Children’s Free Art Classes, CFAC, began in 1925 as a new approach to art education in the Louisville community.  The curriculum encouraged originality and spontaneity to combat “copy-book art” taught in most of the Louisville area schools at the time.
 
The CFAC scholarship program offers special opportunities for extra instruction and encouragement to students identified as visually talented and motivated in two dimensional art, painting and drawing.  Students, age nine through eighth grade, are recommended by their school art teacher or principal.  High school students, grades nine through twelve are required to present a portfolio for consideration into the CFAC program.  At the end of each semester, students donate their artwork to the Louisville Visual Art Association for use in one of two spring CFAC Exhibitions.  This artwork becomes available for purchase by the student’s family, friends and the community.  Proceeds from the sale are used to support future CFAC classes.
 
There are thirty-five CFAC sites serving fourteen hundred visually talented students yearly throughout the Kentuckiana area:  Bullitt, Jefferson, Oldham and Shelby Counties in Kentucky, Floyd and Clark Counties in Southern Indiana.  Classes are offered two semesters during the school year, fall and spring.  Each semester consists of ten, two-hour sessions that are scheduled after school or on Saturdays.  The programming staff includes a coordinator and thirty-two qualified art educators and professional artists as instructors.  A curriculum outlined for use with the CFAC program follows guidelines parallel to the Kentucky Department of Education’s Core Content in the visual arts.  Dedicated CFAC instructors, Louisville Visual Art Association staff and board members, CFAC committee members, past CFAC students, family and friends of CFAC students are responsible for the success of the CFAC program.
 
The CFAC program is made possible in part by the Fund for the Arts, Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government, Caesars Foundation of Floyd County and receives substantial support from the Weatherhead Foundation, many community supporters, the sale of student artwork, annual fund-raising events, memberships and donations from many generous individuals, patrons and friends. 
 
Since 1909, the Louisville Visual Art Association has been this area’s foremost contemporary visual art center.  It’s mission is “to engage the community in creating and appreciating today’s visual art,” providing the artistic spark that ignites personal discovery. 
 
The Louisville Visual Art Association is funded in part by a grant from the Kentucky Arts Council, a state agency in the Commerce Cabinet that receives funding from the Kentucky Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.
 
For additional information or to purchase CFAC artwork, please contact:         
 
Lanie Hopping, CFAC Coordinator
(502) 896-2146, ext. 115