Kentucky Center
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The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, located in Louisville, is the premier performing arts center in Kentucky.
The Kentucky Center also hosts artworks by Alexander Calder, Joan Miro, John Chamberlain, Jean Dubuffet and others.
The Center was officially dedicated on November 19, 1983. Celebrity attendees included Charlton Heston, Diane Sawyer and Lily Tomlin. In 1984 the center hosted one of the U.S. presidential election debates between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale.
Other artists and celebrities to have graced the Center's stages in the past include: Ray Charles, Jessye Norman, Tony Bennett, the Joffrey Ballet, Kathleen Battle, Jim Carey, Isaac Stern, Mstislav Rostropovich, Gregory Peck, [[James Taylor], President Bill Clinton, Elie Wiesel, Philip Glass, Marilyn Horne, Jerry Lewis, the Bolshoi Ballet, Wynton Marsalis, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Bill Cosby, President George W. Bush, Lily Tomlin, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Leontine Price, William F. Buckley, and Itzhak Perlman.
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[edit] Performance facilities
The Center has three performance spaces:
- Robert S. Whitney Hall, with 2,406 seats, is the largest and named after the founding conductor of the Louisville Orchestra, Robert S. Whitney.
- Moritz von Bomhard Theatre, with 619 seats, is named for the founder of the Kentucky Opera, Moritz von Bomhard.
- Boyd Martin Theatre, with 139 seats, is also known as "The MeX," named for a film and theater critic who wrote for the Louisville Courier-Journal, Boyd Martin.
The Center also administers a separate facility:
- Brown Theatre, with 1,400 seats, is named for industrialist James Graham Brown, and is located approximately eight blocks away on Broadway, between Third and Fourth Streets. The Brown was completed in 1925, and is modelled on the Music Box Theatre in New York City.
[edit] Statewide Outreach
Its stages are only a part of what the Center does throughout Kentucky. For example, the Center has a nationally recognized education department that reaches out into the entire Commonwealth with programs for children and adults. The Center travels into all corners of Kentucky with innovative programs that nourish young artists and arts lovers with direct arts experiences, like:
- ArtsReach: ArtsReach collaborates with community centers in Louisville, Hopkinsville, Ashland, Mt. Sterling, Cadiz, Lexington, Owensboro, and Paducah to provide quality arts programs and professional development, with a strong emphasis on hands-on experiences.
- Governor's School for the Arts: Over 200 of Kentucky’s most promising and accomplished young artists come together for three weeks of intensive interaction, training, and artistic exploration each summer at this nationally-recognized program.
- Gheens Great Expectations Project: This partnership with the Gheens Foundation and the Fund for the Arts presents some of the world’s most talented young classical musicians in concert and in community residencies.
The Center also administers programs that assist and teach teachers in bringing the arts into the classroom, such as:
- Arts Academies: The Kentucky Center provides one-week Arts Academies for Kentucky’s public school teachers at six sites across the Commonwealth each summer.
- Kentucky Institute for Arts in Education: This two-week professional development seminar involves teachers in hands-on creative writing, dance, drama, music, and visual arts.
- Arts Education Showcase: At a showcase held as part of the Kentucky Teaching and Learning Conference, educators and members of the public can see prescreened artists and performers whose arts education programs are available for students.
The Center has also become a national leader in providing award-winning access services that make the theater experience possible for patrons with disabilities. The Center also provides consultancy services to many of the performing arts centers across Kentucky, including:
- Plaza Theatre (Barren County)
- Paramount Theatre (Boyd County)
- Alhambra Theatre (Christian County)
- Riverfront Center (Daviess County)
- Hardin County Playhouse (Hardin County)
- Singletary Center (Fayette County)
- Four Rivers Arts Center (McCracken County)
- Capitol Arts Center (Warren County)
- Jenny Wiley Amphitheatre (Floyd County)
- Lake Cumberland Center for the Arts (Pulaski County)
