The Kentucky Arts Council recently awarded $1,197,145 in matching General Operating Support grants to enrich arts and cultural life across the Commonwealth. The Arts Council approved panel recommendations for operational support funding for 70 non-profit organizations, based in 29 different counties, whose primary purpose is to provide arts opportunities for Kentuckians. These funds are granted for FY2008, which is July 1, 2007 thru June 30, 2008.
The Arts Council’s competitive General Operating Support I and II awards are based on the size of an organization’s operating budget combined with their ability to meet specific performance expectations in the areas of arts delivery, networking and collaboration, diversity, and promoting the value of the arts.
“The General Operating Support programs provide financial support to organizations both large and small, in communities across the commonwealth. The Arts Council’s investment in these organizations provides educational services, builds vibrant communities and boosts tourism and economic development for Kentucky,” says Lori Meadows, executive director of the Kentucky Arts Council.
Among the organizations funded by the Arts Council’s operating support grants are performing arts presenters, choral groups, dance companies, festivals, craft and visual arts organizations, public galleries, orchestras, professional and community theatre groups, museums, and educational and community development programs.
In the next granting cycle (FY2009), the Kentucky Arts Council’s General Operating Support Programs along with the Challenge Grant Program will be combined into a new arts organization operational support grant program, the Kentucky Arts Partnership Program that is designed to enhance the arts delivery system across the commonwealth. For more information about the Kentucky Arts Council’s operational support programs, contact Dan Strauss, Arts Program Branch Manager, at (502) 564-8110 ext. 474 or Dan.Strauss@ky.gov.
Funding for the Kentucky Arts Council is provided by the Kentucky State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.
NOTE TO EDITORS: General Operating Support Grant I & II recipients and contact information are listed below, by county.
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The Kentucky Arts Council is a state agency in the Commerce Cabinet. Working in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the Arts Council invests in programs that develop vibrant communities, provide lifelong education in the arts and support arts participation. Every $1 in grant funds awarded by the Kentucky Arts Council helps grantees secure $15 in earned income and matching funds from individuals, philanthropic sources and other levels of government.
General Operating Support I
Boyd
Paramount Arts Center $70,179
The Paramount Arts Center hosts a year-round schedule of live theatre, musical concerts, cross-cultural exchanges and creative workshops, including five concerts, Highway 23 Jamboree, Joe’s Rising Star Café, the Broadway Series, and additional family events. Annually, the Paramount produces its Clavinova Festival and Apollo Night, as well as summer theatre camps and touring performance companies. The Paramount creates a cultural environment that reaffirms the area’s Appalachian traditions while broadening its aesthetic parameters by presenting several interdisciplinary series of arts programming, and by exposing school-age children to the arts. The programs of the center inspire, educate and entertain many people of the community who would otherwise have little or no exposure to the arts.
Contact: Kathy Timmons-Setterman, Executive Director
kathyt@paramountartscenter.com
606-324-3175
Campbell
Kentucky Symphony Orchestra $28,809
The Kentucky Symphony Orchestra builds each symphonic concert around a theme to which the audience can relate. In its 15 seasons, the orchestra has grown, increasing its performances from 4 to 31, employing 67 choristers, 18 guest artists and 138 core and substitute musicians. It creates a new audience for symphonic music by making it socially and economically attractive to diverse audiences. The orchestra culturally enriches, educates and entertains the residents of Northern Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati through unique and innovative presentations designed to make symphonic music attractive, accessible and affordable.
Contact: James Cassidy, Executive/Music Director
info@kyso.org
859-431-6216
Christian
Pennyroyal Arts Council $8,168
The Pennyroyal Arts Council at the Alhambra Theatre provides both professional and community performances and visual arts programs, with its season running from August to June. It consists of annual events (Art Exhibits, Reading Celebration, Christmas Tour of Homes), a live At the Alhambra Series (performances from October to May) and smARTS (students meeting the ARTS). The Council presents quality performance in all discipline to reach diverse and underserved populations, develops and promotes arts in education programming, utilizes professional artist and touring companies, promotes local artists and arts organizations by providing technical, financial, administrative and marketing assistance, and provides a community performing art facility.
Contact: D. Carol Barta, Executive Director
paci@bellsouth.net
270-887-4295
Daviess
International Bluegrass Music Museum $21,257
The International Bluegrass Music Museum is a progressive leader in the community and state and for a global bluegrass fan base numbering in the tens of millions. It is dedicated to preserving and “growing” bluegrass, Kentucky’s indigenous music, through developing and maintaining an environment in which people of all ages can discover the richness of bluegrass music through an exciting and educational experience. The Museum provides exhibitions, concerts, festivals, Saturday Lesson programming, Bluegrass in the Schools, and Monroe-Style Mandolin Camps.
Contact: Gabrielle Gray, Executive Director
gabriellegray@bluegrass-museum.org
270-926-7891
Owensboro Dance Theatre $4,996
The Owensboro Dance Theatre, formed in 1982, features two major public performances each year: “the Nutcracker” in December and “In Concert” in late March or early April, along with company members annually performing at the Jazz on Tap festival in Atlanta and the Jazz Dance World Congress in Chicago. For its 25th Anniversary, the Owensboro Dance Theatre held a special “Silver Celebration” on June 2nd, 2007. The organization is dedicated to quality dance performance and education, providing professional dance instruction and quality dance performance to the tri-state area. Its clinics and workshops are available to all young aspiring dancers. Owensboro Dance Theatre offers a variety of dance forms and travels to different regional schools with its Movement and Dance in the Schools Program and Arts in the AM programs. Owensboro Dance Theatre educates and expands the community’s knowledge and appreciation of dance as an art form.
Contact: Donna Hutchinson, President
odt@owensboro.net
270-684-9580
Owensboro Museum of Fine Art $32,885
The Owensboro Museum of Fine Art features 14 temporary and permanent galleries featuring arts in all forms as a way to strengthen and inspire aesthetic and humanistic values. It has a permanent collection of American, European and Asian fine and decorative arts from the 15th century to present, and offers a schedule of changing exhibitions and lectures, seminars, performances, demonstrations, festivals and classes presented by guest visual and performing artists, scholars, historians and other arts professionals. Through its programming and involvement in the community, the museum increases public knowledge, expands awareness and creativity and develops an understanding, concern and appreciation for the arts.
Contact: Mary Bryan Hood, Director
mail@omfa.museum
270-685-3181
Owensboro Symphony Orchestra $21,251
The Owensboro Symphony Orchestra is western Kentucky’s premiere producer of classical and pops concerts, performing at the RiverPark Center. Last year, the Orchestra performed for 6,000 people during its classical and pops concert series, with attendance averaging 741 per concert. It performs symphonic music by an orchestra of the highest quality to a diverse and expanding audience as well as provides music education that enhances community life and the cultural environment of the region. The Orchestra offers a widely ranged repertory, as well as Kindermusik programs for infants and toddlers, and music appreciation classes for adults.
Contact: William O. Price, Executive Director
billprice@theoso.com
270-684-0661
RiverPark Center, Inc. $129,292
The RiverPark Center, Inc., with the help of its new President/CEO, an experienced Broadway producer, is creating new programs including festivals and the “production” of Broadway touring shows. The RiverPark seeks to improve quality of life by hosting and presenting diverse arts and civic events, focusing on arts in education. In the last year, over 6,961 artists participated in one or more of the 126 performances at RiverPark Center. It has one primary and two supplemental performance spaces where it hosts festivals and touring shows, as well as the Friday after Five series (bands play), Arts Teach Kids (school-day performance series), and other miscellaneous community events (such as the International Tasting Tour, weddings, proms, etc.).
Contact: Zev Buffman, President/CEO
zbuf@riverparkcenter.org
270-687-2770
Theatre Workshop of Owensboro $3,798
The Theatre Workshop of Owensboro is a community theater that presents its performances, as well as other innovative and theatre education activities in the recently renovated Old Trinity Church in Owensboro. In the last year, it produced five main stage productions, two youth productions, a summer musical, and a special youth Christmas production, and hosted ongoing theatre instruction in the public schools and drama clubs. The organization provides opportunities and promotes interest in all areas of community theatre by being a progressive, community rooted theatrical arts organization that grows and challenges its volunteers to bring to life the very best assortment of theatrical productions to its audiences. It is also an artistic outlet for performers, musicians, directors, choreographers, costumers, make-up technicians, and educators to present diverse theatrical performances, outreach workshops, and educational services.
Contact: Mike Filbin, Executive Director
twodrama@bellsouth.net
270-683-5003
Fayette
Actors’ Guild of Lexington $10,617
The Actors Guild of Lexington annually presents a season of six in-house productions, ranging from new works to classics, from comedies to dramas and musicals. Besides their stage work, the Actors Guild partners with several organizations for education and outreach to students, as well as The New Horizon Project, a new play reading and development initiative. In the past season, the organization engaged the services of nearly 70 artists, with that number expected to go up to 90 in the coming season.
Contact: Richard St. Peter, Artistic Director
rstpeter@actorsguildoflex.org
859-233-7330
Explorium of Lexington $28,736
The Explorium of Lexington, also known as the Lexington Children’s Museum, is an education-oriented 23,000 square foot museum located in downtown Lexington’s historic Victorian Square focused on educating young people about cultural diversity and inspiring creativity through the arts. It brings education to children through a creative, interactive model that is different from the traditional school model and creates a fun, dynamic environment that has continued to be an asset to the educational system in central and eastern Kentucky. It constructs a fun and dynamic hands-on learning environment that inspires imagination and curiosity. Along with the Explorium’s permanent collection, it also hosts at least one traveling exhibit annually, cultural educational programs, and artist-in-residence programs at the Open Art Studio, Go Round and Holiday Go Round.
Contact: Sara Ness Holcomb, Executive Director
holcomb@explorium.com
859-258-3253 ext. 15
Headley-Whitney Museum $23,118
The Headley-Whitney Museum, located on 15 acres in Lexington, is comprised of several different areas: the Main Museum Exhibition center, the Jewel Room and Library Building, the Shell Grotto, LaBelle House, the Education Building, the Horse Barn, the Bachelor’s Cabin, Swan Lake Cottage, and two formal gardens. These exhibition areas enrich the community by fostering knowledge, enjoyment and appreciation of fine and decorative arts through exhibitions, which place an emphasis on, but are not limited to, the decorative arts. It is a venue for culturally diverse art objects and programming, providing audience access to the permanent global collection, but also to at least 20 working artists represented in exhibition, workshop/contests, and event offerings. With its education program, the museum encourages intellectual inquiry, interpretation and appreciation of art objects by all members of the community, from specialized collectors to the general public.
Contact: Sarah E. Henrich, Executive Director
seh@headley-whitney.org
859-255-6653
Kentucky Ballet Theatre $9,987
The Kentucky Ballet Theatre performs both traditional, neo-classical ballets and produces new works that are accessible, entertaining and creative, along with a three-week summer intensive program for dancers and a shorter two-week, part-time program for less experienced young dancers. For its productions, the organization works with many different types of artists, from actors to singers to musicians, incorporating 205 artists in the last year. Its mission is to establish through performances and education, a professional company and academy committed to the art of dance and to promote this art form in the central Kentucky region and provide service to the commonwealth.
Contact: Norbe Risco, Artistic Director
info@kyballet.com
859-252-5245
Lexington Art League $21,018
The Lexington Art League provides exhibition and educational opportunities for artists, patrons, and the public through both free and some modest fee exhibits and events. In the last year alone, 106,364 people attended events hosted by the Art League. Organizing many different contemporary visual arts exhibitions, the Lexington Art League’s continuing responsibility is to evolve, to be relevant, accessible and engaged with all populations in central Kentucky and surrounding counties and promoting emerging artists, as well as holding dialogue sessions, panel discussions, lectures, classes and artists’ talks/demonstrations, and engaging underserved constituents.
Contact: Allison Kaiser, Executive Director
akaiser@lexingtonartleague.org
859-254-7024
Lexington Ballet Company $9,622
The Lexington Ballet Company is a ballet school and regional professional dance company that offers dance instruction for pre-professional students. The Ballet Company presents three public productions each season with patrons averaging 290 to 320 per showing, appears in local events such as the Christmas Parade, and holds a variety of public and social fundraising events. It serves a large number of children through school performances, Ballet Discovery Outreach, Lexington Ballet School, and child-oriented professional productions.
Contact: Mark Roozen, Executive Director
roozy1@aol.com
859-873-7361
Lexington Children's Theatre, Inc. $37,788
The Lexington Children’s Theatre at 68 years old is one of the nation’s oldest theatres for youth. Their primary audience, understandably, is that of school children, serving nearly 140,000 annually. This is accomplished through both public and school-day performances, providing young Kentuckians with professional quality theatre experiences, theatre arts education and the promotion of theatre for young audiences. The Theatre’s programming includes school residencies, touring performances, school day performances, summer classes and weekend performances for families.
Contact: Larry Snipes, Producing Director
lsnipes@lctonstage.org
859-254-4546
Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra $49,477
The Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra has approximately 919 artists, along with 300 volunteers who help to perform over 150 diverse concert programs and events. Besides concerts and special events, the Orchestra has implemented Discovery Concerts, special education and outreach programs, Instrument Petting Zoos and educational “Previews”, 10 lectures/mini concerts before Master Classics concerts. This allows it to be a cultural leader in Central Kentucky, filling existing educational and cultural voids. The Orchestra fosters excellence and innovation in the performance and presentation of great music, enriching the lives of the community, and educating current and future audiences.
Contact: Peter Kucirko, Executive Director
pkucirko@lexphil.org
859-233-4226
Living Arts & Science Center $18,281
The Living Arts and Science Center offers classes and exhibits including two- and three-dimensional art forms such as pottery, printmaking, mixed media, painting, drawing, photography, model building, animation, sculpture, collage and others. It is dedicated to making the arts accessible to all, providing creative and unique opportunities for exploration and education in the arts and sciences. The organization annually presents more than 400 art classes and workshops for children 18 months-old to adults, 6 to 8 art exhibits, field trip programs, hands-on art activities, and on-going free art classes for at-risk, special needs and underserved children, teens and adults.
Contact: Heather Lyons, Director
hlyons@lasclex.org
859-252-5222
Music Institute of Lexington $7,861
Music Institute of Lexington provides students, last year 350 of them, with individual and group instruction in instrument, voice, and ballroom dancing. It strives to provide musical enrichment opportunities for youth in the Lexington area, as well as building audiences by increasing the awareness for people to enjoy and explore the wonders of expression that come through music. Besides instructional classes, Musicorps also offers an early childhood music curriculum, a music therapy program, and an outreach program for underserved populations.
Contact: Mylinda Dockery, Executive Director
mylinda@musicforlexington.org
859-273-9991
Floyd
Jenny Wiley Drama Association $25,957
The Jenny Wiley Drama Association presents nine theatrical productions each year: a Fall production, a Holiday Show, the Summer Season of three amphitheatre productions at Jenny Wiley Theatre, one dinner theatre production, a Cabaret, School matinees and the Theatre on Wheels Tour, as it strives to enrich the regional community through the performing arts. Besides their annual productions, Jenny Wiley provides a Youth Teen Company Program (workshops and production), SMArT-Y Camp (Science, Music, Art and Theatre for Youth), Theatre Education Institute (a five-day professional development/graduate course in theatre education), and Theatre Shorts (bringing theatre into underserved and under-represented parts of the community). It enhances the local community through multiple opportunities for arts creation and participation.
Contact: Martin Childers, Managing Director
marty@jwtheatre.com
606-886-9274
Mountain Arts Center $69,912
The Mountain Arts Center (MAC) is a publicly owned cultural arts center located in Prestonsburg that serves 23 counties and 33 school districts throughout the eastern region of the state. The MAC provides educational opportunities to the people of eastern Kentucky through outreach programs including: arts education classes in various disciplines, an art gallery, individual instruction in voice and instrument, martial arts, workshops, recitals, master classes, school matinee performances, and festivals. Its concerts, plays and recitals have impacted the area economically and culturally, with a focus on featuring local musicians, artists and performers.
Contact: Keith Caudill, Executive Director
keith@macarts.com
606-889-9125
Hart
Kentucky Repertory Theatre at Horse Cave $22,523
The Kentucky Repertory Theatre, as Kentucky’s only equity theatre outside of Louisville, had 30,000 people in attendance for its 2006 theatrical productions. It seeks to challenge, inspire, teach, and entertain the audience and artist. For Hart County and surrounding areas, the organization provides low-cost opportunities to participate (such as its “Pay What You Can” performances and one free performance for anyone new to the theatre). Kentucky Rep Theatre is also a venue for artists and craftsmen to teach classes, display their work and sell it, for musicians to perform, and a community meeting place. Educational programming includes Workshops on the Road (in schools), Project HEAT (in middle schools), James Still’s Jack and the Wonder Beans (in elementary schools), Young Performers (grades 9 -12), and Kentucky Voices (annual readings of new plays).
Contact: Robert Brock, Artistic Director
rbrock@kentuckyrep.org
270-786-1200
Henderson
Henderson Area Arts Alliance $12,358
The Henderson Area Arts Alliance presents a full season of performing arts events at the Henderson Fine Arts Center, in conjunction with free, community-wide arts education programming for local students and adults. Its mission is to ally the arts organizations, provide resources for member affiliates and provide performing arts for the Henderson area to enrich the quality of life, promote economic development and tourism, educate and incorporate students and adults in the arts and humanities, and provide a wide array of programming at an affordable price. The organization’s work with diverse, local groups continually expands arts-related opportunities, from live performances to the visual arts, as it serves to educate, enlighten and enhance the community.
Contact: Beth Thompkins, Executive Director
haaa@kctcs.edu
270-826-4916
Jefferson
Embroiderers’ Guild of America $21,216
The Embroiderers’ Guild of America provides comprehensive educational opportunities in the vast array of embroidery techniques, and provides venues for exhibiting embroidery, thus providing an audience for artists, and a source of understanding, delight, and inspiration for the public. It fosters the highest standards of excellence in the practice of the art of embroidery through education, research, and exhibits that preserve and celebrate the art and heritage of embroidery. The organization offers correspondence courses, multi-session classes, national and regional seminars, teacher and judge certifications programs, and advance study programs for qualified students.
Contact: Anita Streeter, Executive Director
amstreeter@egausa.org
502-589-6956
Portland Museum, Inc. $7,457
The Portland Museum is located in Louisville’s historic riverside neighborhood of Portland, with a 10,000 square foot museum that contains four galleries, one of which is for the permanent exhibit. The Museum is an educational resource that collects, preserves, exhibits, interprets, and enhances the culture and heritage of Portland. At the heart of this institution is its community-based programming. The museum serves its community, through programs, exhibitions, lectures, demonstrations, and workshops, with approximately 450 hours of arts education programming for young people in the last year.
Contact: Nathalie Andrews, Executive Director
pmuse@iglou.com
502-776-7678
Sarabande Books, Inc. $18,115
Sarabande Books is a literary arts organization that provides a home for works of exceptional literary quality and serves as an educational resource to teachers, students and readers of creative writing. Last year, an estimated 20-25 artists were involved as authors, editors, readers, judges, and cover-art illustrators. It offers regional publishing opportunities, as well as the Kentucky Student Poetry Prize and sponsors two national competitions, the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry and the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction. Sarabande is directly involved in educational outreach programs and conducts workshops, readings, and panel discussions.
Contact: Sarah Gorham, President and Editor in Chief
sgorham@sarabandebooks.org
502-458-4028
VOICES of Kentuckiana, Inc. $3,835
VOICES of Kentuckiana, Inc. is an all inclusive, non-auditioned community chorus that offers a safe, educational, social environment based in the gay and lesbian culture of the Louisville/Southern Indiana community. Not only does VOICES support the arts by increasing public participation in them, but it also promotes social harmony and understanding. Each year, it plans for two major concerts (winter and spring), and participates in special events at the request of the Louisville-area community, with attendance ranging from 400 to 6,000, depending on the event.
Contact: Steve Adams, Board Chair
www.voicesky.org/contact.htm
502-583-1013
Walden Theatre $18,920
The Walden Theatre’s principal function is to teach young people to “do” theatre themselves. It trains exceptional young actors, gives school students a meaningful introduction to theatre, and presents professional quality student productions to the greater Louisville area. The organization has provided young people with nationally acclaimed programs that enable them to grow and develop through a comprehensive and professional study of theatre and literature for the last 31 years. The Walden provides several programs, such as the Conservatory Program, Summer Camps, the school-based Outreach Program, and Student Productions.
Contact: Charlie Sexton, Artistic Director
csexton@waldentheatre.org
502-589-0084
Kenton
Behringer-Crawford Museum $8,418
The Behringer-Crawford Museum chronicles the natural, cultural, and artistic heritage of the tri-county area that makes up the northern Kentucky region, exhibiting and promoting contemporary northern Kentucky and Kentucky arts and artists. The Museum exhibits fine art, folk art, decorative art, and house specific arts, as well as year-round school and public programming, special exhibits, annual juried shows, music, and oral interviews. It serves to enhance the arts education curriculum for schools and the personal enhancement of every visitor, engaging residents from all backgrounds and all parts of the region, to create a sense of unity throughout the area and provide a connection to the community as a whole.
Contact: Laurie Risch, Executive Director
lrisch@bcmuseum.org
859-491-4003
Carnegie Visual & Performing Arts Center $33,707
The Carnegie Visual & Performing Arts Center is a three story converted library that now holds galleries, a theater, an education wing and administrative offices. It provides a venue for emerging and established artists to create, perform and exhibit, as well as providing educational opportunities, and having the participation of 619 artists in the last year. It offers free or low cost year-round art education programs, showcases emerging, local and regional contemporary artists in their five gallery spaces, use of the theater for performances and programs for school children and the community, and collaboration with other organizations for programs. The Carnegie works to grow audiences and introduce art to non-traditional participants.
Contact: Guy LaJeunesse, Executive Director
glajeunesse@thecarnegie.com
859-491-2030
Center for Great Neighborhoods of Covington $15,647
The Center for Great Neighborhoods of Covington connects youth and adults to artists and arts organizations, offering many different programs such as the Mosaic Gateway Project, Youth in Business: Kids Create and The Mosaic Wall. In addition to regular arts programming, the Center staff acts as a community resource for planning, community projects and collaborations such as the annual Art Off-Pike, an open-air art show. It works to involve community residents in the process of creating art, to elicit active and creative cultural expressions of people in the community, and to advance the community’s cultural development. The Center enables residents to understand and value their own cultural heritage and engages people who traditionally have not participated in the arts through a number of innovative programs, inclusion and outreach programs.
Contact: Tom DiBello, Executive Director
tom@greatneighborhoods.org
859-491-2220
Letcher
Appalshop $82,907
Appalshop is a multidisciplinary arts and cultural center located in Whitesburg, whose work is arts-centered and encourages community input and participation in its media, performance, visual arts, and music productions. Its mission is to revitalize, document, and disseminate the lasting traditions and contemporary creativity of Appalachia, to tell stories the commercial cultural industries won’t tell, challenging stereotypes with Appalachian voices and visions, to support communities’ efforts to achieve justice and equity and solve problems in their own ways, to celebrate cultural diversity as a positive social value, and to participate in regional, national, and global dialogues toward these ends.
Contact: Dudley Cocke, Financial Director
dcocke@appalshop.org
606-633-0108
Madison
Richmond Area Arts Council $10,295
The Richmond Area Arts Council, a multidisciplinary regional arts agency, enriches the quality of life for area resident of all ages, presenting art forms, providing educational opportunities, and supporting and promoting arts groups and artists. With its 97 performing artists and 200 volunteers, the organization had over 7,000 participants in its various programs last year. The Richmond Area Arts Council provides a variety of programs, including after school programming, Musicgarten, grant writing seminars, free masters’ classes for high school students, and professional touring performances.
Contact: Anne Deck, Executive Director
adeck@artsinrichmond.org
859-624-4242
McCracken
Luther F. Carson Four Rivers Center $91,928
The Luther F. Carson Four Rivers Center is a regional multi-purpose performing arts center that opened in 2004 in historic downtown Paducah. It provides a diverse, excellent programming of performing artists to entertain, inspire and educate the people of Paducah and Western Kentucky. With the resident company of the Paducah Symphony Orchestra, it presents a Broadway by the River Series, Carson Select Series, and Class Acts Educations Series, as well as renting areas of the Center for school, business, community, and family occasions.
Contact: Brian J. Laczko, Executive Director
blaczko@fourriverscenter.org
270-443-9932
Market House Theatre, Inc. $24,800
The Market House Theatre provides Paducah and the surrounding areas with a “hands on” artistic experience for people of all ages, providing five Main Stage Season productions; along with a Youth Season; a Studio Season, Footlights (four youth acting troupes for elementary, middle and high school); regional school outreach programs; workshops and residencies; Story Theatre (a pre-school/elementary school touring production); and original play competitions. It involves over 300 local and outside artists, as well as 260 volunteers. The arts organization trains, supports and presents local non-professional Kentucky residents in theatre productions at a professional-quality level.
Contact: Michael Cochran, Executive Director
m.cochran@mhtplay.com
270-444-6828
Museum of the American Quilter's Society $28,554
The Museum of the American Quilter’s Society is a visual arts museum featuring fiber art, primarily created by women, with the intent to educate the public about the art, history and heritage of quilt making, including the diversity of quilts and their makers. The Museum hosts exhibits of its own collection, changing collections, workshops, community and special events, publications, in-school programs and activities, and a Museum Store. It celebrates quilt making as a part of Kentucky and American Heritage and as an ever-developing art and tradition.
Contact: May Louise Zumwalt, Executive Director
mzumwalt@quiltmuseum.org
270-442-8856
Maiden Alley Cinema/Paducah Film Society $2,742
The Paducah Film Society has been bringing high quality, independent and foreign films to audiences in Paducah for the last 14 years. It is their mission to use film to promote visual literacy, create cross-cultural awareness and promote filmmaking as an art form. The Film Society hosts regular weekly programming and special events, such as the River’s Edge Film Festival and the Jasper event.
Contact: Heather Ryan, Executive Director
hryan@maidenalleycinema.com
270-442-7723
Paducah Symphony Orchestra $15,770
The Paducah Symphony Orchestra performs numerous concerts and educational programs, reaching an audience of approximately 500-1,300 depending on the series. It offers the highest quality performance experience, music education and outreach activities to area residents, while providing employment to professional musicians in western Kentucky. Collaborations with groups such as the Symphony Chorus, and creating their Children’s Chorus keep the Symphony in the fore, allow them to make a difference with economic development and add to the overall quality of life of those in the region.
Contact: &