Copious Notes

LexArts has agreed to give Actors Guild of Lexington a $7,500 matching grant to hire an organizational consultant to help the theater navigate out of its financial troubles.

In June, the LexArts allocations committee decided not to give Actors Guild a general operating support grant from its 2009 Campaign for the Arts. The theater, which produces shows in the Downtown Arts Center on Main Street, has traditionally received funds from the campaign, which in part gives operational support to groups such as the Lexington Philharmonic and the Lexington Art League. Actors Guild’s allocation request for this year was $70,900, in line with previous requests.

In denying the request, and a subsequent appeal in July, LexArts said it was concerned about the theater’s financial management and troubles that dated back to 2005.

The matching grant came after a meeting between LexArts and Actors Guild leaders.

Granting the consultant funds, LexArts President and CEO Jim CLark said in a news release that, ”AGL now has an arts management professional leading the staff and board members focusing on financial progress as much as on AGL’s artistic and outreach mission.  Working with an independent consultant, AGL can confront a difficult challenge to emerge as a stronger organization with a larger community presence.”

AGL’s managing director Kimberly Shaw said, “In the last few years, AGL has expanded its public service programs and earned regional and national attention for its rising artistic excellence.  We are now on the road to having business practices of the same high professional quality.  AGL’s artists, audience members, donors, trustees and staff will all greatly appreciate that LexArts intends to join us on this journey.”

In the past, LexArts has helped groups such as the Lexington Children’s Theatre and Lexington Art League hire consultants when it had concerns about their business practices. Both groups still receive allocations from the campaign.

Earlier this month, Actors Guild did receive a $15,839 Arts Partnership Grant from the Kentucky Arts Council. Council executive director Lori Meadows said the state organization’s grants are independent of local groups — it also gave LexArts a $32,598 grant — with different criteria. She said the KAC review panel did not have the same concerns LexArts had about Actors Guild.

Click the play button to watch our slideshow of The City. Click the “four arrow” button in the right hand corner of the command bar to watch it full screen.

Gene Woods is deep in a groove.

With his Stratocaster in hand, he’s singing a song — one of his songs — into a hot mike. At a break, he spins to his left to put the focus on vocalists Jane Harrod and Lara Brier as they purr the chorus.

Seconds later, the singers are out front on their own as Woods and drummer Arthur Rouse, percussionist Steve Parrish and keyboardist Tom Martin get into a little jam at the back of the stage.

“What really makes this exciting for me is the ability to express ourselves in original music,” Woods says of the band, The City, a jazzy, bluesy act that’s just starting to make some noise in Lexington.

He’s not doing it for the money.

Woods has a pretty good day gig: He’s chief executive of St. Joseph Health System.

Most of his bandmates also have solid day jobs. Brier is the drama teacher at Sayre School. Harrod is a landscaper, Martin is the editor of Business Lexington, and Rouse owns Video Editing Services. Parrish recently retired from a career as a psychiatric nurse.

“He’s still a psychiatric nurse,” Martin jokes, and Woods adds, “We just don’t pay him on this side of things.”

Rounding out the lineup for the band are:

■ Brian Powers, bass, who works at the University of Kentucky College of Law and is working on setting up his own law practice.

■ Chris Goode, trumpet, attorney.

■ Mike Meuser, trombone, attorney.

■ Dr. Jay Zwischenberger, harmonica, chief of surgery at the University of Kentucky Medical Center.

■ Paul Osbourne, saxophone, who has had a variety of jobs, including stockbroker and financial consultant.

“All these day gigs are to put food on the table,” Osbourne says. “My life is music. Since I was 13, I played music.”

Everyone in the band has significant musical experience, and several are playing in other bands. They all have had other careers but have kept music as part of their lives.

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The Lexington Art League is launching another interesting project that will have artists interacting with the community and helping give voices to people who are often silent.

Witness will be produced by the Art League in cooperation with the Kentucky Domestic Violence Association, Bluegrass Domestic Violence Program, Bluegrass Rape Crisis Center, and Kentucky United Methodist Homes for Children and Youth. In the program, which will take place in the Fall, artists will be paired with survivors of violence and abuse, along with an advocate from one of the participating agencies, to create art works that reflect the participant’s experience and facilitate the healing process.

“As a pilot program, the goal of Witness is two-fold,” an LAL release says. “First, it is designed to provide a voice through visual art to those who are often voiceless. Secondly, it is designed to bring the issue of violence against women and girls forward in the community, through visual art, in an effort to inform, educate, inspire and support social change.”

Those pieces will be exhibited in Lexington in November.

The Art League has put out a call to artists for the project. Interested artists are advised, “Due to the sensitive nature of this program, all candidates will be subject to a background check, as well as a screening process.”

Last month, the Art League announced the third edition of its Side by Side program with Cardinal Rehabilitation and VSA Arts of Kentucky, pairing artists with special needs children.