Designed by John M. Johansen, the house at Floyds Knobs in New Albany, Indiana, was built in 1957 by a local family. After changing hands a number of times and falling into disrepair, in 2012 it was renovated by Louisville artist Ed Garber in a manner that closely reflects its original design. It is the core of the INhouse project that was founded by businessman and philanthropist Brook Smith in July 2015.

Born in 1916, John M. Johansen went to Harvard University where he studied under Walter Gropius. In 1939, he graduated with a Masters in Architecture and, after the war, began his career as a draftsman for Marcel Breuer, later joining Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in New York. In 1948, Johansen settled in New Canaan, Connecticut, where Marcel Breuer and Landis Gores, Philip Johnson and Eliot Noyes also had their practices. Embracing the modernist tenet “form follows function” this group of architects gained international acclaim in the 1950’s, becoming known as “The Harvard Five.” From 1955 to 1960, Johansen was an adjunct professor at Yale School of Architecture, which had become a vigorous center for modernism. One of the great architectural innovators of out time, he died at the age of 98 in 2012.

BROOK SMITH

The founder of INhouse, Brook Smith is a businessman and philanthropist. A graduate of Clemson University, where he received a degree in financial management, he is President of Smith Manus, a leading provider of surety bonds on behalf of numerous industries throughout all 50 States and Canada. A native of Louisville, Kentucky, he has a longstanding relationship with the creative community in the city and has supported creative and artistic projects both locally and nationally. In July 2015 he founded INhouse.

JULIEN ROBSON

The Director of INhouse, Julien Robson, studied fine art in London before becoming a curator at university galleries in the UK. During the 1990s he worked in the private gallery sector in Vienna, Austria, and, in 2000, arrived in the USA as the first Curator of Contemporary Art at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. In 2012, after serving four years as the Curator of Contemporary Art at PAFA in Philadelphia, he began working as an Independent Curator and Art Consultant. He has been Director of INhouse since its foundation in July 2015.