Volunteers are required to work a minimum of four hours per day in exchange for credential to attend the entire event, according to a news release.

And the events sound pretty cool including concerts by top national players and tons of seminars.

This year’s conference – the Chicago-based jazz teachers/students advocacy group’s third – will include more than 100 concerts on five stages by musicians from around the United States,  as well as top school ensembles.

(Previous JEN conferences were in New Orleans and St. Louis, which are world centers for jazz. How they got to Louisville is anyone’s guess, but it sounds like a major coup by our Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau.)

In addition, more than 90 clinics/panel discussions/workshops are scheduled on a variety of topics regarding the jazz music industry.

Here’s a tiny fraction of the hundreds of colleges and groups that have signed up, starting with Louisville’s own Jamey Aebersold

• Aebersold Jazz Aids (C) – 804, 805, 702
• Avedis Zildjian Company – 211 (The cymbal maker)
• Berklee College of Music (C) – 702
• Capital University (F) – 405
• Columbia College Chicago (F) – 303, 305
• Conn Selmer, Inc. – 309, 311, 408, 410
• Antoine Courtois Paris (F) – 201, 203, 300, 302
• Miles Davis/Miles Ahead Music – 409
• DownBeat – 402
• Eastman Music Company – 105, 204
• ejazzlines/Jazz Lines Publications (C) – 905, 1004
• French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts – 1012
• Gemeinhardt Music Instruments, LLC. – 413
• George Mason University – 912
• Grammy Foundation – 505, 604
• Jazz at Lincoln Center – 600
• L.A. Music Academy – 1010
• Manhattan School of Music – 501
• MOM’s Music – 100
• Monterey Jazz Festival – 400
• National Jazz Museum of Harlem – 509
• New England Conservatory – 1006
• Billy Strayhorn Songs Inc. – 1001
• University of Dayton – 316
• University of Kentucky (C) – 608
• University of Louisville School of Music – 601
• University of Miami Frost School of Music (F) – 704
• University of Michigan – 515
• University of North Texas – 317
• University of Southern California Thornton School of Music (C) – 1114
• University of Tennessee School of Music – 510
• University of Toledo – 1005
• U.S. Army Blues “Pershing’s Own” – 205
• U.S. Army Field Band – Jazz Ambassadors (C) – 200
• U.S. Army Recruiting – 708, 709
• U.S. Navy Commodores – 301A
• Western Michigan University – 506
• Yamaha, Inc. (C) – 109, 111, 113, 208, 210, 21

See more up-to-date info on the JEN Facebook page here.

As Rick Redding noted at LouisvilleKY.com, three years is a lifetime.  (We’re hoping this is a ploy to get a donor to come forward and finance a scheme to keep sections of the Speed Museum open after construction begins, as well as keep all the employees.)

We can take some collective solace in knowing another great middle-brow crowd pleaser is on its way later this winter. (I notice no one at the Speed is taking my advice to roll the dice on a blow-out  Gerhard Richter show ….)

The Boyds got a newsletter/fundraising appeal yesterday revealing “Renoir to Chagall: Paris and the Allure of Color,” the first big show of 2012.

The dates for the show are February 3 through May 6.

This is a follow-up show to the insanely great “Impressionist Landscapes: Monet to Sargent,” the bright spot in an otherwise dismal winter/early spring.

Here’s from the Annual Fund letter: ”This major exhibition will showcase over 80 great French Impressionists and Post-Impressionist masters.”

Now, that’s a big show!

“Impressionist Landscapes” had works from maybe 30 or 40 artists, but included personal favorites such as Eugene Boudin.

As was the case with “Impressionist Landscapes,” “Renoir to Chagall” is a mix-and-match show.

The majority of pictures in the new show will come from Dixon Gallery & Gardens in Memphis. But as with “Impressionist Landscapes,” curator Ruth Cloudman will dust off some of the Speed collection that was sitting in vast storage areas in the interior of the museum.

At least come 2015, Dr. Charles Venable will finally have the space to put more of the Speed collection in front of patrons in what we hope will be some of the greatest museum spaces in the United States.

Here’s more about “Renoir to Chagall” from the Speed Museum website:

This is important for two reasons: It shows outsiders what remarkable culinary talent and offerings we have here; but perhaps most importantly, such “expert out-of-towner” praise might get local officials and media to see that our restaurant scene is perhaps the best entertainment resource we have—and start promoting it seriously!

Edward Lee, chef-owner, 610 Magnolia

Churchill Downs and our theaters open only for certain seasons, but Louisville’s excellent restaurants are open for sampling year round. Why they remain so under-promoted, so short on support for a something like a large-scale food festival is a mystery to me.

Rant over. Here’s what’s happening:

In Southern Living’s January issue, just out yesterday, Louisville was one of 10 southern cities up for honors as the “South’s Tastiest Town.”

Huzzah!

Southern Living senior travel editor, Paula Disbrowe, said a wide range of factors were considered in whittling the list down to 10 finalists.

“It started with a big overview of food towns, a mix of established food destinations followed by a look at more second-tier cities,” said Disbrowe. “These were places where that had a mix of food artisans and new tastemakers on the scene, people devoted to preserving southern culinary traditions while redefining them in their own way.”

Disbrowe also said SL editors chose cities whose citizens were “foodie obsessed,” where there was a high diversity of price points and cuisine, and where there was a strong mix of established and new concepts.

“Because southern food has never been hotter, we took this time to look at the big picture and ask, ‘What are the 10 most exciting places to eat and drink in the south?’” she said. “Now we’re offering the chance to readers to step up and vote for their towns and rally around their favorites.”

The list includes such notable food cities as New Orleans and Charleston, S.C., and some surprises such as Raleigh, N.C. and Decatur, Ga. Click here to see the full list, and bookmark it with a reminder to vote for Louisville on Dec. 23.

Edward Lee is impossible not to find in the media lately. In addition to soft-spoken 610 Magnolia chef-owner’s ongoing appearance on Top Chef Texas lately, the Iron Chef victor was featured—along with Bourbon Barrel Foods’ Matt Jamie, and other southern culinary luminaries—in Garden & Gun’s November issue, and in Southern Living’s January issue. And, I don’t mind saying, a short piece I did on Lee will appear in Louisville magazine’s January issue.

Kathy Cary, chef-owner of Lilly’s: a Kentucky Bistro, was

Kathy Cary, chef-owner, Lilly's: A Kentucky Bistro

in the same November G&G issue as Lee, albeit in a special ad section paid for by southern states including Kentucky. That the state chose Cary as its “culinary face” is a high and deserved honor—would anyone dispute it?

What’s just as cool is the ad featured Cary’s “Kentucky Short List” of eight must-visit places she can’t live without. The list included:

1.Colonel Bill Newsom’s

Aged Kentucky Country Ham in Princeton. (Nancy Newsom Mahaffey is a genius, third generation ham maker and the only American to have her ham in Spain’s Ham Museum-yes, there is such a thing, and it’s big stuff.)

2. Bourbon Trail and Urban Bourbon Trail. (Natch. No tourist visit is complete without it, even if you don’t like bourbon.)

3. St. Matthews Farmers Market. (Amen. Though who can choose just one?)

4. Blue Dog Bakery & Café. (In a word, brilliant! Best bread this town has ever tasted.)

5. Proof on Main. (Can’t argue against that.)

6. Mayan Café. (EASILY the least-appreciated of the best restaurants in town! Bruce Ucan is a genius—just ask his chef peers—and Yucatan Mexican is like nothing most have ever had.)

7. Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Harrodsburg. (Well, with her endorsement, I’ll have to go, even though I’ve never liked Shaker Lemon Pie. A chef I once worked with said, “I know why they call it Shaker Lemon Pie: because I want to shake that S%#!off my plate!”)

8.Jonathan at Gratz Park, Lexington, Ky. (Terrific spot. Chef Jonathan Lundy’s innovative southern cuisine is served in a clubby, dark, old South setting.)

Michael Paley, executive chef, Proof on Main

Michael Paley, executive chef at Proof on Main and chef-partner at Garage Bar,was featured in Luxury Travel

magazine, which voted Proof on Main “One of the 10 Best Hotel Restaurants In America,” and on the Epicurious.com blog, when a writer-diner at Proof’s Hog and the Barrel Dinner wrote a brief review.

It won’t take long before he’s getting kudos for Garage Bar, I’m sure.

Boy, it’s been a busy day for Greg Fischer.

First, Louisville’s Metro Mayor canned Metropolitan Sewer District Director Bud Schardein before lunch, replacing him with Louisville Water Company CEO Greg Heitzman.

Now, at 2 p.m., word has just come down that Occupy Louisville won’t be able to stay overnight at their campsite on Fifth and Muhammad Ali after their permit expires January 2.

Here’s the email from Occupy supporters:

In a meeting with Public Works and the LMPD today, Occupy Louisville was informed that the city of Louisville will renew the permit for Occupy Louisville with the stipulation that no tents remain up overnight.

This includes sleeping tents, the kitchen tent, and any or all other tents, beginning January 2nd.

Occupy Louisville holds its regular work group meeting on Sundays at 5:30pm. This Sunday, emergency discussion about how Occupy Louisville intends to discuss the matter of the permit, its renewal and how Occupy Louisville plans to address this.

Please reblog, try to attend the work group meeting this Sunday.

Here’s an update on what’s happening:

Subject: Public parks meeting

I joined Jason E, David, Karl and one of our lawyers, Ken Nevitt at a public works meeting concerning our permit that expires on Dec. 31. Mr. Mims, CJ and several LMPD majors were there.

So they are willing to reissue a permit for 2012 at current location but not for overnight tents. They want the camp to break by/on Jan. 2nd.  Other locations can be suggested but not with overnight provisions. Reasons given were slim.

Occupy has to meet with the city once more to discuss alternatives and give us time to have several GA’s to inform our members.

We need input. Karl suggests that since many work groups meet on site on Sunday to spread the word and have as many people here to discuss Sunday afternoon and the 7pm GA.

This email is by no means all inclusive so spread the news, please

Greg

Gee, this didn’t take long, redux.

Just as GLI CEO Joe Reagan is rushing out the door of Louisville’s main economic development entity, Mayor Greg Fischer is wasting no time removing Bud Schardein as Metropolitan Sewer District director now that Crit Luallen has done the dirty work.

We just got the news release from the mayor’s office saying Louisville Water Co. CEO Greg Hietzman wil take over MSD immeadiatley.

(Why do we feel like there is some icky conflict of interest, with the same guy  in charge of the water we take in, and in the waste water we put out?)

Anyway, after letting Kentucky State Auditor Luallen issued a critical report of MSD business practices this morning, Fischer did what Mayor Jerry Abramson could never screw up the courage to do and kicked Bud to the curb. All this despite everyone knowing for years that MSD was pure crony capitalism at its best, with all sorts of sweetheart deals and conflicts of interest.

For decades.

This morning, Luallen gave a Frankfort press conference, releasing an audit of MSD after the Fischer Administration media people leaked MSD internal files to the Courier-Journal.

The CJ then did a series of stories that were somewhat more sensational than Luallen’s statements today.

The auditor told media members that in fact, MSD is fiscally healthy. But she described an organization that has grown exponentially as Louisville has grown while officials and board members never bothered to institute any sort of formal, codified internal controls or oversight.

In essence, the MSD boys club did want they wanted, and answered to no one.

We have many, many questions about this whole situation, not the least of which involve all the money being spent for MSD to conform to federal EPA regs.

That, and how MSD, which the mayor oversees, has stunk for so long without anyone noticing. Including the CJ, until they started getting prodded.

Here’s the release from the mayor’s office:

Mayor Fischer Appoints Interim Director at MSD; Announces Review to Study Future Structure Changes

Actions follow major findings by state auditor

LOUISVILLE (Dec 16, 2011) – Citing significant management problems at the Metropolitan Sewer District ranging from conflicts of interest to questionable business practices, Mayor Greg Fischer today appointed a director to lead the agency on an interim basis. Fischer also announced that he will create a task force to examine the possibility for shared services and cost reductions among MSD, the Louisville Water Company and the City’s Public Works Department.

Greg Heitzman, Water Company president, will also assume the title of executive director of MSD starting immediately. Heitzman will be a loaned executive to help lead MSD during its transition toward compliance with the audit findings as well as a possible new business structure. Current executive director Bud Schardein, a 28 year MSD veteran, announced today that he will retire in the spring but will remain with the agency in an advisory role until then to help ensure a smooth transition.

Fischer stated that the task force will determine if MSD, the Water Company, and the city’s Public Works Department could share resources to reduce costs and create greater efficiencies. In other cities — from Indianapolis to Nashville and Atlanta to Boston — it is common for the sewer agency and water utility to partner. Fischer plans to have the task force members named by early January and expects a four to five month review process.

Fischer stressed that the employees at MSD have been doing good work managing the sewer system and protecting the city from flooding, but that the audit shows that upper management operated with inadequate board oversight and, at times, had a disregard for the agency’s own policies and procedures.

“After reviewing the report released today by State Auditor Crit Luallen, it is clear there are significant problems at MSD that will erode the public’s trust in the agency if immediate changes are not made,” Fischer said. “The changes that I am announcing will begin a new era at MSD.”

Fischer also announced that three long-serving board members — chairman Arnold Celentano, Doyle Stacy and Jerome Clark — will shortly retire from the board as soon as replacements are found. Fischer asked them to stay until replacements can be appointed to maintain a level of institutional knowledge during the interim. There are eight board members, four of whom have been appointed by Fischer and have served fewer than six months.

He thanked Schardein and the board members for their service and their recognition that change needs to be made at MSD. “These men have helped build a solid sewer district. I appreciate their willingness to help with a smooth transition,” Fischer said.

One MSD board member comes from each of the city’s eight state Senate districts. MSD board members are paid $75 per meeting with a maximum of $1,800 per year. The Board currently meets twice per month.

The state audit report, requested by Fischer in July, found numerous conflicts of interest, including contracts that were being given to board members and friends of MSD leaders. It also discovered that MSD has not negotiated or advertised for bids for its legal services since 1984, giving all the work to one firm.

“Contracting with this attorney’s firm since 1984 for the majority of all other external legal services appears to be a conflict and waiving procurement requirements for the contract should not be acceptable,” the audit concluded.

The audit also discovered that MSD’s investment advisor received fees from the investments he recommended. The audit further revealed management compensation benefits “that could be considered excessive for a public entity,” the audit stated.

The full audit is available at www.louisvilleky.gov

Since you now live in a town without an orchestra, this may be as close to a live music performance of Tchaikowsky’s “The Nutcracker” as you get this year.

The Baxter Avenue Theatres has booked the Nutcracker “Live” from the Bolshoi, part of a full season of ballet from the world’s top companies, shown at movie houses around the world.

“The Nutcracker” is scheduled to be shown Sunday, Dec. 18 at 7 p.m.

Watching ballet in HD is nothing like being 20 rows back at the Kentucky Center for the Arts, so check out the embedded YouTube video. Set it on 1080 pixels if your wireless will support it, and all of a sudden, you see the drama of great dancing. And the embedded video on the Baxter Avenue Theaters site is even sharper. Крутой!

Here’s Bolshoi/Nutcracker synopsis:

The Bolshoi Ballet takes a fresh look at this wintery favorite with Yuri Grigorovich’s inventive staging. Clara’s magical nighttime journey takes on new and daring dimensions in a production that is sure to thrill balletomanes who have had their fill of the usual sugarplums! Starring Nina Kaptsova and Artem Ovcharenko. Composed by Tchaikowsky Conducted by Pavel Klinichev Choreographed by Yuri Grigorovich.

This apparently is the full “Nutcracker,” which most local companies cut down to a kid-friendly 90 minutes.

Nutcracker “Live” from the Bolshoi runs 2 hours and 15 minutes including one intermission. So probably not the night out most toddlers will endure. Tickets are $15.

The Baxter Avenue Theatres are in the Mid-City Mall on Bardstown Road in the Highlands.

“Give-A-Jam to End Homelessness” food and music gathering is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 22 at the Clifton Center.

The concert piece of “Give-A-Jam” will feature Louisville artists John Gage, Justin Lewis, Leigh Ann Yost, Nathan Salsburg, Hog Operation, Sparkle Steve, Ted Harlan & Ben Andrews, Marta Miranda, and several unannounced guests, according to a news release.

The event will also feature an array of soups and stews from Frankfort Avenue restaurants including Bourbon’s Bistro, Crave Cafe and Catering, Majid’s, Porcini, Varanese, and Volare.

“Give-A-Jam” is being organized by John and Natalie Harris, the husband and wife team, along with friends and supporters, according to the release.

John Harris is Clifton Center executive director, and Natalie Harris is the executive director of The Coalition for the Homeless.

The event will benefit Rx: Housing, the Louisville’s initiative that’s part of the national 100K Homes campaign.

During a 3-day “registry” on September 19, 20, and 21, 2011, 100 community volunteers went out in teams of four early in the morning to interview homeless people sleeping on the streets of Louisville and to identify those in greatest need.

The goal for the first year of the Rx: Housing campaign is to house 75 of the most vulnerable homeless people in Louisville.

From the ‘Give-A-Jam” page of the Clifton Center website:

While this is a small segment of the homeless population, research including a University of Louisville study from 2006, shows that they are the most costly to our systems including homeless services, hospitals and jails as well as being the most likely persons to die on the streets and the most visible in our downtown community.

Each of the participating restaurants and musicians are donating their time and talent, and the event will be staffed entirely by volunteers. All proceeds will benefit the Coalition for the Homeless.

“We’ve been overwhelmed by the support we’ve received for this event,” stated John Harris in the release, “Everything from the sound equipment to the printing of the posters has been donated, so every penny raised will go towards helping Louisville’s most vulnerable people get off the streets and into stable housing.”

“The Rx: Housing project gives us a real opportunity to have an impact on homelessness in our community, and the Give-A-Jam is a great way for people to get involved in making the project a success,” stated Natalie Harris. “Whether it’s one of the musicians giving their time and talent on stage, the volunteer serving the soup, or the patron who buys a ticket, we can all make a contribution.”

There’s also a cash bar and attendees can bid on a variety of silent auction items.

“Give-A-Jam” is scheduled to start at 7 p.m., and the Clifton Center is at 2117 Payne Street..

Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the door, at cliftoncenter.org, or at Carmichael’s Book Store, 2720 Frankfort Avenue.

For more information call 502-636-9550.

About the Clifton Center: The Clifton Center, located at 2117 Payne Street, is an historic facility that serves as a gathering place for art, culture and ideas that enrich our community. Housed in a renovated former school building, the Center is home to the studios of artists Martin Rollins and Lucretia Beatty, and Ballet Arts and Yuric-Amari Dance studios. Several non-profit organizations also make their homes at the Clifton Center. In addition to Mini of Louisville Live at the Clifton Center events, the Clifton Center hosts hundreds of performances each year in its role as a rental facility for outside presenters, as well as weddings, conferences, business meetings, art shows, and receptions. For more information on rental rate information, please visit the Clifton Center’s NEW website www.cliftoncenter.org or call 502-896-8480. Visit us on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/TheCliftonCenter.

(Who knew two schools in the same area with the same name weren’t connected, but clearly they’re not.)

Our sources tell us the two progressive schools have been in talks for months, and that’s about all we know.

The question, of course, is exactly how two schools about 20 miles apart in different counties – St. Franchis High is downtown, St. Francis School is in Goshen, Ky. in Oldham County – can “merge.”

We’re waiting to hear back from people involved.

To clarifiy, St. Francis High School is at 233 W. Broadway downtown.

Total enrollment is about 125 students for grades 9 through 12. St. Francis the high school is part of the progressive school movement founded by John Dewey and Francis Parker, according to the school website.

Here’s more from the website:

• coeducational - boys and girls
• non-denominational - students practice many faiths. Our name comes from the school’s original roots in the Episcopal community in Louisville, but we are not affiliated with any religious institution in particular
• deliberately small - average class size of 11; student:teacher ratio of 8:1
• an accredited Independent school (accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States, ISACS)
• college preparatory - rigorous academics; extensive course offerings, including 13 AP classes; College Advisor with 30+ years experience; impressive college acceptance list; virtually all graduates go to college
• life preparatory - graduates are prepared for the world, not just prepared to take tests
• amazingly diverse - religious, racial/ethnic, geographic, and socioeconomic; 37% of our students are minority or foreign born; more than 40% of our students receive financial aid
• centrally located - in the vibrant community of downtown Louisville. All major TARC routes stop within blocks of the school; students are downtown citizens
• students at the center - the school was designed from the ground up to be a place where teenagers want to come learn; students are a guiding force in school policy and extracurriculars
• “The School of Thought” - critical, independent thinking is the norm, students are taught how to think, not what to think

By Beverly Glasscock and Honi Marleen Goldman

We are hopeful that the Louisville Metro Council tonight will not reward the University of Louisville stonewalling this community from the real details of the proposed hospital merger.

Metro Council has a fiduciary responsibility and moral obligation to protect us, the tax payers.

U of L has plenty of tax dollars now for indigent care.

Even if all of the $3.3 million of Metro money has been spent in the last six months, U of L has minimally $1.3 million in reserve, which is half of the $2.6 million that is supposed to be reimbursed to the city on July 1, 2012.

The Metro Council authorization of this second installment of a yearly $9.6 million ($4.6 million for the next six months worth of payments) to U of L for QCCT, a Quality Care and Charitable Trust, has tremendous amount of legal and ethical problems.

U of L has repeatedly stated that none of the supposedly hundreds of millions of dollars that CHI is bringing to the table will go for indigent care. But U of L still wants each year at least $63 million of Kentucky tax dollars and $9.6 million of Louisville tax dollars for indigent care – and they plan to ask for even more tax money.

If this proposed merger goes through, who does Metro Council send this $9.6 million to – to U of L, or to Denver?

Will $2.6 million be reimbursed, or will CHI keep it?

There are too many concerns and loopholes and we urge the Metro Council members to vote no.

About Beverly Glasscock: Beverly Glasscock is a former registered nurse in Louisville and now is an attorney with a practice emphasis on medical issues

About Honi Marleen Goldman. Honi Goldman is coordinator of the grassroots movement questioning the proposed hospital merger.

The original rendering for The Center for Graduate and Executive Education, planned for 615 to 621 W. Main St.

For a little city sort of adrift – stuggling economy, weak leadership, missing bridges – there remain pockets of feverish activity.

In addition to Nucleus and myriad other projects, look for University of Louisville officials to focus on West Main Street over the next few years, which might culminate in a Main Street complex.

Insiders tell Insider Louisville there are many, many projects in various stages of development including an effort to create a new film institute.

In addition, insiders confirmed on Wednesday that the Frazier History Museum officials plan to expand into two adjoining buildings – 823 to 821 W. Main – on the east side of the original building at 829 W. Main.

But first, the big deal … and the caveats.

Insiders tell Insider Louisville U of L officials signed a contract this week for a Main Street building in a deal brokered by Louisville Downtown Development Corp.

But the details as to which building –  and what exactly is going in it – shift depending on who’s talking.

LDDC officials did not return calls for comment. U of L officials declined to go on the record by name.

One U of L official did say on background that no donor has been found for one initative – moving College of Business graduate programs to Main Street.

And therein lies the tale, say multiple sources.

U of L officials’ Main Street plans date back to the halcyon days before the Great Recesssion when the Museum Plaza project looked like it would happen.

The college’s graduate programs — the two-year Professional MBA for working execs, the hugely successful entrepreneurial MBA and master of accountancy – were slated to move to 615 through 621 W. Main.

There, they would all be rebranded into “The Center for Graduate and Executive Education,” a center that was to take 40,000 square feet in classrooms, offices and conference and seminar spaces for corporate use, according to U of L documents from 2008.

The Museum Plaza plan also was to include graduate programs for U of L’s Hite Art Institute.

The four buildings were to be incorporated at street level into the larger Museum Plaza skyscraper,  a project that was cancelled last August.

End of story?

Hardly, say sources.

There is a growing impetus to do a deal or deals that would still make U of L a major Main Street presence.

All sources stressed that a lot of money remains to be raised before anything starts to happen. “Just don’t make this sound like we’re having a ribbon cutting next week,” said one.

That said, sources tell us top U of L officials are involved in what’s being called “The Main Street Redevelopment Project,” which could ultimately result in several programs coalescing there including the film program that’s been in the works for two years.

In addition, our sources say former Fund for the Arts president Allan Cowen has reemerged, working with Keith Inman, U of L’s vice president for university advancement, on a separate project funded by a Brown-Forman heir.

Sources in the room during discussions about Main Street lay out a number of scenarios in play, with city downtown development officials involved in multiparty negotiations on strategic properties that include the university and the Brown family, whose members have major Main Street properties including 21C Museum Hotel and the Frazier History Museeum.

Other insiders told us U of L officials have looked at a series of buildings just east of the Frazier at 815 W. Main to 811 W. Main.

Which makes a certain amount of sense because the Sons of the American Revolution is in the middle of a spectacular buildout of 809 W. Main for their new Genealogical Library. Execs at Michter’s Distiller, a division of Chatham Imports, are planning to invest more than $8 million in the Fort Nelson building at the corner of Eighth and Main streets, where they plan a distilery and visitors center.

Except, this part of the story doesn’t quite hold together.

Yes, Frazier Museum officials plan to expand on the block. Just not in the near term, said Krista Snider, museum director of public relations and marketing, in an email response to a query.

Though the Frazier Museum does ultimately hope to expand into the adjacent building, there are no firm plans to do so in the near future. Before that option is fully explored, we’ll first be working to better utilize the space within our current building’s footprint. For example, there is a renovation project currently underway to expand one of our temporary exhibition galleries.

Also, commercial real estate broker Yandell Wood, with Cassidy Turley/Harry K. Moore, told Insider Louisville he has not spoken to U of L officials about the buildings at 811 to 815 W. Market, which he has listed.

More as we know more. But this is going to be a story that evolves over months, if not years.