Kentucky is obsessed with horses—but it’s more than the famous Kentucky
Derby. Experience a bit of the culture at the Kentucky Horse Park in
Lexington, with the world’s largest equestrian museum and live shows.
Appreciate the state’s natural beauty at the 52 state parks and historic
sites. Music lovers can visit the International Bluegrass Music Museum,
and bourbon lovers can follow the bourbon trail—a tour of famous
distilleries like Wild Turkey and Maker’s Mark.
Trip Ideas in Kentucky
Berea
Browse Appalachian arts and crafts
In central Kentucky, where the foothills of the
Cumberland Mountains meet rolling bluegrass horse farms, lies bucolic
Berea, an idyllic Appalachian arts and crafts centre. Hundreds of
potters, painters, furniture makers, weavers and other artisans whose
works are coveted throughout the country for their high quality are
among this quiet town’s population of 10,000. Perfect for strolling,
Berea’s quaint town square includes more than 50 artists’ galleries,
studios and crafts shops selling everything from hand-stitched quilts
and cornhusk flowers to folk-art paintings, woodcarvings and hand-blown
glass.
Across the street, Berea College is a tree-shaded, 140-acre
campus that originated when wealthy landowner Cassius M. Clay (yes,
boxer Muhammad Ali is a namesake) gave this land to the Rev. John Fee in
1853. Along with abolitionist missionaries, Fee formed a village,
church and school dedicated to educating people of all races.
From its origins as a one-room schoolhouse in 1855, Berea College
later became the South’s first interracial and coeducational institution
of higher education. Today, private, non-denominational and
consistently rated among America’s leading liberal arts colleges, Berea
admits only low-income students with high academic abilities and
provides them with full scholarships. Since 1893, the Berea College
Student Crafts programme has been teaching traditional handicrafts,
which are sold through the Log House Craft Gallery (and online) to
support the tuition-free college.
Students are required to offset their room and board by working
part-time for the college. Those who don’t opt for the craft programme
can choose to work at the Boone Tavern Hotel and Restaurant (named after
pioneer Daniel Boone), a gracious 1909 landmark that offers comfortable
rooms, the hearty Kentucky classics spoonbread and chess pie, and
updated dishes like filet mignon with blue cheese grits (coarsely ground
corn).
Outside of town, with easy interstate access, the 20,000-square-foot
Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea sells Kentucky-made crafts, including
jewellery, pottery, baskets, dulcimers and furniture. To take a
self-guided driving tour via the back roads to artists’ studios, pick up
the Kentucky Artisan Heritage Trails brochure. Two of particular
interest are Churchill Weavers, founded in 1922 and renowned for richly
textured handwoven textiles, and Tater Knob Pottery and Farm, where
hand-thrown chunks of clay are spun into coffee mugs, casserole dishes,
bowls and birdbaths.