The Actors Theater of Louisville holds a yearly festival of new American plays. The city also has a resident ballet company. The Louisville Orchestra has recorded numerous works by contemporary composers. The Kentucky Arts Council (KAC), a division of the Kentucky Department of the Arts within the Commerce Cabinet, is authorized to promote the arts through such programs as Arts in Education and the State Arts Resources Program. Other ongoing programs include the Craft Marketing Program, which promotes the state's craft industry, and the Folklife Program, a partnership with the Kentucky Historical Society. The Arts Kentucky is a statewide membership organization for artists, performers, craftspeople, and community arts groups.
The Kentucky Center for the Arts in Louisville, dedicated in 1983, serves as home to the Louisville Orchestra (est. 1937), the Louisville Ballet (est. 1952), and the Kentucky Opera. Bluegrass, a form of country music performed on fiddle and banjo and played at a rapid tempo, is named after the style pioneered by Kentuckian Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys.
The Kentucky Arts Council was formed in 1965. In 2003, the KAC and other arts organizations received $1,333,900 in grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. KAC also receives funding from the state to develop its arts education programs. Kentucky Chautauqua, an ongoing program of the Kentucky Humanities Council, sponsors impersonations of ten historical characters from Kentucky's past who travel across the state for presentations. In 2000, the state received $978,862 in grant money from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The state offers arts education to about 23,100 schoolchildren. Kentucky has over 200 arts associations and over 50 local arts associations.