Allen was born in the Depression era in Louisville, Kentucky, at a time when it was still a segregated city. In an interview she stated that she "never went to school with whites" until she was a junior in college.^[1] She took her first art class, a sewing class, in seventh grade at Madison Street Junior High School. She stated in an interview that the first artist she identified with was her teacher, Ms. Hattie Figg, who taught painting at the junior high. She learned many functional crafts in junior high, such as shoe repair, printing, sewing, and carpentry. She also learned various crafts at the Plymouth Settlement House and Presbyterian Community Center. She was also a Girl Scout, and this activity fostered her interest in art. She graduated from Central High School in 1949, at a time when African-American women had very few opportunities available to them. She attended Louisville Municipal College, a co-ed, all Black school from 1949 to 1951 and then switched to Nazareth College where she was one of only a few Black students. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Nazareth College in 1953.^[4]

Elmer Lucille Allen became involved in the Louisville arts scene in 1980s. She helped form the Kentucky Coalition of African American Arts and was a founding member of the Arts Council of Louisville.^[1]

Allen retired from Brown-Forman in 1997, after which she devoted more time to her art. Starting in 1981 she began to study art at the University of Louisville, receiving her Masters of Creative Arts with a focus in ceramics and fiber in 2002.^[5] Allen's textile work incorporates shibori dyeing techniques.^[6]

Speaking of her ceramics, Allen states, "I make the things that I want, and I have always liked teapots." She enjoys the fact that if she made something she did not like, she could simply start over again. Her platters are typically dark and molten, while her teapots are colorful and graphic. She states, "When I rented my first studio in 2005 at Mellwood, I knew that I was truly an artist."^[7]

In 2004, she became the first recipient of the Kentucky Arts Council Governor's Award in the Arts for Community Arts.^[8]

In 2019, the Imagine 2020 Mural Festival commissioned artist Brandon Marshall to create a mural celebrating the life Elmer Lucille Allen.^[9]

Exhibits edit

• 2010 -- "Absence and Presence: The Art of Elmer Lucille Allen and Valerie White" at E&S Gallery.^[10]
• 2011 -- Powering Creativity: Air, Fuel, Heat at the Carnegie Center for Art and History in New Albany, Indiana.^[11]
• 2016 -- Women's Artist Exhibition: The African Heritage Experience at the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage.^[12]
• 2020 -- "African-American Women: Celebrating Diversity in Art" at KORE Gallery, Louisville, Kentucky.^[13]
• 2023 -- "Remembrance," an exhibition honoring Lida Gordon by Bette Levy, Elmer Lucille Allen, Denise Furnish, and Melinda Snyder at PYRO, Louisville, Ky.^[14]

• 1986 – Governor's Award in the Arts (Kentucky)^[15]
• 2004—Kentucky's Community Arts Lifetime Local Achievement Award
• 2004—Woman of Distinction
• 2007 -- "Women of Spunk" from Actors Theatre
• 2011 – Caritas Medal Spalding University^[16]
• 2015 – Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft's Art Advocacy Award^[6]
• 2015—Community Spirit Award given by the University of Louisville College of Arts and Science and the Yearlings Club
• 2016—Parkland Rising Up Project
• 2016 -- Louisville Defender – Lifetime Community Service Recognition Award
• 2016—Outstanding Community Leader by Metro Council
• 2019 -- Louisville Free Public Library’s Pillars of Louisville^[17]