Joanna Hay

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Joanna is a musician, filmmaker and cultural entrepreneur. Her music informs her filmmaking, her filmmaking informs her cultural work and her cultural work informs her whole life!

She began studying the violin at age 6 and studied through high school with stellar teachers at the University of Louisville. She got her B.A. in English from Kentucky State University. She picked up music again in her thirties and started a Celtic duo with a neighbor. She is a self-taught-learn-by-doing filmmaker and graphic designer. 

As a documentary filmmaker, she has created three films for KET since 2012: Quest for the Perfect Bourbon, A Kentucky Treasure: The Center for All (about the Kentucky Center) and Kentucky Bourbon Tales. In 2015 she designed and installed the permanent interpretive exhibit in the Old Taylor House (c. 1800) at Buffalo Trace Distillery Website. And in June of 2016 she produced and directed the video for the entrance to the Kentucky Journey exhibit at the Kentucky History Center Video.  As a musician she has produced recordings with three different musical ensembles: Hay and Pond (CD Day Dawn in 2001); Stirfry Musette (CDs A World So Small, 2007 and No String Unturned, 2013); and Coq Au Vin (CD Coq Au Vin, 2015). 

Stirfry Musette performs throughout Kentucky with a world music- Americana repertoire. Coq Au Vin performs on Nantucket Island in the summer and tours annually on the East Coast and at the Sarasota Film Festival. As a cultural entrepreneur she develops arts-connected projects for Kentucky communities and collaborate with local, state and federal agencies to implement projects that get people outdoors. She mirrors those physical experiences with online digital multi-media versions. Her projects have been funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Park Service’s Preserve America program, as well as state and local cultural entities. 

Artist Statement

Joanna Hay’s sound art practice is based on the voices of people, the lives they’ve lived and the places where they are from. These voices are interwoven with the notes of her violin (and other instruments), and the natural sounds of the environment.

Rivers That Talk and Bridges That Sing Statement

Rivers That Talk and Bridges That Sing is a sound installation housed in an upright canoe. It is inspired by childhood memory, the threat of flooding and the desire to care for the river.