The Singletary Center for the Arts serves as the performance facility for the University as well as for many community and regional events. The Center includes a 1500-seat Concert Hall and a 400-seat Recital Hall, both designed for acoustical excellence.
The Center opened in the fall of 1979 and has hosted an average of 350 events annually, with 112,000 patrons attending each year. In addition to presenting almost all of the 175 annual performances by the School of Music faculty and students, the Center presents the University Artist Series featuring world-renowned classical musicians such as Isaac Stern, Kathleen Battle, and the Montreal Symphony. The Center is also the primary performance venue of many community arts organizations, including the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra, the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Central Kentucky, and the Lexington Men's and Women's Choruses. Renowned persons such as Wynton Marsalis, Ray Charles, Terry Waite, and Bernard Shaw have appeared in the past several years.
Many programs at the Center are free or offer discounts for students with valid UK ID. For more information on the Singletary Center, call (859) 257-1706. For ticket information, call (859) 257-4929.
The Department of Theatre produces several staged works each year that offer a range of dramatic performances for the University and the community.
All University students are invited to audition for plays. Students may also participate in other theatre-related activities, such as scene, lighting, costume design, construction, promotion, and front-of-house management.
The Department of Theatre participates in the American College Theatre Festival, the Irene Ryan Acting Competition, the Kentucky Theatre Association, and the Southeastern Theatre Conference.
The School of Music sponsors a variety of recitals and concerts throughout the year by faculty and students. Faculty musical ensembles include the Faculty String Quartet, the Faculty Brass Quintet and the McCracken Wind Quintet. Student organizations include the Symphony Orchestra, the Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, the University Choristers and Chorale, the UK Jazz Ensembles, the Percussion Ensemble, the Trombone Choir, the Tuba Ensemble, Opera Theatre, Mega-Sax, Paws and Listen, and the AcoustiCats.
Faculty recitals, faculty ensemble concerts, and concerts by student organizations are usually free to students, faculty, staff, and to the community.
The University Artist Series features five classical concerts annually by world-renowned musicians. The acclaimed series, sponsored by the Singletary Center for the Arts and the College of Fine Arts, offers audiences the highest standards of artistic excellence usually found in the major metropolitan art centers. Past performers of note include Dawn Upshaw, Chanticleer, the Traditional Orchestra of China, and Joshua Bell. The 1999-2000 season will feature the Moscow State Radio Symphony Orchestra, Emanuel Ax, Quartetto Gelato, and UK School of Music graduate Gregory Turay, who is now at the Metropolitan Opera.
Student tickets are sold at discount prices with valid UK ID, both individually and by subscription. For information, call (859) 257-4929.
The Chamber Music Society of Central Kentucky offers a series of concerts featuring outstanding chamber music ensembles of national and international reputation. Most performances are held on campus at the Singletary Center for the Arts. Tickets are available individually or by subscription. A limited number of free tickets are available to students with a valid UK ID at the Singletary Center Ticket Office. For ticket information, call (859) 257-4929.
The Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by George Zack and performs regularly in the Concert Hall of the Singletary Center for the Arts. The orchestra plays a varied repertoire and features outstanding guest soloists at each concert. Tickets are available individually or by subscription. A limited number of free tickets are available to students with a valid UK ID at the Singletary Center Ticket Office beginning on the Wednesday prior to each concert. For ticket information, call (859) 233-4226.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Cultural Center works to promote a better understanding of and appreciation for the culture and the history of people of African descent. Since the Center first opened its doors in 1986, it has earned an outstanding reputation for its role in the University's efforts to achieve genuine cultural pluralism on the Lexington campus. An annual calendar of events sponsored by the Center typically includes lectures, concerts, theater, dance performances, art exhibits, workshops and seminars, video and film programs. Among the many noteworthy cultural/educational programs the Center has sponsored are concerts by the Boys Choir of Harlem, the Spelman College Jazz Ensemble and Sweet Honey In The Rock; lectures by Ruby Dee, Coretta Scott King, Dr. Na'im Akbar, Nathan McCall, Ruby Dee, Randall Robinson, and Kwame Toure; theater productions which include The Meeting and ZORA: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston, and much, much more.
The King Cultural Center also maintains a collection of books, periodicals, audio and video tapes related to the many diverse aspects of African American culture. It offers a relaxed but stimulating atmosphere, and strives to retain African American students by helping make the campus a more comfortable, inviting environment.
The Center is located in 124 Student Center and is open Monday through Friday from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M.
The University has five main art galleries. The Tuska Gallery in the Fine Arts Building presents a series of exhibitions each year, including group shows, student exhibitions in various media, and works by major artists. These exhibitions feature painting, drawing, graphic arts, photography and sculpture, as well as experimental forms and media. The Student Center Gallery is run by a student board and offers a similar fare. The Raymond Barnhart Gallery in the Reynolds Building serves students and faculty in the art studio program. The Pence Hall Gallery, under the direction of the College of Architecture, combines exhibits of architectural interest featuring painting, drawing and sculpture.
Considered one of the major art museums in Kentucky, the University Art Museum is one of only three such facilities in the state accredited by the American Association of Museums. Located in the Singletary Center for the Arts, the museum serves a regional audience of over 400,000 people and offers a wide variety of changing exhibitions and education programs. Included in its permanent collection of more than 3,500 objects are nineteenth- and twentieth-century European and American works, photographs, decorative arts, Italian baroque paintings, contemporary and old master prints, African and pre-Columbian sculpture and contemporary regional art.
The museum offers a museum studies course (biennial); training opportunities for work-study and experiential education students; and undergraduate and graduate internships for a limited number of applicants each year. Pre-arranged group and class tours led by museum volunteers or staff are also welcome and encouraged. In addition, students are eligible for museum membership at a highly reduced rate which entitles them to invitations to opening receptions and free or discounted museum publications.
The University Art Museum is open noon to 5 P.M., Tuesday through Sunday, and Friday from noon to 8 P.M. (except University holidays). Admission is free. Visit our Web site at: www.uky.edu/ArtMuseum.
The William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology is the major curation facility for archaeological collections in the state. The Museum was founded in 1931 by William S. Webb, and houses many unique collections recovered from archaeological excavations all across the Commonwealth. Every year we welcome researchers from all parts of the world who come to study, photograph and interpret the material culture collections representing 12,000 years of Native American life in Kentucky, and the last 200 years or so of the Commonwealth. Exhibits in Lafferty Hall interpret the culture history of Kentucky's Native peoples for school groups, the University and the regional community. The Museum is open to the public Monday through Friday between 8:30 A.M. and 4 P.M. except when the University is closed. There is no admission charge, and the exhibits are ADA compliant. Researchers are welcome to apply to the Museum for collections access.
