmit these ideas through a greater public.

We are constantly pushing Lexington music and artists whether it's putting them in our play box that DJs can choose from, or sponsoring shows and festivals.

Trenton: We're not all students.

Some of us come from the Lexington community, some of us come from even farther.

I know people that are an hour and a half away that come in for their sets.

But we bring in people outside of the student body to fill out our ranks because during the summer, students are gone.

Other times, DJs need to be here and students can't always take fills.

I think the other thing that's kind of just magical is you know that there are actually people who have thought about what they're doing.

It's not a computer algorithm, it's not a commercial or industry mandate.

There's a real human who thought about "Here's what I'm going to do for two hours and here's what I think people want to hear.

And here's why I think that's important."

WRFL has never used automation before.

Even during the pandemic when we did have to switch from not being live, we had people putting together pre-recorded shows instead of using automation.

So, there was still somebody sitting at home putting together two hours of radio in chunks that we then sent here.

The appeal of a live DJ versus automation is you know that there's always somebody there.

And that sounds redundant, but that's exactly what it is.

The amount of times I've been doing a 2:00 to 5:00 AM fill, a 5:00 to 7:00, a midnight to 2:00 AM and I ask somebody to call in and talk to me and they do is remarkable because people want to talk, people want to be heard.

And if you ask people what they want to hear any time of day, there's a good chance they're going to call in, especially at WRFL because there's a love for somebody being there.

I think WRFL has a really strong future.

We're coming up on 35 years.

I think we've got another 35 years coming after that.

Even though people keep saying that radio is dying, I think that refers more to commercial radio than it does to a space like this because even though we are a radio station, we're an opportunity for expression, and humans are always going to want that.

We need that type of communication.

We need the ability to share our interests and our hobbies and our passions with others.

And because of that, I don't really see the station going anywhere.

You're listening to WRFL Lexington 88.1 FM.

You're listening to WRFL FM 88.1.

You're listening to WRFL 88.1 FM.

You're listening to WRFL 88.1 FM in Lexington, your only alternative left.

All the way to the left.

All the way to the left.

All the way to the left.

Your only alternative left.

Man: And all you need to do is listen from 5:30 AM and let's play some more music.

Glass blowing is an art form that's been around for thousands of years since the time of the ancient Egyptians.

As it exists today, the craft has evolved with new innovations in technology.

But at its core, the practice hasn't changed much.

Flame Run is a glass studio and gallery in Louisville and is the brainchild of Brook Forest White Junior, a glass artist with years of experience in the area.

Let's look at one of Kentucky's only glass studios and learn more about the work behind the art.

Brook: Glassblowing is the art of taking molten glass, which is about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit and then transforming that into a vessel.

It can be a bowl, a cup, a Christmas ornament, and great art.

Glass blowing has been around for over 2,000 years.

Glass itself was discovered over 5,000 years ago.

And the ancient Egyptians actually had it.

And it was around the time of the Romans that they discovered how to blow glass.

It obviously was only for the pharaohs and the most wealthy people in those early times.

But after 2,000 years ago, it became more common.

And that's why Venice became the hub of glassblowing was that it was the trading port of the world at that time.

And so, all the goods and all the things came there.

And they were in Venice and they were worried about burning Venice down.

So in 1291, they moved all the glass studios off to the little island, Murano, and that's where the glassblowing studios are now.

And so, they've been blowing glass nonstop on Murano since 1291.

And that's kind of mind blowing to think about that.

And what we're doing is based on all that history.

The newest technology we have in the studio would be electricity and natural gas.

Flame Run is Kentucky's largest glassblowing studio and it's actually the largest studio in the region.

It's Kentucky's only dedicated gallery to contemporary glass art, and we just love the public come in and to educate.

I attended Centre College in Danville, Kentucky and happened upon the world-famous glass artist, Steven Roth Powell.

I played soccer.

I was taking econ classes and government classes, but Centre is the great liberal arts school that it is.

And you have to take a lot of things in other areas of study and there was an art requirement.

And so, I signed up blindly for the glassblowing class.

Didn't have any idea what I was walking into, was very intimidated after the very first class, went up to Steve Powell and said, "I don't think this is for me."

And he said, "Don't drop the class, come back."

So that's kind of my joke now as I've been coming back for over 30 years.

What we created today was a big soft bowl is what I would call it.

We had colors pre-made and they were in an oven at about 1,000 degrees.

We brought those out, attached those to a blow pipe.

On this piece, we had three different colors.

We created that form, which is basically like a big egg on the end of the blow pipe, used different tools to shape it and get it smooth.

Once we had all the colors together, then we went in and gathered more molten glass on top of it.

And that gives us a greater amount of volume to make a larger piece.

Today, we actually gathered two times and got the clear glass around it.

We shaped it, then we started to actually do the blowing.

It's a little misnamed, glassblowing because people think you're doing it all the time.

But there's only certain instances to blow into it, to create the volume, and get the size that you want for your piece you're making.

So, we had all the glass, shaped it, put, what we call, a jack line into it where we cut a neck area and form that.

And then we do the transfer and that's where we bring over another solid rod with a little bit of glass on the bottom of it and attach it.

So for a few seconds, it's attached to the blow pipe and the punty is, what we call it, the metal rod.

Then we score it, put a drop of water on the neck area where I'm going to break it from, tap it, and it releases from the blow pipe, and then stays adhered to that other metal rod.

That's a risky move there because if they break off both of them, then it hits the floor.

From the punty rod move, we go to the glory hole and heat it and you can see the opening then, and we basically at that point could have made different shaped bowls.

We sort of started opening it, you can see it flaring some.

And then, what we did today is we used centrifugal force and I came out of the reheating chamber of the glory hole and was turning it very fast.

It almost went into a complete disk and then, I paused and hesitated and then gravity started to give me some undulations.

That gave me that sort of uneven shape that we ended up with at the final piece.

I believe any artist whether they're a musician or a painter or a glassblower instills part of them into their own work.

You can't care about something and not give a part of yourself to it.

And so, I've learned over the years that for me, color is a way to express.

I can make two pieces that are exactly the same shape, they can have different color patterns or color movement, and they'll have a different feel.

And I think that's a result of what I'm feeling or exuding that day.

What I would like people to take away or think about my work is maybe it's a beauty, maybe it's something they hadn't thought of in a certain, "I didn't know you could do that" or I'd like them just to be happy or pleased, or "Oh, look at that.

It's something that I didn't expect."

And find just enjoyment of the piece whether it's an 11-foot tall chandelier or if it's one of my personal little vases that I make.

So we're in the Kentucky Gallery here at the Speed Art Museum.

So many great Kentucky artists on display.

We're going to tell you about one of them right now.

Joining us is Erika Holmquist-Wall.

She's the chief curator of the Speed Art Museum.

Erika, thanks so much for being with us.

-I'm happy to be here.

-Great.

So, we are here in the Helen LaFrance exhibit.

Tell us about Helen.

Who was she?

Helen LaFrance is a pretty amazing woman.

She passed away at age 101 just two years ago.

So, her lifespan covered the 20th century and her paintings really showcase that, like the 20th century of a Kentucky small town.

And from what I read, she referred back to something called sense memory -to do a lot of these.

-Mm-hmm.

What is sense memory and how does this work into what she was able to do?

Well, Helen clearly had a very rich internal creative imagination that she was able to tap into and powers of observation that when you look at her paintings, they just shine through.

She's able to capture details that a lot of us maybe take for granted or just kind of pass on by, and she's able to tap into that and capture it and paint and create images that feel timely, relevant, universal whether it's a church picnic or a Bible study or a quilting bee.

She's created these paintings that we're immediately able to access.

And there's some Easter eggs in here.

She liked to put herself in some of these as well.

-Yes.

-Is that correct?

-Tell me about that.

-Yes.

So, in these paintings, if you spot a little girl in a red dress that is usually a little symbol for Helen herself as a child.

That's great.

And now, she didn't just work in paint.

She worked in a lot of other mediums as well.

Yes.

So, Helen tapped into that creative spark as a young girl and really followed it her entire life.

She was a quilter, a doll maker, a collage artist, a painter, a sculptor.

And not just carving and doll making, but full on actual large scale carved wood objects, which is not easy to do.

-It's very impressive.

Right.

-Absolutely.

So, she was from Mayfield, Kentucky, an area that was absolutely decimated by tornadoes back in 2021.

This showed itself in her artwork -in a couple of different ways.

-Yeah.

-How did that bring out?

-Yeah.

That is...

I think the Mayfield tornado really made this exhibition bittersweet when working on it because we were in the process of trying to track down these paintings and the early stages of research and development when the tornado hit.

And so immediately these images of Helen's Main Street, the courthouses, the churches, the just kind of images of small town life now have become memory paintings because so many of them are no longer there.

So, it did bring another element and a whole different perspective to this exhibition.

And she actually had one painting that captured, in her view, the tornado as well?

Yes.

So, when we located, in a private collection, the image of the tornado, it took our breath away because it felt so prescient.

And almost like a chill couldn't help but go up your back because the painting was probably done sometime in the late 1980s, early 1990s.

But it absolutely captured the terror and the weather and the panic that comes along with experiencing a tornado.

Now, she was a full time artist... -Yes.

-later in life.

So success and notoriety for her really came at a later stage.

Is that correct?

Yeah.

So she was always making art while she was working full-time jobs and selling her work at craft shows or church sales.

And it wasn't until later in life and probably well into her seventies that she was actually able to get some representation and start showing at galleries of folk art and self-taught artists.

And there's a lot of Helen LaFrance works out there in the southwestern Kentucky region.

So, you could go to art fairs at one point and pick up a piece by her?

-Yes, absolutely.

-That's amazing.

Why is it so important, Erika, for you all to showcase Kentucky artists here?

Well, it's important for us to put on shows like these that have more research and time and thought behind them and present these chapters of art history because it tells us the story of ourselves as who we are as Kentuckians and Kentucky art history into the larger story of American art history.

Well, it's a fascinating place.

Erika Holmquist-Wall, Chief Curator of the Speed Art Museum.

Thanks so much for being with us.

Thanks for having me.

In 1903 as the United States was growing into the 20th century with all its city expansions and technological advances, one man decided that he and his family were not ready for the change.

Burton Hensley moved over 100 members of his family to the top of Brush Mountain, what is now part of Cumberland Gap National Historical Park.

His aim was to live the life his family had enjoyed for years, relying solely upon themselves, raising cattle, and farming the land.

Today hikers from all over can visit what the park system has preserved of Burton's dream.

25 of the original buildings in the middle of the beautiful surrounding pastoral farmland that once was the Hensley Settlement.

Chip: In the early 1900s as cities grew and technology changed lives, one man, Burton Hensley, had a vision for his family to return to the days of old.

He fulfilled that vision by buying 200 acres on top of Cumberland Mountain in the Cumberland Gap area and creating the Hensley Settlement.

For Brittony Pique, a park guide for the Cumberland Gap National Park Service, the Hensley Settlement is one of the best preserved living museums of this time period.

No matter where we're at, somebody has a connection to that culture that was our family's.

And we learn from what they have made.

We have learned from those stories.

And if we are not able to go back and see those things or hear those things, we are definitely losing that connection with our past, and our past is very important to who we are today no matter where you are in the world.

Burton Hensley divided the land among his family members and a small community of 100 people grew and prospered.

Log homes, spring houses and barns for food storage sprang up across the landscape along with a blacksmith shop and a church.

When visitors attend a tour today at Hensley Settlement, there are several different buildings that they get the opportunity to see how they were built, how these people lived, how it was all set up.

And one of them more specifically is the schoolhouse behind me here.

And everybody expects when they moved on the mountain that they didn't have a school or they had to go off the mountain for school.

But the school was right here in the community.

Chip: For over 40 years, these families farmed and raised animals and created crafts to trade with others in the area.

Brittony: This was a village.

Everybody worked together.

It was a community.

Everybody was one big family.

Chip: But just as Burton Hensley intended, the Hensley settlement remained isolated, reachable only by horse on dirt roads, electricity never reaching the community.

The Hensley Cemetery bears witness to the tough times with a number of graves for lost children.

Brittony: You were taking a sleigh or a sled, something of that nature off the mountain or mule going off the mountain.

You had to go find a doctor if someone was ill.

Sometimes it could be several weeks before someone was able to get back on the mountain to doctor whoever may have been ill and especially young children.

They didn't know what was wrong with them.

We knew they were ill, we knew they didn't feel good.

Whatever the case may have been, you have a lot of young children in that cemetery because of that reason.

Chip: By the late 1940s, many members of the community began leaving for a number of reasons.

The reason the settlement itself started deplenishing?

Jobs that people were currently working, young men were working, places has closed.

More specifically, the Chadwell Gap Coal Company just on the Virginia side of the mountain.

And they were having to go off the mountain to find work.

They were finding young women to marry, finding different modern things that they enjoyed, and they were starting to slowly move off the mountain.

Chip: Sherman Hensley who arrived in 1903 was the last to leave in 1951.

Upon his death, Sherman Hensley would return to the home he loved.

Today, the Hensley Settlement is open for the public to explore many of the original buildings.

There are miles of trails available for hikers to experience the serenity and peacefulness Burton Hensley searched for over a century ago.

Brittony: There's about 85 miles worth of trails.

Several trails actually access Hensley Settlement.

You can access it from the Pinnacle Overlook if you choose to do so.

We're about 12 miles from the Pinnacle Overlook via the ridge trail at this time.

You can actually hike the Chadwell Gap trail as well on the Virginia side of the mountain.

Hensley Settlement is very serene, very peaceful.

When you stand and stand quietly and just listen, you hear the wind, you hear the rain, you hear the trees moving in the wind.

You know your surroundings and it kind of lets you touch base with nature.

Thank you so much for joining us on Kentucky Life.

As always, we have so enjoyed having you here with us.

So that about wraps it up for our time here in the Kentucky Gallery at the Speed Art Museum.

If you're a fan of art from Kentucky or just art in general, be sure you check this place out.

But before we go, I want to leave you with this moment.

I'm Chip Polston cherishing this Kentucky Life.

[bugle fanfare playing] [indistinct crowd chatter] Over PA: 72 now, 3 to 1.

So positives going on with Jellybean.

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