Arts center asking public to cast its vote!

How will your neighborhood, town and/or city benefit from a Levitt Music Series and how will the series reflect the three main goals of a Levitt Music Series: 1) amplify community pride and the neighborhood, town and/or city’s unique character; 2) enrich lives through the power of free, live music; 3) illustrate the importance of vibrant public places?

In a region where many counties rank among the most poverty-stricken in the nation, access to free, high-quality, professional live music is not just rare—it’s nearly nonexistent. GRAC hosts more than 200 events each year, many of them performances, but we are rarely able to offer free entry to concerts due to the very real costs of artist fees, production, staffing, and logistics. One of our core principles is that artists deserve to be paid fairly for their work, and that value often limits our ability to provide entirely free events.

This is why the Levitt Music Series is so transformative: it allows us to put music—not crafts, not food trucks, not vendor booths—as the main event, and do so with dignity for both artists and audiences. In many local festivals, music is an afterthought. Acts are often unpaid or severely underpaid, and drawn primarily from narrow genre expectations (country or bluegrass), reinforcing rather than expanding the region’s cultural landscape. It can feel transactional, even desperate.

We believe Mt. Sterling and the broader Gateway/Appalachian region deserve more. A Levitt Music Series will not only amplify our community pride and identity, but broaden it—welcoming global sounds and diverse genres into a place where many have never heard live jazz, Afropop, soul, rock en español, or indie folk outside of a screen. It allows us to flip the script and place music as central, joyful, shared experience that is open to all.

By offering free, high-quality concerts in a public space like the Adena Trail, we foster inclusivity, dismantle economic and cultural barriers, and create an environment where neighbors gather not because they have to, but because they want to. It’s not just entertainment—it’s placemaking, healing, belonging.

This series will deepen our community’s understanding of itself and the world. It aligns with GRAC’s mission of introducing global flavors and fostering creative curiosity, all while honoring the dignity of both artists and audience. This is how we build a vibrant cultural ecosystem in rural Eastern Kentucky—one joyful, free concert at a time.

Explain how the Levitt Music Series will play a role in enlivening the selected public space and surrounding areas.

The Adena Trail is a tucked-away but symbolically rich corridor in downtown Mt. Sterling. Once part of the C&O railroad line that brought industry and connection to this region, it is now a quiet greenway with a few small improvements—a market pavilion, a mobile dog park, and scattered signage. But despite its location just two blocks from Main Street and City Hall, it remains largely unprogrammed and overlooked.

More than a physical gap, the Adena Trail represents a cultural one. It borders historically segregated parts of town, where community memory still lingers around who felt welcome downtown and who didn’t. The site sits on the edge of both the past and the possible—full of promise, but in need of intention.

The Levitt Music Series would be the single largest activation ever held at this site. It would provide Mt. Sterling with something we’ve long lacked: a consistent, celebratory use of public space that centers joy, togetherness, and access. Free concerts would invite people from every part of town—those who live nearby, those who work downtown, and those from rural surrounding counties—to gather in a space that’s never fully been claimed as a place to belong.

This project aligns with our city’s broader aspiration to reimagine underused spaces through art, creativity, and connection. It would bring energy, vibrancy, and new life to the Adena Trail—transforming it from a pass-through into a destination. It’s not just about concerts—it’s about reclaiming public space for the public good.