Photo courtesy Go to Louisville/Steve Crider
Welcome to the artsy side of Louisville
This vibrant mural is in the Butchertown neighborhood of Louisville by mural artists Aron Conaway and Tara Remington.
Baseball bats, bourbon and horse racing. Sure, Louisville, Kentucky, is known for all these things, but it’s also a city rich with culture.
From a world-class art museum to murals that celebrate and entertain, Louisville’s vibrant art scene has been garnering attention from visitors in recent years and there’s no time like now to go and see for yourself.
Downtown Louisville’s Main Street comes alive with a mix of museums, restaurants, and bourbon bars and is also home to the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts. Lining Main Street are some of the oldest buildings in Louisville, built between the 1850s and the early 1900s. Many of these magnificent Revivalist and Chicago School-style buildings have cast-iron facades, and comprise the second largest collection of buildings of this style in the United States. Be sure to look up and see the intricate details. It’s here you will find these first two artsy destinations.
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Photo courtesy Supply Lab Media
Welcome to the artsy side of Louisville
A visitor enjoying the artwork at the Speed Museum.
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Mary Casey-Sturk photo
Welcome to the artsy side of Louisville
A red penguin awaits inside the galleries at the 21c Museum Hotel.
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Photo courtesy Go to Louisville/Steve Crider
Welcome to the artsy side of Louisville
Speed Art Museum.
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Photo courtesy Go to Louisville
Welcome to the artsy side of Louisville
Downtown Louisville’s Main Street is home to several museums.
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Photo courtesy Go to Louisville
Welcome to the artsy side of Louisville
David greets you outside the 21c Museum Hotel, which offers accommodations as well as a museum you can visit 24 hours a day.
Explore art museums
KMAC Contemporary Art Museum is located on Museum Row. Small in size but big in impact, it features a variety of contemporary regional artists. Photography, painting, sculpture and more are represented.
Every year, KMAC has an Artist-in-Residence. In 2024, it named Louisville-based artist and educator Licia Priest. Priest’s work examines the experiences across the African diaspora. Bringing together painting, fiber art, sculpture and photography through paper toile craft. Priest worked inside KMAC’s residency studio and was able to discuss her practice with guests as well as having her work on exhibit. In 2025, her work was featured in the exhibition, I Am We, which recognized “the universality of the human experience while simultaneously honoring the uniqueness that each individual carries.”
The KMAC SHOP presents a collection of curated gifts, jewelry, decorative and functional items embodying a love of handmade objects and design excellence. Local, national and international artists and designers are given a prime spot for displaying their work and talent. Grab an espresso from their café to refuel and reflect.
KMAC CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM
- 715 West Main Street, Louisville, KY 40202
- 502.589.0102
- kmacmuseum.org
Enjoy the art of the stay—as well as the art—at the 21c Museum Hotel on West Main Street. The edgy and elegant hotel is home to Proof on Main restaurant, which has garnered many accolades since opening in 2006. A stay at the hotel is like nothing you’ve ever experienced. Comfy, classic, cool. This 91-room hotel, located in a series of 19th century warehouses, offers a spa, suite options and a rooftop apartment. Likely you won’t miss the red penguins that greet you and pop up everywhere.
Not staying overnight? No worries. The 21c Museum Hotel is also a museum open 24 hours a day. Dedicated to contemporary art, you are welcome to browse the galleries (don’t miss the lower level) and explore numerous installations. You might find photographs, mixed media, videos and more. Its 9,000 square feet of exhibition space offers up curated exhibitions and site-specific art installations. As you approach, take a picture with Serkan Özkaya’s 30-foot-tall David (inspired by Michelangelo).
21C MUSEUM HOTEL
- 700 West Main Street, Louisville, KY 40202
- 502.217.6300
- 21cmuseumhotels.com/louisville
Further south, in historic Old Louisville, is the location of the Speed Art Museum. Founded in 1927, the museum has been sharing its collection and special exhibitions with the public ever since. The museum was expanded in 2016, and a sculpture park—Speed Outdoors—opened on October 1, 2015. The museum offers a vibrant selection of art, including European, American, African and Native American artists.
“In 2024, we welcomed more than 80,000 people to the Speed,” said Kim Butterweck, director of communications and marketing at the Speed. It’s no wonder, with visitor favorites including Marc Chagall’s dream-like Waiting, and Rembrandt van Rijn’s Portrait of a FortyYear Old Woman, possibly Marretje Cornelisdr. van Grotewal.
Educational programs, Speed Cinema (focusing on independent films), and a café all add to the experience.
If you don’t feel like hopping back in your car, take advantage of Lou Lift, which offers free transportation throughout downtown and Old Louisville.
SPEED ART MUSEUM
- 2035 South Third Street, Louisville, KY 40208
- 502.634.2700
- speedmuseum.org
Photo courtesy Go to Louisville/Steve Crider
Welcome to the artsy side of Louisville
Kentucky Center for Performing Arts.
Performing Arts Take Center Stage
Back downtown, The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts is home to the Louisville Ballet, Louisville Orchestra, the PNC Bank Broadway Series and local community theaters.
The ballet, founded in 1952, is the official ballet of Kentucky. Its studio hosts performances, as does Whitney Hall at the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts and at the W. L. Lyons Brown Theatre, known as the Brown Theatre. The Brown Theatre, located at 315 West Broadway, dates to 1825 and has been lovingly restored.
Is rock ’n’ roll up more up your alley? Catch bands at Fourth Street Live, a complex with outdoor performance spaces, restaurants and bars.
THE KENTUCKY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
- 501 West Main Street, Louisville, KY 40208
- 502.584.7777
- kentuckyperformingarts.org
Actors Theatre of Louisville is located within a magnificent old bank building on West Main Street. Founded nearly 60 years ago, the theater is an arts and culture organization as well as a social enterprise, dedicated to serving the community and creating a more just and inclusive society. It combines storytelling with innovative programming and art-based wellness initiatives.
2026 performances will include “Emma” presented by Kentucky Shakespeare and “The Comedy of Errors” presented by the Fiasco Theater and the Actors Theatre of Louisville. New York-based Fiasco Theater “combines their joyful, actor-driven approach to Shakespeare with the ingenuity of The Saunders Collective—a family of multi-talented performers, singers, composers and producers. Featuring original music, this collaboration breathes magical new life into the classic madcap farce about two pairs of identical twins, separated in a shipwreck, whose day roaming the same city leads to mistaken identities, cascading misadventures, and gloriously silly comic confusion.”
Check in advance for more upcoming productions and events, including backstage tours held the first Friday of each month.
ACTORS THEATRE OF LOUISVILLE
- 316 West Main St., Louisville, KY 40202
- actorstheatre.org
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Photo courtesy Go to Louisville
Welcome to the artsy side of Louisville
Murals are popular in Louisville, including this one at Lucretia’s Kitchen.
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Photo courtesy Go to Louisville
Welcome to the artsy side of Louisville
Louisville native Muhammad Ali is celebrated in murals across the city.
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Photo by Mary Casey-Sturk
Welcome to the artsy side of Louisville
Louisville’s historic Cave Hill Cemetery is known for its creative memorials.
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Mary Casey-Sturk photo
Welcome to the artsy side of Louisville
Statues can be found throughout Louisville. Here, you can sit and chat a while.
Walls share Louisville's stories
Louisville is a city of neighborhoods, and murals dot the areas of Smoketown, Highlands, Clifton Heights, Germantown, Nulu, downtown and more. You’ll be hard pressed not to see a mural while visiting.
Nulu, the East Market District of downtown, has many unique art galleries, specialty stores, antique shops and culinary options. New to the scene, and located in a recently renovated 145-year-old church, Bob’s Dylan’s Heaven’s Door Bourbon brand has recently launched The Last Refuge, which has live music, a bar and restaurant.
Around town, murals pay tribute to the arts, diversity, bourbon and even the Kentucky Hot Brown—a dish created at the Brown Hotel in Louisville by Fred K. Schmidt in 1926.
Locals, such as artist Enid Yandell, actor Jennifer Lawrence and Muhammad Ali are also celebrated in murals. If you haven’t heard of Yandell, she was a sculptor from Louisville who studied with Auguste Rodin in Paris and other noted artists. Examples of her work can be found in Louisville at Cherokee Park and at the intersection of Third Street and Southern Parkway and around the world. Yandell was also a social activist and suffragette. She is buried in Louisville’s Cave Hill Cemetery. The cemetery is often referred to as a “sculpture garden” for its variety of artistic memorials. Visitors to the cemetery may visit Muhammad Ali’s resting place to remember the boxer and international humanitarian.
Fans of Ali can find a series of murals in his honor (gotolouisville.com/blog/ali-around-town/).
LOUISVILLE TOURISM