The March 19th speaker for the Carnegie Center's monthly Lunch and Learn program is Elmer Lucille Allen, one of three artists featured in the exhibition The Art of Elmer Lcuille Allen, Sandra Charles, and Barbara Tyson Mosely at the Carnegie Center for Art and History. Allen is exhibiting her dyed textile work created using different “shibori” techniques.  Shibori refers to the Japanese art form of shape resist dyed textiles created by binding and knotting fabric prior to dying usually in indigo.  Ms. Allen’s talk will occur in the galleries where she is exhibiting and will begin promptly at 12:00 PM.  Lunch and Learn is a free program, however, registration is requested.

Born in Louisville, KY, she earned an undergraduate degree from Nazareth College (now Spalding University) in 1953 majoring in chemistry and minoring in mathematics. In 1966, she became the first African American chemist at the Brown-Forman Company, rising to senior analytical chemist before retiring in 1997. A champion of continuing education, she received a Masters of Art from the University of Louisville in 2002 at the age of 71, beginning a second career in art. In addition to exhibiting her own work, she was also the volunteer curator/director of the Wayside Christian Mission’s Wayside Expression Gallery from 2005 to 2017.

Allen has received numerous art and community-based awards, including the first Community Arts Lifetime Local Achievement Award, the first Strategic Progressive Leaders and Achievers with a Shared Heritage (SPLASH) Advocacy Award, the Presentation Academy Towers Award for Arts and Communication, and a Louisville Visual Arts’ Legacy Award: In Memory of Julius Friedman.

This program is free and open to the public, but registration is requested. For more information, visit carnegiecenter.org or call 812-944-7336.