Library News
Challenge grant to improve library theater, clock and pendulum
The Lexington Public Library Foundation has embarked on a $537,288 fundraising effort to rehabilitate and maintain the Central Library’s massive ceiling clock and Foucault pendulum and to transform the library theater into a state-of-the-art facility for free arts and community events. The effort is anchored by a recently-received challenge grant from the W. Paul and Lucille Caudill Little Foundation.
The Little Foundation has awarded the Library Foundation a $268,644 challenge grant for the project. The challenge calls for the Library Foundation to raise an equal amount by July 2010.
The project will establish a $100,000 endowment to repair and maintain the clock and pendulum that Mrs. Little donated to the library eight years ago and set in motion the eve of New Year’s Day 2002. The installation includes a digitally-controlled lighting system and other equipment that requires regular upkeep.
The remainder of the funds will be used to overhaul the Central Library Theater. When completed, the theater will have updated sound and lighting booth equipment, more efficient and effective stage lighting, surround-sound, backstage dressing rooms, a film screen at the front of the stage, and staggered seating for improved visibility.
The Central Library Theater is a 144-seat facility that draws an audience of about 13,000 people each year to a variety of free programs, including plays, live music, film festivals, dance and literary readings, as well as a number of community meetings.
Performances last year in the theater included stage productions by the School for Creative and Performing Arts and the Bluegrass Community and Technical College Theatre Department, a documentary premiere by KET, films as part of the One World Film Festival and the Southern Arts Film Festival, dance by Kentucky Ballet Theatre and the Lexington Vintage Dance Society, and music sponsored by the Jazz Arts Foundation and the John Jacob Niles Center for American Music.
Posted on Friday, September 25, 2009
by Doug Tattershall