Cape Town, Cairo, Beijing, Montreal, and…Paducah? That’s right—UNESCO designated the small Western Kentucky town right beside those global heavyweights as a Creative City in 2013, a hub of innovation, where arts and culture drive thoughtful juried exhibition during QuiltWeek (April 27 to 30), hosted by the locally based American Quilter’s Society. Other cultural highlights include the hip, gallery-dotted Lower Town Arts District, the indie Maiden Alley Cinema, the long-standing Paducah Symphony Orchestra, and the Market House Theatre, the award-winning community playhouse at the heart of the historic downtown’s revitalization. ¶ Today downtown Paducah is all small-town charm and retro Americana. An interesting mix of shops and galleries line its brick sidewalks and cobblestoned streets, as do a growing number of acclaimed restaurants, including chef Sara Bradley’s farm-to-table spot, Freight House. Main thoroughfares such as Jefferson and Broadway—parts of which lie in the city’s new Entertainment Destination Center, which allows to-go cocktails as incentive to support downtown businesses during the pandemic—dead-end at the Ohio River with unspoiled views of the Shawnee National Forest on the opposite bank. And when horrific tornadoes ripped through neighboring towns last December, residents and businesses put Paducah’s creativity to work, transforming their community into a temporary home base for everyone from displaced residents to power company employees to the Red Cross.
