Local leader on arts industry's evolution

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What's a city without a robust arts scene?

Kim Baker, president and CEO of Kentucky Performing Arts, joins us on the Access Louisville podcast this week.

Kentucky Performing Arts operates the W. L. Lyons Brown Theatre, Old Forester's Paristown Hall and The Kentucky Center on Main Street. Editor Shea Van Hoy speaks with Baker about a range of topics, including how the live entertainment business is going, a major construction project at the Main Street facility and much more.

The arts business has definitely changed in recent years. The Covid-19 pandemic kept people out of live events for an extended period of time, meanwhile the era of streaming entertainment took hold giving more people to do at home.

There were lessons learned from that period though, Baker said.

"At the heart of our mission, is really to connect and inspire through the arts. And I feel like, during that shutdown, we connected to people and to other organizations really throughout the country that we had never connected with before," Baker said. "That was because we were trying to figure out how to stay alive, and how to stay in business."

"We also realized the importance, from that, of staying connected."

There's also been a major change in the world of fundraising, she notes. Both individuals and corporations have reconsidered how they give.

"People give in different ways. That's created some challenges," she said, adding that arts do need civic and private sector support.

You can hear more in the episode itself. Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. You can follow it on popular podcast services including Apple Podcast and Spotify.