ART FOR ALL

FUND FOR THE ARTS IS WORKING TO MAKE LOUISVILLE A ‘CITY OF ARTISTS’

by G. Douglas Dreisbach

The Fund for the Arts is one of the most important organizations that’s dedicated to the local arts community. Founded in 1949, it’s one of the two oldest United Arts Funds in the country. The focus of the group is to support, promote, and develop the arts, artists, and arts organizations to help create a healthy and vibrant community for all.

FFTA’s vision is for a community where everyone embraces the art that exists in our lives every day, everyone contributes to the well-being of our arts community, and everyone belongs.

Audience Magazine caught up with President & CEO Andre Kimo Stone Guess, a Louisville native who grew up in the Smoketown area, and accepted what he considers the right job at the right time just two years ago.

Andre’s energy, compassion, and dedication to the local arts scene is inspiring and we were excited to hear what he’s been doing in his first two years, what he is working on now, and his hopes for the future.

Below is an excerpt from the conversation. To read or listen to the full interview, visit Audience502.com

G. Douglas Dreisbach: Congrats on your first couple of years at Fund for the Arts. How have things been so far? Has the position been what you thought it was going to be, or have there been some surprises?

Andre Kimo Stone Guess: I didn’t really have any expectations, one way or the other, going in. I was going to look at the challenges and the opportunities as they presented themselves.

But having said that, I’ve enjoyed every single day. It’s a blessing and an honor to be able to wake up every day and have the opportunity to move the needle on something that you care so much about, particularly here in my hometown.

GDD: Your passion to make Louisville a great city through the arts and different avenues that Fund for the Arts provides is exciting. How have you implemented that vision? What do you feel that you have accomplished so far? Tell us about the “I Am An Artist.” campaign, and do you feel it has accomplished the goals as intended?

AKSG: If you think about the way that the arts has been viewed traditionally, not just in Louisville — this is through the course of my career in different places, whether it be New York or Pittsburgh — a lot of times we can look at the arts as being someplace you go to experience the arts. So, art is really an

− Andre Kimo Stone Guess

external experience from you. And one of the things I reflected upon, and we sort of found out firsthand during the pandemic, is that art is inside of us. And it really is a connection that we make to the arts that we go to, that can make that experience really a vibrant one.

In order to make sure that we, No. 1, created an arts ecosystem — not created, but we were able to have an arts ecosystem where everyone can engage, and everyone can be a part of it — you really have to make the appeal to the person, not about necessarily the art that they’re going to, but it’s like, “What is it about you that makes you susceptible, and makes you want to engage with art along the different continuums and disciplines that we find in art?”

The way that I believe you can do that, and the way that we sort of take it on as an opportunity to do that, is the “I Am An Artist.” campaign, which is the belief that art is a right, not a privilege. [That’s] because art is a fundamental expression of the human condition. It’s how we, as human beings, really make sense of the world. It’s how we engage. It’s how we storytell. It’s how we celebrate. It’s how we mourn. It’s really a way that we connect with others. And so, if you get down to the most irreducible essence of what it means to be a human being, and the creator spirit thereof, art is part of that.

“I Am An Artist.” is a way for us to connect with the thing that makes us unique as a human being, our creative expression, and saying loudly and proudly that that is part of who we are, whether we’re “good at it” or not. And once we’re able to make that connection to who we are as artists, that allows us to connect into those things across that continuum, so that you can bring something about your own expression to the art that you’re engaging with.

“I Am An Artist.” is really a way to start with the individual and work outward, so that we can create an entire city that will engage with art.

GDD: When you look at the importance of arts in our community, on a scale of 1 to 10, what is that number, and do you think the community also feels that art is equally as important?

AKSG: Whether we realize it, every human being on the planet creates and consumes art every day. You can’t go anywhere without hearing music. We watch television, we watch movies, we tell stories. That’s art. It’s storytelling. It’s acting. It’s scenes. It’s costumes. It’s sound.

The thing is, on one end, particularly if you think about it from the performing arts or the fine arts perspective, there is this sense that, well, I’m not really doing anything in the arts because the arts are over here. The arts are in the building somewhere that I have to go to. Yes, that’s true, but it’s everywhere, and we’re consuming it every day, but we go a step further.

Everyone creates art every day. Whether it’s you singing in the shower, you hear a little song and you want to dance to it, you doodle in the corner of a piece of paper, you create bars on some song that you heard that you create on your own, you create some creative lyrics to something — we’re all creating every day. We arrange our furniture to create more of a feng shui thing, whatever it might be, something that’s creative, that’s an expression of who we are. We’re all doing that every day.

What we’re really trying to do is bring an awareness to something that has existed since the beginning of time. We’re not trying to do anything that’s new. We’re just trying to sort of take away this aspect that there’s some line of demarcation or some separation between human beings and art. It’s always there.

GDD: If you could wave a magic wand and accomplish whatever you want, what would you do?

AKSG: We have what’s called a concentric circle model of engagement. If you think about a concentric circle model, the circle in the middle is you. It’s the individual. “I Am An Artist.” is how we engage with the individual. But if you think, as a human being, after you wake up in the morning, brush your teeth, look at yourself in the mirror, who do you engage with next? You engage with your family, your friends, and your colleagues, right?

We have “I Am An Artist.” for the individual, and the next circle out is our initiative: Arts in Learning. We believe in lifelong learning, lifelong engagement. We believe in intergenerational, lifelong learning, whether it is from taking headphones and putting them on a pregnant belly to let an unborn child hear some music, all the way to sharing a poem with a loved one in hospice as they’re about to take their last breath, and everything in between.

As you go from yourself, “I Am An Artist.,” family, friends, and colleagues, to Arts in Learning, go out to the next level. You’ll probably leave the house and engage with someone in your neighborhood on your way to the car. Not unlike most communities around this country, we have a beautiful tapestry quilt of unique neighborhoods who all have their own artistic identity, artistic flair. And what we want to do is, we want to engage with and invest in neighborhoods around the community, so that they can show off that artistic uniqueness, not only for themselves, but to invite others in.

Our newest initiative is Arts in Neighborhoods. That’s one that started under my leadership because … all arts institutions are actually in neighborhoods. And the one thing that we found is that art is the great equalizer. It doesn’t matter how well off the people are in your neighborhood, or how resourced or underresourced your neighborhood is. Every neighborhood in this community has a great deal of pride in their art, the art that comes from their neighbors. Arts in Neighborhoods is a way for us to engage with them and uplift the artists they want to celebrate in their own communities.

And so, we go from individual, “I Am An Artist.,” to family, friends, and colleagues, Arts in Learning, to neighborhoods and Arts in Neighborhoods. The next rung out is institutions. That’s what the Fund for the Arts has traditionally been known for, is arts in institutions, raising money and giving them to the arts organizations for their sustainability going forward. And that’s usually where the message kind of starts, right? But notice how all of these things allow us to connect with those institutions before we even get to the institution.

If we just start at the institutions and work our way back, it’s not as effective as working from one individual and working our way from there. So, we start with the individual, “I Am an Artist.,” family, friends, and colleagues, Arts in Learning, neighborhoods, Arts in Neighborhoods, institutions, Arts in Institutions, and then the last rung is the entire community.

When we get everyone in our community to say out loud, “I Am An Artist.,” and to say what their art is, then we will have what’s called a city of artists. And a city of artists is different than a city of arts, because a city of artists is about individuals. One of the things that we’re doing as a part of our 75th anniversary is, we are working on creating an app, and the app will start with Cultural Pass. Cultural Pass gives kids and their grown-ups free access to arts and culture venues and programs while they’re out of school.

An average of about 40,000 passes go out per summer — and for now they’re a completely analogue, physical pass you pick up at the library. We’re working on an app to turn the Cultural Pass digital. So, in the near future, you’ll be able to get this app, sign up for free for a Cultural Pass, and say, “Hey, what’s going on for eight-year-olds in dance over the next week?” and go do it.

If I could wave a magic wand, every household would sign up for that app when it becomes available, identify what their art is, and tell us what they’re interested in engaging in. If they do that, we will truly have a city of artists. That’s the magic wand I would wave, so that everyone is a part of that.”

GDD: What is the best way for somebody to get more information and get involved?

AKSG: Well, No. 1 is, invest in your own art. Understand what it is about you that’s unique and creative. It doesn’t have to be music, dance, theater, visual, literary arts. What is it about you? What’s your creative expression? What’s the thing that you do? Understand what that is. Embrace it. Say out loud, “I am an artist, and my art is ____,” and then invest your time and resources in your own art, first and foremost.

From there, if you want to invest in us, find out what we’re doing, go to FundfortheArts.org . Get a ticket to an event that’s going on in one of our beautiful arts organizations. Get involved with them, either through volunteering or partaking of what they’re doing. Just find that intersection between who you are as a creative person and what’s going on out there, and get involved. And if you have resources there, we’d love to have you become a member of what we’re doing and donate as well.

For more information about Fund for the Arts, visit FundfortheArts.org.