Jim and Nancy

Jim is Professor of Percussion at the University of Kentucky. He is the principal percussionist for the Lexington Philharmonic. He is a drummer with the Kentucky Jazz Repertory Orchestra.

Nancy teaches strings at SCAPA and instrumental music at the Governor’s School for the Arts. She plays with the Lexington Philharmonic and also conducts 2 of the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra groups.

Jim: “Musicians have an automatic community. We miss that. We miss going to rehearsals. We miss performing with other musicians. Now every Monday at 4 pm I have a meeting with 37 alumni who teach college, anywhere from the University of Bern in Switzerland to San Diego. We get together and talk about how we are going to teach this fall, trying to solve problems. So I try to find community in other ways.”

Nancy: “We’ve never been bored during the pandemic. As artists, we write music and we practice every day. There is something new to learn every day. The pandemic is giving us an opportunity to spend time on things we couldn’t as easily find time for before.”

Lexington in the Time of COVID-19 is an artwork about people practicing social distancing at a time of a deadly virus. And also offering kindness.

Kurt Gohde and Kremena Todorova capture photographs at the periphery of American culture, where drag queens, discarded couches, and abandoned motel signs exist.