Campus News

UK Gaines Center for the Humanities Videos Explore How Kentucky Creatives are Weathering COVID-19

Gaines Center Director Melynda Price launched "Over Yonder" with celebrated writer and scholar Crystal Wilkinson.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 19, 2020) While many find working from home during a global pandemic difficult, others find the change of environment and schedule spurs their creativity. The University of Kentucky Gaines Center for the Humanities is exploring the impact of this time on creatives as part of a new video series, “Over Yonder: Conversations with Artists and Scholars on Social Distancing.”

“Over Yonder,” which launched on the Gaines Center’s new YouTube channel, features the center’s director, Melynda Price, interviewing Kentucky artists, musicians and scholars on their quarantine experience. As part of the series, Price explores how her guests are working and innovating amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This digital project features artists and scholars in humanities disciplines to discuss the impact of safety policies on their work and how they have adapted,” Price said. “This initiative allows the Gaines Center to offer a humanities response to COVID-19 while leading the way in redefining scholarship and community in a crisis.”

The Gaines Center launched “Over Yonder” with an interview of award-winning writer Crystal Wilkinson, associate professor in the Department of English, the Program in African American and Africana Studies and the UK Appalachian Center in the College of Arts and Sciences. Price (with technical support from her 10-year-old son James) has also completed interviews with poet Savannah Sipple and historian and photographer Nikki Brown, UK faculty member in the Department of History and African American and Africana Studies.

Additional interviews are scheduled with such guests as artist Crystal Gregory, assistant professor of fiber arts in the School of Art and Visual Studies in the UK College of Fine Arts, and Lexington-based singer-songwriter and UK alumnus Grayson Jenkins. To find “Over Yonder” and other Gaines Center videos related to all things humanities, visit the center’s YouTube Channel here.

Founded in 1984 by a generous gift from John and Joan Gaines, the Gaines Center for the Humanities functions as a laboratory for imaginative and innovative education on UK's campus. Part of the Division of Student and Academic Life, the center is devoted to cultivating an appreciation of the humanities in its students and faculty. The Gaines Center embraces varied paths of knowledge and particularly strives to integrate creative work with traditional academic learning.

As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.   

In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.