Who’s Who
From mid-February to mid-April, LexArts runs its “Campaign for the Arts,” encouraging corporate giving by enrolling companies in a regular giving program, visiting workplaces and educating employees about how much arts organizations contribute to the community beyond performances and shows, to running programs in schools and taking kids on cultural field trips. Employees can make a single gift or opt for a regular payroll deduction. (Interested in helping? Visit lexarts.org for more information.) LexArts member organizations benefit from the funds raised in the form of general operating funds—which can be more difficult to raise than funds for a specific projects or building—to help pay staff, keep the lights on, print programs, and more. But they also benefit from LexArts’ belowmarket-price space rentals.
Board Member John Long addresses the audience at the LexArts 2012 Fund for the Arts campaign kick-off celebration.
“We have ArtsPlace, which is about 30 years old,” says Clark. “It’s a space for artists and arts groups to rent. They can use it for rehearsal, office, and performance space. It’s also home to the Lexington Philharmonic, the Lexington Chamber Chorale, the Lexington Ballet, Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras, and LexArts,” alongside other tenants like the Bluegrass Printmakers Cooperative and the Center for Old Music in the New World. ArtsPlace also has gallery space, and some studio space for individual artists. The variety of spaces enables arts groups to offer more intimate performances, as well. The gallery might be host to an evening of chamber music, while the performance hall can host a small theater group. It’s a beehive of creativity and it’s just one of the many gathering places in town for artists and art lovers.
COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT
Funding Creativity
Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra ensemble (Dylan Rowe, Azure Rowe, Janie Herberner and Logan Rowe) perform at the LexArts 2012 Fund for the Arts campaign kick-off celebration.
Beyond fundraising, LexArts also works to strengthen arts organizations themselves, to help them grow, a process called capacity building. “We are currently working on developing a new business training model, where we will be connecting business volunteers…with some of our arts groups to address specific issues like development and marketing,” says Clark. The “support system” has, in part, helped the arts thrive in Lexington despite a recession. “We have not lost a single arts group in this town,” says Clark. In fact, he says, we’ve added groups: a new visual arts organization and two new theater groups.
Paula Anderson, Stephanie Spires, Elizabeth Deener and Tanzi Merritt at the Lexington Art League’s QXnet Opening Preview Party for Body Figure Nude
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