40 years ago, the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts opened its doors in downtown Louisville.

Since then, it survived a fire, a pandemic, and most recently, a rebranding.

Now, Kentucky Performing Arts encompasses a campus of arts facilities, including the Brown Theater, as well as Old Forester's Perry's town hall.

Kentucky Edition's Kelsey Starks takes us there.

The initial vision was to create an art center to help make Louisville the Great the great destination that it needed to be.

The project began with Governor Julian Carroll in the in the 1970s with the vision that every great city needs to have a great performing arts center.

Before the center was built, Louisville's resident art companies, the Louisville Orchestra, Kentucky Opera, Louisville Ballet, Stage one Family Theater, PNC, Broadway and Louisville.

They would perform anywhere throughout town.

There were a number of different venues, but there was not one home that that could bring everybody in.

So that was that was a key driver toward getting this building, this building open.

It was a process that took a while to get in place.

But worked.

Construction began in 1980 and November 19th, 1983, with the paint still wet in some parts of the building.

And the opening night gala event was held.

When I came.

Ladies and gentlemen, your master of ceremonies for the gala opening of the Kentucky Center for the Arts.

Last year, Charlton Heston.

You know, some years ago when I was in Egypt shooting the Ten Commandments, just before I parted the Red Sea, I remember saying, No, no kidding.

I remember distinctly saying, if this works, someday I'm going to go open an art center in Louisville, Kentucky.

That event was not just a celebration of the sound of this new building.

It was also a fundraising event to finish construction in the Palm Hart Theater.

So Whitney Hall was open.

Whitney Hall is named after Robert Whitney, who was the longtime conductor orchestra and the Barnhart Theater named after Moritz Barnhart, who was the founder of Kentucky Opera.

We're still being worked on.

So the $750 ticket opening night gala featured the master of ceremonies, which was Charlton Heston performances from Florence Henderson, from Lily Tomlin, from Douglas Fairbanks Jr. George Stevens Jr.

Produced the entire event.

The center stands as a as a beacon for the arts and a key driver of tourism for the Commonwealth.

In any given year, we're bringing in people from at least 115 counties throughout throughout the state.

We bring in people from all 50 states throughout the Union and several countries every year as well.

So a key a key driver of tourism, a key economic driver and a key cultural and thought leader, not just for Louisville, but for the Commonwealth and for the country and regional as well.

When that when the building was built, one of the one of the key things that Wendell Cherry wanted to see happen was that the experience is not just within the theater.

The entire building needed to be the experience.

He worked with Humana Foundation and Donors to put together an extensive collection of 20th century art.

One of the piece behind me is a Louise Nevelson piece.

It's one of the largest in the country, and she worked in found pieces.

So she spent her time scouring the streets of Louisville, you know, working in the alleys, going to construction sites, picking up pieces from the construction site here to put together the piece behind me.

So night Wave Moon was assembled in her New York studio and then brought here in pieces out to be assembled as part of the of the larger art experience that one that one has when they go through the doors.

The John Chamberlain piece, the colored gates of Louisville, those are crushed cars.

Our one of our founding fathers, David Jones senior, shared the shared the tale that he thinks one of his cars were in there.

But I don't know if that's accurate or not.

Probably apocryphal, but it makes for a great story.

But yes, those are those are crushed cars.

And, you know, given the fact that we're talking about automobiles as the building was being built, that installation was happening.

So this was clearly part of the larger vision of this building.

We always meet art on arts terms and the the voices that are on our stages are authentic to to where our world is, to what the artists have to say to what audiences audiences want.

Audiences are looking for.

So the, you know, the concept of art may look different, but it's always about the same thing.

It's always about meeting people where they are, meeting the artists, where they are meeting the art, where it is, so that we are presenting a an accurate and authentic reflection of our world and having a really good time doing it.

Beautiful facility.

Now you can see the full story about Kentucky Performing Arts online on demand at Eat Dawg Slash Inside Louisville.