For many students, the summer cultural pass is a literal free ticket into many of Louisville’s community arts venues — including places like the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, the Kentucky Derby Museum, Bernheim Forest and the Portland Museum.
“The cultural pass provides free access to 38 of greater Louisville’s arts and cultural institutions for children ages zero through 21,” says Tina Walters, the project manager of the cultural pass. “And a cultural pass can be picked up at any of the public library locations and branches or any Metro Louisville community center.”
According to Walters, the cultural pass — which is presented by Churchill Downs in partnership with Metro Louisville, the Free Public Library, the Arts and Culture Alliance and the Fund for the Arts -- has seen an uptick in distribution and usage this summer.
“The pass numbers do appear to be up over what was being tracked this time last year,” she says. “We were about 15,000 (passes distributed last summer) and a little over 30,000 have picked up the pass this summer.”
Walters says this is due, in part, to more active advertising from affiliate organizations.
And although the pass became available on June 3, families still have until August 12 to explore the city’s cultural centers for free. More information, including a full list of participating venues, is available here.