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Mar11
LexArts names Downtown Arts Center programming coordinator
Filed under: Actors Guild of Lexington, Central Kentucky Arts News, Downtown Arts Center, LexArts, Theater; Tagged as: Actors Guild of Lexington, Downtown Arts Center, Jim Clark, Leslie Beatty, LexArts3 CommentsLexington actor and former business owner Leslie Beatty has been named the new program coordinator for the Downtown Arts Center.
Leslie Beatty, program director for the Downtown Arts Center. Photo by Hilary Brown.
Her position is part of an initiative by LexArts to reinvigorate the Main Street facility, which opened in 2002 but has never quite reached the level activity that was hoped for.
On Tuesday, representatives from most of Lexington’s theaters met at the center and toured the third-floor space that was supposed to be an experimental theater and cabaret space, but remains unfinished. The fourth floor, which once housed the offices of Actors Guild of Lexington is currently vacant, and the first-floor black box theater has seen a decline in business since financial pressures forced AGL, formerly the theater’s primary tenant, to abandon its previously announced season.
Hiring Beatty and launching an initiative are part of LexArts’ effort to turn the center around.
“We want the DAC to be a creative laboratory where artists have the freedom to experiment and stretch their creative genius,” said LexArts’ president and CEO, Jim Clark, in a news release.
Beatty, who begins work Monday, said. “My goal is to present fresh and exciting programs that serve the arts-savvy public and also attract new and
or underserved audiences to the arts.”
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3 Responses to “LexArts names Downtown Arts Center programming coordinator”
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I love and respect Leslie, but LexArts doesn’t need to make yet another hire and eat up funds that could go to the Local Arts by expanding their own overhead once again. How many people is the CEO going to hire to do the tasks he doesn’t want to bother with?
Want to make DAC viable? Lower the rent, have someone on the premises who’s actually present and engaged and helpful to facilitate the needs of any producing group using the space, cease arbitrary times limits of when the group can be in there and when they have to be out, give them keys to the building when they are there, so they are not at the mercy of LexArts whimsey, having a cleaning crew and maintaince people that will actually clean dressing rooms and fix lights that are out and maybe empty a trash can occasionally and not appear when there’s audience in the lobby or people trying to make up and get dressed backstage. Give people their cut of the box office in a timely fashion and not hoard it or withhold it.
LexArts never understood that when AGL did well, they did well. Hence AGL was never allowed to brand the place as their home. No signage outside or inside the building, nothing allowed in the sterile, boring lobby except a card table with a fold-out screen with cast pictures. The most unwelcoming, cold, barren lobby I’ve ever been in.
The best thing would be for the city to take this theatre out of the hands of LexArts altogether. They are poor landlords and shabby stewards of the facility. Let them concentrate on funding the Arts…their divided responsibilities have already weakened their obligation in this task.
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Bo List March 11th, 2010 at 4:59 pm
Many congratulations to Leslie!
This appointment seems to address many criticisms that have been articulated regarding the DAC’s efficiency and personality, and represents a splendid forward step in maximizing its status as a valuable community resource.
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waltertunis March 12th, 2010 at 11:08 am
what bo said. leslie is as versed as anyone i can think off in making the DAC a more viable, attractive and active performance facility. i hope the DAC full appreciates the talent they have landed. congratulations indeed.
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