“The Little Mercies” serves as worship to form and color. This love letter to the state of Kentucky and her people weaves a sensitive narrative thread through a series of photographs in accompaniment to an original string quartet piece titled “The Little Mercies” by Dr. Tyler Taylor.
“The Little Mercies” is a series of 15 photographs from all over The Commonwealth paired with a string quartet, each performer in one of the four corners of the gallery, and offers a unique experience for visitors.
Made possible with contributions from Fund for the Arts, Emily Bingham and Stephen Reily, Alex Beatty, and Jon Cherry.
Guests engage with members of the quartet and the photographs on display simultaneously. The musical composition was birthed by composer Dr. Tyler Taylor’s interpretation of Jon Cherry’s images. This manner of audial/visual collaboration invites viewers to navigate their their own emotional landscape as well as the ingress or egress of a group dynamic as the 18 minute experience unfolds.
TWAN’S GIFT is a privately funded public art project that serves as a permanent reminder to the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in coordination between muralists Darius Dennis and Jared Diaz, and photographer Jon Cherry.
Made possible with support from Maud and Sterling Welch. Project managed by Jared Diaz and Katie Delahanty.
Jon Cherry (b. 1989, USA)
jonpatcherry@gmail.com | jonpcherry.com 502.314.4414
Education
2024 New York Times Adversarial Reporting School
2023 PEN America Anti-Hacking and Anti-Doxing Workshop
2023 ACOS Alliance Annual Safety Meeting
2023 Missouri Photo Workshop 75
2023 NYTimes Political Ambush Training
2021 Eddie Adams Workshop XXXIV
2020 Golem Security Situational Awareness Course
Exhibitions, Installations, Performances
2025 Be the People - Norton Center for the Arts, Danville, Kentucky
2025 Documenting Kentucky: Three Photographic Surveys - Frazier History Museum, Louisville Kentucky
2024 10 Photographers Walk Into A Bar - Grande Cafe de la Poste, Perpignan, France
2023 The Little Mercies, 21C Museum Hotel, Louisville, Kentucky
2023 TWAN’S GIFT Mural, Louisville, Kentucky
2022 Ate x 10: A Group Exhibition About Food, Carnegie Center for Art & History,
New Albany, Indiana
2022 KMAC Triennial: Divided, We Fall, KMAC, Louisville, Kentucky
2022 OpenProcess, Lincoln Center, New York City, New York
2022 STORMING OF THE CAPITOL, Bronx Documentary Center, New York, New York
2021 Voices and Votes: Democracy in America, Touring Smithsonian Show,
The Portland Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
2021 From the West End to the West Bank: Oppression, Racism and Resistance,
University of Louisville Cressman Gallery, Louisville, Kentucky
2021 Louisville Photo Biennial Solo Exhibition: Street Stories, Portland Museum, Louisville
2021 Promise, Witness, Remembrance, Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
2021 Untitled Gallery Display, Logan Street Market, Louisville
2021 Black Summer: Race, Resistance and Resilience, Gage Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Grants/Awards
2025 National Endowment for the Arts - America250KY Project Grant to Support Be the People Exhibition
2025 Commissioned as “Kentucky Colonel” - Governor Andy Beshear of the Commonwealth of Kentucky
2024 Great Meadows Foundation - Artist Development Grant
2024 Louisville Visual Art - Community Impact Award
2022 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography - January 6 Riot at the US Capitol
2020 U.S. Journalism Emergency Fund
Editorial Clients
Getty Images News
The Washington Post
The Washington Post Magazine
The New York Times
The Wall Street Journal
TIME
NBC
The Guardian
New York Magazine
Vanity Fair
PBS Frontline
Louisville Public Media
Grist
Rolling Stone
Mother Jones
Louisville Magazine
Reuters
Bloomberg