Commission on Presidential Debates considers EKU Center for 2012

RICHMOND, Ky. – Eastern Kentucky University is one of 12 applicants nationwide vying to host a Presidential Debate in 2012.

If the University is accepted as a host, the event will be held in the 2,012-seat EKU Center for the Arts, expected to open this fall.  It is anticipated that a Presidential Debate would attract approximately 5,000 guests (including approximately 3,000 media personnel) to the community and area, some staying for as long as a week.

Site surveys, conducted by members of the Commission, will be scheduled for April-June.  Proposals and site surveys will be reviewed this summer, and the Commission plans to announce the 2012 sites and debates this fall. In 2007, 16 proposals were submitted and three Presidential Debates were held the following year.

The Commission on Presidential Debates was established in 1987 to ensure that debates, as a permanent part of every general election, provide the best possible information to viewers and listeners. Its primary purpose is to sponsor and produce debates for the United States presidential and vice presidential candidates and to undertake research and educational activities relating to the debates. The organization, which is a nonprofit, nonpartisan corporation, sponsored all the presidential debates in 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008.

For more information about the Commission, visit www.debates.org

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Curtain rises on the EKU Center for the Arts

The Lexington Herald-Leader was there at the gala opening of the EKU Center!
via Kentucky.com:  "RICHMOND — Eastern Kentucky University's dot on the state arts map got a lot bigger Friday night with the opening of the long-anticipated EKU Center for the Arts.

"Communities and regions and states have life-changing events," university president Doug Whitlock said on the stage of the new theater before a performance by the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra. "And if I'm not badly mistaken, tonight is one of those for Richmond, Madison County and the Commonwealth of Kentucky."

With 2,100 seats, the theater is the largest performing arts venue in Central Kentucky — larger than Lexington's Singletary Center for the Arts at the University of Kentucky and Danville's Norton Center for the Arts at Centre College.

The EKU center will open to the public in two weeks with a Sept. 24 performance by Kentucky native and onetime Richmond resident Wynonna Judd.

On Friday night, an invited audience enjoyed Cirque de la Symphony, the Eastern Kentucky University Choir, the American Spiritual Ensemble and Nick Clooney, who narrated a performance of Aaron Copland's A Lincoln Portrait.

The crowd included many state and local arts and government officials, including Kentucky first lady Jane Beshear, U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, and Kentucky Arts Council executive director Lori Meadows.

Reflecting on the fact that the center, costing more than $30 million, was built during an economic recession, Meadows said, "It says that people want the arts in their community and that this is really important to them."

Read the full article:
http://www.kentucky.com/2011/09/10/1876220/curtain-rises-on-30-million-eku.html#ixzz1Y7gd9s8g