‘The Road to Paradise: Photographs by Linda Bruckheimer’ on exhibit at Grand Theatre till Dec. 2

‘The Road to Paradise: Photographs by Linda Bruckheimer’ on exhibit at Grand Theatre till Dec. 2

Published 3:00 pm Sunday, September 13, 2026

There’s a time period for the small, forgotten, out-of-the approach roads that join cities throughout rural America: “Blue Highways.” Author William Least Heat-Moon coined the phrase as a nod to previous roadmaps that color-code highways pink and backroads blue.

Acclaimed photographer and Kentuckian Linda Bruckheimer pays homage to America’s Blue Highways — and the locations to which they lead in a brand new exhibition within the Stewart Gallery on the Grand Theatre in Frankfort. Featuring images of locales from Route 66 — “The Mother Road” — “The Road to Paradise” attracts inspiration from the journey Bruckheimer’s household took in 1959 once they packed up their ’53 Packard and relocated from the Bluegrass to the Golden State — an expertise that fueled Bruckheimer’s lifelong ardour for highway journeys. The exhibit opened on the Grand Theatre, 308 St. Clair St., in August and can stay till Dec. 2. An Arty Hour Opening shall be 5-7 p.m. on Wednesday. Bruckheimer shall be in attendance.

On show are images Bruckheimer took on numerous highway journeys over the previous 20 years, cataloguing the individuals, locations, and landscapes of America in locations spanning a number of states from Oklahoma to California. The exhibit paperwork native residents, adobe homes, diners, motels, billboards, relaxation stops and vacationer traps alongside the best way.

Bruckheimer is a best-selling creator, journal editor, photographer, filmmaker, and preservationist. Born Linda Cobb, she was raised in Louisville and later in Los Angeles. From 1989 to 1995, she was the West Coast editor of the ladies’s journal Mirabella. She has written and produced two animated specials for PBS and authored two bestselling novels: “Dream Southern” (1999) and “The Southern Belles of Honeysuckle Way” (2005), and the 2019 movie “Above Suspicion.”

Bruckheimer revealed her first pictures ebook, “Road Map to Heaven,” in 2019. Her images have been exhibited on the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., the Frazier History Museum, the Field Museum in Chicago, the John James Audubon Museum, the Kentucky Governor’s Mansion, the Headley-Whitney Museum, Josephine Sculpture Park, Carnegie Center for Literacy in Lexington, and My Old Kentucky Home State Park.

“Linda Bruckheimer: Lost and Found Farmscapes” can be on view till Spring 2027 at Josephine Sculpture Park in Frankfort. Bruckheimer’s images of historic tobacco barns, reproduced bigger than life, are displayed on the outside of the historic tobacco barn at Josephine.

Bruckheimer is married to movie and tv producer Jerry Bruckheimer. The couple splits their time between Los Angeles and Bloomfield, Kentucky, the place they personal a 1,600-acre property, Walnut Groves Farm. An avid preservationist, Bruckheimer has since restored many historic buildings in Bloomfield.