Kentucky Arts and Culture

To celebrate its anniversary the Lexington Opera House is turning itself over to some musical monsters.  Rich Copley, who’s an arts and cultural reporter with the Lexington Herald Leader, offers a preview of their 2011-2012 season.  He also looks ahead at the season planned for next year at the Norton Center for the Arts.

After three years of tightening budgets and cutbacks, Danville's Great American Brass Band Festival is finally able to exhale a little bit this year.Not that the festival has returned to it’s pre-recession level of funding and spending, but executive director Niki Kincade senses the event is gaining weight again after the lean times of recent years.“This year, we’ve caught up a little bit,” Kincade said.

Even if Kentuckians stay close to home this summer, they’ll still need to eat.  For those travellers on “stay-cation,” Bowling Green author  Gary West advises them not to judge restaurants by their cover.“You go into a lot of these places for the nostalgia, for the ambience, just for the atmosphere. I mean, you might go by some of them and they might have an old, rusty sign out front, but that parking lot would be absolutely packed with people,” says West.

A piece of stolen artwork that’s been at the Speed Museum in Louisville for years will be returned to Italy.

The 14th century triptych painting of the Virgin Mary with Child was among several pieces of art stolen from an Italian estate forty years ago. The Speed purchased the piece from a New York gallery in 1973 for $38,000.

A mini-music festival is performed Saturday afternoon in downtown Lexington.  It’s a celebration of a retailer who still sells vinyl records.  Also, this weekend, a “pitch black” comedy is performed by Studio Players of Lexington.  Arts and culture reporter Rich Copley of the Lexington Herald Leader offers a sneak peak.

Tapping the roots of how the late Rosemary Clooney's family got to Kentucky and where her musical career traveled in her early days, author Malcolm Macfarlane has traveled from his home in England to Las Vegas and Augusta in a quest for answers. Spending Monday visiting Augusta, and interviewing Clooney's brother, Nick Clooney, on Tuesday afternoon, Macfarlane and his wife, Pat also toured Maysville.

Two central Kentucky theater groups are staging classic musicals this weekend.  And afterward, both will lose their directors.  With a preview of the Paragon Theater’s production of “Gypsy” and the Woodford Theater’s production of “1776” is Rich Copley, who’s an arts and cultural reporter for the Lexington Herald Leader newspaper.

Forecastle Founder JK McKnight has announced the headliners for this summer’s Halfway to Forecastle Festival. The Halfway to Forecastle Festival has been held annually since 2008 and focuses more on electronic music.   However, this year’s event is replacing the actual Forecastle Festival in anticipation of its 10th anniversary celebration in 2012.

Arts and cultural reporter Rich Copley to previews the "Adventures in Mating," which he calls a fun little audience participation play at Balagula Theater. The Lexington Herald Leader newspaper reporter also looks at Bluegrass Youth Ballet's presentation of "Rapunzel" at the Lexington Opera House.