This celebration of generosity spans 1,798 minutes, a tribute to UofL’s founding year, and invites Cardinals everywhere to come together in support of the university they love.

Timed to energize Homecoming week, Raise Some L rallies the Cardinal community around the initiatives, programs and people shaping UofL’s future.

“Your support of the UofL family ignites transformative opportunities for our students, patients and community. It empowers the next generation of Cardinals to reach their full potential,” said President Gerry Bradley. “We are building a brighter tomorrow and moving forward together.”

Recent Major Gifts and Commitments

This year’s Raise Some L celebration has already been bolstered by several significant gifts and commitments that will make an immediate and lasting impact across the University of Louisville. Highlights include:

• Anonymous –��Inspired by the legacy of two strong women who championed education and opportunity for themselves and their children, a gift of $500,000 to the University of Louisville was made by a family of first-generation immigrants who began their American journey with hope, determination, and a deep belief in the power of learning. This investment creates a safety net for students, helping cover essential needs like housing, food, and childcare, so they can focus on achieving their degrees and building brighter futures. Their story is one of perseverance, gratitude, and a shared belief that education transforms lives.

• Phoenix Controls – An in-kind gift valued at $382,258 to enhance the new program, providing state-of-the-art technology and resources for hands-on learning.

• SEW-EURODRIVE – An in-kind gift valued at $358,000 to support the program, providing state-of-the-art technology and resources for hands-on learning.
• Suraj and Rachel Alexander – A $100,000 gift establishing a new Centennial Scholarship fund within the to support student opportunity and innovation, complemented by a $50,000 planned gift to sustain and advance the Speed School’s mission for years to come.
• Autodesk – $75,000 in support of state-of-the-art technologies and resources for the J.B. Speed School’s program.
• St. James Court Neighborhood Association – A renewed commitment totaling $74,375 to benefit the , including the establishment of the St. James Court Neighborhood Association Scholarship Honoring Bill Holladay, Jr.,��to support students pursuing art and design.
• Lyle and Linda Graham – A $50,000 contribution to the Graham Student Philanthropy Endowed Fund and an additional $5,000 gift to the Graham Math Scholars Program, continuing their long-standing support for student engagement and success.
• Anonymous Planned Gift to the Speed School – A planned commitment valued at $50,000 to advance the mission and programs of the J.B. Speed School of Engineering.
• Genentech, Inc. –A gift of $43,421 to the . Genentech is a pioneering biotechnology company committed to innovation, equity, and health. This gift helps prepare the next generation of leaders to tackle the world’s most pressing health challenges.
• Dr. Paul Kelty – A $25,000 pledge to the Golden Alumni Scholarship at the J.B. Speed School of Engineering. (Securities transfer processed by Baird Financial.)
• Anonymous Gift – A $12,500 matching gift to the UofL Writing, Editing and Publishing Lab, expanding resources and opportunities for students in the program.

“Raise Some L helps keep UofL accessible and affordable, fuels breakthrough research, enhances medical care and drives our momentum as a leading metropolitan research university,” said Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement Vice President Jim Broschart. “We are profoundly grateful to the alumni, faculty, staff and friends who answer the call year after year. Your generosity makes it all possible.”

To learn more, make a gift or become a Raise Some L advocate, visit .

Campus Events & Student Energy

The Student Organization for Alumni Relations (SOAR) and the Student Activities Board (SAB) will host Raise Some L block parties on the Belknap and HSC campuses on Wednesday, Oct. 22, from 12-2 p.m., featuring snacks, games, music and opportunities to get involved. Don’t miss the action at the campus quads and help spread the word using #RaiseSomeL on social media.

Last Year’s Impact

In 2024, more than 2,000 donors gave an incredible $5.4 million to support UofL, UofL Health and UofL Athletics. For the fourth consecutive year, Cardinal family members from all 50 states took part, showing the nation what it means to Raise Some L.

To see what else is happening during Homecoming week, visit

The impact of technology on how we experience the��world creates both new possibilities and a host of��practical and ethical questions. But Tiffany Calvert, an��associate professor in UofL’s Hite Institute of Art + Design,��is looking for answers — and to find them, she’s going��straight to the source.

In her “Machine Vision Series,” Calvert partners with��her own virtual apprentice, a bot trained to paint as her��collaborator. Calvert believes working with AI can help us��understand its implications and explore the blurring line��between what we see and what’s real.

“I often get asked, ‘is AI your collaborator or your antagonist?’ ” said Calvert, one of many at UofL exploring the world through creativity. “The answer is that it’s complicated. I’m working with AI in a way that both criticizes its vulnerabilities and has a healthy appreciation of what it can do.”

ART DOTCOM��

Cutting her artistic teeth at the height of the ‘90s Dotcom bubble, Calvert has long been fascinated with the intersection of art and technology. Then, traditional forms of visual expression were converging with new digital tools for photo-editing and design.��

“There was something exciting about that convergence and the fact that I could use these tools to build something creative,” she said. In a way, Calvert saw technology as a medium similar to charcoals or paint. But as technology has advanced, now capable of its own analysis and decision-making, it’s become more of an artistic partner.����

For her “Machine Vision Series,” Calvert trained her AI collaborator by feeding it more than 1,000 historical still life paintings of tulips in bloom. It’s a technique known as machine learning, where a computer is shown examples to learn what something looks like — be it cars, crosswalks or frescos.����

After a while, the AI could recognize the tulips and begin to ‘paint’ its own. Calvert would paint, then the computer, then Calvert again, caking on thick, colorful globs of oil pigment to differentiate herself from the machine.����

The partnership might seem counterintuitive. Art, after all, is built on humanity and meaningful imperfection, but you’d expect a computer algorithm — something literally built on logic — to produce only the predictable and perfect.����

But when the AI painted, it wasn’t perfect. The algorithm can only interpret based on what it’s seen before, and sometimes, it misinterpreted or made logical leaps. Some AI-generated tulips were distorted in interesting and unpredictable ways like confusing the bulb of a flower with, say, an oyster or halved peach.������

“Those distortions behave like a mutating virus,” Calvert said. “It’s interesting, because while it’s incredible that the technology can generate beautiful imagery, those misinterpretations reveal the underlying humanity in the code, and the biases inherent in datasets.”��

THE HUMANITY��

While flowers that look like peaches might seem like a problem, for Calvert, it’s a good thing. Artists are much more interested problems than answers.����

“That’s where the interesting stuff happens,” she said. “These problems allow me to explore larger issues. How is this a metaphor for technology infecting our world and what precedents are out there?”��

AI can be a powerful tool, she said, but it’s only as good as its human creators and users — who aren’t always clear, make mistakes and sometimes behave irresponsibly, irrationally or maliciously.��

“The technology is obviously only as good as the information we give it, how we program it and how we use it,” she said. “That’s the underlying paradox, the humanity in the machine.”����

Take the technology that created the tulips in Calvert’s paintings. Those specific tulips are the result of creative farming — a plant virus that boomed during the 17th century Dutch Golden Age, creating an explosion of new and unique tulip colors and variants.��

That virus underpinned Tulip Mania, the first speculative bubble of the modern era, where the flowers were as much an investment and status symbol as decoration. Dutch consumers might have purchased a tulip bulb for more than the average salary.��

“When Tulip Mania happened, the technology got way out of control from both an economic perspective and a biological one, where it’s now a problem for farmers,” Calvert said. “So humans, in their hubris, didn’t understand the destruction they’ve created.”��

That’s why, Calvert said, it’s important to take a critical eye to technology and understand its implications. For example, with AI technology readily available and the content it creates surging across the internet, a recent Forbes survey shows some 75% of consumers worry AI will be used for misinformation.��

“It’s interesting to explore, because AI is both really critical to solving important problems and at the same time, it depends on who programs and uses it,” she said. “Painting has always adopted and responded to new technologies, as a ways of examining our perception of the world.”��

During the April 20 event, participants of CeLOUbrate Print engaged in printmaking by creating large, hand-carved wooden stamps, or “woodcuts” and driving over them with a steamroller. With a quick training, a driver’s license and a rental steamroller, Singel was prepared to operate this unique printing press.

“The whole premise is building community,” Singel said. “One of the many reasons I fell in love with printmaking is it’s the democratic multiple. Where would we be without printmaking in terms of it is the way that we disseminate information?”

This art process involves creating an image via a woodcut, etching or engraving and using ink to create copies on paper or canvas like a stamp. Lithography and screen-printing are also forms of printmaking. An original work can be replicated endlessly with basic supplies and processes which eliminate boundaries to sharing work or marketing art.

Printmaking is inherently collective by nature and is a simple form of mass production of artistic work. The creation, production and sharing of a print can all be completed by one operator, removing many obstacles to sharing artwork or messages to build community connections. Additionally, many prints will have small variances from shifting equipment or blotting ink so despite being a mostly mechanical process, each print will have its own unique characteristics and value from the artist’s production.

“When people pull their very first print, it’s this really magical moment because their mind is blown, but they also understand exactly how and why it’s happening,” Lewis said. “You get to watch the light bulb go off.”

In addition to UofL, several sponsors and local businesses supported Singel and Lewis in their effort to bring more people together through CeLOUbrate Print and its workshops including Fund for the Arts, Printed Zine and Portland Museum. UofL alumni William Smith served as Lewis’s collaborator from Portland Museum and assisted with grant writing, advertising and planning the event over eight months.

Ahead of CeLOUbrate Print, Lewis organized over a dozen woodblock carving workshops to help prepare participants to make prints with the steamroller press. The workshops were an addition from Singel’s steamroller press events in previous years. Lewis’s passion for the project comes out of the desire to make printmaking more accessible and this is the driving goal of their studies in printmaking and public humanities.

“Printmakers assume things have to be in a very specific way, your borders have to be clean, no smudges so it’s usually done in a shop – it’s done with a press,” Lewis said. “It’s done this way, so I really wanted to have an event that not only made people know what printmaking is, but it also made that knowledge accessible and doable in your kitchen.”

Alongside the CeLOUbrate Print event, the Portland Museum unveiled a new printmaking exhibit titled The museum invited Louisville printmakers to display their work but encouraged the featured artists to invite other printmakers from outside the region to also participate. The exhibit is a practice of building connections between Louisville’s artists and other pockets of printmakers across the nation. “Shop Talk” will be on display at the Portland Museum until the end of August.

To keep up with UofL’s art students and programming, visit .

She relied on UofL’s resources, faculty and staff to get her through her toughest challenge—a comprehensive review of all she had learned—leading the way to a bachelor of fine arts from the Hite Institute of Art and Design in the College of Arts & Sciences.

“UofL helped me pass my review and graduate this fall because of the fantastic people … who played a significant role in who I am as an artist and as a future alumnus of UofL,” Ramsey said.

Ramsey, a , worked at the independent student newspaper, , and as a student assistant at Ekstrom Library. Read more about her Fall BFA Thesis Exhibition .

Asked about her favorite class, she said her experience in a directed study working on a project with Professor Mary Carothers of the Hite Institute made a profound impact on her.

The project focused on a Metro United Way/Russell Place of Promise guaranteed income program called YALift! Ramsey and other artists reflected on the meaning of guaranteed income in their work. Called “Take this!” the project included narratives to go with their imagery.

“Paring narratives with imagery greatly influenced my BFA track,” Ramsey said, “which solidified my love for UofL. If I had not gone here, I would have never met Mary Carothers or participated in the PhotoVoice project. It was an experience I will never forget.”

The experience also served as inspiration for her future higher education goals: Ramsey hopes to someday return to UofL for a Master of Fine Arts degree or an individualized major in visual sociology.

Ramsey, of Louisville, said her family has close ties to the university and she feels it has evolved along with the city. Being accepted at UofL was a “dream come true,” she said.

“I loved visiting different places that integrate the community and the university, such as the and the ,” she said.

After graduation, Ramsey plans to open a small business focused on film photography and crochet projects.

That work will be part of the 2022 , a free and open-to-the-public national celebration of arts, science and innovation across Atlantic Coast Conference universities and the Smithsonian Institution. The two exhibits from UofL are:

• , focusing on NASA-sponsored UofL research, dubbed the w“Aqueous Immersion Surgical System” (AISS). This system provides wound containment for astronauts needing surgical treatment on extended space missions, and last year, was tested in weightlessness as a payload aboard a suborbital space flight by Virgin Galactic. The UofL research team includes professor George Pantalos (School of Medicine) and assistant professor Tommy Roussel (J.B. Speed School of Engineering), along with students Dalton Aubrey, Kessalyn Kelly and Sienna Shacklette.
• , an art and tech installation that engages with issues on
  

  

  
  drones, domestication and the non-human. The ‘Floating Room’ is composed of household products ‘floating’ because they are semi-autonomous drones. These floating objects maintain their conventional function while also aerodynamically traversing their airspace; for example, a lamp can both fly and emit light and a clock can both fly and tell time. The UofL team includes artist and assistant professor Samuel Swope (Hite Art Institute), along with students Mahika Gupta, Kelsey Shaw-Kaufman and Shachaf Polakow.

“There’s a lot happening at UofL with the potential for huge public impact across a range of disciplines, and this is a great opportunity to showcase that work,” said Paul DeMarco, interim director of UofL’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity in the Center for Engaged Learning, and a professor of psychological and brain sciences. DeMarco, who plans to attend, organized UofL’s involvement and oversaw the proposal process for the student-faculty teams involved.

Kevin Gardner, UofL’s executive vice president of research and innovation, said the UofL work being exhibited at this year’s ACCelerate Festival is proof-positive of the university’s commitment to exploration and shattering established paradigms.

“UofL faculty, staff and students are incredible engines of innovation and creativity,” he said. “These projects are great examples of that strength, and we’re excited to join our ACC colleagues and share that work with the world.”

The untitled artwork will be included in the museum’s upcoming exhibit, , on view from May 13, 2022 to April 2, 2023.

To see his work closer to home, visit the current exhibition at KMAC Museum, 715 W. Main St., called In addition to pieces by Rhodes, it features contemporary glass artists SaraBeth Post, Corey Pemberton, Therman Statom, Leo Tecosky and Nate Watson. It is open until April 3.

His work is also on the cover of the Spring 2022 edition of .

Covi, who died July 6 at 100, was twice the art department chair and was also curator of the University of Louisville Art Collection for more than two decades after he retired. A sought-after mentor, he was an expert on the Italian Renaissance, especially the sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio of Florence.

The scholarship in his name was established for Hite Art Institute students in their last year of study who have achieved academic excellence and demonstrated engagement in all aspects of the institute.

The 2021 Dario Covi Award winner is graduate student Erica Lewis, a multidisciplinary artist and master of fine arts candidate from Huntsville, Alabama. As a graduate research assistant, Lewis had researched the history of the institute, finding that much of her information “came from Dr. Dario Covi’s written first-hand account.”

Lewis praised Covi for the “time and care that he poured into the program for decades,” as evidenced by his various roles through the years as curator, department chair and director of the Hite Art Institute.��

Covi first joined the A&S faculty in 1956 after earning his doctorate in art history from New York University. He left UofL in 1970 and became chair of the Duke University art department, then returned in 1974. He retired in 1991 but remained the UofL art curator, and could be found in his office five days a week well into his 90s.

“Though I did not have the pleasure of meeting him myself … over the past two years, I have heard many, many people talk about his devotion to academia, such that he would still come to the library and research at the age of 100,” Lewis said. “I have never heard someone say his name without a wide smile and a tangible respect in the air. Everything that I have heard about Dr. Covi or seen in the eyes of those who mention him, be it students, professors or alumni (even out-of-state alumni teaching at my undergraduate university) exemplifies what it means to be a scholar, pursuing knowledge while facilitating a supportive academic network. Receiving an award in his name is an honor as well as an inspiration to strive toward my own academic goals, building a community of kindness along the way.”

Lewis, who earned bachelor’s degrees in fine arts and English at the University of Montevallo in her home state of Alabama, is��the 2021-2022 president of the UofL chapter of the Graduate Network of Arts & Sciences.��She has presented her work in numerous solo and group exhibitions.

, a printmaker who also specializes in papermaking and book arts, earlier this summer produced paper from yellow flag iris (Iris pseudacorus), which is often considered an invasive plant species. Her project was an extension of one she first started in 2018 as at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest in Bullitt County. There, she made paper from the pulp of a fast-growing Asian tree called tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima) that can crowd out native species, as well as a vine known as Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus)��that kills native trees.

In this summer’s project, she traveled to her family’s farm in Charlottesville, Virginia, to help out, and “removing the invasives from around the pond was one of the first big jobs,” she said.��

The yellow flag iris, which grows in wetlands, is toxic to livestock and other animals and destroys habitat used by waterfowl and native fish.

She calls the project “Recycling Nature: An Investigation into the Possibilities of Papermaking as an Artform and Means to Promote Environmental Consciousness.”

“Invasive alien species are recognized as one of the leading threats to biodiversity and impose enormous costs to agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and other human enterprises, as well as to human health,” Singel wrote in her artist’s statement. “… I propose that paper made from invasive plants and recycled materials may be a solution to many of the ecological and economical problems that face our world today.”

Singel said her goal is to “bring awareness to nature’s immense complexity and fragility and promote environmental consciousness.”

To make the paper, she first uses a beater to create pulp. The pulp is then poured into a shallow tub and scooped up and strained between two same-sized frames, one with screening tacked over the opening (the mould), the other with an empty opening (the deckle). The result is couched onto several layers of felts or towels, blotted and left to dry (see below).

She used non-toxic methods to then print copper etchings of native plants on the newly made paper. “Conceptually, the union of process and subject embodies an important metaphor for my views,” she said.

Singel said she continues to be inspired by one of her mentors, papermaker , director of the Iowa Center for the Book.��

“I strongly believe that by demonstrating this process, it will take hold,” she said. “It provides not only the opportunity to recycle materials and better the environment, but it also promotes creativity and wellness.”

Other honorees include Philanthropist Nana Lampton, Artist/Gallerist Billy Hertz and Muralist Liz Richter.

Embodying a rich tradition of Kentucky glass artistry and teaching, Rhodes holds a BA in Art from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, where he studied with famed glass maker Stephen Powell. After earning an MFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, Rhodes headed the Glass Department at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, from 1999–2004.

In 2005, he founded the glass program at UofL, where he is associate professor and head of Studio Glass. The program’s glass studio anchors Hite’s Cressman Center for Visual Art at 100 E. Main St.

A former Glass Art Society Board member and Penland School of Crafts Trustee, Rhodes has taught at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina; the Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass in New York; UrbanGlass in Brooklyn, New York; and the Scuola del Vetro: Abate Zanetti in Venice, Italy.

In January Rhodes was featured on��‘s show “Kentucky Life,” where he described his artistic inspirations and teaching philosophies. View the full episode here.

Last month, Rhodes also created the the blown glass award Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer presented to civil rights activist Mattie Jones during the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Keepers of the Dream celebration at the Kentucky Center for Arts.

��for LVA’s Friday Luncheon. Sales to the event support��

They were taken in Hai Phong, Vietnam, by youth participating in a month-long photovoice project facilitated by UofL students and faculty. The youth, aged 12-19 years old, have all lost parents to an HIV epidemic in Hai Phong. The project used photography and different forms of storytelling to help them explore themes they identified in their lives.��

“What was interesting to me was that we covered so many heavy subjects, but what showed through was the youth’s ideas related to their bright futures, social change and pride in what they and their families have been through and what Hai Phong has been through,” said Lesley Harris, assistant professor at the Kent School of Social Work.

Harris worked with community organizations serving grandparents and youth affected by HIV in Hai Phong10 years ago through the nonprofits Save the Children and the HIV and Health Care Support Centre (HHCSC).

Hai Phong, a port city with a seafaring economy, is located in a high traffic area for opioids moving from Middle Eastern to Asian markets. The influx of drugs resulted in an HIV epidemic that has left a large generation of orphans.

Harris wanted to serve that population again, many of the children now grown into adolescents, using photovoice,��a participatory research methodology designed to empower small groups through photography and storytelling.

She teamed up with Marion Hambrick, associate professor in the College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development, and Kyoungmee “Kate” Byun, who was a professor of interior design at Hite Art Institute, but now teaches at Northern Arizona University.

The trio was awarded a grant from UofL’s Cooperative Consortium for Transdisciplinary Social Justice Research. ����

Last summer, they mounted a month-long camp for 25 kids in Hai Phong focusing on positive youth development. Four��graduate students assisted: Rebecka Bloomer, Sara Williams, Doroty Sato and Victory Osezua. The photovoice project was a large component of the camp.��

“It became a much larger project than we anticipated,” Harris said. “But it was very worthwhile. Beyond research and program development, it was bringing something to the community that was needed and appreciated and gave the kids a program to be a part of for the month of July,” Harris said.

In the mornings, the team led activities in team building, goal setting and creative expression, which were informed by the youth development work of Williams and Bloomer, social work doctoral students. As the day progressed, the group focused on photovoice.

“We started with an introduction: What is photovoice, how you take and edit photos. We addressed safety, physical and emotional safety. Participants need to ask themselves, are you ready to revisit this place, or this difficult subject matter within your life?” Harris said. ��

Pictures emerged from their everyday world, some of them gritty, real examples of the social ills their community and family faces, like bottles of booze in an alley or lines of powder on a mirror. Others are more introspective, like a girl’s down cast face and a picture of a toy.��

The group discussed the photos and journaled about them. Together, they decided they ultimately wanted to use them to create educational videos and campaigns for residents of their city.

“Classically photovoice projects engage political leaders and people of influence, but that’s not really possible in Vietnam,” Harris said, as the country is communist. “We had to allow them to lead with what they wanted, and what is possible and safe within their cultural context.”

Byun curated the photos and narratives for the exhibition on display at Hite through Feb. 6 called, “.”

Byun plans to mount the show again at the Asia Institute-Crane House in Old Louisville and at a gallery in South Korea, further exploring the design and presentation of the exhibition.

Chloe Scoggins and Laura Coleman, both seniors in interior design at UofL, are now working with Byun on a research paper born of the project: “Does the Physical Setting of an Exhibition Affect Audiences’ Understanding of Narratives?” The team has been invited to present that work at the Environmental Design Research Association conference this April in Tempe,��Arizona.

“” is free and open to the public 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday through Feb. 6 in Hite’s Schneider Hall galleries.