Prepare to Pivot 23-8 Cultural Alliance Pres Kelly Gibson

5:38PM Nov 6, 2023

Speakers:

Jeffrey Schiffman

Andrew Barnes

Kelley Gibson

Keywords:

people

arts

york

community

cultural

artists

volunteer

creative

liberal arts

county

support

funding

english

place

skill

job

downtown

moved

generalist

work

prepared to pivot is a series of conversations with Dr. Andrew Barnes, Dean of the School of the Arts, communications and Global Studies at your college of Pennsylvania. Dean Barnes talks with leaders in the college YCP alums and members of the York community about the importance of the liberal arts in preparing students to build careers where essential skills like critical and creative thinking, effective communications, and analytical reasoning make all the difference. And now here's Dean Barnes.

Hi, this is Andy Barnes and welcome back to prepare to pivot. Today I have a very special guest Kelly Gibson, who is the president of the Cultural Alliance of York County. She's also a York College alum majoring in English. Yay, English, we love English,

oh, Spartans. English every day, we fertilize it before we do that, you know, this, this podcast is really about the ways in which the liberal arts prepare people for life for different kinds of jobs, that doesn't mean that, you know, people think if you get an English degree, you're going to be an English teacher, and some are great, awesome. But if you get an English degree or any liberal arts degree, it really prepares you to be out in the world and to have different kinds of jobs and PowerPivot allows you to kind of pivot Can you tell me first, before we get into your story? Why did you choose English? And how did it prepare you for what you do today?

Well, I chose it because I've always had a love of language. It's always been my strongest suit. I write I love to tell stories. And to share unusual stories. I think where my degree really helped me is and I've talked to former and future your college students about this very thing. Your real talent shines when you're telling a story you don't necessarily want to tell. Right? So you're writing about a subject that maybe is not a passion piece for you. How do you dig out the same kind of story, the same pieces if it's not something that is truly loved by you, right? So so I think being an English major, especially for me, made me a generalist in the best way, I was just having this conversation that you don't see a lot of generalists anymore. People who can sort of pick up and do what they need to do to get jobs done, right. As we say, in the nonprofit world, other duties as assigned, everybody can be a director, because there's three of you and someone's got to change the toilet paper. So other duties as assigned. But being a generalist means that you can really pick up a lot of nuances and things and pivot when you need to in a particular position.

That's interesting, because we know a lot of industry leaders, business leaders, presidents of organizations, they come from the liberal arts. Yeah, absolutely. The ends because of this, they have abilities beyond that skill set needed to do that particular job, as they say, stretching your toolbox, stretching your toolbox. And that's what we can do as liberal arts people. So that's, I'm super happy that we have another liberal arts person here. I didn't know that. So that was a great surprise for me today.

Yes. And you know, I think when I graduated, knowing that I wanted to go into, you know, maybe education, but I wasn't 100% Sure. So, you know, graduating with an English degree, allowed me to just get out in the world and start working. I was working my way through school anyway. So I had that skill set. So I also am a really fast typer. I'm a seven, I am two word per minute. typer. I just tested a little while ago, did you really love my chops, and I do. But that allowed me to go into administrative work, and that you want to talk about a generalist, you want to know how to fix a copier where the coffee is located, where the keys to the office are and who knows who that's your generalist, right there. And that opened hole. That's

interesting, because when I, you know, I think you know, this, that I graduated with an accounting degree. And I didn't want to do this. But when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, because I had I had really good typing skills, I had really good communication skills and writing skills, I could get a job I moved around, I could get a job anywhere as an administrative assistant. That's right. And so I could do typing, I could do all these things. Hence the reason I understand the value of our administrative assistants who really kind of who really can't run the show, so but it was those skills that I got from the liberal arts in my education that allowed me to do that to be to go anywhere to do and to do these kinds of jobs until I kind of found what I wanted to do absolutely same. And they and they and they sort of the few of me, so, okay, so you graduate from here. And then what were you what was your first jobs out of out of college? So

my first real job was I worked for a manufacturer of large scale steel, a nylon furnaces out of outside of Philly. So I moved back home. I'm from New Jersey, moved back home commuted there for a while, but my love of York was strong. And then I fell in love with a New Yorker who I met right before I moved back home. So I came back to York. Without a plan or a job. I started temping, again, really strong skill so I tend to He kind of moved around and got a job in Baltimore, Washington instantly insulation. bw, if you've ever seen the movie Joe Versus the Volcano, oh, yeah, Joe works. It's sort of the same kind of facility and he's inside a cage in the middle of a warehouse floor. Same, my desk was inside a cage, on the warehouse floor, where I put their marketing materials together. So that was my first foray into into marketing and communication. And, you know, commuted down to to Cockeysville, where they were located, and then got an opportunity to get a job here in New York with it. Now, Fulton bank was, you know, banks change names a lot, but it was it's Fulton bank now. And the beauty about working in administration, Shin with a bank is they're very community oriented. So they encouraged me to volunteer. So I got very involved in the community, I was one of the founding members of the European professionals. At the time, New York was really moving and shaking. This is like 1999. And I then also started volunteering for both Main Street York, which is downtown Aiken now, and a small arts gallery called York Arts, which is now creative York. And that what led me to a job, the first ever director of marketing, and fundraising at York arts, so I got right into the art world and really immersed myself in that. And that was beautiful. It was wonderful to see their programming. But that's the first introduction I had to the Cultural Alliance. In the this is different now. But back then, in the winter time, we call that the Lean time. So between January and April, we really didn't have a lot of classes happening, it was a very tough time for fundraising, we had a big event that happened in April, but until that time, I would watch my boss, put his cheque in his desk and not cash it just to make sure the rest of the payroll Wow, the only funding that came in was an allocation for operations from the Cultural Alliance, who at that time had just been created. It was created in 1999. So this is like 2000 2001, pretty early days. And I thought, My gosh, what would we do without them? What would we do if we didn't have that allocation? And so even after I stepped away from from York arts, and I moved on to working all the large scale special events in the city of New York, so I ran New Year's Eve, I ran Mother's Day Street Fair, all those big things. I continue to volunteer for the cultural lines, because I knew it was important. Because you could No, I was gonna say,

so you've been a part of the cultural lines for a long time, a long time before your present position. Yep,

as a volunteer. So you know, because it relies on volunteers to raise up dollars, and then it grants those dollars out to arts and cultural organizations, many think of it as sort of as a United Way, general ask that community chest for arts and culture. And so, you know, I stayed in touch and volunteered my time and in as I moved to different, you know, accelerated leadership positions. And then, you know, one day I got the call from Marianne Winkleman at the cultural lines that said, you know, we've been volved for a long time with you, you've done some really great things out in the world, it's time for you to come on the on the team. And we want you to be our director of communication and engagement, which they never had before. And so that happened in 2013.

So you touch a little bit about the Cultural Alliance, that it is like the United Way It gives money to arts organizations in, in New York, can you talk just a little bit more about the mission? Sure. Alliance.

So the mission is really for us, we see ourselves playing three critical roles for the arts community and our community at large. We're the advocate, we're the convener and the steward, right, there has to be one voice that advocates for all the arts and culture, community. And that's including working artists, that's including the very smallest of our arts groups, because very large scale arts groups are performing arts centers around the county, they they have the resources to advocate, but not all of our groups do. And so our job is to be I always tell our arts community, I'm in the spaces in places you can't or won't. Right? So, you know, we're at economic development club meetings, and we're talking about the impact on our economy, we're talking about the impact on health care with our primary health care providers, and really kind of pushing the arts as a solution to a lot of our community problems. And then, you know, convening them together. That's something that we hear all the time. There's only I'm the only United Arts Fund in all of Central Pennsylvania. Well, there's only you know, Erie has one and Philly has one and Pittsburgh has one of us, but that's about it. And funders who are county or statewide will say there's a difference when there's one of you and when there's not one of you because they don't get together. They don't share resources. They don't you know, best practices was huge during COVID. What are you guys doing to mitigate Well, are you open, are you not and sharing things back and forth was like a big piece and we we act as that sort of convener of the community and listen to what they need, and then stewarding those resources as best as we can, right how do we fairly and equitably get these these dollars into the hands of those doing the good work and make sure that their missions are met and a thing that is very, very important. We really have held on to since we were created in 1999. And not everybody has is we are an operational funder, you know, we are not going to dictate, where are those dollars go, you need to get a new roof you need to pay staff pay staff, whatever that organization, it's unusual. It is and and unfortunately, pre COVID, a lot of organizations had switched to more focus based funding or program based funding. But then what happened was when COVID hit where this was the need, the need was operations. Because not you know, you build this house of cards of grants and sponsorships and things to pay for the actual people. Well, once all those things go away, where's your funding streams come from? For people who say

no, I was you wrote an article for The New York Daily a record a couple months ago, just two months ago, really? Yeah. And talking about the history of art and art funding and the need for art funding here in New York. And the article is really talking about there. There was a report the Ruskin

the rest report, David Ross. Yeah, there was a popular time around the early 2000s, where consultants like David Rusk and Richard Florida, were going to cities big and small and saying, This is the recipe you need to kind of bulk up your community. And again, most of us in the Rust Belt, this was our issue as the manufacturing strong arm that we had had start started to dissipate. Right? We lost Caterpillar around that time. And we're trying to scramble and think of well, what's the future hold for our Rust Belt community? And his David, one of the risks recommendations was, you are too reliant on that big powerhouse of manufacturing, you need a more nimble, more flexible class, and that's the creative class, you need to build that muscle up.

And but the county, I guess the government didn't kind of step up to, to fund this. And this is a new to York, you know, and I'm surprised by this, that there's not a lot of government support. Correct? Almost none. Right support. So it really is, it rests on your shoulders, and people like you to fund it and other funders to fund the arts here. Yes. Why is that?

That's a great question. I think I think part of it has to do with the generosity of our private sector. And the and the fact that we had such a civic minded local economy. So if you think about some of the largest industries in our community, most places in the 90s, early 90s, and late 2000s, saw this sort of all these local companies selling off right and ownership becoming not local, and that we're just starting to experience that in a real way. In the past, I'd say five years, right, so big, big juggernauts of funding and support and community based organizations selling off to, you know, private equity firms and these other things where that that local support sort of disappears. Now, many of our companies have formed foundations. And so a private foundation piece and you work is very important, almost taking a lot of that lift on, but it can't be sustained forever. So we kind of like to say that you work so about 10 to 15 years behind, fill in the blank 10 to 15 years behind 10 to 15 years behind on, you know, funding. So I'm

really amazed when I came here, the amount the generosity of community leaders Oh huge, huge i for this, this size, town or city, I was really surprised by

that. And I would say individuals it is if you're born and raised in New York, you give back you volunteer, you give your time, your talent, and your treasure is just what you do. I think

that's really special about yours, that I haven't seen elsewhere, that the involvement that people the community is willing to give of their time and their money to support to hear right to support activities here. So let's talk a little bit about in general, or maybe specific to your why why is art and culture important to a city?

I mean, it's it's part of who we are in our DNA. I think that's why I'm so passionate about I think there's also an innate innate pride that you take when you know your dollars are going towards that the DNA of your community. So, right, I think when you go to a town, big or small, that's the other thing is I think people think you have to be a certain size city, you have to have certain amenities for these things to be part of your life. And you really don't. We recently did a joint study with the York County Economic Alliance to look at both the cultural community and assets and the outdoor community and assets, two things that are hugely important to people where they live. And you know, places that are more conservative than us more rural than us that have less annual income whose houses are worth less. They have more funding and support for those two things, what we called quality of place, assets, outdoor and cultural, because the people want it need it, love it, and they support it publicly with some of their own dollars. And there becomes this quotient Asian in it right? So what is unique about your what are the cultural amenities that are unique to us? What are the experiences you come here to have that are unique to us. And the other thing that I think I can say, just because I've had people come in from different places for consulting with our artists groups, there's something about your that creatives just love it here. I agree. I was amazed by such a deep bench of creatives that live here, they don't always, a lot of us don't know that they're here because their work doesn't show here. So you've got, you know, world touring artists and like musicians who, you know, hang out, you meet them, you see him on the street corner, but they're going to Budapest tomorrow, and you just don't know that, you know, and dancers same. It's just an easy place to live and call home. And, but you know, you the better you get, the more your work travels away. But the important thing we've realized, too, is, you know, there was a time, especially in the 90s and 2000s, where we thought maybe we should be Paducah, Kentucky, right, maybe we should set up this village and have artists come and then we can have people come to buy their art. I think what's more important is to treat our artists as you know, important business economy, and enable them to do whatever they want to do with their work. But live and stay here because that's where the money comes back to. Right. So we want to do you want to do a gallery show in Washington, DC. Great. How do we help you get yourself there? Because all those sales come back to us.

I was really amazed by this, you know that I'm a weaver. And I came here and I heard so many people say oh, yeah, there's a millions of Weaver's out here. Yeah, there's a lot of these craftspeople and artists around here. And I think that's part of it. It's credibly affordable here. Yes, there's, there's a nice scene downtown, right. So that if you're an artist, you can go down there and you can, you know, go to we have market view arts down down downtown. But I was amazed by I think it is that I think it's an affordable, comfortable place for artists to live. And it's not like, you know, in New York City, where I came from, you know, artists would come in the creative class would come in, revitalize a neighborhood and they get pushed out by gentrification. Yeah. And now, there's hardly any sort of craftsman people or cultural class in the city proper, they all moved out, but it's different here.

Well, it's also very, it's very, if you look at a map of where our creatives are located, it's, it's very much spread out. Yes, there's a concentration in our downtown, but actually, a lot of them live out in the county and in smaller municipalities. And that's even more important because they contribute to their local governments directly. Right. So Wrightsville and Dillsburg, Hanover and Spring Grove and new freedom have nice pockets of creatives who liked that, that space, they love living there. But they're also very collaborative. That's the other thing that's really important that people tell me over and over about that you work that's unique. It's so collaborative. Here, you see musicians working with visual artists working with poets, like it's just collaborative and good to be well, I

think that's the other spirit of York, really, in the county is that people are really willing to collaborate, are willing to have conversations with other people or not, you know, don't sort of create these cliques where, you know, it's it's an incredibly friendly place. And I've been also surprised by that, because I'm jaded New Yorker, and we don't have that in here. Well, let's talk just a few minutes about what you see as the future of art culture in the county,

I think, you know, really keeping our eye on growth that is intentional, and really equitable. That's the thing that I do worry about, you know, I've had these conversations with folks where they're like, Oh, I missed the 90s, where we could go to an abandoned building road shows, and nobody knew about it. And I'm like, Yeah, but that wasn't safe. No, you can't have it both ways. You can have like strong support systems, and also, you know, breaking and entering. If we don't encourage that, you know, a great a great encapsulation of the York story is Skid Row garage, right? So Skid Row, garage, hosted punk shows, and I'm talking like national touring acts, in a garage in the back of MC Heiser, who's the founder, and in his house, he's, he's in a great band, shout out to old Tiger, and he was touring and he's like, for some shows in my garage, and then, you know, took 10 years but he got caught, right having these these non legal shows. And now he has an open public venue downtown, you know, raise the dollars and now it's open. And it's an all ages show. All ages shows are so rare. It was there, right? Yeah. Speaking of a parent of a 13 and 15 year old punk fans, real rare to find a show they can see it's not 21 plus and so think about that. How many that's how he grew up. He would go to places that were downtown that were all ages shows. And so he wanted to make that possible here again. So like, we have a space where we someone has an idea, like MC People come in and help them with that idea. And then they make that idea a reality. My hope is that even as we grow even as we build support systems, and funding, and even, you know, I can, I can very much envision artists housing, that's a specific target, you know, in our area, let's not lose that, that magical, if you have an idea, people will roll up their sleeves and help you with that idea. And, you know, that's my worry is we get sort of bogged down into, you know, gentrification and other things that stop those things from being possible anymore.

I think that's I think that's incredibly astute. I think that is sort of the the trap that we can fall into, when we sort of grow as a community, that we lose that kind of entrepreneurial spirit, that kind of creative chaos. creative chaos, absolutely funds a lot of this. So that fuels a lot of this and thank you for coming today. I'm so happy you're here. I've I look forward to this conversation. And I'm looking forward to

working with you and welcome to York. We're happy to have you. Thank you.

This program is produced in the studio's of WV YC FM, the voice of your college and produced by WNYC radio station manager Jeffrey Schiffman. join Dean Barnes monthly for these ongoing conversations about essential skills in the liberal arts.