With No Limits

For decades, Community Ventures has been on a mission to create vibrant communities across Kentucky, beginning with building healthy neighborhoods and thriving businesses. In Lexington, their efforts are most clearly on display at The MET. This East End mixed-use commercial and residential real estate development is named for its location at the corner of Midland & East Third.

The site, which welcomed residents and business owners in the fall of 2020, is now a staple of the East End community and is home to businesses like Carolyn’s Crown and Glory Hair Salon, Manchester Coffee, Albert Couture, DV8 Kitchen, and Health First. Community Ventures developed, financed, and built it to strengthen and revitalize Lexington’s East End by creating jobs and providing housing.

In addition to creating housing and job opportunities, the Community Ventures’ development also supports a blossoming artist community through organizations like Art Inc., The Artists’ Studios, Art House Kentucky, and a cluster of single-home family residences that form The Artists’ Village.

Mark Johnson, an East End native and president of Art Inc., spearheads each of these initiatives. An artist himself, Mark has been named one of the world’s Top 60 Contemporary Artists of the Year and his work has been displayed at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. Mark attributes much of his success to those that helped him in his artist journey. He views Art Inc. and his other programs that support creatives as a means to give back and assist artists with the help they need to be successful.

Art Inc., which is supported by Community Ventures, is a non-profit marketing and business incubator committed to helping Kentucky creatives build and profit from their businesses. The organization equips emerging and established artists and creatives with the services, resources, and educational opportunities.Art Inc. supports creatives by providing access to courses that provide the tools necessary to run a successful business, space to display and sell their creations at ArtHouse Kentucky, and access to rent private art studios at The Artists’ Studios.

The Artists’ Village, which is home to well-known creatives like Kentucky’s first African American Poet Laureate Frank X Walker and hosts an annual art and music festival, slated to take place this year on August 19, 2023. To learn more about the Artists’ Village, visit https://www.artinckentucky.org/theartistsvillage.

In addition to adding shopping, retail, and an artist community to Lexington’s East End, The MET also addressed the housing needs of this community by adding 44 market-rate and affordable housing residential units, both 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom units.

Revitalizing neighborhoods requires balancing the new and the old. For the East End, that meant honoring the culture and history of the former home of Keeneland. Community Ventures celebrated the historical legacy of this community by incorporating paintings, sculptures, and poetry throughout The MET property. A mural honoring African American jockeys, a large wooden panel featuring historical and current East End streets by LaVon Williams; Black and White photographs of East End by Patrick J. Mitchell, and a poem “Ode to the East End” by Frank X Walker ensure that while the East End grows, its history will never be forgotten.

To learn more about Art Inc. or to inquire about renting an artist studio, contact Mark Johnson by phone at (859) 231 – 0054 ext. 1023 or email at mjohnson@cvky.org. Art Inc. is supported by non-profit Community Ventures.

To learn more about Community Ventures and their efforts to revitalize communities across Kentucky, visit cvky.org.