The 2014 Jane Fortune Outstanding Women Visiting Artist Lecture will feature Deborah Butterfield.

Butterfield partly credits her birthdate on the 75th running of the Kentucky Derby as inspiration for her sculptural horses. Each work takes three to five years to make. She exhibits widely and her work is in demand among collectors.

Butterfield has received numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship, an American Academy of Achievement Award, and a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship.

Her lecture will coincide with the opening of Herron's annual Undergraduate Exhibition.

It is the generosity of Jane Fortune—author, cultural editor, art historian, art collector and philanthropist—that brings Butterfield to Herron. As her 2009 book, Women: Forgotten Artists in Florence, illustrates, one of Fortune’s passions is elevating women artists. “I want to make an impact on the community that surrounds me and help make the arts accessible to our residents. For me, supporting Herron makes sense. Why would you not want to support excellence?” she says. Past lecturers include Polly Apfelbaum, Judy Chicago and Magdalena Campos-Pons.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Immediately following the lecture the 2014 Undergraduate Exhibition will open and the reception will continue until 9:00 p.m.