U. Kentucky professors follow IdeaFestival to new home

IdeaFestival organizers may have moved this year's event to Louisville from its birthplace of Lexington, Ky., but they have not left University of Kentucky behind.

Three UK faculty members -- Buck Ryan, director of the Citizen Kentucky Project of UK's First Amendment Center; David Mohney, dean of the UK College of Design; and John Stempel, senior professor of international relations in the Patterson School -- will speak at the IdeaFestival.

The IdeaFestival starts tomorrow in downtown Louisville and runs through this Saturday.

"UK has been a real leader since (the IdeaFestival) first began," said Kris Kimel, president of the Kentucky Science and Technology Corp.

Kimel, a founder and one of the leading organizers of the event, said the IdeaFestival provides a space for thinkers from diverse fields of study to explore the intersection of ideas between their fields.

"It is at these intersections where a lot of the most dynamic and meaningful innovations are happening," Kimel said.

Ryan said the IdeaFestival, which was founded in 2000 and held its first three events in Lexington, helped the city and the state "get a reputation of being a very creative place."

Ryan, a faculty member of the UK School of Journalism and Telecommunications, will join three other speakers for a discussion titled "The New New-Media" on Saturday. Ryan said he will focus on the rise of citizen-driven journalism.

Mohney will respond to landscape architect Adriaan Geuze in the "Landscape Illusions" presentation on Friday. Mohney said Geuze is the "leading landscape artist of today."

Along with this lecture, the UK College of Design is sponsoring an exhibition of Geuze's work at the American Life Building throughout the IdeaFestival.

"Students (from the College of Design) have been working hard on the exhibition, building entire pieces of it," Mohney said. "They've done a wonderful job."

Stempel said he will discuss achievement of peace through relationship-building with a focus on religion in his lecture, "The Art of Peace," which will be Thursday.

Stempel said Kimel and the other organizers have some "big names" attending this year's festival.

"(Kimel's) also got some people like me who have had some interesting ideas bouncing around," Stempel said.

Ryan said the IdeaFestival will be "a blast."

"It would be impossible to go down the list of events and not find something fun and worth the time," Ryan said.

Kimel said accessibility is important to the IdeaFestival; most event tickets are free or inexpensive.

A person would pay more than $4,000 to attend a comparable event elsewhere, Kimel said.

"For four days we will have some of the leading thinkers, innovators and performers in the world," Kimel said. "(The festival) is an invaluable experience and opportunity."

(C) 2006 Kentucky Kernel via U-WIRE