Frazier History Museum exhibition shows how 'Cool Kentucky' is

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- When you walk through the doors of the Frazier History Museum, you are immediately immersed in the exhibition 'Cool Kentucky.'

The curator of guest experiences, Mick Sullivan, talked with WDRB's Christie Battista about everything that makes Kentucky cool.

"This is the first thing you see when you walk in the door, and we've tried to create and give people an experience of all the things from the state of Kentucky...but, then there's also really cool, deep stories that we have to focus on," Sullivan said. "Stories like Garrett Morgan, an inventor from Paris, Kentucky or Tori Murden, an incredible adventurer and current president of Spalding University or the Kentucky Colonels, a basketball team, a national champion basketball team from here in Kentucky in the 1970s. It's all represented here."

Q: A lot of people, of course, think of the Bourbon, but that's not what Kentucky's all about, right?

A: There's a lot more to it. That's a big part. It's really the reason why we're here, I mean our museum is related to that by the family name, but there is so much more to it, and that's kind of what we wanted to do is give people, tourists and also residents a sense of pride. I mean, people will come in, if you're a lifelong resident of Louisville, one of the first things you see when you walk in is the ear X-tacy sign that was on the wall at the ear X-tacy music store which, for me, was a formational and foundational part of life and living in Louisville, and I hear people gasp as soon as they walk in the door. I think a lot of the times it's because they're like wait, something I love is old enough to be in a museum, but it's about all of the things that make us Kentuckians, and we want to share that with people from outside of the state as well."

Q: And, so for people who want to come out to the museum and check things out, check out 'Cool Kentucky,' do you offer tours? Can people just come through and walk on their own time? How does it work?

A: Yeah, it works both ways. We do have, we have tours everyday, we do three tours a day. We also have daily showings of the Kentucky Show, which is a multimedia experience that we do in the Brown Forman Theatre. That runs daily, but some people just prefer to do it on their own at their own leisure so it works either way, but chances are if you're here, you're gonna encounter somebody who wants to tell you a story, because we're really into that.

Q: You also have an event coming up that you wanted to mention as well.

A: Yeah, on Sunday, December 12, Tori Murden is going to be here with Dawn Landes. Dawn Landes is a musician who has roots in Kentucky, and she worked to write a musical about Torie Murden's journey across the Atlantic Ocean...Afterwards, Dawn is going to be joined by some musician friends, some local musicians, in the Brown Forman Theatre and do a portion of it for the audience, so we're really excited about that.

Q: There is another exhibition called West of 9th, and can you talk a little bit about that and what that's all about?

A: We worked directly with Walt and Shay Smith. The exhibit is an extension, it's an inspiration from their blog and social media presence which is called West of 9th, which is kind of an oral history, photographic project that focuses on the neighborhoods, the 9 neighborhoods west of the 9th street divide here in Louisville. That exhibit has taken many forms. It was actually supposed to be right at the beginning of the pandemic and things in Louisville changed and so the exhibit reflects that. It's a really, really beautiful exhibit. We've got a lot of the images and the oral histories that they have collected over the years on display very beautifully, in addition to strong histories of the actual neighborhoods and figures from the neighborhoods that have made a historical impact in the city.

The Frazier History Museum is located at 829 W. Main Street in Louisville. The museum is open 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 12 p.m. - 5 p.m. Sunday. It is closed on Wednesday.