Copious Notes

INSTALL (teaser) from Kevin Belli on Vimeo.

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The CentrePointe lawn downtown will become a big art exhibit next weekend with the installation of Craig Colorusso’s Sun Boxes, a solar-powered sound display.

The exhibit is made up of 20 wood “sun boxes” that are equipped with solar panels, speakers, amplifiers and electronic sound modules. Each is loaded with recorded guitar notes that join to create unique melodies that change throughout the day, depending on clouds, sun and even the shadows of spectators. A statement from LexArts, which is presenting Sun Boxes, calls the piece “a sculptural experimentation with sound and solar energy.”

In that statement, Colorusso said, “Sun Boxes is really my way of improvising with Mother Nature. The sounds are both soothing and energizing, not unlike the sounds that might accompany yoga and meditation.”

LexArts president and CEO Jim Clark likens Sun Boxes to Bill Fontana’s Surface Reflections, a sound installation at the Lexington Financial Center, aka the Fifth Third Bank building, that brings the sounds of Town Branch to the surface in the space between the building and its parking garage.

“This installation is the latest in a program that provides a platform for non-traditional and/or alternative forms of public art,” Clark wrote. “Like Fontana, Colorusso began his artistic career as a musician and has evolved to join a growing number of artists that borrow ambient sounds and real-world noise as an integral part of their work.”

Sun Boxes will be open to the public in CentrePointe from May 3 to 5.

Colorusso’s work, including Sun Boxes, was the subject of the documentary short film Install: Sound, Light and Craig Colorusso.

Scott Terrell conducts the Lexington Philharmonic in a February Kicked Back Classics concert at the Downtown Arts Center. The Philharmonic received the largest allocation of general operating support funds from LexArts 2012 Campaign for the Arts. © Herald-Leader staff photos by Rich Copley.

LexArts set a new record in its 2012 Campaign for the Arts, raising $1.05 million to be distributed among area cultural groups for general operating support and Community Arts Grants. But LexArts President and CEO Jim Clark said he plans to nearly double that take within the next five years.

Clark said a significantly larger haul of $2 million will be necessary to support the work of a number of groups that are pursuing ambitious goals such as the Living Arts and Science Center, which is undergoing a renovation that will double its space. Clark said campaign goals will likely increase incrementally over the next few years as LexArts works to bolster the donor base with organizations both in and out of Lexington.

“We’re doing national-level work and it deserves national funding,” Clark said.

He said the quality of work by local arts groups has been a big reason why the campaign raised more than $1 million for the seventh consecutive year, despite the recession.

“The product is strong, and it’s attracted strong supporters,” Clark said.

Along with the campaign haul, LexArts announced recipients of general operating support and community arts grants.

General operating support went to:

• Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras, $22,500
• Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra, $165,000
• Lexington Children’s Theatre, $120,000
• Lexington Art League, $60,000
• Lexington Singers, $9,000
• Living Arts & Science Center, $102,000

Recipients of Community Arts Grants, given for specific projects, were:

• Balagula Theatre Company, $9,000 to support its upcoming season of five full length plays, including a world premier
• Kentucky Ballet Theatre, $9,000 to support its 2012-2013 Season
•  Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, $8,000 to support its Kentucky Great Writers Series
• Chamber Music Festival Festival of Lexington,  $8,000 to support its weekend festival and the “July Series,” informal pop-up concerts around town performed by young artists
• KY Women Writers Conference, Inc., $8,000 to support the annual conference
• Central Music Academy, $5,000 to support free music lessons for financially disadvantaged youth ages 8 to 18 years old
• LexingtonChamber Chorale, $5,000 to support its 2012-2013 Season
• Headley-WhitneyMuseum, $5,000 to support its Improbable Baubles art program for middle school students
• Common Good, $2,500 to support a youth arts initiative blending traditional storytelling with digital multimedia design
• KentuckyMighty Wurlitzer Project, $2,500 to support the 90^th Anniversary Celebration at the Kentucky Theatre
• Kurt Gohde and Kremena Todorova, $2,000 to support the creation of abbreviated love letters to the city of Lexington, installed as temporary works of street art along Limestone.

LexArts kicked off its 2012 Fund for the Arts Campaign Wednesday morning with a breakfast and champagne toast at ArtsPlace attended by around 150 arts, business and civic leaders.

Jim Clark. Photo courtesy of LexArts.

The campaign aims to raise $1.1 million, equal to last-year’s goal when LexArts had to scramble to make up a 22 percent cut in the Lexington Fayette Urban-County Government’s contribution to the cause.

Unlike past years when campaign kickoffs heavily addressed economic travails, Wednesday’s event struck an aspirational tone with speakers including Lexington Mayor Jim Gray and Susanne Halmi of Tiffany & Co. touting the arts as a driver of economic growth and community pride.

“We saw a community that invests in itself,” Halmi said of Tiffany’s decision last year to open a manufacturing plant in Lexington that employs 125 people. “We were thrilled to find people talented and creative to support our business.”

Since arriving in Lexington, Tiffany has provided financial and other support to LexArts and the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra.

Gray cited the arts as a key factor in driving people to relocate to Lexington and touted the campaign saying, “We cannot shrink ourselves to  greatness.”

LexArts President and CEO Jim Clark said after the breakfast that he has seen an increased interest in arts support recently and cited projects such as the expansion of the Living Arts and Science Center, the Lexington Philharmonic’s new commissioning program and the growth of the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington as recent achievements in arts funding.

“They give us something to talk about, and to show where the support is really working,” Clark said. “The important thing is to keep growing, because as these organizations grow, they will need increased operating support.”

The breakfast highlighted the accomplishments of young artists with a string quartet from the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras performing an original composition by quartet member Dylan Rowe and 16-year-old School for the Creative and Performing Arts student Virginia Newsome discussing HeARTS, an not-for-profit group she founded to support arts education in schools. Since forming last fall, Newsome said her group had given $12,000 to support arts in schools in the United States, Haiti and Kenya.

Phillip High's "Glade Runner" and Barbara Harper-Bach and Neil Suiler's "Old Lexington" (closest, on the right) stood waiting for auction at Lorillard Lofts in December. LexArts officials say the public event probably helped the 2011 Campaign for the Arts instead of hindering it, as it was believed to have done in 2001. © Herald-Leader photo by Rich Copley.

Despite several hurdles, LexArts’ 2011 Campaign for the Arts topped last year’s total, though it did not meet its goal.

The goal was $1.1 million, set after LexArts raised $1.003 million last year. This year’s campaign was just ahead of that pace, at $1,012,056, which LexArts president and CEO Jim Clark said was gratifying, all things considered.

As the follow-up campaign to Horse Mania 2010, the 2011 campaign had history working against it. The 2001 arts ­campaign, on the heels of Horse Mania in 2000, also fell short of its goal because the public art project drained available funds and energy, officials said at the time.

This spring, LexArts lost $100,000 in annual allocations from the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government. Clark credited a successful $50,000 challenge grant from Mayor Jim Gray and Gray’s donation of $39,368 from his salary for ­meeting the goal.

Clark also pointed to other positive trends in the campaign, including an increase in corporate giving, bucking a national trend. Ultimately, he said, the challenges buoyed the campaign.

In a news release, he said, “It goes to show you that people in this community have a philanthropic spirit and value the arts on a deep and meaningful level.”

Money from the campaign is used for LexArts’ allocations and grants for area artists, arts organizations and other projects.

Transylvania University artists Kurt Gohde and Kremena Todorova, shown here in a photo for their Discarded project earlier this year, received a Community Arts Grant for a project to place 1,000 dolls along Limestone. © Herald-Leader photo by Rich Copley

LexArts has announced its recipients of general operating support and community arts grants.
The general operating support funds are unrestricted grants, generally to larger organizations in Lexington.
This year’s recipients are:

■ Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras, $20,000
■ Lexington Art League, $62,000
■ Lexington Children’s Theatre, $120,000
■ Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra, $165,000
■ Lexington Singers, $9,000
■ Living Arts and Science Center, $102,000

Community Arts Grants are given at two levels: Program grants to groups for operating support and specific endeavors and project grants to groups or individuals for specific projects.
Program grants go to:
■ Balagula Theatre Company, $8,600 – for its 2011-12 theater season
■ Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, $8,600 – for the Kentucky Great Writers Series, which brings 12 Kentucky authors to the center to work with writers
■ Chamber Music Festival of Lexington, $4,000 – for the 2011 festival
■ Kentucky Ballet Theatre, $8,400 – for the 2011-2012 season of performances
■ Kentucky Craft History and Education Association, $3,000 – for Stringed Instruments, The Art of the Luthier, a documentary film about stringed instrument-making in Kentucky
■ Kentucky Women Writers Conference, Inc., $7,500 – for the 2011 event
■ University of Kentucky Opera Theatre, $5,000 -for the Academy for Creative Excellence, which provides theater and music training for first through eight graders

Project grants go to:
■ The African American Forum, $1,500 – for The Smooth Jazz Fest
■ Artists Kurt Gohde and Kremena Todorova, $2,500 – for 1000 Dolls, a project to create and install 1000 local-designed dolls along Limestone
■ Central Kentucky Concert Band, $1,750 – for the closing concert of the 2011-2012 season
■ Lexington Bach Choir, $1,000 – for the 2nd Annual Lexington Bach Choir Vocal Competition in which students age 30 or younger compete for cash and a solo opportunity with the Bach Choir

Lexington Children's Theatre artistic director Vivian Snipes shared a laugh with Lucille Caudill Little at a 1997 event that was a prelude to the construction of the the theater's Short Street facility. © Lexington Herald-Leader photo by Rob Sumner.

The Lexington Children’s Theatre has won a $2.5 million endowment from the W. Paul and Lucille Caudill Little Foundation to fund its Shooting Stars Youtheatre program in Elliott and Rowan Counties.

Lucille Caudill Little grew up in the Eastern Kentucky counties around Morehead and was an active artist and arts philanthropist in Lexington for most of her life. The Little Foundation has continued to be a significant supporter of the arts in Central and Eastern Kentucky since her death in 2002.

The Children’s Theatre gift, along with a $2.5 million endowment to fund arts scholarships at Morehead State University, which was announced Tuesday, constitute the largest gift ever granted by the foundation.

In a news release, LexArts president and CEO Jim Clark said the Children’s Theatre gift, “sets the bar for philanthropic support of the arts in Kentucky. This investment in the Children’s Theatre affirms its importance in the cultural life of Fayette, Rowan, and Elliott Counties.”

Shooting Stars, which has been funded by a $100,000 annual grant from the Little Foundation, presents workshops, theater schools, in-school residencies and performances and summer programs that LCT says have reached more than 35,000 children in Eastern Kentucky. The endowment will replace that grant, which the theater had to apply for annually, with approximately $125,000 a year in perpetuity.

“We are honored that the Little Foundation is entrusting Lexington Children’s Theatre with Mrs. Little’s legacy of providing arts education to young people,” Children’s Theatre executive director Larry Snipes said in the release. “The Shooting Stars Youtheatre in Rowan and Elliott counties will live on as a lasting tribute to her lifelong dedication to the arts.”

Andy Haymaker, vice president of the MoonDance Foundation, poses with the restrooms and ticket booth building at left, and the stage in background at the MoonDance at Midnight Pass amphitheater inside Beaumont Circle in Lexington, Ky. © Photo by David Perry | Herald-Leader staff

It’s almost time for the first full season of performances at the Moondance at Midnight Pass amphitheater behind Beaumont Center. Since it is still such an unknown quantity to many presenters in Lexington, LexArts is holding an open house at the theater from 2 to 5 p.m. March 19.

The $2 million theater was built by developer Andy Haymaker and his father Tim Haymaker as a community gathering place in the Beaumont Center area. It opened last fall and had a few performances by groups such as Actors Guild of Lexington, the Lexington Ballet and the Lexington Chinese-American Association before it had to close for winter.

But spring is getting ready to … well, it’s just around the corner, and LexArts, which manages the facility, is working to get it booked up for the warm months.

Manager Joe Artz and technical director Scott Sherman will be at the open house to give tours, answer questions and field ideas for the facility, which seats around 1,000 people. For more information, visit moondancelex.com or call (859) 225-0370.

National Symphony Orchestra executive director Rita Shapiro (left) talked with (from right) Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra music director Scott Terrell, executive director Allison Kaiser, president elect Gregory K. Jenkins, arts advocate Christine Huskisson and Todd Swanson after the NSO arts advocacy forum at the Lyric Theatre Feb. 23. Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.com.

Note: The National Symphony Orchestra performs at the Singletary Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 23.

The National Symphony Orchestra has made a lot of music in Kentucky since landing in Louisville Thursday. But Wednesday morning, executive director Rita Shapiro and Kentucky Residency conductor Hugh Wolff sat down behind microphones to discuss presenting orchestral music to changing audiences in economically challenging times.

Kentucky Residency conductor Hugh Wolff said audiences and musicians are redefining the performance experience.

“There aren’t any fat years,” Wolff said of arts funding, to knowing laughter from the audience, which included Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra music director Scott Terrell and LexArts president and CEO Jim Clark. “These are very lean years.”

Though the very real probability of deep cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts in the next federal budget was never directly addressed in their chat, the conversation was colored by the presumption that arts finances will not be improving anytime soon.

“Everybody is having a hard time, even big behemoths like the Kennedy Center,” Shapiro said, referring to the home base of the National Symphony.

That, she said, should prompt arts groups to get more aggressive, viewing advocacy as marketing, and trying to build partnerships both with influential donors, officials and celebrities and social services that benefit from outreach by the orchestra and its musicians.

“We feel as good community partners we need to get into neighborhoods where they do not have exposure to classical music and work with those communities,” Shapiro said, citing instances where donors to social service groups have seen the value of music programs in the programs they support and become orchestra donors as well.

Programming, Wolf and Shapiro acknowledged, has to reorient itself from being a top-down idea to a bottom-up approach, addressing community and educator needs.

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Joe Cannon Artz has been named the new general manager of the Downtown Arts Center.

Joe Cannon Artz onstage as emcee of Summerfest. Photo by David Desjardins

Artz, 40, was the executive director of the Kentucky Classical Theatre Conservatory/SummerFest for the past two years after a two-year stint as president of its board. He holds a bachelor’s degree in theater and communications from the University of Kentucky and has worked extensively in theater and non-profit management, including more than 35 touring Broadway productions. When he returned to Lexington, he worked as the director of marketing and development for the Lexington Art League before working with KCTC.

In his new role, Artz will manage the Downtown Arts Center, including its black box theater, and other venues under LexArts’ management including the Moondance at Midnight Pass amphitheater in Beaumont.

Artz starts work at the DAC Monday.