Arts & Culture

Whether you’re in the mood for great musicals, national and international museum exhibits, art galleries, charming children’s productions, outdoor performances, or touring Broadway plays, Lexington hosts a variety of arts and cultural opportunities that fit many interests. Leading the way for the advancement of the arts locally is LexArts, Lexington’s cultural development, advocacy and fundraising organization. Recently celebrating its 50th anniversary, LexArts provides a wide range of programs and services designed to integrate the arts into our community. Through its annual Fund for the Arts, LexArts raises millions of dollars in support of local arts and distributes general operating support to its partner organizations, as well as offering competitive special project and programming grants to other arts organizations in the area.

Theater buffs have several well-known facilities from which to choose to watch performances, including the Lexington Opera House and Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center, the Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center, ArtsPlace, Lexington Children’s Theatre, Manchester Music Hall, Singletary Center for the Arts on the University of Kentucky campus, and the Pam Miller Downtown Arts Center. Inside many of these venues, you’ll see performances by Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras, the Lexington Philharmonic, The Lexington Theatre Company, and others.

Great education opportunities are available at The Living Arts & Science Center (LASC), which offers over 15,000 square feet of programming space that now includes a computer lab, a science exhibition hall, a professional kitchen for teaching, an art gallery, and Lexington’s only public planetarium. It also features hands-on and interactive instruction in arts and science directly from professional educators and active artists and scientists.

If it’s museums you’re seeking, then you’ll want to check out the Aviation Museum of Kentucky, the UK Art Museum, and the Explorium of Lexington in downtown where families can learn and play together, as well as the history resources of LexHistory (formerly the Lexington History Museum) at www.lexhistory.org.

The Bluegrass Region is proud of its arts and cultural component, and support of the arts stretches to both the public and private sectors.