Project Concept: Our Vision

The Lucky Horseshoe project, made possible by a grant from the Center For Neighborhoods’ P.A.I.N.T. program, was designed to address a number of needs that were directly identified by the residents of the community and members of the neighborhood association. 

The central unifying goal of this multi-phase project will be to provide an amplified voice to residents of the Lucky Horseshoe area. Using one-on-one interviews and photography sessions with individuals who live and work in the neighborhood, we will begin the project by gathering oral history and visual source materials directly from residents. Through their creative choices and their own words, participants will entirely shape the outcome of every finished product that the project generates.

Here is a chart showing the general flow of the project from initial outreach to completion, and the ways that the phases lead from one to another:

How it Works:

The “Digital Quilt” design will be composed from photographs, each taken of an object chosen by an individual participant to represent their personal story as a resident of Lucky Horseshoe.

At these photography sessions, we will also be asking participants to sit for a portrait, and to conduct with us a videotaped interview. During each interview we will be encouraging individuals to speak about themselves, their interests, history, plans, and ultimately (we hope) a discussion of some of their experiences, impressions, and recollections with regards to Churchill Downs in all the many ways it touches their existence and defines the history of their neighborhood.

In addition to the object photos becoming source material for the composite Digital Quilt artwork, these images and the portraits will also be sold in a Limited Edition Photography Series as a Fundraising strategy for the neighborhood association.

The composite artwork itself becomes the design for Neighborhood Pride Street Flags that will announce the Lucky Horseshoe Neighborhood as cars enter the area.

Footage from the interviews will be compiled and edited to create a Short Documentary Film, with the goal of providing an amplified voice for residents - not only in terms of their identity as a group of individuals (to outsiders and to one another) but also in hopes of preserving their unique history as the “lucky horseshoe” of homes surrounding Churchill Downs – one of Kentucky’s (and American sports’) most historically important sites.