The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts

Meet the Staff

Traci Simonsen
Senior Vice President, Development

Favorite Kentucky Center Program:
Traci recalls a recent trip to a local hospital with the dance troupe Diavolo and The Kentucky Center Arts in Healing program. The dance company performed for the patients. Traci fondly remembers one child. The young, patient, kind performers walked into her small room, pushing aside monitors, and equipment to carefully open themselves and their art to a beautiful young girl. The child laughed, sat her well-loved stuffed animal up to participate, and her eyes danced with delight and joy as the doctor came in for morning rounds. Traci recalled turning back as she walked out of the hospital room to see the young girl's mother with tears streaming from her eyes. "As a mother" Traci says, "I cannot imagine what kind of emotions this woman has been through. But, all I saw was gratitude. That is magical!"

Jennifer Webb
Annual Gifts Manager

Favorite Kentucky Center Program:
ArtsReach has been a long-time favorite program of Jennifer’s. She feels it is exciting to see the programs participants grow and become more confident due to their experiences in the arts. Jennifer also finds it rewarding to witness community center staff find a comfort level in various art forms, that they can then take back to their centers. During an ArtsReach Institute training session (for community center staff), one woman confessed during the African dance workshop that it was her 50th birthday. Being involved in the program had awakened her interest in the arts, and she had asked her husband for easel & paint for her birthday.

Susan Cohen
Grant Writer/Prospect Researcher

Favorite Kentucky Center Program:
One of Susan’s favorite programs at The Kentucky Center is its Access Services. Susan feels the Center’s Access Services embodies the quote from the California Arts Council, “To participate is to be alive, to have access is to participate.” Through The Kentucky Center’s Access Services of Caption Theater, which is unique in that highly trained volunteers provide the service, patrons who are deaf or hard of hearing are discovering what a truly amazing service as it allows them to enjoy theater in a way that they never thought would be possible due to their hearing loss. An example of how important this service is to the deaf and hard of hearing community took place when The Kentucky Center was providing captioning at a Shakespearean performance at a local amphitheater. American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters were present and stood next to the captioning sign as they provided their sign interpretation during the performance. After the performance, an audience member came up to the Kentucky Center’s Director of Access Services to tell her how much the captioning meant to him because it allowed him to “hear” the language exactly the way the playwright wrote it, instead of through interpretation. He went on to say, “Shakespeare when interpreted isn’t Shakespeare anymore. Captioning allows me to get the true language of Shakespeare and for theatre, that’s what I want.”

Suzanne Guss
Planned Giving Officer

Favorite Kentucky Center Program:
Inspired programming, tops the list of Suzanne’s Kentucky Center favorites. She cherishes the opportunity to enjoy extraordinary offerings whether Diavolo, the Los Angeles based dance troupe, or David Sedaris, the author. She feels fortunate to experience The Kentucky Center’s inspired choices.