Kentucky art colony booming

PADUCAH, Ky. — Wandering in and out of galleries, visitors to the Lower Town neighborhood might feel like they're in an artsy part of Chicago or San Francisco — not this Ohio River town of 26,000 in far western Kentucky.

The quiet streets are lined with century-old brick houses, more than a dozen of which have signs indicating the house contains an artist's gallery or studio. Even a life-sized stainless steel giraffe welcomes visitors to one gallery.

Inside, Paulette Mentor experiments with colorful liquid acrylic paint, pressing two small square canvases together, then pulling them apart to reveal unique designs.

Mentor was flipping channels at home in Washington a few years ago when she came across a PBS feature on Paducah's artist relocation program. She visited the city a couple of times, decided to move from the Pacific Northwest and has since refurbished an old house that became her new home, studio and gallery. Besides her own work, the gallery features dramatic contemporary paintings and prints, sculptures and glass created by other artists here and elsewhere.

At least a two hour drive from any major city — Nashville is 135 miles to the southeast — Paducah started with just a couple of artists six years ago. The relocation program now has more than 70 artists who have helped put Paducah on the map as a U.S. art destination.

City officials credit the program with boosting economic growth and helping revitalize a formerly rundown neighborhood. And artists say the program has helped them grow professionally and become a part of a close-knit community.

"People here are extremely friendly and supportive," said Mentor, who moved to Paducah shortly after her husband died. "It's been very positive."

Tom Barnett, the city's planning director who worked with a local artist to launch the program, loves to hear it. The artist, Mark Barone, was living in the Lower Town neighborhood in the late 1990s and complained to the city about neglected properties and the transient population — including drug dealers — renting living space.

"It's a story you see throughout this country," Barnett said of Lower Town, which had been in decline since the 1950s as people struggled to care for older houses. "The people of Paducah had written the area off."