The Kentucky Center

The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, located in Louisville and currently branded as The Kentucky Center, is a major performing arts center in Kentucky. It one of three venues owned by Kentucky Performing Arts. Tenants include Broadway Across America, Kentucky Opera, Louisville Ballet, Louisville Orchestra, and StageOne Family Theatre.

The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts
Address501 West Main Street
Louisville, Kentucky
United States
Coordinates38°15′26.3″N 85°45′31.7″W
Typeperforming arts center
CapacityRobert S. Whitney Hall: 2,406
Moritz von Bomhard Theatre: 619
Boyd Martin Theatre: 139
Construction
OpenedNovember 19, 1983
ArchitectCaudill Rowlett Scott
Tenants
Broadway Across America, Kentucky Opera, Louisville Ballet, Louisville Orchestra, Stage One
Website
www.kentuckyperformingarts.org

The Kentucky Center also hosts artworks by Alexander Calder, Joan Miró, John Chamberlain, Jean Dubuffet and others[1].

The Kentucky Center was dedicated on November 19, 1983. Attendees included Charlton Heston, Diane Sawyer and Lily Tomlin[2]. In 1984 the center hosted one of the U.S. presidential election debates between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale[3].

Other artists and celebrities to have used the Center's stages in the past include: Ray Charles, Jessye Norman, Tony Bennett, the Joffrey Ballet, Kathleen Battle, Jim Carrey, 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, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Leontyne Price, Adam Lambert, William F. Buckley, Dan Howell, Big Twist Nolan, Phil Lester, and Itzhak Perlman.

Performance Space
The Kentucky Center building

The Kentucky 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. The Moritz von Bomhard Theatre features a M1D Meyer Sound system for sound reinforcement.
  • 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.

Kentucky Performing Arts

The Kentucky Center is one of three venues owned by Kentucky Performing Arts:

  • Brown Theatre, with 1,400 seats, is named for industrialist James Graham Brown, and is located eight blocks away on Broadway, between Third and Fourth Streets. The Brown was completed in 1925, and is modeled on the Music Box Theatre in New York City.
  • Paristown Hall, which opened in July 2019, is located in the Paristown Pointe neighborhood east of downtown. It is a standing-only venue with a capacity of 2,000, also featuring a patio, balcony area, and bars.[4][5]

Its stages are only a part of what the Kentucky Performing Arts does throughout Kentucky. For example, the Center has an education department, with programs for children and adults that travel into all corners of Kentucky. Programs include:

  • ArtsReach: ArtsReach collaborates with community centers in Louisville, Hopkinsville, Ashland, Mt. Sterling, Cadiz, Lexington, Owensboro, and Paducah to provide arts programs, with a strong emphasis on hands-on experiences.
  • Governor's School for the Arts: Over 200 of Kentucky's most promising young artists come together for three weeks of interaction, training, and artistic exploration each summer.
  • Gheens Great Expectations Project: This partnership with the Gheens Foundation and the Fund for the Arts presents young classical musicians in concert and in community residencies.

Kentucky Performing Arts 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 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.

Kentucky Performing Arts also provides access services that make the theater experience possible for patrons with disabilities. Kentucky Performing Arts also provides consultancy services to many of the performing arts centers across Kentucky, including:

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See also

References
  1. "Kentucky Center Permanent Art Collection". kentuckycenter.org. Retrieved June 6, 2019.
  2. "Kentucky's Pearl of Culture". The Washington Post. November 21, 1938. Retrieved June 6, 2019.
  3. "1984 Debats". Commission on Presidential Debats. Commission on Presidential Debats. Retrieved June 6, 2019.
  4. "Kentucky Center Announces Details Of New Paristown Pointe Venue". WFPL. February 4, 2019. Retrieved June 6, 2019.
  5. Short, Megan (July 23, 2019). "Paristown Hall officially opens". WHAS-TV. Retrieved September 28, 2019.
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