As a part of the second Louisville Visual Arts Festival showcasing Glass30 - Four Weeks of Fire, the Paul Paletti Gallery is exhibiting photographs created using the historic wet – plate collodion process. This process, which was invented in 1851 and dominated photography until 1875, uses large format cameras to make negatives on plates of glass or blackened metal. These plates must be coated with a light sensitive solution, exposed in the camera, and then developed, all before the plate dries out. Wet Plate is an exhibit to educate and delight its viewers by showcasing two artists, Paul Taylor and Bill Schwab, who use 4” x 5” to 8” x 10” view cameras with this difficult and archaic technology to create their photographic images.

Taylor’s scenic imagery of Cappadocia, Turkey and Connecticut River Landscapes engulf the viewer in their broad observations and large toned gelatin silver prints.

Bill Schwab creates haunting landscapes, portraits and still life images in ambrotypes and tintypes, two variations of the wet plate process.

The Louisville Visual Arts Festival, Glass30 - Four Weeks of Fire, runs from June 9th to July 10th. Wet Plate will open June 2, 2010, and be on exhibit at the Paul Paletti Gallery, 713 East Market St., Louisville, KY 40202, every weekday from 9 – 5 through August. For further information call (502)589.9254

The Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, located at 715 West Main Street, will host “Side by Side Statewide: An exhibition of Artistic Collaborations from The Louisville Side by Side Program,” July 2 through July 19, 2010. Fourteen students with disabilities and eleven professional artists worked together to make various creations, which are hung in groupings of three pieces of art - one made by the student, one made by the artist, and one collaborative piece. Each design represents a lively interaction between youthful spirit and the experience of a trained artist. The opening reception will be held on Friday, July 2nd from 6:00pm to 7:00pm.

Side by Side programs are made possible through partnerships between VSA arts of Kentucky and the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft. The students took a series of art classes - drawing, painting, wood assemblage, and other mixed media - taught by VSA Teaching Artist Brenda Wirth before they partnered with a professional artist to create artwork that would eventually be shown in the exhibition.