A design created by duPont Manual High student Dacia Berry has been selected for a line of Kentucky Derby Festival merchandise. Dacia’s artwork is featured on shirts and other festival products available at Kroger, Wal-Mart, and Taste of Kentucky locations as well as the Kentucky Derby Festival website.
Dacia is a freshman in Manual’s Visual Arts Program and a co-founder of the Giving O.W.L., a non-profit organization established in 2010 to honor a cousin who died of childhood cancer. The Kentucky Derby Festival and its merchandising partner, 12/13 Apparel by Synergism, have made a donation to Dacia’s organization.
She is the youngest artist ever selected to provide a design for official Kentucky Derby Festival merchandise, and she has been participating in events with this year’s poster designer, Kathy Sullivan, an established artist whose work can be seen across Kentucky, including on the walls of the Humana Corporation and Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium.
In the biographical information Dacia submitted to the festival, she said she “has always been that kid who would prefer to sit in an art museum for hours over playing with toys or games.” She plans to use the knowledge and skills she is developing at Manual to pursue a career in design.