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Decommissioned cars covered with fresh snow line the roads around Kentucky Auto Parts & Sales near Berea. (Photos by Willie Hiatt)
As a native Kentuckian, born and raised just down the road, I’d made lots of assumptions about a massive automobile salvage site when I asked permission to take photos there the day after a beautiful Christmas snowfall.
Curled around a wooded hillside just south of Berea on U.S. 25, Kentucky Auto Parts & Sales is a striking roadside attraction, especially when the leaves fall and unveil thousands of wrecked and abandoned vehicles, so orderly and devoid of life that the site looks like a busy drive-in theater after the Rapture.
Credit Kentucky Arts Council
Gov. Andy Beshear, in his opening remarks, said the nine honorees demonstrate “the irreplaceable value the arts play in contributing to our communities, education and economy,” even during a global pandemic that has disrupted the arts and culture sector.
“Kentucky artists have embraced these challenging times to transform and broaden our way of thinking through our shared love and appreciation of the arts,” he said. “Your ability to think outside the box has yielded creative solutions, allowing the arts to continue to thrive in Kentucky.”
The state has given out the Governor’s Awards in the Arts since 1977 to acknowledge the contributions of Kentucky artists, arts and culture businesses and arts patrons, said Kentucky Arts Council executive director Chris Cathers, who was master of ceremonies.