Originally opened on November 1, 1979, as Center for the Arts'','' the Singletary Center for the Arts is a

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwor ...

s complex located on the campus of the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...

Lexington Lexington may refer to: Places England * Laxton, Nottinghamshire, formerly Lexington Canada * Lexington, a district in Waterloo, Ontario United States * Lexington, Kentucky, the largest city with this name * Lexington, Massachusetts, the oldes ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

. Nearly eight years after its opening, on April 16, 1987, Center for the Arts was dedicated to and renamed after the eighth president of the University, Dr.

Otis A. Singletary Otis Arnold Singletary (October 31, 1921 – September 21, 2003) was an American historian who served as the 8th president of the University of Kentucky. Early life Singletary was born October 31, 1921, in Gulfport, Mississippi. He received his ...

, becoming henceforth known as the Singletary Center for the Arts. As part of the College of Fine Arts and essential to the UK School of Music, the Singletary Center for the Arts’ mission is to host

artistic Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wh ...

cultural Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.T ...

and educational events for the University community, Lexington community and the Commonwealth of Kentucky.Additionally, the Singletary Center provides professional, full-service venues for the creation, practical application, and dissemination of artistic, cultural and educational expressions by international, national, regional, university, and student performers, artists, and speakers. Since its opening in 1979, The Singletary Center for the Arts has served over 3.7 million patrons and has come to host over 400 events annually. Among these 400 annual events, Singletary plays host to a variety of musical performances spanning genres such as

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

choral A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which s ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

, rock,

world In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

, and bluegrass music as well as dance, comedy, and lecture events. Some notable performers and speakers at Singletary include jazz legend

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he hel ...

, the

Moscow Ballet The name Moscow Ballet has commonly been applied to a number of different ballet companies, which include: * Moscow Ballet (United States), a Russian ballet company. The Moscow Ballet tours annually in the United States with its Great Russian '' Nut ...

, comedian

Bill Burr William Frederick Burr (born June 10, 1968) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, filmmaker, and podcaster. He has released multiple stand-up comedy specials, most notably ''Why Do I Do This?'' (2008), ''Let It Go'' (2010), '' You People Are ...

, author

David Sedaris David Raymond Sedaris (; born December 26, 1956) is an American humorist, comedian, author, and radio contributor. He was publicly recognized in 1992 when National Public Radio broadcast his essay " Santaland Diaries.” He published his first c ...

, and many more.

References

External links

UK Singletary Center for the Arts
Buildings and structures completed in 1979 Buildings at the University of Kentucky Tourist attractions in Lexington, Kentucky Performing arts centers in Kentucky University and college arts centers in the United States {{Kentucky-struct-stub