News briefs on cultural events around Kentucky – July 2011

Gov. Steve Beshear has appointed three new Kentucky Arts Council board members: Carla Bass Miller, John S. Hockensmith and Roanne Victor.
Bass Miller is a community volunteer from Louisville who has been active with the Kentucky Tourism Council, Discover Louisville Orchestra, the Business and Professional Women’s Association, the Bellarmine Women’s Council and the Kentucky Commission on Women.

Hockensmith is a professional photographer, author and artist who resides and maintains a studio in Georgetown. Best known for his equine photography, Hockensmith is the author and photographer of two books: “Gypsy Horses and the Travelers’ Way” and “Spanish Mustangs in the Great American West.”

Victor, also a community volunteer from Louisville, serves on the boards of Actors Theatre, the Center for Interfaith Relations and LOOK, which is a nonprofit consortium of Louisville area art galleries and spaces. Victor previously served on the arts council board from 2001 to 2005.

Along with the new members, Zev Buffman was reappointed for an additional four-year term. The terms for Hockensmith, Bass Miller and Victor also expire in four years, on Feb. 1, 2015.

Children’s Theatre Permanently Funded by Gift

The W. Paul and Lucille Caudill Little Foundation recently made a $2.5 million endowment grant to Lexington Children’s Theatre’s Shooting Stars Youtheatre (SSYT) program, based in Rowan and Elliott counties, the Bluegrass Community Foundation recently announced.

Through this endowment, approximately $125,000 per year will be
available to fund LCT’s outreach programs in these counties.

“A gift of this magnitude further demonstrates the generosity and foresight of the Little Foundation” said Jim Clark, president and CEO of LexArts. “It also sets the bar for philanthropic support of the arts in Kentucky. This investment in the Children’s Theatre affirms its importance in the cultural life of Fayette, Rowan and Elliott counties.”

The endowment funds SSYT in perpetuity. Now, says Octavia Fleck,
director of SSYT, the program “will forever be a place for children and their families to share an enthusiasm for life through creativity and vivid imaginations.”

The grant, along with a similar one for Morehead State University, is the largest gift ever made by the Little Foundation. It will be administered by the Blue Grass Community Foundation.
NEA Awards Funding to Kentucky
The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded a $788,600 Partnership grant to the Kentucky Arts Council.

“This grant is extremely important to Kentucky,” said Lori Meadows, executive director of the Kentucky Arts Council. “Although it is $76,000 less than last year’s grant, we will still be able to provide support for arts education programs and arts organizations that bring performing, visual, media and literary arts to Kentuckians all across the state. We will also be able to continue the marketing and promotional assistance programs for visual, architectural, performing and teaching artists.”

The NEA also announced awards to eight Kentucky organizations for arts education and arts programming:

•    Roadside Theater, Whitesburg, $35,000
•    Appalshop, Whitesburg, $38,000
•    The Kentucky Historical Society, Frankfort, $50,000
•    The Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, $35,000
•    LexArts, Lexington, $25,000
•    The Louisville Orchestra, $20,000
•    The Lexington Children’s Theatre, Lexington, $10,000
•    Pioneer Playhouse, Danville, $15,000