The Kentucky Center Comes of Age
Arts and cultual festival highlights the best of the Kentucky Center

The Kentucky Center in Louisville turns 20 this fall and the occasion will be marked with a five-day Kentucky Center Arts and Cultural Festival celebrating two decades of performing arts and arts education.

The center starts things off on Wednesday, Oct. 15, and Thursday, Oct. 16, with displays and demonstrations from some of the region’s top cultural and arts attractions. This event is free and open to the public.

On Friday, Oct. 17, the 20th Anniversary Black Tie Gala will be held to raise funds for the center. Entertainment will include the European flair of Cirque le Masque, the premiere of Disney’s “The Lion King” and a champagne breakfast.

On Saturday, Oct. 18, the “Governor’s School for the Arts Celebration” will feature a full day of visual exhibits, film, poetry, music, dance and theater from alumni of the Governor’s School for the Arts. This event is also free and open to the public.

Saturday’s activities will also include the “Country Bash on the Belvedere,” a real country showcase with Steve Azar mixing the edginess of alternative county with Delta blues. The Russian bluegrass group Bering Strait will open the concert.

Events conclude on Sunday, Oct. 19, with the National City Great Kentucky Gospel Shout-Out, a statewide competition and celebration of Kentucky’s rich gospel music heritage that will culminate with the finals held in Louisville.

Dreams in the making
The idea for a performing arts center in Louisville was discussed by many civic, business and political leaders for over a dozen years. But the dream did not take shape until 1980, when the Kentucky General Assembly and then-Governor John Y. Brown, Jr. forged a plan establishing a major public/private partnership to build the center. On Nov. 19, 1983, the Kentucky Center for the Arts was officially dedicated at a gala event in Whitney Hall with attendees including Charlton Heston, Diane Sawyer, Lily Tomlin, Jessye Norman and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

Marlow Burt, the first executive director, saw the center through the early years and kept the dream alive, along with Wendell Cherry, first board chairman of the Kentucky Center for the Arts and the force behind the current art collection. Mary and Barry Bingham, Sr. provided the drive behind the endowment, and capped their fund-raising efforts with the Bingham Endowed Series.

The Kentucky Center for the Arts has continued to grow in prominence over the years, gaining the national spotlight in 1984, when it was the setting for one of the presidential debates between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale.

The Philip Morris Companies Inc. New Directions in Dance Series was inaugurated in 1988 and has welcomed such internationally renowned companies as Ballet Jazz de Montréal, the Alvin Ailey Dance Company and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.

Alexander Calder’s sculpture “The Red Feather” found a home on the front steps of the Kentucky Center for the Arts in 1989. The piece joins artwork by 20th-century masters such as Joàn Miro, Jean Dubuffet, Louise Nevelson and John Chamberlain.

In 1990, the Kentucky Center for the Arts initiated the ArtsReach Louisville program, bringing arts involvement and instruction to community centers throughout the city. Arts-Reach joins several educational programs at the Kentucky Center, all of which strive to fulfill the Kentucky Center’s mission to bring the arts to every corner of Kentucky.

Stage One entered into a management agreement with the Kentucky Center for the Arts in 1995. One of the nation’s oldest and most successful children’s theaters, Stage One has been a resident of the Kentucky Center for the Arts since the beginning, joining such other resident companies as the The Louisville Orchestra, PNC Bank Broadway in Louisville, the Louisville Ballet, Kentucky Opera and PNC Bank Broadway Series.

Thanks to the support of the Kentucky legislature, the Kentucky Center for the Arts underwent a $4.5 million renovation in 2000, a major project that included adding 5,900 square feet to the lobby on both the north and south sides of the building, and a reconfiguration of the main entrance.

“As The Kentucky Center positions itself for the next 20 years,” says Arthur Jacobus, who joined the Kentucky Center as president last November, “the center wants to include more art forms and a broader definition of art in its programming. A greater presence of the visual arts, a commitment to the literary arts, a film series and perhaps a film festival are but a few of the initiatives being pursued.”

Deanna Mascle is a staff writer for The Lane Report.
editorial@lanereport.com

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