Cleveland, OH – Playhouse Square presented its President’s Award to K.K. Sullivan on June 26 during the organization’s annual President’s Reception in the KeyBank State Theatre.
K.K. Sullivan has served on the Playhouse Square board of trustees since 1985 and is the first and only woman, so far, to serve as its Chair, doing so from 2003 to 2006.
During her term, Playhouse Square embarked on an ambitious and unprecedented partnership with WVIZ-PBS and 90.3 WCPN ideastream to undertake a joint capital campaign to renovate the One Playhouse Square building into a home for their operations and Playhouse Square arts education programs, plus office space to lease to other tenants. Now, 12 years later, the Idea Center is bustling with radio and television broadcasts, educational programming, special events and an office occupancy rate of more than 80%.
K.K. has both chaired and co-chaired the Playhouse Square Development Committee and has thrown some of the most memorable grand opening celebrations at Playhouse Square: the opening of the State Theatre - now the KeyBank State Theatre - in 1984, the Connor Palace in 1988 and the Allen in 1998, which raised more than one million dollars and was, at the time, the largest one-night fundraising event in the history of Cleveland. K.K. has chaired or co-chaired nine other Playhouse Square benefits, including the openings of the Idea Center in 2005 and the Allen Theatre Complex in 2011 and been greatly involved with six more.
Along with Tom Adler and Dan Walsh, K.K. is currently one of the Advancing the Legacy Campaign tri-chairs which has raised $88 million to date toward the $100 million goal.
Playhouse Square President and CEO Art Falco noted, “K.K. is not only a ‘star’ at Playhouse Square. She has been involved with many other Cleveland organizations including the Great Lakes Science Center, Holden Arboretum, Ursuline College and the Western Reserve Historical Society, to name a few. We are grateful for all she has done and continues to do for Playhouse Square and the arts and culture community in Cleveland.”
The Playhouse Square President’s Award has been established to recognize members of the Northeast Ohio community whose leadership, perseverance and dedication have contributed to the success of Playhouse Square. Past honorees include Glenn Brown, the Richard J. Fasenmyer Foundation, David Frazier, Joseph Garry, Jr., Elaine Hadden, Julien McCall, William Miller, Raymond Shepardson, Senator George Voinovich and the nine founding members of Playhouse Square Partners: Jeffrey Cristal, Lawrence Hatch, John Marcus, Peter Rubin, Sara Stashower, Kurt Weaver, Neil Weinberger, Mark Weisman and Theodora Wolf .
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Playhouse Square is a not-for-profit performing arts center whose mission is presenting and producing a wide variety of quality performing arts, advancing arts education and creating a destination that is a superior location for entertainment, business and residential living, thereby strengthening the economic vitality of the region.
Playhouse Square receives public support with local tax dollars from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture, to preserve and enrich our region’s artistic and cultural heritage.