Arts Council
Kentucky Arts Council Awards Arts Organizations $889,508 in Challenge Grants
FRANKFORT, Ky. – The Kentucky Arts Council recently awarded $889,508 to 18 Kentucky arts organizations in the Challenge Grant category. The grants are intended for the operational support funding of arts organizations whose primary purpose is to provide arts programs and services to benefit the public.
“The Challenge Grant Program works as a private-public sector partnership to bring the arts to Kentuckians,” says Lori Meadows, Executive Director of the Kentucky Arts Council. “Arts organizations are rewarded for successful private fundraising efforts, as well as their efforts to provide public value to their communities through the arts
The Arts Council’s grant match is based on an organization’s ability to leverage unrestricted contributed revenues for general operating purposes from individuals, businesses, united arts funds, foundations and local governments. Additional expectations of the Challenge Grant Program are that grantees will increase arts participation, promote diverse arts and culture and help build an efficient arts delivery system across the state. Many of the grantees use these funds exclusively to advance educational programming.
Challenge Grant recipients matched every $1 of state funding with $19.45 in private fundraising.
NOTE TO EDITORS: FY2007 Challenge Grants recipients listed below.
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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.
Challenge Grants
Daviess
Owensboro Symphony Orchestra $20,871
The Owensboro Symphony Orchestra is a non-profit organization with a mission to perform symphonic music by an orchestra of the highest quality to a diverse and expanding audience in addition to providing music education and other services that enhance community life and the cultural environment of the region.
Contact: William O. Price
billprice@TheOSO.com
270-684-0661
Fayette
LexArts $52,535
LexArts (formerly The Lexington Arts & Cultural Council) is greater Lexington’s premier cultural development, advocacy and fund raising organization dedicated to enhancing the quality of life in the region. Its programs are designed to provide the resources necessary to ensure high quality arts and cultural offerings for Lexington area residents and visitors. LexArts manages two facilities, ArtsPlace and the Downtown Arts Center and provides programming including art exhibitions, Gallery Hops, Arts Showcase Weekend, and the Best of the Bluegrass Festival.
Contact: James M. Clark, President & CEO
jclark@lexarts.org
859-255-2951
Henderson
Henderson Area Arts Alliance $6,855
The Henderson Area Arts Alliance (HAAA) is a non-profit company that brings area arts groups together under one umbrella. Its mission is to “ally the arts organizations of the Henderson area and to provide resources for member affiliates.” It also seeks to enrich the quality of life in the area, promote economic development and tourism, education and incorporate students in the arts and humanities and provide a wide array of programming at affordable prices. The HAAA presents a full season of performances at the Henderson Fine Arts Center as well as fund visual arts exhibitions at galleries of the Center.
Contact: Alaina Schuster
haaa@kctcs.edu
270-826-5916
Jefferson
Actors Theatre of Louisville $177,176
Actors Theatre of Louisville has emerged as one of America’s most consistently innovative theatre companies. It has been a major force in revitalizing American playwriting and its unique approach to the presentation of the classic repertoire is renowned. The Theatre’s mission is to provide insight into the human experience through live theatre that invigorates minds and emotions. Actors Theatre is the leading American theatre company in the creation of new plays and innovative re-imagining of the classics. The principal activities include a seven-play Mainstage Series, a four-play Discover Series, the Humana Festival of New American Plays, three seasonal single ticket productions and five free Apprentice productions.
Contact: Andrew Crocker
acrocker@actorstheatre.org
502-584-1265
Fund for the Arts $75,988
The Greater Louisville Fund for the Arts is a united arts fund organization supporting 15 performing and visual arts member groups and nine programs in the Metro Louisville community. Its mission is to increase revenues for the arts in addition to enabling the community to become the preeminent regional arts center in the United States and to maximize the impact of the arts on overall economic development, education of children and the enjoyment of those living in the greater Louisville community.
Contact: Kristin Wingfeld
kwingfeld@fundforthearts.com
502-582-0104
The Speed Art Museum $103,967
The Speed Art Museum is Kentucky’s first and largest art museum and a major regional arts resource. Its mission is to discover, together with its communities, the joy and power of great art. The Speed’s exhibitions, programs, and community partnerships provide opportunities for children and adults to learn about art, humanities, history and differing cultures. The Speed’s education initiatives are credited as a national model at the forefront of art museums providing teaching concepts that apply across the curriculum.
Contact: Paula Hale
phale@speedmuseum.org
502-634-2720
Louisville Ballet $74,969
The Louisville Ballet produces exceptionally high quality dance performances for the community and region, brings innovative new work to the stage and produces the classics with an equal sense of excitement and energy. The Louisville Ballet also provides training through its school and grows community understanding of the value and beauty of dance through educational outreach programs for all ages. The Louisville Ballet has two ongoing programs at the Home of the Innocents that helps children with severe emotional and physical disabilities. It also offers special classes (one for adults and one for children) for students with severe physical disabilities.
Contact: Jack R. Lemmon
jlemmon@louisvilleballet.org
502-583-3150 ext. 235
Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft $47,851
The Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft is a nonprofit organization that promotes excellence in the art and craft heritage of Kentucky through a unique collaboration with artists and educates the public though programming and exhibits. Kentucky’s craft art heritage has its roots in many different cultures and therefore provides shared experiences that unite all ages and all parts of the community. Year-round programming includes exhibitions, services to artists and education. Artists are served through workshops, scholarships and marketing opportunities. Education programs for adults and children promote appreciation of art and craft at all levels.
Contact: Carol Tait
caroltait@kentuckyarts.org
502-589-0102
Kentucky Opera Association $66,287
Kentucky Opera is among the oldest regional operas in the country. Its mission is to entertain and educate a diverse audience by offering opera of the highest quality. Each year, the Opera engages over 360 local and international artists and produces three main stage productions at the Kentucky Center in Louisville reaching audiences in a six-state region. A range of educational, programs, such as the OperaWorks tour performed by Young Artists Program, serves diverse statewide audiences. OperaWorks along with Opera Puppet Theatre, and VISIONS!, have given Kentucky Opera recognition as a national leader in developing unique and substantive opera programming for young audiences.
Contact: David Roth
David_Roth@kyopera.org
502-584-4500
Kentucky Shakespeare Festival $15,064
The Kentucky Shakespeare Festival is the oldest, free, professional, independently operated Shakespeare Festival in North America. Its mission is to enhance Kentucky’s community life by providing free, accessible, professional, classical theatre and quality outreach programs to everyone regardless of financial, physical or geographic limitations. Kentucky Shakespeare Festival is also internationally renowned for its “Shakespeare Behind Bars” program conducted at the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in LaGrange, KY.
Contact: Steven S. Renner
steven@kyshakes.org
502-637-4933
Louisville Bach Society $3,310
The Louisville Bach Society, in its 42nd year of continuous operation, utilizes a 70 member volunteer chorus and union instrumentalists to perform choral/orchestra literature spanning four centuries. The group performs a regular concert season, mostly in church venues in both urban and suburban neighborhoods with outreach concerts for school-age children and underserved communities.
Contact: Brench L. Boden
blboden@iglou.com
502-896-4181
Louisville Orchestra $182,025
The Louisville Orchestra performs a variety of orchestral music through its classical, pops, and educational concerts. The Louisville Orchestra has been instrumental to the development of the music of our time through its extensive commissioning, performing and recording of new music. As a musical resource for the entire community, the Orchestra’s services extend to free public concerts, programs strengthening local school curriculum, and performances with the Louisville Ballet and the Kentucky Opera. The Orchestra offers a Classic Series, a Pops series and the NightLites series as well as the family-oriented orKidStra and Roarchestra (Louisville Zoo) concerts.
Contact: Ari Solotoff
asolotoff@louisvilleorchestra.org
502-585-9427
Louisville Visual Art Association $13,759
The Louisville Visual Art Association has been a leader in the visual arts in Louisville through exhibitions, advocacy on behalf of artists, arts education and community outreach. Chief programs are Children’s Free Art Classes (for talented children ages 9 through high school), Open Doors (that brings the studio experience to diverse people with little access to the visual arts), exhibitions, artist advocacy through a fiscal agent program and community forums.
Contact: Sarah Yates
sarah@louisvillevisualart.org
502-896-2146
Louisville Youth Choir $2,636
The Louisville Youth Choir in preparation for its 40th anniversary season has unveiled a new artistic plan that features singers in four interrelated choirs; Les Petits Chanteurs (all trebles), the Chorale (sopranos and altos), Kantorei (which includes more mature voices) and Chamber Choir (advanced treble voices). Louisville Youth Choir, a community based organization, provides children and youth from throughout metropolitan Louisville and surrounding areas an opportunity to work with a repertoire of music of many styles and cultures including major classic works and modern works with orchestras and soloists.
Contact: Don Scott Carpenter
dscarpenter@louisvilleyouthchoir.org
502-585-1358
Louisville Youth Orchestra $6,015
The Louisville Youth Orchestra provides young musicians with high quality musical experience in areas such as artistic expression, technical achievement, self-discipline, cooperative effort and community involvement. Membership has grown significantly over the past years to a level of 440 young musicians making it the largest youth orchestra per metropolitan size in the nation.
Contact: Melody Welsh-Buchholz
info@lyo.org
502-896-1851
Sarabande Books $14,579
Sarabande Books is a literary arts organization, created to help answer a need in the literary marketplace: the publication of poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction, genres which increasingly have trouble finding a place in the for-profit world. It also is directly involved in educational outreach programs and regularly conduct workshops, readings, and panel discussions related to the craft of writing. Sarabande Books sponsors two national competitions: The Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry and The Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction, both judged by highly regarded writers and poets. Sarabande also offers a regional series – the Woodford Reserve Series in Kentucky Literature.
Contact: Sarah Gorham
sgorham@sarabandebooks.org
502-458-4028
Stage One: The Louisville Children’s Theatre $21,588
Stage One: The Louisville Children’s Theatre is a professional theatre for young audiences dedicated to the entertainment and development of youth. Its mission is to provide high quality, entertaining, professional theatre for young audiences that develops the whole child, supports the learning environment, and builds strong family bonds. Stage One is recognized for both its live stage performances and its theater educational services that have developed over the years to consist of in-service training for teachers, classroom workshops and residencies as well as a Teacher Resource Guide connecting drama and the arts to classroom curriculum.
Contact: Meredith Grider
mgrider@kentuckycenter.org
502-562-0164
Pulaski
Lake Cumberland Performing Arts $4,033
Lake Cumberland Performing Arts is a non-profit organization with a mission to enrich the lives of the people of the region by offering a wide array of cultural and theatrical programs to bring growth and diversity to the region. It provides year-round activities including the presentation of three categories of professional productions: CenterStage, School Time Theatre, and Children’s Prime Time Theatre. The CenterStage performing arts series presents 10-12 performances per season including musical tributes, classical concerts, musical theatre, dance drama and variety shows. School Time Theatre provides greater access to the arts for area school children through performances based on children’s literature and historic characters with an emphasis on positive values and the introduction of unfamiliar art forms. Children’s Prime Time brings the popular School Time Theatre productions to families during the evening hours.
Contact: Dianna Winstead
dwinstead@centertech.com
606-677-6000
TOTAL $889,508