Kentucky Opera Center for Cultural Health
The Opera Center, a 16,000 ft2 building at 708 Magazine St. in Louisville, KY has been renovated to serve as community hub ushering in a new, innovative era for the 70-year-old arts institution.
For 70 years, Kentucky Opera has enriched the cultural and artistic ecosystem of our entire region. Designated the State Opera of Kentucky in 1982, Kentucky Opera sets deep roots in Louisville and extends its reach throughout the entire Commonwealth and Southern Indiana, serving tens of thousands of individuals each season at the Brown Theatre, in schools, libraries, faith-based communities, and assisted living facilities spanning the entire region.
Kentucky Opera also supports the broader artistic and creative community, partnering with Louisville Orchestra, Louisville Ballet, Bourbon Baroque, Actors Theatre, and many others. We employ and contract local and regional singers, actors, and local design artists. Kentucky Opera regularly hires performers from Kentucky’s university system and private colleges, investing deeply in building a rich and diverse new generation of working artists. We employ local scenic and costume artisans regularly to build elements for our shows, and in partnership with Kentucky Performing Arts, we utilize stage crews from the Local 17, supporting a robust industry and living wage jobs for our local theatrical technicians, electricians, carpenters, and stagehands.
Kentucky Opera is a pillar of our community, contributing to both civic life and our regional economy. The Opera Center will anchor all of Kentucky Opera’s activities, increasing our service from the Brown Theatre to Bowling Green, deepening our reach into diverse and historically underserved communities, and offering more inroads to music and theatre for our entire community.
Kentucky Opera’s new Opera Center is a shared civic resource: a place to laugh, play, sing, celebrate, and grow – together. The timing of the Opera Center couldn’t come at a better time, as we emerged from lockdown in our homes, more than ever we know and feel the importance of community, of gathering. From grand galas to school-break camps, civic services to small-scale performances, Kentucky Opera’s new home will play a deliberate role in the reopening of downtown Louisville.
As Kentucky Opera expands its programming it will bring a refreshed vitality with after-school programs for dozens of children and teens, educators gathering to discover and share new ways of reaching more students by incorporating the arts into their curricula, lunchtime concerts for the downtown workforce, and many other programs and events to inspire and enrich our community.
