35 minute read
ROBERT CURRAN
AUDIENCE INTERVIEW ROBERT CURRAN
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, LOUISVILLE BALLET
The mission of the Louisville Ballet is to make moving art that inspires connection, conversation, and a profound sense of community by striving for bold collaborations and nurturing the next generation of artists, celebrating diversity and creating access for T all. This has been a year to really push those boundaries and reconfigure the way the ballet achieves some of these goals.
We caught up with the talented Artistic Director, Robert Curran, who has led the company through a re-imagined Season of Illumination to bring the community in Louisville and beyond the magic of the ballet.
This is an excerpt from the full interview. To read it in its entirety, visit Audience502.com.
G. Douglas Dreisbach: When stages went dark back in March, what were your initial thoughts, and how did you adapt and emerge to some of the exciting things you are doing today?
Robert Curran: One of the most important refocusing ideas that we had was the belief that we are an agency — not just a luxury or part of the entertainment industry. But we are also a service industry. There are people out there who rely on us. Whether it is for an experience to keep them whole, or whether they rely on us for their physical health and well-being, for their mental health or emotional health, we are a service agency for them. It was really important for us in the early days to refocus on that and figure out how we were going to stay in the lives of the people that we serve, and the people who need us.
From the company side, we pivoted very quickly to a digital stage, which is really something I have wanted to do ever since I arrived here. The thought was to create a platform that allows us to connect further, with a wider group of folks, and give the opportunity for people to get some idea of what Louisville Ballet is, without expecting them to come to Whitney Hall or the Brown Theatre, attend a class in person or be involved in one of our community engagement programs. "...our role as an organization and as individuals that live in this community is to be a part of the solution — in terms of the pandemic — and not be part of the problem."
We made the decision early that we were not going to try and have in-person performances this season, and we were wellpositioned with the Season of Illumination to make that pivot successfully, illuminating all areas of Louisville Ballet on the digital platform. By quite literally using light and make some really exciting contributions to the digital dance landscape, we created that vision.
It was really sad, no doubt, to have to go dark on our stages. I was heartbroken to not be able to present Kentucky Volume 1 on the stage. But, it was also very exciting once we made that decision, and still remains exciting, because this digital platform that we’re creating is going to last a long time, and certainly will still exist when we do eventually return to the stage.
GDD: When the company rehearses for a performance, and it is continuously pushed back and rescheduled because of COVID, how do you keep your team energized and focused?
RC: We have tried very hard not to do that, and that goes all the way back to our decision to not do any live, in-person performances this season. We did not want to put a date for a live performance out there and then have to keep shifting it. So, we made the call early that we were just not going to make our 69th season an in-person season.
Robert Curran, Louisville Ballet's Artistic Director. Photo by Sam English.
Robert Curran in rehearsal in 2015. Photo by Renata Pavam.
When the delays are caused by potential risks to the health and safety of human beings, I feel like there is, and has been, flexibility there. There has been a willingness to understand and an acceptance of the fact that it is largely out of our control, and our role as an organization and as individuals that live in this community is to be a part of the solution — in terms of the pandemic — and not be part of the problem.
We have been very clear about the deep care we have been taking of our artists and our administrators. The protocols we put in place show how seriously we take the artistic process with relation to our artists’ and collaborators’ health, and that’s been right at the forefront for us.
GDD: As we move into the new year, the future is still so unknown as to where we will be in a month, three months, six months. You have been very progressive on continuing with the Season of Illumination, in a digital format. How have your goals and opportunities changed?
RC: Well, some have changed, and some haven’t. Something that has not changed is that we see ourselves as an integral part of our community, both in the services we provide and in the art we create. We are right at the beginning of a five-year strategic plan that continues to affirm Louisville Ballet as a vital part of our community. We have a lot of excitement built into that strategic plan and are really focused on who we always have been.
But things that have changed would be our approach to the digital stage, our approach to the ways that we can share the art we create, share the benefits of its creation, and share more about the artists and collaborators that are involved. That is exciting to me. I cannot say enough how much I’m motivated and inspired by the idea of getting artistic content up, enriching that content online, and also enriching the experience of our patrons who come to see us in person through another online experience.
So, that is a big change for Louisville Ballet, and certainly the lemonade that we have made from the lemon of this pandemic. But at the core of it, our mission, our vision for our future, our commitment to art and artists, our commitment to new work, continues just as strong as it has before. And as I have mentioned, never stronger is our commitment to our community and the role we play in serving them.
GDD: What is the best way for people to support the Louisville Ballet currently and moving forward as we move into another year of unknown?
RC: Engage with us. Talk to us. That is my humble request to everyone. Learn about us, get involved with us, engage with us. That's the beginning of a relationship that is mutually beneficial. I can guarantee that. And to those who can afford to support us now, in this very, very difficult time, please do. But start with engaging with us first, because we want to be able to demonstrate to our community the value that we provide, both to individuals and to the community at large. We want to earn the support that we believe we deserve but we need to get to know you, and you need to get to know us, first.
So, please visit LouisvilleBallet.org check out LouBallet on Instagram and on social. Get on Facebook. Have a look at what we’re doing. Get to know us. Ask questions. We’ll answer them. We’ll ask you questions. And see how special we are as a company in our community and what we can bring to your life.
SERVICE & SHAKESPEARE
Ask one of the members of Kentucky Shakespeare’s Shakespeare with Veterans why they’re in the program, the first thing they’ll tell you — it’s the people.
“Absolutely,” says Darryl Stewart, a Vietnam veteran of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division. “The people are what it's all about. This group has the most intelligent, articulate, and funny people around and there’s a sense of camaraderie there that you don't get anywhere else. Nowhere.”
Cassie Boblitt, who served with the Army in Iraq in 2003, agrees. “I've met my best friends in this program, truly,” she says. “I could call on the people in this group for anything, and I think it’s remarkable that so many of the same people that were there on night one are still there.”
“Night one” was five years ago. Kentucky Shakespeare leadership and retired Col. Fred Johnson — co-founder of Shakespeare with Veterans — met with a group of veterans from all branches of service and eras and as Boblitt says, they’ve been coming ever since, every Thursday night. There’s no cost to attend, and you don’t need to know a “thee” from a “thou” to join in.
The crew intended to celebrate their anniversary with an abridged performance of Shakespeare’s Henry V before one of Kentucky Shakespeare’s mainstage shows. As is the case with most things in 2020, the pandemic had other things in mind and the vets’ meetings weren’t able to happen in person. With the group meeting only once per week, every minute of rehearsal time was vital.
Boblitt says the group could feel the days slipping away. “When you're only meeting once a week, you have to start really early to do a full performance. So there was definitely a lot of anxiety when we had to start canceling rehearsal and scaling back.”
Kentucky Shakespeare Associate Artistic Director Amy Attaway facilitates Shakespeare with Veterans. “We shifted to meeting
SWV meeting, summer 2020. Photo courtesy of Shakespeare with Veterans.
online,” she says. “Then we were able to meet outside in Central Park for a couple of months. As the days got shorter, it was dark by the end of our meetings. At one of the last outdoor meetings, Dr. Pat brought a candle on a stand, and we sat around like it was a campfire and told stories. It was a magical night.”
Dr. Pat — James Patrick Murphy — served as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Navy. He’s one of the newest members of Shakespeare with Veterans, joining a little less than a year ago, and says the group embraced him with open arms. “I showed up at the meeting and that was it. They welcomed me in like I was an old friend, like I was supposed to be there.”
That magical night telling stories may be part of what inspired the group’s pivot, Veteran Stories from Shakespeare, a virtual performance to celebrate the fifth anniversary season of Shakespeare with Veterans.
“I think Rob [Givens, retired Brigadier General in the U.S. Air Force] came up with the idea,” says Stewart. “We wanted to let each veteran — each veteran who wanted to — tell a personal story about their service and then illustrate that story with a brief scene from Shakespeare, a story that has something in common with the scene.”
Shakespeare with Veterans Curtain Call, July 2018. Photo by Brian Owens.
SWV meeting, Vet Center porch, Summer 2020. Photo courtesy of Shakespeare with Veterans.
RELIVING STORIES THROUGH THE LENS OF SHAKESPEARE
“The Veteran Stories from Shakespeare came to be in many different ways,” says Attaway. “Some of the members started with a piece of Shakespeare text that inspired them, some started with the story and we worked together to choose a piece that resonated. In all cases, the juxtaposition of war story and Shakespeare made each more powerful.”
That pairing is also at the core of Shakespeare with Veterans. The men and women who serve — particularly those who served in combat — are understandably not always eager to share or relive those stories. Shakespeare offers an organic way to allow those conversations and discovery that lets the veteran step into the light at their own pace rather than have the light shine directly upon them.
“If you just ask the question: ‘What happened? Give me a story of the war,’ it would be very hard for a veteran just to come out and say this stuff,” says Boblitt. “But in studying the words of Shakespeare and hearing the different characters talk about their experiences, in war or just in whatever situation, so many of us could say, ‘Oh, I can totally relate to that.’ And our group is full of enlisted, full of officers, from the entry-level rank all the way up to the highest ranking, and it's enabled us to talk and share our own experiences, to act them out and then look at them differently, act them differently, from one person to the next.” “When you're in a situation like Vietnam, Iraq, or Afghanistan,” says Stewart, “I think most of us are left with feelings that are unresolved and that we're not eager to share. When I first mentioned going to Shakespeare with Veterans, my younger brother — and I'm very close to him — asked me, ‘Are you going to talk about Vietnam? Because it's been 46 years and it might do you good to talk about it.’ And the thing about Shakespeare with Vets is you learn, as you deal with Shakespeare, that the feelings that you're left with — that you think are exclusively yours — are not; they’re feelings that other people have had through the years. Shakespeare's warriors had them, they're common to the world, and it gives you an ability to finally share a little bit of that with other people and that's important. It really is.”
TALES FROM THE TRENCHES
Stewart’s story tells of a rare day off at Eagle Beach in Vietnam and what he believed to be a fatal mistake — falling asleep on a floatation device and when he wakes, discovers he’s drifted far out to sea. He panics, desperate to make it to shore, only to learn that the water is so shallow he was never in danger. “Never occurred to me to check how deep the water was,” says Stewart.
“There were not a lot of pleasant things in Vietnam, and I am a little sensitive about what I try to remember. This was probably the second most pleasant thing that I could think of that would interest anybody, and I think it does have a useful moral to the story: don’t panic until you know all the facts.”
Rob Givens and Cassie Boblitt in Henry IV, 2018
Stewart pairs his story with a performance of Shakespeare’s Romeo, who panics and acts impulsively when he sees a seemingly dead Juliet, who in reality is only sleeping (though sleeping in the family tomb, so one can forgive Romeo a little for his confusion).
Boblitt’s story recalls a night in Iraq, lying in her cot listening to combat in the distance, juxtaposed with being a teenager living near Fort Knox, hearing combat exercises from her bed.
“I go back to that in my mind a lot,” she says, “thinking of the moral injury and just processing the experience of not being physically involved in the combat in that moment, but understanding what was going on, and hearing it all happen, and being alone in my cot and imagining what every blast meant.”
She partners her story with a selection from Richard II, in which John of Gaunt tries to get the future king, Henry, to change his way of thinking, something that resonates with Boblitt and her ability to reframe her experiences to form new perspectives. Murphy’s story takes a different twist. He speaks of a time in his career when a superior, his senior medical advisor, admonished him. Believing himself in the right, Murphy pushed back on his superior, but rather than escalate the situation, his superior showed him grace.
“It was such a small thing,” says Murphy, “but as the years went by, I thought about that moment a lot. I realized that he was right and that I was wrong. It was a real moment where he showed up and demonstrated really strong leadership. He had the strength and maturity to let me blow off steam.”
“That, to me, typified one of the best parts about the military — the fact that young people can get in there and are given duties and roles, much more responsibility than you could ever dream of having in the private sector right out of school, and they allow you to grow up and mature quickly,” he adds.
That legacy of leadership has added significance for Murphy, as one of his sons, Kellen, is about to follow in his footsteps, on the path to becoming a Naval flight surgeon like his father. Kellen is also an actor, so for the elder Murphy’s piece, he turned the acting over to his son for his Shakespeare selection: a piece from Henry IV: Part I, featuring the young Prince Hal, a bit young and full of himself before he matures to take the crown as Henry V. Kellen will be the third Murphy to join the Navy.
“My Dad was in the Navy,” says Murphy. “And when I think of Shakespeare with Veterans, I think of him. If he were still alive, I’d bring him down to Shakespeare with Veterans. To be able to be with a group of veterans who understand, but also to give him an opportunity to be able to do something that's artistic. I think there are a lot of Jim Murphy's out there. And maybe they think, ‘Oh, I’m not an actor and it’s really hard to do that kind of stuff.’ But it's not about acting, though you can do that. It's about being together with some people that know where you came from, sharing experiences, and leaving there feeling a little bit better about who you are.”
Kentucky Shakespeare’s Shakespeare with Veterans: Veteran Stories from Shakespeare is available online, currently streaming on the Shakespeare with Veterans Facebook page.
To get involved with Shakespeare with Veterans, visit kyshakespeare.com or contact Amy Attaway at (502) 574-9900. Meetings are free to attend on Thursdays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., currently online via Zoom. Click here to support the program with a tax-deductible donation, or mail a check to Shakespeare with Veterans c/o Kentucky Shakespeare, 323 W. Broadway, Suite 401, Louisville, KY 40202.
In the videos below, Shakespeare with Veterans Program participants share stories of their wartime experiences, pairing them with some of The Bard’s most famous scenes.
VIDEO: Cassie Boblitt
VIDEO: Dr. James Patrick Murphy
VIDEO: Darryl Stewart
AUDIENCE INTERVIEW MATT WALLACE PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, KENTUCKY SHAKESPEARE
by G. Douglas Dreisbach
Kentucky Shakespeare is known for its summer productions of Shakespeare in the Park, serving as one of the only live performing arts outlets during the summer months. The organization is also instrumental in providing education and outreach in schools and the community, and so much more. We were excited to catch up with the Producing Artistic Director Matt Wallace, to hear about what it has been like navigating through the pandemic, staying creative and ultimately having a uniquely successful season. This is an excerpt from the full interview. To read it in its entirety, visit Audience502.com.
G. Douglas Dreisbach: Looking back, when groups started to go dark in March due to COVID, it seemed like Kentucky Shakespeare would be the first one back on stage. By summer, the pandemic was supposed to be an afterthought. We all believed that when your first performance premiered, it would be the launchpad for other live performances.
You and your team stretched your creativity and made a lot of
Matt Wallace
adjustments, including adding parking lot performances and other caveats to make lemonade out of lemons. What were some of your initial thoughts at the beginning of the pandemic, and how have you adapted and progressed to make the best out of the season?
Matt Wallace: Wow, yes, what a process of adjusting our expectations this year. At first, we thought, “OK, we’re hopefully going to be good with outdoor events,” and then we continued to adjust. Now, here we are in the same boat nine months later saying, “Wow, I really hope outdoor events are going to be safe in 2021.” But yes, we started that process, continually adjusting it back with moving to Plan B, and I can’t even remember now, but I think it was Plan T that we ended up with. I am really just so grateful for our amazing team of artists and technicians, our board of directors, our staff and everybody that just remained so flexible throughout that process.
We adjusted and created our Celebrate 60: the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival Anniversary Production. We worked with our filmmaking team, Abby Sage, and Visual Poet Studios, and were able to hire most of our cast and some of our crew, and we put together a piece that we filmed live on our stage, celebrating 60 years of Kentucky Shakespeare.
With all of the archival material, we were able to have the time to go through the interviews we were able to conduct, in partnership with the University of Louisville’s history department, and really honor the 60
years in a meaningful way. So, that was one of the adjustments, of course, with the summer season.
Through all these pivots and innovations and trying to figure out how to be able to serve people, I was determined to try to do some live theater in 2020, and that’s when the Shakespeare in the Parking Lot program came about and really created a meaningful experience for all of us at a time when we really needed it. Over 2,000 people were able to experience live theater in the parking lot in October.
GDD: How have your goals and priorities changed for the upcoming 2021 year and season? MW: Well, of course, in the middle of COVID, we have this reckoning of the social justice movement, spotlights on these inequities and the injustice, systemic racism, so this was all part of all of our year. Having those difficult conversations, looking at our policies, going through training — many workshops and listening sessions and staff work and board work that we had done some of before, but not in such a meaningful way. And we’re just getting
Matt Wallace in 2015
going. So, I think that that’s a great piece of growth for our community, and a difficult piece, so I’m glad that we’re all doing this work, so that’s something that’s going to continue in many ways with our company, our board, our staff, and our hiring.
Our next steps I would say are really hoping that we are going to do a parks tour and summer season. 2020 taught us to be flexible and to try to be more in the moment, so we’re just preparing to roll with those punches, and hopefully outdoor spaces are going to be the first places that we’re going to be able to create some live art again. We are also looking at other ideas, wondering about the possibility of bringing back a different Shakespeare in the Parking Lot production, but right now we’re in the middle of the school year, and are full steam ahead with our many education programs. So, in the office next to me right now, our team is doing a virtual digital workshop residency with Down Syndrome of Louisville. This and other programs allow us to reach people all over the state, and we have a big focus on that.
2020 Shakespeare in the Parking Lot, Macbeth. Photo by Bill Brymer.
And we did extend all of the offers of our summer season team, and that same season that we were planning on producing last summer, Shakespeare in Love, Henry V, and Merry Wives of Windsor, we extended those offers to everyone for next summer, so we’ll soon be in the process of working on how we can make all that happen.
GDD: What are the best ways for people to support Kentucky Shakespeare, now and in the future?
MW: Like so many of our arts and culture institutions, we are a not-forprofit charitable organization. We run on a lean budget, and we depend greatly on the kindness and generosity of our donors. So, of course, one way is joining us as a Kentucky Shakespeare donor. All that info is at KYShakespeare.com where you will find a Donate section. We also have company benefits with that, access to VIP experiences, to our work and more.
Also, experiencing what Kentucky Shakespeare does through our Facebook and Twitter feeds, which are constantly being updated, will keep you in touch on what we have going on. We will be having lots of free public programming coming up in 2021, so I just encourage people to experience us and what we are offering.
THE ARTS & COVID-19
KEEPING YOUTH CREATIVELY ENGAGED FOR THE #NEXTNORMAL
f art imitates life, then what will the next generation of artists have to say about the world that shaped them? Prior to COVID-19, technology already altered the creative landscape in immeasurable ways. Streaming services like Netflix provide a virtually limitless content I library, while platforms like YouTube allow youth to learn artistic skills (think: piano, painting, pottery, etc.) without ever having to leave their bedroom.
Virtual learning seemed like the natural next step, even if precipitated by a global pandemic. Yet, the arts have always been a communal experience.
Whether it’s the mentor-mentee relationship or the experience of performing in front of a live crowd, part of one’s artistic self is often shaped by external forces. Indeed, young artists thrive when they can explore their creativity and collaborate with peers and mentors. How then are young artists supposed to stay creatively engaged when global challenges require social distancing?
ARE THE ARTS ESSENTIAL?
In 2017, Fund for the Arts launched the Imagine Greater Louisville 2020 Cultural Plan. It was designed to ensure arts access, education, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and to cultivate and promote the Louisville area as a nationally recognized hub of the arts. The wonderful serendipity is that none of us could have imagined the challenges we would face in 2020. Through all of this, the arts have been a powerful source for healing and rebuilding, especially for keeping young creatives engaged. During the initial lockdowns, we heard a lot about “essential workers,” as COVID-19 revealed much about the nature of work in the United States. In addition to fueling our local and national economies, arts and cultural institutions play an essential role in the recovery of schools and communities.
One of the youth arts groups at the forefront of this effort is the Commonwealth Theatre Center (CTC), which is home to a conservatory for students ages 5 through 18. Artistic Director Charlie Sexton emphasizes the essential role arts play in keeping "Our students have expressed that they are dealing with the weight of their lives being upended [due to COVID-19] and that CTC was a place of refuge for them in a stressful, saddening time." — Charlie Sexton
young creatives engaged. “For most of our students, the opportunity to come once a week to the facility was the only opportunity to interact with their peers,” Sexton says. “The arts feed the soul, as well as an optimistic outlook on the future. Our students have expressed that they are dealing with the weight of their lives being upended [due to COVID-19] and that CTC was a place of refuge for them in a stressful, saddening time.” Another youth arts group that has found an essential role in the community is the Academy of Music Production Education and Development (AMPED), which offers free music and music production classes to underserved youth.
According to Dave Christopher Jr., one of the instructors at AMPED, “The arts are more important than ever because of isolation and the threat of depression.”
But can the arts effectively build community behind digital screens?
UNDERSTANDING THE EVOLUTION OF DIGITAL LEARNING
Most youth arts programs in Louisville are taking a hybrid approach.
At AMPED, in-person classes for younger guitar students are encouraged because of the difficulty in showing finger placements. In-person lessons not only foster a healthy mentormentee relationship, but also ensure students learn proper technique. To ensure the safety of everyone involved, AMPED
Students engaged in a music lession through Academy of Music Production Education and Development (AMPED).
Commonwealth Theatre Center offers progressive theatre classes and a full season of productions for students of all levels. Photo courtesy of Fund for the Arts.
limits the number of people inside its entire building to three at a time: student, instructor, and parent.
Students in underserved communities might not have the instruments or technology to learn from home, so AMPED works to provide access to those students. “For our virtual students, we deliver sanitized instruments, laptops, and hotspots to those that have need,” Christopher says.
Even if screens separate students from their instructors, AMPED is intentional in keeping the community connected. “We provide art kits for family projects for mental health support,” says Christopher. “We also had to deal with food insecurity.”
While there have been challenges to implementing an effective digital learning environment, there have been many unexpected benefits as well. “We’ve been able to connect with students outside of Louisville,” says Christopher. “We have students in Georgia, California, and Hawaii. We’ve also been able to expand the class sizes.”
Aside from providing increased access, online learning has also made the creative process easier for younger students. It is common for young artists to be shy, reserved, or otherwise inhibited, especially in in-person classes. The opportunity to learn from the comforts of home has helped some students feel more at ease with their creativity, unlocking more of their potential.
CTC’s Charlie Sexton adds, “Meeting in a digital format has allowed some of our students to engage in the programs with a confidence and bravery that sometimes in-person instruction can limit. This has offered accessibility to all types of students.”
YES, SHOWCASES ALSO GO ON
Performances are among the key formative experiences for young artists. Many professional theater troupes and musicians have fulfilled the adage that “the show must go on” through virtual performances. When it comes to young artists, the showcases also go on.
CTC’s Walden Theatre Conservatory provides its students with multiple opportunities throughout the year to showcase their artistic development. “We ordinarily do over 150 public performances in our Mainstage Season, and in the conservatory, classes have an opportunity to showcase their work at the end of the semester,” Sexton says.
But with the temporary shuttering of theaters and public venues, these performances have gone online. “This fall, we went solely digital, giving the opportunity for students to film their work and share with their families,” says Sexton. “We found that this stretched a different skill set of film acting, as well as
SUPPORTING THE NEXT GENERATION
Fund for the Arts recognizes the role arts will play in helping communities process trauma, restore joy, and support wellbeing. That’s why the organization supports local youth arts groups that are helping cultivate the next generation of artists. Fund for the Arts works with the following youth arts groups in the Louisville area:
AMPED
Commonwealth Theatre Center
La’Nita Rocknettes School of Dance
Louisville Ballet School
Louisville Children’s Film Festival
Louisville Youth Choir
Louisville Youth Orchestra
River City Drum Corp Sacred Heart School for the Arts
Squallis Puppeteers StageOne Family Theatre Steam Exchange The Little Loomhouse
The Louisville Academy of Music
West Louisville Performing Arts Academy Young Authors Greenhouse
Students at The Little Loomhouse show off some of their work. Photo courtesy of Fund for the Arts.
giving the opportunity to share their work with their community not in our immediate area.”
At AMPED, the opportunity for students to showcase new pieces is equally important. Since AMPED focuses not only on music performance, but also music production and music technology, the shift to virtual performances seemed natural. “Students do perform showcases at the end each session. They also perform at various events, and it’s all virtual using StreamYard,” says Christopher. He adds that music lessons, music production, and performances help students identify and develop life skills, including confidence, collaboration, problem solving and perseverance.
WHAT DOES THE #NEXTNORMAL LOOK LIKE? There are some monumental changes going on in the entertainment and arts industry. Performance venues, for example, are experiencing financial hardships due to extended closures.
While some might be concerned about the kind of world youth will “graduate into” when the pandemic is over, those directly involved in youth arts groups say there’s little to worry about. “We have the fullest confidence that this generation of young artists will roll with whatever is given to them and make it into something impactful and incredible for all those that love the theatre.”
— Charlie Sexton
“Who is to say what ‘normal’ is or will be? What we know is that art imitates life, and we have been able to garner from our stakeholders and students that they are taking this version of life and making amazing art out of it.” Sexton says. “We have the fullest confidence that this generation of young artists will roll with whatever is given to them and make it into something impactful and incredible for all those that love the theatre.”
AMPED’s Christopher agrees. “I believe that [the] arts will be just fine. Arts is a flame not easily extinguished.”
AUDIENCE INTERVIEW CHRISTEN BOONE PRESIDENT & CEO, FUND FOR THE ARTS
by G. Douglas Dreisbach
The Fund for the Arts is an important anchor in the Louisville arts community, with the goal to provide arts access, education, diversity, and ultimately to promote the city as a nationally recognized epicenter of the arts. Being nearly 10 months into an unprecedented public health crisis with COVID, combined with social and civil situations that we’re all dealing with, we caught up with President and CEO Christen Boone to see how the Fund has adjusted so far, and how the organization intends to move forward. This is an excerpt from the full interview. To read it in its entirety, visit Audience502.com.
G. Douglas Dreisbach: Looking back over the past nine months, have the goals at Fund for the Arts changed? How has your team adjusted to the adversity? Christen Boone: Well, in 2017, we launched a new cultural plan with the now-ironic name of Imagine 2020. Just to even say the name of that plan now kind of brings a smile because we could have never imagined what 2020 would bring. But despite all the
Credit: Ben Marcum Photography Christen Boone
challenges, I have just continued to be incredibly inspired by the work that our artists and organizations do, and the continued generosity of our community to support that work. For us, a lot of goals center around contributed income and our annual campaign. The pandemic hit in March, and the campaign usually closes at the end of June. So, our board expanded that campaign, turned it into a recovery campaign, extended the timeline two months, and shifted to a focus on raising money that our community, our artists and our creative community needed to be able to really stabilize through this period. With the help of donors that were able to un-restrict dollars, we were able to raise about $7 million this past year. That is less than the last few years when we raised around $8 to $8.5 million. But, it was incredibly generous during a really tough economic period, and a period of uncertainty for so many. We invested those dollars in a variety of ways, including operating dollars for so many of our arts organizations, providing important stabilizing dollars for large, small, and emerging organizations to be able to continue to do their work and other areas of need.
We are also proud of the work that has happened after the death of Breonna Taylor, and the racial justice movement that really came to light here in Louisville and across the country in June. We reached out and said, “How do we help elevate the voices of our Black neighbors, our Black artists, activists, to help make sure this community is
Christen Boone speaking at an event. Photo courtesy of Fund for the Arts.
really having important conversations about moving forward towards greater equity?” From this, we were able to make new investments in Black artists and Black-owned restaurants, and help to keep those conversations and voices heard that often go untold.
So, although this year did not look as we thought it would, I think the arts inspired us, comforted us, and challenged us in many ways.
GDD: Have you seen any strengths or weaknesses arise this year that may have altered the way the Fund is now doing things that it wasn’t before?
CB: Over the last several years, the Imagine 2020 cultural plan included five priorities. One of those priorities, and the one that I will say was the loudest and most urgent at the time, was the priority of equity, diversity, and inclusion, and that was created in 2017. Over the last few years, both our cultural community and the Fund for the Arts have been working closely together to achieve those priorities, so when this year landed with some of its challenges, it was not necessarily new work for the Fund, and it’s wasn’t new work for the cultural community overall. It is work that we had been taking steps toward, and had begun to address some of the historical inequities. Throughout history, the arts have helped people to better understand each other. Whether it is song, poetry, or visual art, it all helps us share our frustrations, anger, grief, or sadness, but it also helps to promote empathy and understanding, and ultimately the healing that will be needed for our community to really be a place where everyone can thrive.
GDD: When the board extended your fundraising campaign, did your pitch to donors change? How did the tone and sense of urgency affect how you approached donors? CB: Yes, it had to change. If we went to the community and said, “We want to ask you for support for X,” it would not be relevant since our world was changed. Everything was flipped upside down on us, so we had to be relevant to that. So, we began to say, “Your support means access in public spaces, in our museums and more.” For a period of time, it meant that it would be online or virtual or perhaps in small audiences.
For many of us, we know the arts are so important to the education of our children, and the integration of the arts helps kids to learn better. Those who study heavily in the arts are more likely to graduate high school and go on to college, and there are great benefits that come along with that. We knew that schools could not come to experience the arts through field trips, and we couldn’t have artists go into classrooms when children were going to school online. So, our teaching artists quickly pivoted and worked with the schoolteachers in saying, “How do we provide this kind of enriching experience to kids in a new, different way?” The resilience and the innovation that came out of our artist community was incredible, and that’s what we needed to talk to donors about, and is what was needed now for this community to continue to move forward.
Also, for nearly all our arts organizations, the earned income, whether it was ticket sales, subscriptions, admissions, sponsorships, class tuition, or other revenue streams, they all came to a screeching halt. So, we knew there was a big need for dollars to stabilize organizations so they could weather the storm of this pandemic and be ready to rebound and to be part of our community’s long-term economic recovery.
GDD: What are the best ways for people to support the Fund for the Arts in 2021 and for years to come?
CB: There are a number of ways to support the Fund for the Arts and the creatives in our community. One is to simply go to FundForTheArts.org and make a gift. Our work is supported by nearly 20,000 donors who give anywhere from a dollar a week to $10 a month and more. So, by signing up to be a sustaining donor through the Fund for the Arts is critical to this work.
Another easy way to show support is by following us on social media. Whether it is through Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, they are all a big part of our story and people can help by helping spread that story. And ultimately, they can support us by simply participating in all the arts, whether it’s buying your gifts from local artists or buying your season subscriptions in advance. Those are just a couple of ways to engage with and support our local arts community.
That really is going to be that key part of healing and rebuilding this community for the future.
