April 22, 2025 • 61 mins
This week on the podcast, we’re joined by Kristin Reese, the executive director of the Mono Arts Council. Kristin shares her journey and dedication to promoting creativity in the Eastern Sierra region of California. In our conversation, she outlines the Mono Arts Council’s evolution, emphasizing its shift toward arts education. Kristin believes that every child in Mono County should have access to the arts, and she discusses the numerous initiatives aimed at making that happen.
Having grown up in the Eastern Sierra, Kristin developed a passion for the performing arts early on, influenced by her family of artists, musicians, and dancers. After earning her Bachelor of Arts in music from Sonoma State University, she felt the pull to return to her roots. Once back, she co-founded the Sierra Classic Theatre in 1999 and later worked at the Edisto Gallery & Tea Room, where she connected with local artists.
Now at the helm of the Mono Arts Council, Kristin is committed to ensuring arts education is a priority for all K-12 students in the region. She highlights the positive impact of arts education on students, noting how it can improve test scores and attendance while also supporting mental health and social-emotional learning. The Council also runs several adult programs, like Art & Wine and the MAC Gallery & Community Arts Center, creating platforms for local artists to showcase their work. With her background in music and a deep love for the arts, Kristin aims to strengthen connections within the local arts community and inspire the next generation of creators.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Mono Arts Council on Instagram
For more information, please visit https://notrealart.com/mono-arts-council-kristin-reese/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
The Not Real Art Podcast isintended for creative audiences only.
The Not Real Art Podcastcelebrates creativity and creative
culture worldwide.
It contains material that isfresh, fun and inspiring and is not
suitable for boring old art snobs.
Now let's get started andenjoy the show.
(00:47):
Greetings and salutations, mycreative brothers and sisters.
Welcome to Not Real Art, thepodcast where we talk to the world's
most creative people.
I am your host.
Faithful, trusty, loyal,tireless, relentless host.
Sourdough coming at you fromCrew West Studio in Los Angeles.
Man, do we have a great showfor you today.
We have the one and onlyKristen Zane Power Reese, the Executive
(01:09):
Director of the Mono ArtsCouncil in Mono County, California.
The Eastern Sierra, AKAMammoth Lakes, famous for its amazing
skiing.
Kristen is an arts leader inthat part of California and she's
on the show to talk about hergreat work.
So please stay tuned for thatgreat conversation.
But before we get into it, Iwant to thank you for tuning in.
(01:30):
We do this for you.
It's all about you.
If it wasn't for you, well,I'd just be talking into a microphone
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(01:52):
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(02:12):
Thank you very much.
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check out all the good healthystuff, nutritious stuff we have for
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(02:33):
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Please go check outartsvilleusa.com I think you'll love
it.
A lot of great inspiring stuff there.
So without further ado, I wantto get into this fantastic conversation.
(02:57):
I had with Kristen Reese.
Kristen Reese is a longtimeresident of the Eastern Sierra in
California, here arriving withher parents in 1976.
While she spent her youthmostly learning the performing arts,
she was constantly exposedfrom having painters, photographers,
musicians and dancers in her family.
She left that area, which ispretty rural, to obtain her Bachelor's
of Arts degree in music fromSonoma State University.
(03:21):
But she of course couldn'tstay away too long because the Eastern
Sierra is gorgeous.
Absolutely gorgeous.
Think about, if you thinkabout Yosemite national park, that's
where Yosemite is, that areafor those of us who have been there,
we know how gorgeous it is.
So it's hard to leave andcertainly easy to come back.
Certainly when you call ithome, right?
(03:41):
So when she got back, shequickly reconnected to the Eastern
Sierra arts community.
She co founded the Sierraclassic theater in 1999 at the Adidas
Gallery and Tea Room in 2003where she was introduced to many
of the Mono Arts Council localartists and is honored to lead Mono
Arts Council.
And she will work, as shealways does, towards ensuring that
(04:03):
every child of Mono county hasaccess to the art.
She hopes to connect moreartists and patrons of all arts to
this long standing organization.
She is currently the singerand percussionist for the local band
Bodhi 601.
She enjoys backpacking,kayaking, jogging and cross country
skiing, loves taking picturesand learning new art mediums and
resides in the Mono Basin withher husband and fellow musician Russ.
(04:26):
I met Kristen because I spenta lot of time up in this part of
the country, this part of thestate, and I wanted to connect with
the local arts community there.
And I looked up Mono Arts Council.
I learned about Kristen.
I reached out, gave her oldcold call, little email and stalked
her until she agreed to havecoffee with me.
(04:46):
And then much to my surprise,she invited me to join the board
of the organization.
So I'm now on the board of theMono Arts Council, which is fantastic.
Just a few weeks in here, somestill wet behind the ears and learning
all about it and can't wait tomake some hopefully valuable contributions
to this organization and tothe artists working and living in
this very special part of the world.
So I'm thrilled.
(05:07):
And by the way, did knowKristen and I are actually cousins.
Kristen told me that as Imight have mentioned, her name is
Kristen Zane Power Reese.
And Power is my last name,good old Irish name.
And turns out Chris and I areactually distant cousins.
So that's very cool.
Without further ado, let's getinto this fantastic conversation
with the One and only KristenZane Power Reese.
(05:38):
Kristen Reese.
Welcome to not real Art.
Thank you for having me.
You're classing up the joint.
I am so excited to have youhere because a number one, I know
how busy you are, and for youto take time to come onto the show
means a lot.
I'm really grateful.
But of course, as you may ormay not know, I think you know, this
is a space where we like to,as I like to say, talk to the world's
(05:58):
most creative people.
We're here to help artiststell their stories and promote their
work.
And so you align perfectlywith our mission.
Of course, the great work youdo at the Mono Arts Council is, of
course, absolutely alignedwith our mission.
And by the way, I was recentlyhonored and accepted as a board member.
And so, like, I don't knowwhat you're thinking or drinking
(06:20):
over there having me on theboard, but I am so excited and grateful
to be on the board and lookforward to contributing not just
to the organization that Iadmire and respect, but to this amazing
part of the country, theeastern Sierra, and helping and serving
the artists that live and work there.
And so thank you for coming onthe show and thank you for having
(06:41):
me on the board.
Really happy to have you.
We're excited about, you know,just the opportunities that you bring
to the table.
And, yeah, it's an excitingtime for Mono Arts Council.
Mono Arts Council.
So, so.
And of course, as a boardmember, I should know this, but I'm
a new board member, so, youknow, got me some slack.
When was the.
What's the origin story?
(07:01):
This is for the benefit of ourlisteners here.
Take us back to the originstory of Mono Arts.
Sure.
So the arts council startedvery informally by a group of local
artists who were interested inputting on an arts festival in Mammoth
Lake.
There was, you know, handfulof artists that didn't have any opportunities
(07:22):
in the late 60s to showcasetheir art or sell their art.
So they decided that theywanted to start an art festival on
Labor Day weekend.
And for anyone who has been toMammoth during Labor Day weekend
in the recent years, it wasnothing like it is now.
It was dead.
You know, in the late 60s,early 70s, mammoth was only a new
(07:46):
ski town.
And so the only recreationthat happened was during the winter,
and during the summer, it justwent to bed.
And so they decided, well, let's.
Let's do something.
Let's, you know, create anevent to bring people to the area
and.
And maybe get some exposurefor our own art.
So they started the festival,the Labor Day Festival of the Art,
(08:07):
I believe in nine.
And you know, they had it.
I think it's in an area that'snow been developed.
But anyway, so that wasunofficially how it started.
And that event just kind ofcontinued year after year after year.
And eventually they were kindof growing the event and decided
(08:28):
that, well, gosh, we're makingsome money, we're getting some exposure,
so let's organize.
And they turned themselvesinto the Mammoth Art Guild and they
were known as the Mammoth ArtGuild for many years.
And then finally in 1992, theydecided to become a nonprofit at
Mammoth Art Guild.
So they filed their paperworkwith the IRS and the, you know, all
(08:53):
the stuff you need to do as a nonprofit.
So we got our nonprofit statusin 1992 as mamps are killed.
And then I believe in 2012they changed the name to Mono Council
for the Arts.
And then in 2015, we rebrandedto Mono Arts Council, where we are
(09:18):
now.
And over the years, obviouslywe've evolved.
We don't do the Labor DayFestival of the Arts anymore.
That one ended after its 50thyear in 20 believe it was 2018.
That's a heck of a run.
That's a heck of a run, though.
50 years it was.
And we had a big 50 yearcelebration with some of the original
(09:38):
founders of the art guild and,and the posters from all the years.
So it was really special.
But you know, we've had lotsof different events over the years.
Mammoth celebrates the artwe'd had.
There was an event by one ofour founding executive director called
Fiesta Caliente.
But over the years that theorganization has just evolved in
(09:59):
toward being responsive towhat the community needs are and
kind of led us to where we aretoday, which is that our primary
focus is arts education andmaking sure that all the students
in Mono county have access toall art.
Yeah.
(10:20):
Wow.
And that's, that's obviously,you know, critically important for
so many reasons.
And we'll get into, you know,taking a step back for a second because
of course, you and I knowexactly what we're talking about
when we say things likeEastern Sierra and Mono County.
But for those listeners inGermany and abroad, let's be more
specific in terms of whereexactly we're talking about.
(10:41):
Right.
We're talking about theEastern Sierra in California.
Eastern California Central.
Well, you know, I guesscentral eastern part of the state.
Mammoth Lakes being the sortof beloved ski destination that is
in Mono County.
But.
But many wonderful thingshappen or exist in Mono county, not
the least of which is MonoLakes, which is incredibly beautiful.
(11:04):
And so this is just a reallyspecial, beautiful part of California
of the United States of the world.
And.
And you grew up up there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
You hit the.
You hit the jackpot.
Unlike a lot of people whogrow up in rural areas, you actually,
you actually left and thencame back because it's so amazing.
A lot of people leave ruralareas that never come back.
(11:26):
And so talk about that.
What was that like for yougrowing up and then.
And then leaving and thencoming back?
Yeah, so it was, it wasdefinitely interesting.
My parents were living in SanDiego and they just didn't feel like
the part of San Diego we wereliving in was a good place to raise
a kid.
So they moved, you know, and they.
(11:47):
My mom had been coming toMammoth with her family for a long
time, and it was just a reallyspecial place for them.
So we moved here when I was ayear old in 1976, dating myself there
anyway.
And.
And yeah, you know, it was.
We lived in Mammoth at firstand it was again, very different
(12:07):
than it used than it is now.
It was very much a small townand we lived in the part of Mounds
Lake they call the ghetto,which is not at all a ghetto.
Yeah.
And, you know, we knew ourneighbors and it was, it just had
that kind of very small townfeel feel to it.
And then when I was about six,we moved to Crowley.
(12:31):
And then, you know, we werethere until I graduated from high
school.
You know, I, it was, you know,growing up there, I had obviously
a lot of exposure to the outdoors.
We're, you know, very close toYosemite national park, so we would
go there a lot during thesummer when you can access the park.
(12:53):
And so we did a lot of hikingand biking and, you know, going to
the different lakes.
My grandfather is an avid.
Was an avid fisherman, so wewould fish a lot in Crowley Lake.
And during the, during thewinter, I mean, you're by a ski resort,
so, of course, you know, Iskied on the mountain.
My parents were both skiinstructors, so we definitely had
(13:13):
a lot of outdoor exposure, butthe cultural exposure was limited.
That being said, I feel likethere were a lot of different organizations
throughout the area that werereally, you know, doing a lot.
And, and so I, you know, therewas an organization called Heiser
Musical Theater that startedin 81 or something around there,
(13:35):
and they, they do a summermusical every year.
And so, you know, one of myvery first live theater experiences
was going to see the Sound ofMusic at what is now Canyon Lodge.
Live on stage and sitting on Ahay bale with.
My parents love it, but it wasjust magical.
(13:55):
And they would do.
There was also the SierraSummer Festival happening around
the same time.
So they bring classical musicand folk music and other kinds of
things to the same stage.
And, you know, they're in abeautiful outdoor setting.
So it's kind of a unique, youknow, where arts met the outdoors
(14:16):
kind of experience.
And so I really, you know, Ienjoyed that.
And then as far as, like,being a kind of a quirky, artistic
person, my parents recognizedthat, so they tried to get me involved
in, you know, whatever they could.
Of course, I did Girl Scoutsbecause, you know, it's outdoors,
(14:37):
and you got to do thingsoutdoors here.
But then I did, like,gymnastics, and that turned into
dance lessons.
And, you know, and theneventually I started taking piano
lessons because there weren't,like, really any in school opportunities
for music.
Right.
So, you know, everything wedid was.
It was, like, out of pocketfor my parents, and it was some kind
(14:59):
of lesson with, you know,either a dance teacher or piano teacher
or whatever.
My parents were not wealthy byany means, and so it definitely was
always a struggle for them,but they, you know, is important
to them.
Yes.
So, yeah, you know, theybrought me, you know, our experiences
wherever they could, and I'mreally grateful for that.
(15:21):
And then in high school, youknow, again, there was.
There was a little bit.
I.
You know, because I'd donedance, I auditioned to be a cheerleader,
but I.
Because I've been doing balletand everything, I was a little too
grateful for that.
So they.
They made me the mascot.
Graceful.
To be a cheerleader.
I don't know.
(15:42):
That's amazing.
So, yeah, I became the highschool mascot, but I had a lot of
fun doing that.
So that was.
But then it was not, you know,then my freshman year, I found the
theater.
The theater club.
And then it was like, okay,now I found my people.
And so I started workingbackstage on the, you know, the spring
musical, which was Little Shopof Horrors, and.
(16:06):
And just like, yeah, found my tribe.
And that was amazing.
And, like, I did every singleshow I could for all the rest of
high school.
And, you know, you know, metmy friends and people I would hang
out with for the rest of, youknow, the school, the school year
and all four years.
And I also did vocal jazz.
(16:26):
I have always loved music.
I actually majored in music incollege, and I loved that, too.
But I, believe it or not, wasa very shy person in high school.
I really find that hard to believe.
But.
Okay, I'll take your word.
For it.
Very timid, very shy, veryunsure of myself.
And so in vocal jazz, I was,you know, it's an ensemble, but I
(16:48):
was always very quiet.
And so, you know, I try toaudition for solos, but I never just.
Yeah, I could not stand.
You don't have lead singersyndrome, Is that.
Is that what you're saying?
At least I did it.
Yeah.
So, like, my nickname in vocaljazz was Fievel the Mouth.
(17:09):
Yeah.
So.
But I still loved it.
And we would go to the RenoJazz Festival because Nevada is just
right next door to us andthere's, you know, three hour trip,
so I love that.
But that program actually gotcut while I was in school because
the funding for arts educationwas getting just thrashed at the
time.
And so I think I was a juniorin high school when that program
(17:33):
just went away.
And at that point I hadalready decided that I was going
to major in music in college.
And the one class I had inschool that could potentially prepare
me for going to music schoolwas gone.
That was.
That was pretty rough.
And I remember being justcompletely devastated by that.
(17:53):
And.
But it also fuels me now.
Right.
Having that experience.
So.
But yeah, you know, it's.
The school has grown, thecommunity has grown.
I'm really grateful.
When I, you know, growing upand going to high school in the early
90s, it wasn't easy, I'll giveyou that.
I'm only one of a few of myclassmates that stayed or that came
(18:17):
back and pretty much everybodyleft and never came back because,
you know, for a class size of30 students, we had cliques and we
had bullies and, you know, ifyou didn't have your people, you
were very isolated and, you know.
Yeah.
Like, you have a few friendsand that's it.
And.
And so, yeah, it was interesting.
(18:39):
Yeah.
So.
So.
So clearly you found yourpeople and you found your.
Your.
Well, for, I guess a good wayof putting it, you found your voice,
you found your people.
In the performing arts.
And terms of ruralcommunities, you sort of hit the
jackpot because you are inthis amazing mountainous area that
is, you know, you know, notjust skiable, but.
(19:00):
But great skiing.
And then, you know, with itsproximity to Yosemite and Nevada,
like, really sweet spot, youknow, in terms of rural living.
But you, you leave and comeback and you left to study performing
arts.
Right.
Like you.
You.
And forgive me I should knowthis, but was it San Jose State?
Where did you, where did yougo to college?
(19:21):
I went to Sonoma State.
Sonoma State, Sorry.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then you Studied theaterarts at Sonoma State.
Actually, I studied music.
Music, okay.
Yeah, yeah.
And that's where you developedyour Lead Singer syndrome.
Sure.
What'd you major in?
Lead Singer syndrome.
Amazing.
So then you graduate rightafter graduation.
(19:42):
Did you then come back, or didyou, like, go on walkabout?
What was it like after graduation?
Did you head right back?
I did, actually.
I had been coming back for thesummers because I had a steady summer
job.
One of the summer before Igraduated, I came back and I auditioned
for the musical Anything Goesand was.
(20:06):
Was cast in that.
And so, you know, while I wasthere and, you know, getting to know
some of the, you know,families of the cast members and
so on, and they were learningabout what I was going to school
for, I, you know, I, you know,found out that there was a big need
for people to teach voice andmusic lessons.
(20:27):
And at that time, I was.
I just finished up three yearsof doing music education training.
For a little bit, I thought Iwas going to be a music teacher and
come back and maybe try andget a job teaching music at my high
school.
Maybe I was going to try andrevamp that vocal jazz program.
But again, that was still whenthe state of arts education was very
(20:50):
poor in California and therejust wasn't funding for that.
So I kind of lost my, I don'tknow, inspiration for that.
And so I went into.
I switched over to vocal studies.
And so, yeah, I.
I came back for the summer andfound out that there might be, you
know, a potential for me toteach at least private lessons if
(21:14):
I came back.
So when I graduated thefollowing summer, I didn't really
know what I was going to do yet.
So I thought, well, I'll goback home and at least just give
things a try.
And what happens?
And immediately got throwninto a musical before I could even
(21:35):
think about trying to startany kind of business or anything
like that.
So I ended up playing theunthinkable Molly Brown.
I was Molly.
So, yeah, I ended up having 22students between voice and piano
lessons.
And then after a short amountof time, when I tried to reiterate
(21:58):
that in order to actually getanywhere with their lessons, they
needed to practice, thatnumber whittled down to eight students.
Right?
Right.
Yes.
Oh, I have to work at this.
Yeah, Let me.
Let me tap out.
Right.
So unfortunately, I wasn'table to make that into any kind of
living, especially Mammoth atthat time.
(22:20):
That was.
Things that really started tochange in Mammoth.
We had a lot of developmentcoming in.
The cost of living had goneway up since I had been there before.
So I had to get other jobs.
Yes, indeed.
That's how it works.
That's how it works.
How, how did you becomeinvolved in with Mac and now, I mean,
(22:40):
you're Ed now.
I mean, you run, you know,you're our fearless leader.
Talk about that specificjourney for you, for, you know, what
was that like for you?
Yeah, so I, you know, I, Idefinitely when I came back, I was
very passionate about arts inthe community.
So I, I got involved with HighSierra Musical Theater.
Unfortunately they were kindof financially struggling, so they
(23:05):
folded shortly after I moved back.
But I actually co foundedanother theater company in Town in
1999 called Sierra Classic Theater.
And they're still going.
They just celebrated their25th anniversary.
That's exciting.
Great.
Well done.
Yeah, so I was definitely, youknow, passionate about the community
(23:27):
and passionate about bringingthe art, but you know, that was a
volunteer thing obviously, so,so I, you know, I stayed involved
with that as long as I could,you know, but I got to pay the bills.
So I had various jobs inMammoth and all over the place.
And around the time that Imoved to where I live now, which
(23:49):
is overlooking Mono Lake,nearly vining, I kind of had this
realization of like thetrajectory of my life and that I
wanted to work in the nonprofit world.
I don't know, someone needs to.
What's wrong with you, Kristen?
I mean, why are you such agood person?
But so I started lookingaround and came across this organization
(24:14):
called the Eastern SierraInterpretive association, which is
now called Sierra Forever.
And they had a visitor centerand bookstore pretty close to where
I live near Mono Lake.
And, and they were hiring.
So I thought, well, you know,I love the outdoors, I love the area
and I love sharing, you know,sharing about our area with people.
So I'll give this a try.
(24:35):
So I did that for five yearsand had its ups and downs, but overall
I did enjoy it.
And again, I loved working fora nonprofit and get, you know, sort
of giving back and, and all that.
But I, the organization wasgoing through some changes and I
went to this, it was acertification for becoming an interpreter
(24:56):
in Anza Borrego Desert here inCalifornia, you know, about six hours
south or something.
And here I'm here with likeall these biologists and all these
naturalists and all thesepeople who are doing presentations
on snakes and tarantulas andplants and all this stuff which I
(25:17):
know some about, but notenough to like do a whole presentation
on.
And they're like, well, justdo it on Something, you know, and
so I'm like, oh, God.
I'm like, what am I going to do?
What am I going to do?
And there's a piano at our,you know, the site that we're all
staying at.
I'm like, well, she said, do it.
I'll let you know.
(25:37):
So.
So I decided I'm gonna do mypresentation on the piano.
And so I did.
And I, you know, I feel like Idid pretty well because I know a
lot about the piano.
But after that, I was.
It was a big, like, light bulb.
Okay.
I think I'm in the wrong field.
I still love nonprofit, but maybe.
(25:58):
I think maybe I need to shiftmy focus and really put my energy
toward trying to find a job inthe arts world.
Yes.
So.
So I just, you know, again,like, started looking around, and
at the time, the Arts Councilwas going through a big restructuring.
Founding executive director was.
(26:21):
Had just left, and the personwho was their education director
was moving into her role, andshe was looking for an assistant
director.
And I just happened, you know,again, I just put it out in the universe.
And so I go to this galleryreception that they had and I, you
know, like, hey, you know, I'mjust curious, like, if you guys happen
(26:43):
to have any job opening, youknow, I'm thinking of making a shift
and, you know, I don't know,let me know if you have anything.
And so the executive directorat the time was like, you know, actually,
we are making a big move.
And so I'll, you know, let you know.
She.
I kept following up, and thenthey finally got back to me and,
(27:05):
you know, and offered me thisjob as the assistant director in
2015.
Yeah.
Wow.
Wow.
That.
That's.
I mean, you know, from.
From 0 to 100.
Right.
10 years ago, you know, you'vebeen there.
I can't believe you've beenthere 10 years.
That's incredible.
I just joined the board.
I hope you're not goinganywhere anytime soon.
(27:28):
I mean, you know, 10 years isa good time.
It's a good time to change.
When you joined 10 years ago,how would you say the mission has
evolved over 10 years?
Yeah, I think so.
It has evolved quite a bit.
So in 2019, or, sorry, 2015,you know, with myself and our executive
(27:48):
director, Kendra Knight, andwe, you know, we had a lot of focus
on arts education, but at thetime, we only had our in school art
program, which is called Meetthe Masters at the time.
So it's a.
It's like a nationwide program.
You purchase it and then it'sArt history and visual arts lessons.
(28:08):
So we were doing that programall throughout Mono County.
We had after school programs,we had summer programs for kids,
and that was about it.
And honestly, like, we had acouple extra teaching artists, but
I was teaching, she, Kendrawas teaching.
And then we had two part timestaff that were running the gallery.
(28:30):
And then we had the LibertyFestival of the Arts we were still
doing.
We had the 4th of Julyfestival we were doing.
And then we also launched afestival at the time called June,
like Jam Festival, which isstill happening, but it's not ours
anymore.
So we had these three bigevents and then these few education
(28:50):
programs.
And so that the eventshonestly were taking up probably
70% of our time throughout the year.
And so, you know, it was.
It was different.
They were kind of there tofundraise and, you know, and they
were.
They had a purpose.
They were, you know,supporting some of our local artists.
(29:14):
Not a lot because the boothfees were pretty high and they were
bringing a lot of artists fromout of the area, and we had people
from all over the countrycoming to exhibit.
So it definitely served a purpose.
But that's, you know, again,the events were taking up a big portion
of our energy.
And so, you know, so we didthat for a few years.
(29:36):
We definitely were kind oftrying to make a shift more towards
arts education.
At that time, Kendra wasespecially passionate about arts
education.
And so we were getting moreinvolved with Mono county office
of Education and trying todevelop more programming with them.
(29:57):
We.
We worked with asuperintendent at the time to start
working on a strategic artplan for Mono county for education.
And so we started that process.
You know, it was.
We were just again trying toslowly make that shift more towards
education.
And then in 2018, Kendra hadan injury and had to step back from
(30:23):
her role.
And so I became the interimexecutive director in the fall of
2018 and had to run the LaborDay festival.
And then in 2019, officiallystepped down.
And then I applied for the job.
As the executive director justin time for Covid.
Yes, that was super fun.
(30:45):
So we had.
So we had.
It was really interesting.
So we had, you know, it wasstill like business as usual in 2019
after she left, I stillcontinued pretty much everything
she was doing.
But we, you know, one of thethings that we wanted to do was to
start bringing in moreeducation programs, like a music
(31:06):
program for this.
You know, we have two.
Just two school districts,well, technically three, but two
main school districts here inMono county.
And one of them, they have.
They didn't have any musicEducation at all.
K through 12th grade, nada.
Whereas the district thatsupports Mammoth Lakes, they have
a very robust music programthat's actually now TK through 12th
(31:30):
grade.
So we were working on tryingto develop a program for that, but
again, still doing all these festivals.
2019, we did the, you know,the 4th of July festival, then the
Labor Day festival, and thenthe jam Fest, and 2019 with the 50th
Labor Day Festival.
And so right after that, atthat time, which it actually still
(31:55):
is, the venue where thatfestival happen was for sale, and
it's still for sale.
And at that 50th festival, it was.
It was actually for sale, butit was in escrow, and it was like,
well, I don't, you know,there's no other place that this
event can move to that willmatch the charm of this venue in
(32:18):
our area.
So I, you know, brought it tothe board, and I said, hey, what
do you think?
50 is a nice golden number toend on.
We can maybe shift focus ondoing some other things.
So.
And it was a difficult decision.
I mean, I grew up going tothis event, and I loved it, but we
(32:39):
had to think about what ourpriorities were.
And at the end of the day, theamount of revenue that it raised
for fundraising was not a lot.
It now has several competingevents that weekend.
It wasn't like 1969 when westarted when there's nothing that
was the only thing to do.
So, yeah, we ended that, andthen Covid happened.
(33:00):
So it was actually kind of good.
Because we have to put on anevent in 2020.
We kind of had this excuse.
Yeah, terrible.
But we had this, you know,like, oh, well, you know, we can't
have events pandemic going on.
It's, you know, it was a verydifficult time.
And, you know, being a brandnew executive director and having
(33:22):
this pandemic and trying tokeep an arts organization afloat
was definitely challenging,but made it work.
And I think we came out of itbetter and stronger and with a clearer
focus on what our prioritieswere and the direction that we want
to head in.
(33:42):
Right, right, right.
Well, yeah, that is so challenging.
Right?
Because as.
As arts lovers, as artsprofessionals, as artists, we're
just naturally, I think,generous people who want to do it
all.
Like, we always want to say,yes, yes, let's do that.
Yes, let's do this.
And it's very difficultsometimes to say no.
(34:03):
And having that discipline andthat rigor to say, okay, yes, this
is an.
This would be nice to do, butis it core to our mission?
Is it really point us, youknow, does it.
Does it lead us in thedirection we want to go, or is it
a distraction or.
Yes, it's a legacy thing built.
You know, we.
We built an organizationaround this, but does it align for
(34:25):
the future of the organization?
And these are very difficult choices.
They are.
They are.
And we definitely feed backover the years.
Festivals.
I mean, right now, we don't have.
We don't do festivals anymore.
Right.
You know, the.
The Fourth of July festivalthat we had for about 20 years, we
recently gave over to adifferent organization in Mammoth,
(34:48):
and they're running it, youknow, great.
So it all worked out.
But, you know, we wanted toprioritize our local artists and
give them opportunities.
And so we're looking at waysto have, you know, smaller events
through and throughout Monocounty that can really support them
(35:09):
where they don't have to paythese high booth fees or, you know,
different things, but justreally, you know, emphasizing the
local artists.
Yes, it's important to haveexposure to artists out of the area
for inspiration, but notspending half the year organizing
an event that really showcases them.
(35:29):
So, yeah, it's been.
It was not an easy decision tomake, you know, for three different
events, but at the end of theday, I think it was the right decision.
Right.
Well, you know, if.
If an organization's missionis rooted in education, I mean, you
could certainly define that inany number of ways, depending on
who you're talking about.
I mean, arguably an event, youknow, one could spin that it's like,
(35:52):
oh, well, this is, you know,democratizing the arts and educating
the general population aboutart and art making an artist.
Okay, so let's do the event.
Great.
Because it's educational, too,and artists make money.
Great.
There's that.
Right?
But then there's also, like,no, no, actually, kids K through
12, you know, we don't havearts programs.
You know, like, we need toempower and democratize the arts
(36:14):
by educating young people andbringing programming into the schools.
That's obviously core,fundamental kinds of arts education,
more conventional, maybe artseducation, which is essential and
critical to a healthy society.
So that feels reallyimportant, right?
On a.
On a.
On a certain level.
But then there's also, like,okay, how do you educate and empower
(36:36):
the artists living in Mono County?
Right.
Because at the end of the day,organizations like Mac exist to support
and elevate and empower theartists living, you know, in the.
In the region, in the area.
So how does.
How does Mac think about that aspect?
You know, educating andsupporting and empowering Working
(36:56):
artists in Mono County.
I know, I know, I know.
We've talked a little bitalready about a lot, maybe about,
you know, what Mac's doing forkids K through 12.
I mean, you've alluded to it.
Anyway, what does Mac do, ifanything, to empower and educate.
And when I say educate, I meansort of like, you know, continuing
education, career development,that kind of thing for working artists
(37:20):
in Mono County?
Sure.
Yeah.
So we have a gallery andcommunity arts center, and in that
space, we're the only galleryin Mono county that showcases, you
know, all of our local andregional artists.
You know, we.
If.
If an artist is an emergingartist and they might need a little
(37:43):
bit of help to get theirartwork ready for a gallery, then
we provide mentorship to, youknow, show them how, you know, to
wire and frame their art orhow to price their art that, you
know, we have a lot of newartists that come in and they're.
Like, oh, Neil, a question.
How to.
Exactly.
I.
Pride's my work.
(38:03):
It took me so long.
So I'm gonna, you know, priceit at $5,000 or something like that.
Yeah.
So we, you know, we spend.
We do a lot of that.
And you know, there are a fewother galleries in Mono county, but
they don't have either thespace or, or just, you know, their
business model doesn't supporthaving art from as many places as
(38:26):
we do.
So.
So that's kind of our main wayof doing that.
We have our feature artistsand then we also have quarterly art
shows where anybody can submit.
So if they're, again, someonewho just started out and they're
kind of testing the waters andthey want to, you know, maybe submit
(38:47):
a few pieces.
It's a great opportunity forthem to get their feet wet and see
how it goes.
And then we have an artistreception and then we also have a
featured artist, so they get afull wall all to themselves.
They have, you know, publicityas the featured artists on our website
and social media and everything.
So we give these artists alsoa chance to really shine in the community
(39:12):
and beyond.
So that's kind of what we'redoing currently.
In addition to, you know, ifthey have a knack for teaching, we
offer jobs because we have,you know, between our, you know,
again, our programs forstudents, we also have classes for,
you know, adults and families.
(39:32):
You know, they have theability to share their practice and
they can make money as ateaching artist and, you know, teaching
art in wine class or an afterschool program or for birthday party
or whatever.
So those are just some of theways we're supporting them now, we
plan to again, like, have.
Start having different eventsthroughout Mono county where they
(39:58):
can also get their art into,you know, more hands into a farther
reach by doing that.
And we're hoping to startdoing some trainings for artists
in the business of art forthose who are interested.
You know, again, it's a ruralcommunity and you know, you have
(40:19):
some people who have come herefrom large cities and other places
and have, you know, access todifferent skills and knowledge.
And then you have some peoplewho have been here for a really long
time and just sort of beendoing business the way they've been
doing it, you know, with nocomputers or whatever, you know,
(40:40):
some people and that, youknow, we have people that are just
going to stay that way andthat's fine for them.
But if, if there are artiststhat are interested in learning more,
we definitely want to be ableto help them with that part of their
business.
So we're definitely evolvingthat side of our organization to
really be bigger support forour local artist community, to give
(41:02):
them as many opportunities aswe can.
Yeah.
Well, the beautiful thingabout the gallery and so many of
the kinds of events andprograms that you're talking about,
we were sort of talking aboutthrough the lens of the, of the artists
in ways that they can giveback or make money as a teacher or
as a host or exhibiting theirwork, what have you.
The reality is that also is aspace in a strategy for educating,
(41:28):
so called educating thegeneral public.
Right.
Because they come in, they doa paint and sip, they go to a show,
they meet an artist, theymaybe come to a printmaking class
or whatever it might be andthey're learning.
It's maybe a revenuegenerating thing for their Mac, which
is awesome, but not a lot of money.
But it's good, you know, it's,it's something and that's important.
(41:49):
And, but, but you're giving back.
We're giving back to the community.
And the community is, is, isbeing edified and empowered as well.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
So it's, you know, it's just,it's something that we've sort of
identified in the last few years.
We actually went through thestrategic planning process and developed
(42:10):
our, I am almost embarrassedto admit, our very first ever strategic
plan.
Embarrassed.
That's.
That is, that is so typical ofarts organization of any nonprofit.
So many nonprofits are just, they're.
They're so busy saving the world.
Right.
That they forget to save themselves.
And strategic plans helporganizations save themselves.
(42:32):
Yeah, yeah.
So that's been something again.
We, through that strategicplan, it would, you know, we realize,
like, yeah, we really need to,you know, put our money where our
mouths are, so to speak, whenit comes to our local artist community
and really double down onsupport for them and how we're going
to support them.
(42:52):
So, yeah, so it's beenexciting to figure that out.
And we're still figuringthings out.
And that's the way it is, right?
When you're trying to do somuch with.
You're doing a lot with a little.
Right.
And it's, you know, what's so,you know, amazing about your story
is that while you might feel,and our team might feel like, like
it's singular, like, like,like, oh, my God, you know, because
(43:14):
we're in it deep, right?
And it's like we've got theseproblems to solve and, you know,
they're existential, right?
It's like, you know, we have to.
But it's.
We're not at all unique in theworld like this.
Arts nonprofits all over thecountry are dealing with these very
same issues just through theirkind of local, you know, dynamics,
you know, and organizationslike ours, of course, just one very
(43:38):
specific example, rely onstate funding, rely on grants from
the state, and that'difficult, you know, to manage.
And certainly here in, in, in,in 2025, for all kinds of reasons.
And this isn't a political show.
We're not going to get into politics.
You know, clearly, you know,there's, there's concern, right?
(43:58):
Like, okay, well, what, whatis this administration going to mean
for, for, you know, grantmaking and for the supporting of
the arts and so on and so forth.
And, and so, you know, we're,we're not alone in this struggle.
And so how are you feelingright now about where we future looks
like for Mac over the nextfour years vis a vis California funding?
(44:20):
Is there.
Is it so unpredictable and souncertain right now that you can't
even comment?
Or are you getting a feelright now?
It's like, okay, well, seethat we can't count on this, so we're
going to need to double downon kind of more kind of individual
or sort of private kind of donations.
I mean, what, what.
(44:40):
How are you thinking andfeeling about where we're at right
now in terms of state funding?
The climate has definitely changed.
You know, even, you know, evena year ago, it had already started
to change with the state budget.
So I, that was sort of whyyou're here.
I, you know, I had this kindof big, you know, Smack on the face
(45:04):
of, like, we cannot continuein the way that we have been existing
if we're going to survive.
I can't.
I can't.
First, I can't do it all by myself.
I need a board that's ready toreally dig in with me and continue,
you know, make Mono ArtsCouncil sustainable.
(45:24):
Because the.
The grants that are out thereare limited, and they're becoming
more and more competitive asfunding sources dwindle.
So we had, you know, kind ofcoming out of COVID we had five grants
from the California Arts Council.
And last year I was only ableto apply for two.
(45:45):
One of, you know, because other.
One of them had beeneliminated completely.
Another one was no longerrelevant, and I only ended up with
one because I didn't get theother one.
So it just was kind of this,okay, we're gonna, you know, so many
people are going to beapplying for these grants, and then
recently they consolidated thegrants even more, so they're going
(46:09):
to be even that much more competitive.
And so, you know, it was like,okay, I just.
We need to revamp our board.
I need to, you know, havepeople who are really committed to.
To coming up with new sourcesof revenue for us and figuring this
out together.
And so.
So we'll still have a littlebit of funding that we can apply
(46:34):
for, but in the grand schemeof things, in our budget, it's not
going to be a lot.
And so for us, you know, I ama stubborn person.
And yes, I've been with theorganization for 10 years, but I'm
still really passionate about it.
And, you know, I have program.
You know, we did end upgetting a music program for, you
(46:55):
know, Eastern Sierra UnifiedSchool District.
And it's going so well andit's so rewarding to see, you know,
the kids and how much joy theyget from it.
So, you know, so I.
I really want to, you know,figure out how we can continue to
fund these things.
So, you know, it's.
But it's going to take a lotof creativity and it's going to be
(47:16):
finding, you know, other wayswe can generate revenue and really
relying heavily on privatedonors and foundations for funding.
Yeah.
Because, yes, the grant moneyis just not really there.
Yeah.
Not.
Not at all reliable.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's an extent it ever was reliable.
It's certainly not reliablenow in this current environment.
(47:39):
Right, right, right, right.
Yeah.
Well, that's, you know, that's.
And again, virtually everyarts organization in this country
is feeling that.
Right.
I mean, just look at theKennedy Center.
Right, right.
And so, yes, it's time to gettime to get clever, time to get creative.
You know, when you think aboutartists in Mono county, working full
(48:02):
time or part time artists, youknow, knowing what you know about
them and you know them sowell, you know, what, what would
you, what would you say?
You know, that they, I mean,if, if we asked them, if they were
with us right now and I askedthem, what do you guys want?
Need to feel supported?
What do you, what do you expect?
And what need from Mono ArtsCouncil to feel supported, to feel
(48:24):
seen, to feel heard?
What do you think they would say?
That's a good question.
It's a hard one, I admit, it'sa hard one because every artist,
I mean, it's not a monolithic community.
I mean, every artist, butit's, you know, but it is obviously
Mono county is a very unique place.
And yeah, I'm just curious ifthere's like a common.
I think it depends on who youtalk to.
(48:44):
You know, you have like yourestablished artists who have been
here a really long time andthey figured it out.
They were able to, you know,afford to, you know, rent a, you
know, some space for a studioa long time ago and it's been affordable
and whatever.
And either they're, you know,they're full time artists or they're
(49:05):
doing another job and thendoing their art.
I would say for the newerartists, I think it's a combination
of space.
We've had a lot of requestsfor studio space.
Interesting.
And then probably beyond that,just opportunities for their art
to sell their art and then.
(49:26):
And that, you know, that issomething, you know, again that we're,
we're really working on.
We're trying to partner with,you know, some of the bigger companies
in our area, with the skiarea, with the hospital, with the
county, with the town to tryand find opportunities for artists,
art to not just be shown, but purchased.
(49:47):
Right.
And so that the artists reallyget a benefit of that.
So.
So I think that's probably oneof the bigger things, you know, so
that they can have a way ofmaking a sustainable living.
You know, beyond that, I'msure, you know, certain sort of subsidies
for housing and, you know,that is one of our biggest challenges
(50:08):
in a resort area, that no onecan afford a place to live or even
find a place to live.
So, yeah, but I think thosethings probably.
What would you say on a scaleof 1 to 10, I guess, you know, in
terms of, you know, Monocounty and the residents of Mono
county, on a scale of 1 to 10,where do you think they put the arts
(50:30):
in terms of its importance andin value to the commonwealth of the
county and the importance tothe society.
That I would say, if you countall of the residents in all of Mono
County, I would say it'sprobably down pretty low.
Yeah.
Like, number maybe three.
(50:52):
Right, right.
Sadly.
Because a lot of people canbarely afford to just live, so they
have to work all the time, andmaybe they get a chance to recreate.
But in terms of having theopportunity to enjoy the art or,
you know, even the time, it'snot high on their priority list.
(51:16):
Right.
Yeah.
Which is sad.
Well, but it's also.
But it's also very typical.
You know, I would say that.
You know that.
That very well is the casehere in Los Angeles County.
It's fascinating to me.
I think a lot about this, youknow, in terms of.
Because we are.
We believe and we think weknow that art is fundamental.
And I think that there's a.
(51:37):
And it, you know, fundamentalto the common.
While fundamental to ahealthy, functioning society.
I think there's legitimate,empirical, objective argument to.
To make.
But to your point, when peopleare just struggling to make ends
meet, it feels like a luxury.
It feels like it's.
It's a.
It's a.
It's a nice to have, but not aneed to have, you know, kind of thing.
And when a.
When a thing, it was veryfascinating when the pandemic hit,
(51:58):
it sort of like, what role didart play?
You know, when people aredying and bleeding.
People are bleeding, you know,and dying.
What role does art play?
And it's the whole, you know,hierarchy of needs.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
And yet, at the same time, Ithink whether.
If people think about, they'llrealize that it's the arts that actually
(52:20):
got them through the pandemicin a lot of ways.
Because.
Of course.
Well, because of things likeNetflix and movies and tv.
I mean, that's art, you know,commercial art in a specific way.
So it is a fascinating thing that.
And I think part of it is if.
If we're.
If we're taught fromkindergarten up, right, the value
(52:40):
and the role of the arts.
I mean, suddenly you.
You.
You start to appreciate it.
I think some people are wired,you know, everyone's wired differently.
But why do we value sportsseemingly more than we value art?
Right.
Is it Darwinian?
Is it does.
Is it that sports get.
Gets us to the predator fight,fly, predator, prey, killer be killed
aspects of our.
(53:01):
Of our, you know, primal instincts?
I don't know, but it's a.
It's a.
It's a fascinatingconversation, you know.
Yeah, well.
And I mean, you know, again,in an area where, you know, recreation
rules, you know, it's.
It's just interesting.
It's something that here, thisis, you know, it's what you think
of when you think of Eastern Sierra.
(53:22):
You think of the skiing, theclimbing, the biking, the hiking,
the back.
You know, all these things.
You don't.
You know, unfortunately, youdon't really think about the arts
here.
And so people who live here,they definitely gravitate towards,
you know, those priorities.
But we're trying to just, youknow, open people's eyes to.
(53:47):
There are lots of ways toexperience the art, and you don't
necessarily have to think ofit as drawing or painting or, you
know, whatever.
You know, seeing a beautifullandscape and taking a picture of
it.
That's art.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, you know, it's interesting.
I mean, you know, I've oftensort of, you know, joked, half joked
that, you know, art is soul food.
(54:08):
You know, like you.
It feeds the soul.
It feeds the spirit.
And, you know, skiing on amountain feeds the soul, too, you
know, and if you feelnourished, maybe you don't know.
You know, it's like, well, I don't.
I don't need.
I don't need that painting orI don't need that thing because I'm.
I'm hiking every day.
I'm skiing every day.
I mean, they're not thinkingabout it in those conscious terms
maybe, but it's like, if youfeel nourished, you feel nourished.
(54:31):
Right?
But.
But it is funny to me howpeople can live in a house with blank
walls.
You know, it's like that, youknow, I mean, unless you're just
a complete minimalist,modernist brutalist of just like,
you know, like.
Okay, you know, and that's anintentional choice.
Okay, fine.
But, but, but.
But the fact that, you know,people will live in a house with
(54:53):
blank walls, to me, when theycould buy $100 print.
That's beautiful.
Or a, you know, $500photograph, whatever.
It's.
It's really interesting to me.
It's like, wow, you know,like, how.
How, you know, that would justdrive me bananas that, you know,
like, there's no color in my house.
There's no color on my walls.
(55:14):
Yeah.
You know, my kids watch.
Every once in a while, mydaughter will watch these, you know,
YouTube videos or whatever ofthese kids making these other videos,
and they're.
They're, you know, makingthese videos in their House, you
know, presumably their parentshouse or something.
And it's just like, there'snothing on the walls.
I mean, they're just living,you know, it's like, okay, okay.
To each their own.
I don't want to sound like asnob, but you know what, it.
(55:36):
But I mean, part of it also, Ithink, gets to just this sense that
I think the conventionalwisdom is that art is expensive and
I can't afford it.
Right.
And that's so not true.
It's just so not true.
Yeah, well, you know, I thinkit's just sort of a stigma around,
you know, art that has beenperpetuated over the years, that
(55:58):
it's part of the elite class.
And, you know, that you havethese museums and you have these
galleries and it's, you know,something that the upper class get
to enjoy.
And, you know, I think thatit, you know, it's on us to demystify
that and let everybody knowthat no, all art is accessible to
everyone.
Yes, you can make it, you canparticipate in it, you can buy it.
(56:23):
You know, it's not just forthe upper class anymore.
Well, and it's also aboutbeing able to see the world in a
certain kind of way as well.
And that comes from, like,just, I don't know, learning, reading,
watching, observing, being open.
I mean, you know, I'll tellyou a personal story.
So I have a piece of art that,that I get so much positive feedback
(56:46):
from.
And, and you know, nine out of10 people would have walked by this
thing and never saw the art in it.
Right?
But I guess because of myunique experience and my background,
you know, as a graphicdesigner, as an artist, what have
you, I saw the art in it, right?
So.
So I was walking.
So down here in la, maybe youheard, heard about it down at the
(57:07):
Rose Bowl.
Pasadena.
You know, in Pasadena, at theRose bowl, they have the flea market.
It's.
It's a huge thing.
Like once a month, like you gothere and just like all kinds of
cool stuff, you know, and Iwas going through this, this crate
of stuff, you know, whatever,just random photos or whatever it
was.
And, and I found this badlyframed collection of match books.
(57:30):
Okay.
And they wanted 10 bucks for it.
Okay, Yeah, I bought it.
I saw it.
I saw the genius of it, and Ibought it instantly.
Okay?
I reframed it.
I spent, I don't know, 50bucks, whatever, reframing it.
I hung it on my wall.
And for the last 15 years, Ihave gotten so much positive feedback.
(57:51):
Now the question is, well,what the heck Were the matchbooks
right?
Like, what was it?
So, about this.
Well, somebody.
I don't know who, but somebodyat some point in the.
Not, you know, in the last 30,40 years, took it upon themselves
to visit every brothel inNevada and take a matchbook.
Well, I have to assume it'severy brothel in Nevada because there's,
(58:13):
like, a lot of matchbooks.
Maybe it's not every brothelin Nevada, but it's like, at least
25 brothels in Nevada that hecollected, or she collected matchbooks
from every brothel.
And then took the intentional.
Intentionally laid thesethings out on this.
On this board and then framed it.
And it was for sale for 10 bucks.
(58:34):
And I was like, you know what?
I gotta have this.
I have to have this.
This is a work of art, in my view.
In my sick, twisted mind, thisis a.
This is a.
And, you know, and it'shanging on my wall today.
So I just share that storybecause I want people to know.
Yes, of course you should bebuying art from artists.
Of course.
Number one.
(58:55):
But sometimes you stumble uponsomething that is just so weird and
unique and crazy.
And you know what?
It's five bucks, it's tenbucks, maybe take it home, hang it
on the wall.
It's art, and it makes peoplehappy, it makes people think, it
makes people feel, you know?
Exactly.
Yeah.
Well, Chris and Reese, I'msorry to end this interview with
(59:15):
a story about me, because thiswas all about you.
And I'm so grateful that youcame on to talk about your journey
and the important work thatyou do at Mac.
And I'm just so grateful to beaffiliated and associated with Mac
and be the newbie on the board.
And I just look forward to thenext couple of years working together
(59:35):
and looking for thosecreative, clever ways that we can
keep the organization growingand being vibrant and serving the
artists and the people of Mono County.
And I'm thrilled that nextmonth we get to spend time together
in Sacramento at theCalifornia Arts meeting.
What the heck is it called, bythe way?
I did sign up.
(59:55):
I did manage to confirm.
Their website is horrible, people.
I hope somebody's hearing this.
You really need to redesignthat website.
But I'm excited to spend somequality time with you and some of
the other board members therein Sacramento next month.
That'll be great.
That's gonna be great.
Well, in the meantime, I'll beseeing you in the next week or so
in our fair.
(01:00:16):
I was thinking we could meetin Lee Viney.
That's closer to home, right?
Last time you drove all theway down to Mammoth Lakes or Mammoth.
So I owe you at least to go alittle bit further your way.
You know, that's only fair,weather permitting, right?
Weather permitting.
This is the caveat, right?
Everything between Novemberand April has to.
(01:00:39):
Have the we permitting,weather permitting caveat.
That's right.
That's right.
Well, Kristen, you have abeautiful evening.
Thank you so much for coming on.
And you know, you're welcomeback anytime.
Please, please come back anytime.
Thank you so much.
You're welcome.
Thanks for listening to theNot Real Art podcast.
Please make sure to like thisepisode, write a review, and share
(01:01:00):
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Also, remember to subscribe soyou get all of our new episodes.
Not Real Art is produced byCrew West Studios in Los Angeles.
Our theme music was created byRicky Peugeot and Desi Delauro from
the band parlor Social.
Not Real Art is created by weedit podcasts and hosted by Captivate.
Thanks again for listening toNot Real Art.
(01:01:22):
We'll be back soon withanother inspiring episode celebrating
creative culture and theartists who make it.
The Not Real Art Podcast isintended for creative audiences only.
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It contains material that isfresh, fun and inspiring and is not
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Now let's get started andenjoy the show.
(00:47):
Greetings and salutations, mycreative brothers and sisters.
Welcome to Not Real Art, thepodcast where we talk to the world's
most creative people.
I am your host.
Faithful, trusty, loyal,tireless, relentless host.
Sourdough coming at you fromCrew West Studio in Los Angeles.
Man, do we have a great showfor you today.
We have the one and onlyKristen Zane Power Reese, the Executive
(01:09):
Director of the Mono ArtsCouncil in Mono County, California.
The Eastern Sierra, AKAMammoth Lakes, famous for its amazing
skiing.
Kristen is an arts leader inthat part of California and she's
on the show to talk about hergreat work.
So please stay tuned for thatgreat conversation.
But before we get into it, Iwant to thank you for tuning in.
(01:30):
We do this for you.
It's all about you.
If it wasn't for you, well,I'd just be talking into a microphone
and that would be sad.
So thanks for tuning in.
We really appreciate your loyalty.
I also want to thank oursponsor, Arturial, nonprofit arts
organization that underwritesthe show because of our relationship
with Arterial.
You can help support our workand support this show by making a
(01:52):
tax free donation.
You can make that donation ofany amount@notrelart.com or by going
to Arturo's website arturo.organd making a donation there.
Please consider doing that.
We so appreciate your support.
It helps us keep the lights onand you get a tax benefit for doing
so.
So please consider doing that.
(02:12):
Thank you very much.
I also want to encourage you,of course, as I always do, to go
check out all the good healthystuff, nutritious stuff we have for
you@notrealart.com on our website.
It's all free range, organic,gluten free.
Amazing stories about artistsand artworks and incredible programs
like the first Friday's artexhibitions we curate every month,
the Remote series with Badir McCleary.
(02:33):
On and on.
So many greatthings@notrealart.com Please go check
it out.
Also want to encourage you tocheck out Our sister publication
artsvilleusa.com Artsville USAwe celebrate American contemporary
arts and crafts from AshevilleWest, North Carolina and beyond.
Please go check outartsvilleusa.com I think you'll love
it.
A lot of great inspiring stuff there.
So without further ado, I wantto get into this fantastic conversation.
(02:57):
I had with Kristen Reese.
Kristen Reese is a longtimeresident of the Eastern Sierra in
California, here arriving withher parents in 1976.
While she spent her youthmostly learning the performing arts,
she was constantly exposedfrom having painters, photographers,
musicians and dancers in her family.
She left that area, which ispretty rural, to obtain her Bachelor's
of Arts degree in music fromSonoma State University.
(03:21):
But she of course couldn'tstay away too long because the Eastern
Sierra is gorgeous.
Absolutely gorgeous.
Think about, if you thinkabout Yosemite national park, that's
where Yosemite is, that areafor those of us who have been there,
we know how gorgeous it is.
So it's hard to leave andcertainly easy to come back.
Certainly when you call ithome, right?
(03:41):
So when she got back, shequickly reconnected to the Eastern
Sierra arts community.
She co founded the Sierraclassic theater in 1999 at the Adidas
Gallery and Tea Room in 2003where she was introduced to many
of the Mono Arts Council localartists and is honored to lead Mono
Arts Council.
And she will work, as shealways does, towards ensuring that
(04:03):
every child of Mono county hasaccess to the art.
She hopes to connect moreartists and patrons of all arts to
this long standing organization.
She is currently the singerand percussionist for the local band
Bodhi 601.
She enjoys backpacking,kayaking, jogging and cross country
skiing, loves taking picturesand learning new art mediums and
resides in the Mono Basin withher husband and fellow musician Russ.
(04:26):
I met Kristen because I spenta lot of time up in this part of
the country, this part of thestate, and I wanted to connect with
the local arts community there.
And I looked up Mono Arts Council.
I learned about Kristen.
I reached out, gave her oldcold call, little email and stalked
her until she agreed to havecoffee with me.
(04:46):
And then much to my surprise,she invited me to join the board
of the organization.
So I'm now on the board of theMono Arts Council, which is fantastic.
Just a few weeks in here, somestill wet behind the ears and learning
all about it and can't wait tomake some hopefully valuable contributions
to this organization and tothe artists working and living in
this very special part of the world.
So I'm thrilled.
(05:07):
And by the way, did knowKristen and I are actually cousins.
Kristen told me that as Imight have mentioned, her name is
Kristen Zane Power Reese.
And Power is my last name,good old Irish name.
And turns out Chris and I areactually distant cousins.
So that's very cool.
Without further ado, let's getinto this fantastic conversation
with the One and only KristenZane Power Reese.
(05:38):
Kristen Reese.
Welcome to not real Art.
Thank you for having me.
You're classing up the joint.
I am so excited to have youhere because a number one, I know
how busy you are, and for youto take time to come onto the show
means a lot.
I'm really grateful.
But of course, as you may ormay not know, I think you know, this
is a space where we like to,as I like to say, talk to the world's
(05:58):
most creative people.
We're here to help artiststell their stories and promote their
work.
And so you align perfectlywith our mission.
Of course, the great work youdo at the Mono Arts Council is, of
course, absolutely alignedwith our mission.
And by the way, I was recentlyhonored and accepted as a board member.
And so, like, I don't knowwhat you're thinking or drinking
(06:20):
over there having me on theboard, but I am so excited and grateful
to be on the board and lookforward to contributing not just
to the organization that Iadmire and respect, but to this amazing
part of the country, theeastern Sierra, and helping and serving
the artists that live and work there.
And so thank you for coming onthe show and thank you for having
(06:41):
me on the board.
Really happy to have you.
We're excited about, you know,just the opportunities that you bring
to the table.
And, yeah, it's an excitingtime for Mono Arts Council.
Mono Arts Council.
So, so.
And of course, as a boardmember, I should know this, but I'm
a new board member, so, youknow, got me some slack.
When was the.
What's the origin story?
(07:01):
This is for the benefit of ourlisteners here.
Take us back to the originstory of Mono Arts.
Sure.
So the arts council startedvery informally by a group of local
artists who were interested inputting on an arts festival in Mammoth
Lake.
There was, you know, handfulof artists that didn't have any opportunities
(07:22):
in the late 60s to showcasetheir art or sell their art.
So they decided that theywanted to start an art festival on
Labor Day weekend.
And for anyone who has been toMammoth during Labor Day weekend
in the recent years, it wasnothing like it is now.
It was dead.
You know, in the late 60s,early 70s, mammoth was only a new
(07:46):
ski town.
And so the only recreationthat happened was during the winter,
and during the summer, it justwent to bed.
And so they decided, well, let's.
Let's do something.
Let's, you know, create anevent to bring people to the area
and.
And maybe get some exposurefor our own art.
So they started the festival,the Labor Day Festival of the Art,
(08:07):
I believe in nine.
And you know, they had it.
I think it's in an area that'snow been developed.
But anyway, so that wasunofficially how it started.
And that event just kind ofcontinued year after year after year.
And eventually they were kindof growing the event and decided
(08:28):
that, well, gosh, we're makingsome money, we're getting some exposure,
so let's organize.
And they turned themselvesinto the Mammoth Art Guild and they
were known as the Mammoth ArtGuild for many years.
And then finally in 1992, theydecided to become a nonprofit at
Mammoth Art Guild.
So they filed their paperworkwith the IRS and the, you know, all
(08:53):
the stuff you need to do as a nonprofit.
So we got our nonprofit statusin 1992 as mamps are killed.
And then I believe in 2012they changed the name to Mono Council
for the Arts.
And then in 2015, we rebrandedto Mono Arts Council, where we are
(09:18):
now.
And over the years, obviouslywe've evolved.
We don't do the Labor DayFestival of the Arts anymore.
That one ended after its 50thyear in 20 believe it was 2018.
That's a heck of a run.
That's a heck of a run, though.
50 years it was.
And we had a big 50 yearcelebration with some of the original
(09:38):
founders of the art guild and,and the posters from all the years.
So it was really special.
But you know, we've had lotsof different events over the years.
Mammoth celebrates the artwe'd had.
There was an event by one ofour founding executive director called
Fiesta Caliente.
But over the years that theorganization has just evolved in
(09:59):
toward being responsive towhat the community needs are and
kind of led us to where we aretoday, which is that our primary
focus is arts education andmaking sure that all the students
in Mono county have access toall art.
Yeah.
(10:20):
Wow.
And that's, that's obviously,you know, critically important for
so many reasons.
And we'll get into, you know,taking a step back for a second because
of course, you and I knowexactly what we're talking about
when we say things likeEastern Sierra and Mono County.
But for those listeners inGermany and abroad, let's be more
specific in terms of whereexactly we're talking about.
(10:41):
Right.
We're talking about theEastern Sierra in California.
Eastern California Central.
Well, you know, I guesscentral eastern part of the state.
Mammoth Lakes being the sortof beloved ski destination that is
in Mono County.
But.
But many wonderful thingshappen or exist in Mono county, not
the least of which is MonoLakes, which is incredibly beautiful.
(11:04):
And so this is just a reallyspecial, beautiful part of California
of the United States of the world.
And.
And you grew up up there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
You hit the.
You hit the jackpot.
Unlike a lot of people whogrow up in rural areas, you actually,
you actually left and thencame back because it's so amazing.
A lot of people leave ruralareas that never come back.
(11:26):
And so talk about that.
What was that like for yougrowing up and then.
And then leaving and thencoming back?
Yeah, so it was, it wasdefinitely interesting.
My parents were living in SanDiego and they just didn't feel like
the part of San Diego we wereliving in was a good place to raise
a kid.
So they moved, you know, and they.
(11:47):
My mom had been coming toMammoth with her family for a long
time, and it was just a reallyspecial place for them.
So we moved here when I was ayear old in 1976, dating myself there
anyway.
And.
And yeah, you know, it was.
We lived in Mammoth at firstand it was again, very different
(12:07):
than it used than it is now.
It was very much a small townand we lived in the part of Mounds
Lake they call the ghetto,which is not at all a ghetto.
Yeah.
And, you know, we knew ourneighbors and it was, it just had
that kind of very small townfeel feel to it.
And then when I was about six,we moved to Crowley.
(12:31):
And then, you know, we werethere until I graduated from high
school.
You know, I, it was, you know,growing up there, I had obviously
a lot of exposure to the outdoors.
We're, you know, very close toYosemite national park, so we would
go there a lot during thesummer when you can access the park.
(12:53):
And so we did a lot of hikingand biking and, you know, going to
the different lakes.
My grandfather is an avid.
Was an avid fisherman, so wewould fish a lot in Crowley Lake.
And during the, during thewinter, I mean, you're by a ski resort,
so, of course, you know, Iskied on the mountain.
My parents were both skiinstructors, so we definitely had
(13:13):
a lot of outdoor exposure, butthe cultural exposure was limited.
That being said, I feel likethere were a lot of different organizations
throughout the area that werereally, you know, doing a lot.
And, and so I, you know, therewas an organization called Heiser
Musical Theater that startedin 81 or something around there,
(13:35):
and they, they do a summermusical every year.
And so, you know, one of myvery first live theater experiences
was going to see the Sound ofMusic at what is now Canyon Lodge.
Live on stage and sitting on Ahay bale with.
My parents love it, but it wasjust magical.
(13:55):
And they would do.
There was also the SierraSummer Festival happening around
the same time.
So they bring classical musicand folk music and other kinds of
things to the same stage.
And, you know, they're in abeautiful outdoor setting.
So it's kind of a unique, youknow, where arts met the outdoors
(14:16):
kind of experience.
And so I really, you know, Ienjoyed that.
And then as far as, like,being a kind of a quirky, artistic
person, my parents recognizedthat, so they tried to get me involved
in, you know, whatever they could.
Of course, I did Girl Scoutsbecause, you know, it's outdoors,
(14:37):
and you got to do thingsoutdoors here.
But then I did, like,gymnastics, and that turned into
dance lessons.
And, you know, and theneventually I started taking piano
lessons because there weren't,like, really any in school opportunities
for music.
Right.
So, you know, everything wedid was.
It was, like, out of pocketfor my parents, and it was some kind
(14:59):
of lesson with, you know,either a dance teacher or piano teacher
or whatever.
My parents were not wealthy byany means, and so it definitely was
always a struggle for them,but they, you know, is important
to them.
Yes.
So, yeah, you know, theybrought me, you know, our experiences
wherever they could, and I'mreally grateful for that.
(15:21):
And then in high school, youknow, again, there was.
There was a little bit.
I.
You know, because I'd donedance, I auditioned to be a cheerleader,
but I.
Because I've been doing balletand everything, I was a little too
grateful for that.
So they.
They made me the mascot.
Graceful.
To be a cheerleader.
I don't know.
(15:42):
That's amazing.
So, yeah, I became the highschool mascot, but I had a lot of
fun doing that.
So that was.
But then it was not, you know,then my freshman year, I found the
theater.
The theater club.
And then it was like, okay,now I found my people.
And so I started workingbackstage on the, you know, the spring
musical, which was Little Shopof Horrors, and.
(16:06):
And just like, yeah, found my tribe.
And that was amazing.
And, like, I did every singleshow I could for all the rest of
high school.
And, you know, you know, metmy friends and people I would hang
out with for the rest of, youknow, the school, the school year
and all four years.
And I also did vocal jazz.
(16:26):
I have always loved music.
I actually majored in music incollege, and I loved that, too.
But I, believe it or not, wasa very shy person in high school.
I really find that hard to believe.
But.
Okay, I'll take your word.
For it.
Very timid, very shy, veryunsure of myself.
And so in vocal jazz, I was,you know, it's an ensemble, but I
(16:48):
was always very quiet.
And so, you know, I try toaudition for solos, but I never just.
Yeah, I could not stand.
You don't have lead singersyndrome, Is that.
Is that what you're saying?
At least I did it.
Yeah.
So, like, my nickname in vocaljazz was Fievel the Mouth.
(17:09):
Yeah.
So.
But I still loved it.
And we would go to the RenoJazz Festival because Nevada is just
right next door to us andthere's, you know, three hour trip,
so I love that.
But that program actually gotcut while I was in school because
the funding for arts educationwas getting just thrashed at the
time.
And so I think I was a juniorin high school when that program
(17:33):
just went away.
And at that point I hadalready decided that I was going
to major in music in college.
And the one class I had inschool that could potentially prepare
me for going to music schoolwas gone.
That was.
That was pretty rough.
And I remember being justcompletely devastated by that.
(17:53):
And.
But it also fuels me now.
Right.
Having that experience.
So.
But yeah, you know, it's.
The school has grown, thecommunity has grown.
I'm really grateful.
When I, you know, growing upand going to high school in the early
90s, it wasn't easy, I'll giveyou that.
I'm only one of a few of myclassmates that stayed or that came
(18:17):
back and pretty much everybodyleft and never came back because,
you know, for a class size of30 students, we had cliques and we
had bullies and, you know, ifyou didn't have your people, you
were very isolated and, you know.
Yeah.
Like, you have a few friendsand that's it.
And.
And so, yeah, it was interesting.
(18:39):
Yeah.
So.
So.
So clearly you found yourpeople and you found your.
Your.
Well, for, I guess a good wayof putting it, you found your voice,
you found your people.
In the performing arts.
And terms of ruralcommunities, you sort of hit the
jackpot because you are inthis amazing mountainous area that
is, you know, you know, notjust skiable, but.
(19:00):
But great skiing.
And then, you know, with itsproximity to Yosemite and Nevada,
like, really sweet spot, youknow, in terms of rural living.
But you, you leave and comeback and you left to study performing
arts.
Right.
Like you.
You.
And forgive me I should knowthis, but was it San Jose State?
Where did you, where did yougo to college?
(19:21):
I went to Sonoma State.
Sonoma State, Sorry.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then you Studied theaterarts at Sonoma State.
Actually, I studied music.
Music, okay.
Yeah, yeah.
And that's where you developedyour Lead Singer syndrome.
Sure.
What'd you major in?
Lead Singer syndrome.
Amazing.
So then you graduate rightafter graduation.
(19:42):
Did you then come back, or didyou, like, go on walkabout?
What was it like after graduation?
Did you head right back?
I did, actually.
I had been coming back for thesummers because I had a steady summer
job.
One of the summer before Igraduated, I came back and I auditioned
for the musical Anything Goesand was.
(20:06):
Was cast in that.
And so, you know, while I wasthere and, you know, getting to know
some of the, you know,families of the cast members and
so on, and they were learningabout what I was going to school
for, I, you know, I, you know,found out that there was a big need
for people to teach voice andmusic lessons.
(20:27):
And at that time, I was.
I just finished up three yearsof doing music education training.
For a little bit, I thought Iwas going to be a music teacher and
come back and maybe try andget a job teaching music at my high
school.
Maybe I was going to try andrevamp that vocal jazz program.
But again, that was still whenthe state of arts education was very
(20:50):
poor in California and therejust wasn't funding for that.
So I kind of lost my, I don'tknow, inspiration for that.
And so I went into.
I switched over to vocal studies.
And so, yeah, I.
I came back for the summer andfound out that there might be, you
know, a potential for me toteach at least private lessons if
(21:14):
I came back.
So when I graduated thefollowing summer, I didn't really
know what I was going to do yet.
So I thought, well, I'll goback home and at least just give
things a try.
And what happens?
And immediately got throwninto a musical before I could even
(21:35):
think about trying to startany kind of business or anything
like that.
So I ended up playing theunthinkable Molly Brown.
I was Molly.
So, yeah, I ended up having 22students between voice and piano
lessons.
And then after a short amountof time, when I tried to reiterate
(21:58):
that in order to actually getanywhere with their lessons, they
needed to practice, thatnumber whittled down to eight students.
Right?
Right.
Yes.
Oh, I have to work at this.
Yeah, Let me.
Let me tap out.
Right.
So unfortunately, I wasn'table to make that into any kind of
living, especially Mammoth atthat time.
(22:20):
That was.
Things that really started tochange in Mammoth.
We had a lot of developmentcoming in.
The cost of living had goneway up since I had been there before.
So I had to get other jobs.
Yes, indeed.
That's how it works.
That's how it works.
How, how did you becomeinvolved in with Mac and now, I mean,
(22:40):
you're Ed now.
I mean, you run, you know,you're our fearless leader.
Talk about that specificjourney for you, for, you know, what
was that like for you?
Yeah, so I, you know, I, Idefinitely when I came back, I was
very passionate about arts inthe community.
So I, I got involved with HighSierra Musical Theater.
Unfortunately they were kindof financially struggling, so they
(23:05):
folded shortly after I moved back.
But I actually co foundedanother theater company in Town in
1999 called Sierra Classic Theater.
And they're still going.
They just celebrated their25th anniversary.
That's exciting.
Great.
Well done.
Yeah, so I was definitely, youknow, passionate about the community
(23:27):
and passionate about bringingthe art, but you know, that was a
volunteer thing obviously, so,so I, you know, I stayed involved
with that as long as I could,you know, but I got to pay the bills.
So I had various jobs inMammoth and all over the place.
And around the time that Imoved to where I live now, which
(23:49):
is overlooking Mono Lake,nearly vining, I kind of had this
realization of like thetrajectory of my life and that I
wanted to work in the nonprofit world.
I don't know, someone needs to.
What's wrong with you, Kristen?
I mean, why are you such agood person?
But so I started lookingaround and came across this organization
(24:14):
called the Eastern SierraInterpretive association, which is
now called Sierra Forever.
And they had a visitor centerand bookstore pretty close to where
I live near Mono Lake.
And, and they were hiring.
So I thought, well, you know,I love the outdoors, I love the area
and I love sharing, you know,sharing about our area with people.
So I'll give this a try.
(24:35):
So I did that for five yearsand had its ups and downs, but overall
I did enjoy it.
And again, I loved working fora nonprofit and get, you know, sort
of giving back and, and all that.
But I, the organization wasgoing through some changes and I
went to this, it was acertification for becoming an interpreter
(24:56):
in Anza Borrego Desert here inCalifornia, you know, about six hours
south or something.
And here I'm here with likeall these biologists and all these
naturalists and all thesepeople who are doing presentations
on snakes and tarantulas andplants and all this stuff which I
(25:17):
know some about, but notenough to like do a whole presentation
on.
And they're like, well, justdo it on Something, you know, and
so I'm like, oh, God.
I'm like, what am I going to do?
What am I going to do?
And there's a piano at our,you know, the site that we're all
staying at.
I'm like, well, she said, do it.
I'll let you know.
(25:37):
So.
So I decided I'm gonna do mypresentation on the piano.
And so I did.
And I, you know, I feel like Idid pretty well because I know a
lot about the piano.
But after that, I was.
It was a big, like, light bulb.
Okay.
I think I'm in the wrong field.
I still love nonprofit, but maybe.
(25:58):
I think maybe I need to shiftmy focus and really put my energy
toward trying to find a job inthe arts world.
Yes.
So.
So I just, you know, again,like, started looking around, and
at the time, the Arts Councilwas going through a big restructuring.
Founding executive director was.
(26:21):
Had just left, and the personwho was their education director
was moving into her role, andshe was looking for an assistant
director.
And I just happened, you know,again, I just put it out in the universe.
And so I go to this galleryreception that they had and I, you
know, like, hey, you know, I'mjust curious, like, if you guys happen
(26:43):
to have any job opening, youknow, I'm thinking of making a shift
and, you know, I don't know,let me know if you have anything.
And so the executive directorat the time was like, you know, actually,
we are making a big move.
And so I'll, you know, let you know.
She.
I kept following up, and thenthey finally got back to me and,
(27:05):
you know, and offered me thisjob as the assistant director in
2015.
Yeah.
Wow.
Wow.
That.
That's.
I mean, you know, from.
From 0 to 100.
Right.
10 years ago, you know, you'vebeen there.
I can't believe you've beenthere 10 years.
That's incredible.
I just joined the board.
I hope you're not goinganywhere anytime soon.
(27:28):
I mean, you know, 10 years isa good time.
It's a good time to change.
When you joined 10 years ago,how would you say the mission has
evolved over 10 years?
Yeah, I think so.
It has evolved quite a bit.
So in 2019, or, sorry, 2015,you know, with myself and our executive
(27:48):
director, Kendra Knight, andwe, you know, we had a lot of focus
on arts education, but at thetime, we only had our in school art
program, which is called Meetthe Masters at the time.
So it's a.
It's like a nationwide program.
You purchase it and then it'sArt history and visual arts lessons.
(28:08):
So we were doing that programall throughout Mono County.
We had after school programs,we had summer programs for kids,
and that was about it.
And honestly, like, we had acouple extra teaching artists, but
I was teaching, she, Kendrawas teaching.
And then we had two part timestaff that were running the gallery.
(28:30):
And then we had the LibertyFestival of the Arts we were still
doing.
We had the 4th of Julyfestival we were doing.
And then we also launched afestival at the time called June,
like Jam Festival, which isstill happening, but it's not ours
anymore.
So we had these three bigevents and then these few education
(28:50):
programs.
And so that the eventshonestly were taking up probably
70% of our time throughout the year.
And so, you know, it was.
It was different.
They were kind of there tofundraise and, you know, and they
were.
They had a purpose.
They were, you know,supporting some of our local artists.
(29:14):
Not a lot because the boothfees were pretty high and they were
bringing a lot of artists fromout of the area, and we had people
from all over the countrycoming to exhibit.
So it definitely served a purpose.
But that's, you know, again,the events were taking up a big portion
of our energy.
And so, you know, so we didthat for a few years.
(29:36):
We definitely were kind oftrying to make a shift more towards
arts education.
At that time, Kendra wasespecially passionate about arts
education.
And so we were getting moreinvolved with Mono county office
of Education and trying todevelop more programming with them.
(29:57):
We.
We worked with asuperintendent at the time to start
working on a strategic artplan for Mono county for education.
And so we started that process.
You know, it was.
We were just again trying toslowly make that shift more towards
education.
And then in 2018, Kendra hadan injury and had to step back from
(30:23):
her role.
And so I became the interimexecutive director in the fall of
2018 and had to run the LaborDay festival.
And then in 2019, officiallystepped down.
And then I applied for the job.
As the executive director justin time for Covid.
Yes, that was super fun.
(30:45):
So we had.
So we had.
It was really interesting.
So we had, you know, it wasstill like business as usual in 2019
after she left, I stillcontinued pretty much everything
she was doing.
But we, you know, one of thethings that we wanted to do was to
start bringing in moreeducation programs, like a music
(31:06):
program for this.
You know, we have two.
Just two school districts,well, technically three, but two
main school districts here inMono county.
And one of them, they have.
They didn't have any musicEducation at all.
K through 12th grade, nada.
Whereas the district thatsupports Mammoth Lakes, they have
a very robust music programthat's actually now TK through 12th
(31:30):
grade.
So we were working on tryingto develop a program for that, but
again, still doing all these festivals.
2019, we did the, you know,the 4th of July festival, then the
Labor Day festival, and thenthe jam Fest, and 2019 with the 50th
Labor Day Festival.
And so right after that, atthat time, which it actually still
(31:55):
is, the venue where thatfestival happen was for sale, and
it's still for sale.
And at that 50th festival, it was.
It was actually for sale, butit was in escrow, and it was like,
well, I don't, you know,there's no other place that this
event can move to that willmatch the charm of this venue in
(32:18):
our area.
So I, you know, brought it tothe board, and I said, hey, what
do you think?
50 is a nice golden number toend on.
We can maybe shift focus ondoing some other things.
So.
And it was a difficult decision.
I mean, I grew up going tothis event, and I loved it, but we
(32:39):
had to think about what ourpriorities were.
And at the end of the day, theamount of revenue that it raised
for fundraising was not a lot.
It now has several competingevents that weekend.
It wasn't like 1969 when westarted when there's nothing that
was the only thing to do.
So, yeah, we ended that, andthen Covid happened.
(33:00):
So it was actually kind of good.
Because we have to put on anevent in 2020.
We kind of had this excuse.
Yeah, terrible.
But we had this, you know,like, oh, well, you know, we can't
have events pandemic going on.
It's, you know, it was a verydifficult time.
And, you know, being a brandnew executive director and having
(33:22):
this pandemic and trying tokeep an arts organization afloat
was definitely challenging,but made it work.
And I think we came out of itbetter and stronger and with a clearer
focus on what our prioritieswere and the direction that we want
to head in.
(33:42):
Right, right, right.
Well, yeah, that is so challenging.
Right?
Because as.
As arts lovers, as artsprofessionals, as artists, we're
just naturally, I think,generous people who want to do it
all.
Like, we always want to say,yes, yes, let's do that.
Yes, let's do this.
And it's very difficultsometimes to say no.
(34:03):
And having that discipline andthat rigor to say, okay, yes, this
is an.
This would be nice to do, butis it core to our mission?
Is it really point us, youknow, does it.
Does it lead us in thedirection we want to go, or is it
a distraction or.
Yes, it's a legacy thing built.
You know, we.
We built an organizationaround this, but does it align for
(34:25):
the future of the organization?
And these are very difficult choices.
They are.
They are.
And we definitely feed backover the years.
Festivals.
I mean, right now, we don't have.
We don't do festivals anymore.
Right.
You know, the.
The Fourth of July festivalthat we had for about 20 years, we
recently gave over to adifferent organization in Mammoth,
(34:48):
and they're running it, youknow, great.
So it all worked out.
But, you know, we wanted toprioritize our local artists and
give them opportunities.
And so we're looking at waysto have, you know, smaller events
through and throughout Monocounty that can really support them
(35:09):
where they don't have to paythese high booth fees or, you know,
different things, but justreally, you know, emphasizing the
local artists.
Yes, it's important to haveexposure to artists out of the area
for inspiration, but notspending half the year organizing
an event that really showcases them.
(35:29):
So, yeah, it's been.
It was not an easy decision tomake, you know, for three different
events, but at the end of theday, I think it was the right decision.
Right.
Well, you know, if.
If an organization's missionis rooted in education, I mean, you
could certainly define that inany number of ways, depending on
who you're talking about.
I mean, arguably an event, youknow, one could spin that it's like,
(35:52):
oh, well, this is, you know,democratizing the arts and educating
the general population aboutart and art making an artist.
Okay, so let's do the event.
Great.
Because it's educational, too,and artists make money.
Great.
There's that.
Right?
But then there's also, like,no, no, actually, kids K through
12, you know, we don't havearts programs.
You know, like, we need toempower and democratize the arts
(36:14):
by educating young people andbringing programming into the schools.
That's obviously core,fundamental kinds of arts education,
more conventional, maybe artseducation, which is essential and
critical to a healthy society.
So that feels reallyimportant, right?
On a.
On a.
On a certain level.
But then there's also, like,okay, how do you educate and empower
(36:36):
the artists living in Mono County?
Right.
Because at the end of the day,organizations like Mac exist to support
and elevate and empower theartists living, you know, in the.
In the region, in the area.
So how does.
How does Mac think about that aspect?
You know, educating andsupporting and empowering Working
(36:56):
artists in Mono County.
I know, I know, I know.
We've talked a little bitalready about a lot, maybe about,
you know, what Mac's doing forkids K through 12.
I mean, you've alluded to it.
Anyway, what does Mac do, ifanything, to empower and educate.
And when I say educate, I meansort of like, you know, continuing
education, career development,that kind of thing for working artists
(37:20):
in Mono County?
Sure.
Yeah.
So we have a gallery andcommunity arts center, and in that
space, we're the only galleryin Mono county that showcases, you
know, all of our local andregional artists.
You know, we.
If.
If an artist is an emergingartist and they might need a little
(37:43):
bit of help to get theirartwork ready for a gallery, then
we provide mentorship to, youknow, show them how, you know, to
wire and frame their art orhow to price their art that, you
know, we have a lot of newartists that come in and they're.
Like, oh, Neil, a question.
How to.
Exactly.
I.
Pride's my work.
(38:03):
It took me so long.
So I'm gonna, you know, priceit at $5,000 or something like that.
Yeah.
So we, you know, we spend.
We do a lot of that.
And you know, there are a fewother galleries in Mono county, but
they don't have either thespace or, or just, you know, their
business model doesn't supporthaving art from as many places as
(38:26):
we do.
So.
So that's kind of our main wayof doing that.
We have our feature artistsand then we also have quarterly art
shows where anybody can submit.
So if they're, again, someonewho just started out and they're
kind of testing the waters andthey want to, you know, maybe submit
(38:47):
a few pieces.
It's a great opportunity forthem to get their feet wet and see
how it goes.
And then we have an artistreception and then we also have a
featured artist, so they get afull wall all to themselves.
They have, you know, publicityas the featured artists on our website
and social media and everything.
So we give these artists alsoa chance to really shine in the community
(39:12):
and beyond.
So that's kind of what we'redoing currently.
In addition to, you know, ifthey have a knack for teaching, we
offer jobs because we have,you know, between our, you know,
again, our programs forstudents, we also have classes for,
you know, adults and families.
(39:32):
You know, they have theability to share their practice and
they can make money as ateaching artist and, you know, teaching
art in wine class or an afterschool program or for birthday party
or whatever.
So those are just some of theways we're supporting them now, we
plan to again, like, have.
Start having different eventsthroughout Mono county where they
(39:58):
can also get their art into,you know, more hands into a farther
reach by doing that.
And we're hoping to startdoing some trainings for artists
in the business of art forthose who are interested.
You know, again, it's a ruralcommunity and you know, you have
(40:19):
some people who have come herefrom large cities and other places
and have, you know, access todifferent skills and knowledge.
And then you have some peoplewho have been here for a really long
time and just sort of beendoing business the way they've been
doing it, you know, with nocomputers or whatever, you know,
(40:40):
some people and that, youknow, we have people that are just
going to stay that way andthat's fine for them.
But if, if there are artiststhat are interested in learning more,
we definitely want to be ableto help them with that part of their
business.
So we're definitely evolvingthat side of our organization to
really be bigger support forour local artist community, to give
(41:02):
them as many opportunities aswe can.
Yeah.
Well, the beautiful thingabout the gallery and so many of
the kinds of events andprograms that you're talking about,
we were sort of talking aboutthrough the lens of the, of the artists
in ways that they can giveback or make money as a teacher or
as a host or exhibiting theirwork, what have you.
The reality is that also is aspace in a strategy for educating,
(41:28):
so called educating thegeneral public.
Right.
Because they come in, they doa paint and sip, they go to a show,
they meet an artist, theymaybe come to a printmaking class
or whatever it might be andthey're learning.
It's maybe a revenuegenerating thing for their Mac, which
is awesome, but not a lot of money.
But it's good, you know, it's,it's something and that's important.
(41:49):
And, but, but you're giving back.
We're giving back to the community.
And the community is, is, isbeing edified and empowered as well.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
So it's, you know, it's just,it's something that we've sort of
identified in the last few years.
We actually went through thestrategic planning process and developed
(42:10):
our, I am almost embarrassedto admit, our very first ever strategic
plan.
Embarrassed.
That's.
That is, that is so typical ofarts organization of any nonprofit.
So many nonprofits are just, they're.
They're so busy saving the world.
Right.
That they forget to save themselves.
And strategic plans helporganizations save themselves.
(42:32):
Yeah, yeah.
So that's been something again.
We, through that strategicplan, it would, you know, we realize,
like, yeah, we really need to,you know, put our money where our
mouths are, so to speak, whenit comes to our local artist community
and really double down onsupport for them and how we're going
to support them.
(42:52):
So, yeah, so it's beenexciting to figure that out.
And we're still figuringthings out.
And that's the way it is, right?
When you're trying to do somuch with.
You're doing a lot with a little.
Right.
And it's, you know, what's so,you know, amazing about your story
is that while you might feel,and our team might feel like, like
it's singular, like, like,like, oh, my God, you know, because
(43:14):
we're in it deep, right?
And it's like we've got theseproblems to solve and, you know,
they're existential, right?
It's like, you know, we have to.
But it's.
We're not at all unique in theworld like this.
Arts nonprofits all over thecountry are dealing with these very
same issues just through theirkind of local, you know, dynamics,
you know, and organizationslike ours, of course, just one very
(43:38):
specific example, rely onstate funding, rely on grants from
the state, and that'difficult, you know, to manage.
And certainly here in, in, in,in 2025, for all kinds of reasons.
And this isn't a political show.
We're not going to get into politics.
You know, clearly, you know,there's, there's concern, right?
(43:58):
Like, okay, well, what, whatis this administration going to mean
for, for, you know, grantmaking and for the supporting of
the arts and so on and so forth.
And, and so, you know, we're,we're not alone in this struggle.
And so how are you feelingright now about where we future looks
like for Mac over the nextfour years vis a vis California funding?
(44:20):
Is there.
Is it so unpredictable and souncertain right now that you can't
even comment?
Or are you getting a feelright now?
It's like, okay, well, seethat we can't count on this, so we're
going to need to double downon kind of more kind of individual
or sort of private kind of donations.
I mean, what, what.
(44:40):
How are you thinking andfeeling about where we're at right
now in terms of state funding?
The climate has definitely changed.
You know, even, you know, evena year ago, it had already started
to change with the state budget.
So I, that was sort of whyyou're here.
I, you know, I had this kindof big, you know, Smack on the face
(45:04):
of, like, we cannot continuein the way that we have been existing
if we're going to survive.
I can't.
I can't.
First, I can't do it all by myself.
I need a board that's ready toreally dig in with me and continue,
you know, make Mono ArtsCouncil sustainable.
(45:24):
Because the.
The grants that are out thereare limited, and they're becoming
more and more competitive asfunding sources dwindle.
So we had, you know, kind ofcoming out of COVID we had five grants
from the California Arts Council.
And last year I was only ableto apply for two.
(45:45):
One of, you know, because other.
One of them had beeneliminated completely.
Another one was no longerrelevant, and I only ended up with
one because I didn't get theother one.
So it just was kind of this,okay, we're gonna, you know, so many
people are going to beapplying for these grants, and then
recently they consolidated thegrants even more, so they're going
(46:09):
to be even that much more competitive.
And so, you know, it was like,okay, I just.
We need to revamp our board.
I need to, you know, havepeople who are really committed to.
To coming up with new sourcesof revenue for us and figuring this
out together.
And so.
So we'll still have a littlebit of funding that we can apply
(46:34):
for, but in the grand schemeof things, in our budget, it's not
going to be a lot.
And so for us, you know, I ama stubborn person.
And yes, I've been with theorganization for 10 years, but I'm
still really passionate about it.
And, you know, I have program.
You know, we did end upgetting a music program for, you
(46:55):
know, Eastern Sierra UnifiedSchool District.
And it's going so well andit's so rewarding to see, you know,
the kids and how much joy theyget from it.
So, you know, so I.
I really want to, you know,figure out how we can continue to
fund these things.
So, you know, it's.
But it's going to take a lotof creativity and it's going to be
(47:16):
finding, you know, other wayswe can generate revenue and really
relying heavily on privatedonors and foundations for funding.
Yeah.
Because, yes, the grant moneyis just not really there.
Yeah.
Not.
Not at all reliable.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's an extent it ever was reliable.
It's certainly not reliablenow in this current environment.
(47:39):
Right, right, right, right.
Yeah.
Well, that's, you know, that's.
And again, virtually everyarts organization in this country
is feeling that.
Right.
I mean, just look at theKennedy Center.
Right, right.
And so, yes, it's time to gettime to get clever, time to get creative.
You know, when you think aboutartists in Mono county, working full
(48:02):
time or part time artists, youknow, knowing what you know about
them and you know them sowell, you know, what, what would
you, what would you say?
You know, that they, I mean,if, if we asked them, if they were
with us right now and I askedthem, what do you guys want?
Need to feel supported?
What do you, what do you expect?
And what need from Mono ArtsCouncil to feel supported, to feel
(48:24):
seen, to feel heard?
What do you think they would say?
That's a good question.
It's a hard one, I admit, it'sa hard one because every artist,
I mean, it's not a monolithic community.
I mean, every artist, butit's, you know, but it is obviously
Mono county is a very unique place.
And yeah, I'm just curious ifthere's like a common.
I think it depends on who youtalk to.
(48:44):
You know, you have like yourestablished artists who have been
here a really long time andthey figured it out.
They were able to, you know,afford to, you know, rent a, you
know, some space for a studioa long time ago and it's been affordable
and whatever.
And either they're, you know,they're full time artists or they're
(49:05):
doing another job and thendoing their art.
I would say for the newerartists, I think it's a combination
of space.
We've had a lot of requestsfor studio space.
Interesting.
And then probably beyond that,just opportunities for their art
to sell their art and then.
(49:26):
And that, you know, that issomething, you know, again that we're,
we're really working on.
We're trying to partner with,you know, some of the bigger companies
in our area, with the skiarea, with the hospital, with the
county, with the town to tryand find opportunities for artists,
art to not just be shown, but purchased.
(49:47):
Right.
And so that the artists reallyget a benefit of that.
So.
So I think that's probably oneof the bigger things, you know, so
that they can have a way ofmaking a sustainable living.
You know, beyond that, I'msure, you know, certain sort of subsidies
for housing and, you know,that is one of our biggest challenges
(50:08):
in a resort area, that no onecan afford a place to live or even
find a place to live.
So, yeah, but I think thosethings probably.
What would you say on a scaleof 1 to 10, I guess, you know, in
terms of, you know, Monocounty and the residents of Mono
county, on a scale of 1 to 10,where do you think they put the arts
(50:30):
in terms of its importance andin value to the commonwealth of the
county and the importance tothe society.
That I would say, if you countall of the residents in all of Mono
County, I would say it'sprobably down pretty low.
Yeah.
Like, number maybe three.
(50:52):
Right, right.
Sadly.
Because a lot of people canbarely afford to just live, so they
have to work all the time, andmaybe they get a chance to recreate.
But in terms of having theopportunity to enjoy the art or,
you know, even the time, it'snot high on their priority list.
(51:16):
Right.
Yeah.
Which is sad.
Well, but it's also.
But it's also very typical.
You know, I would say that.
You know that.
That very well is the casehere in Los Angeles County.
It's fascinating to me.
I think a lot about this, youknow, in terms of.
Because we are.
We believe and we think weknow that art is fundamental.
And I think that there's a.
(51:37):
And it, you know, fundamentalto the common.
While fundamental to ahealthy, functioning society.
I think there's legitimate,empirical, objective argument to.
To make.
But to your point, when peopleare just struggling to make ends
meet, it feels like a luxury.
It feels like it's.
It's a.
It's a.
It's a nice to have, but not aneed to have, you know, kind of thing.
And when a.
When a thing, it was veryfascinating when the pandemic hit,
(51:58):
it sort of like, what role didart play?
You know, when people aredying and bleeding.
People are bleeding, you know,and dying.
What role does art play?
And it's the whole, you know,hierarchy of needs.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
And yet, at the same time, Ithink whether.
If people think about, they'llrealize that it's the arts that actually
(52:20):
got them through the pandemicin a lot of ways.
Because.
Of course.
Well, because of things likeNetflix and movies and tv.
I mean, that's art, you know,commercial art in a specific way.
So it is a fascinating thing that.
And I think part of it is if.
If we're.
If we're taught fromkindergarten up, right, the value
(52:40):
and the role of the arts.
I mean, suddenly you.
You.
You start to appreciate it.
I think some people are wired,you know, everyone's wired differently.
But why do we value sportsseemingly more than we value art?
Right.
Is it Darwinian?
Is it does.
Is it that sports get.
Gets us to the predator fight,fly, predator, prey, killer be killed
aspects of our.
(53:01):
Of our, you know, primal instincts?
I don't know, but it's a.
It's a.
It's a fascinatingconversation, you know.
Yeah, well.
And I mean, you know, again,in an area where, you know, recreation
rules, you know, it's.
It's just interesting.
It's something that here, thisis, you know, it's what you think
of when you think of Eastern Sierra.
(53:22):
You think of the skiing, theclimbing, the biking, the hiking,
the back.
You know, all these things.
You don't.
You know, unfortunately, youdon't really think about the arts
here.
And so people who live here,they definitely gravitate towards,
you know, those priorities.
But we're trying to just, youknow, open people's eyes to.
(53:47):
There are lots of ways toexperience the art, and you don't
necessarily have to think ofit as drawing or painting or, you
know, whatever.
You know, seeing a beautifullandscape and taking a picture of
it.
That's art.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, you know, it's interesting.
I mean, you know, I've oftensort of, you know, joked, half joked
that, you know, art is soul food.
(54:08):
You know, like you.
It feeds the soul.
It feeds the spirit.
And, you know, skiing on amountain feeds the soul, too, you
know, and if you feelnourished, maybe you don't know.
You know, it's like, well, I don't.
I don't need.
I don't need that painting orI don't need that thing because I'm.
I'm hiking every day.
I'm skiing every day.
I mean, they're not thinkingabout it in those conscious terms
maybe, but it's like, if youfeel nourished, you feel nourished.
(54:31):
Right?
But.
But it is funny to me howpeople can live in a house with blank
walls.
You know, it's like that, youknow, I mean, unless you're just
a complete minimalist,modernist brutalist of just like,
you know, like.
Okay, you know, and that's anintentional choice.
Okay, fine.
But, but, but.
But the fact that, you know,people will live in a house with
(54:53):
blank walls, to me, when theycould buy $100 print.
That's beautiful.
Or a, you know, $500photograph, whatever.
It's.
It's really interesting to me.
It's like, wow, you know,like, how.
How, you know, that would justdrive me bananas that, you know,
like, there's no color in my house.
There's no color on my walls.
(55:14):
Yeah.
You know, my kids watch.
Every once in a while, mydaughter will watch these, you know,
YouTube videos or whatever ofthese kids making these other videos,
and they're.
They're, you know, makingthese videos in their House, you
know, presumably their parentshouse or something.
And it's just like, there'snothing on the walls.
I mean, they're just living,you know, it's like, okay, okay.
To each their own.
I don't want to sound like asnob, but you know what, it.
(55:36):
But I mean, part of it also, Ithink, gets to just this sense that
I think the conventionalwisdom is that art is expensive and
I can't afford it.
Right.
And that's so not true.
It's just so not true.
Yeah, well, you know, I thinkit's just sort of a stigma around,
you know, art that has beenperpetuated over the years, that
(55:58):
it's part of the elite class.
And, you know, that you havethese museums and you have these
galleries and it's, you know,something that the upper class get
to enjoy.
And, you know, I think thatit, you know, it's on us to demystify
that and let everybody knowthat no, all art is accessible to
everyone.
Yes, you can make it, you canparticipate in it, you can buy it.
(56:23):
You know, it's not just forthe upper class anymore.
Well, and it's also aboutbeing able to see the world in a
certain kind of way as well.
And that comes from, like,just, I don't know, learning, reading,
watching, observing, being open.
I mean, you know, I'll tellyou a personal story.
So I have a piece of art that,that I get so much positive feedback
(56:46):
from.
And, and you know, nine out of10 people would have walked by this
thing and never saw the art in it.
Right?
But I guess because of myunique experience and my background,
you know, as a graphicdesigner, as an artist, what have
you, I saw the art in it, right?
So.
So I was walking.
So down here in la, maybe youheard, heard about it down at the
(57:07):
Rose Bowl.
Pasadena.
You know, in Pasadena, at theRose bowl, they have the flea market.
It's.
It's a huge thing.
Like once a month, like you gothere and just like all kinds of
cool stuff, you know, and Iwas going through this, this crate
of stuff, you know, whatever,just random photos or whatever it
was.
And, and I found this badlyframed collection of match books.
(57:30):
Okay.
And they wanted 10 bucks for it.
Okay, Yeah, I bought it.
I saw it.
I saw the genius of it, and Ibought it instantly.
Okay?
I reframed it.
I spent, I don't know, 50bucks, whatever, reframing it.
I hung it on my wall.
And for the last 15 years, Ihave gotten so much positive feedback.
(57:51):
Now the question is, well,what the heck Were the matchbooks
right?
Like, what was it?
So, about this.
Well, somebody.
I don't know who, but somebodyat some point in the.
Not, you know, in the last 30,40 years, took it upon themselves
to visit every brothel inNevada and take a matchbook.
Well, I have to assume it'severy brothel in Nevada because there's,
(58:13):
like, a lot of matchbooks.
Maybe it's not every brothelin Nevada, but it's like, at least
25 brothels in Nevada that hecollected, or she collected matchbooks
from every brothel.
And then took the intentional.
Intentionally laid thesethings out on this.
On this board and then framed it.
And it was for sale for 10 bucks.
(58:34):
And I was like, you know what?
I gotta have this.
I have to have this.
This is a work of art, in my view.
In my sick, twisted mind, thisis a.
This is a.
And, you know, and it'shanging on my wall today.
So I just share that storybecause I want people to know.
Yes, of course you should bebuying art from artists.
Of course.
Number one.
(58:55):
But sometimes you stumble uponsomething that is just so weird and
unique and crazy.
And you know what?
It's five bucks, it's tenbucks, maybe take it home, hang it
on the wall.
It's art, and it makes peoplehappy, it makes people think, it
makes people feel, you know?
Exactly.
Yeah.
Well, Chris and Reese, I'msorry to end this interview with
(59:15):
a story about me, because thiswas all about you.
And I'm so grateful that youcame on to talk about your journey
and the important work thatyou do at Mac.
And I'm just so grateful to beaffiliated and associated with Mac
and be the newbie on the board.
And I just look forward to thenext couple of years working together
(59:35):
and looking for thosecreative, clever ways that we can
keep the organization growingand being vibrant and serving the
artists and the people of Mono County.
And I'm thrilled that nextmonth we get to spend time together
in Sacramento at theCalifornia Arts meeting.
What the heck is it called, bythe way?
I did sign up.
(59:55):
I did manage to confirm.
Their website is horrible, people.
I hope somebody's hearing this.
You really need to redesignthat website.
But I'm excited to spend somequality time with you and some of
the other board members therein Sacramento next month.
That'll be great.
That's gonna be great.
Well, in the meantime, I'll beseeing you in the next week or so
in our fair.
(01:00:16):
I was thinking we could meetin Lee Viney.
That's closer to home, right?
Last time you drove all theway down to Mammoth Lakes or Mammoth.
So I owe you at least to go alittle bit further your way.
You know, that's only fair,weather permitting, right?
Weather permitting.
This is the caveat, right?
Everything between Novemberand April has to.
(01:00:39):
Have the we permitting,weather permitting caveat.
That's right.
That's right.
Well, Kristen, you have abeautiful evening.
Thank you so much for coming on.
And you know, you're welcomeback anytime.
Please, please come back anytime.
Thank you so much.
You're welcome.
Thanks for listening to theNot Real Art podcast.
Please make sure to like thisepisode, write a review, and share
(01:01:00):
with your friends on Social.
Also, remember to subscribe soyou get all of our new episodes.
Not Real Art is produced byCrew West Studios in Los Angeles.
Our theme music was created byRicky Peugeot and Desi Delauro from
the band parlor Social.
Not Real Art is created by weedit podcasts and hosted by Captivate.
Thanks again for listening toNot Real Art.
(01:01:22):
We'll be back soon withanother inspiring episode celebrating
creative culture and theartists who make it.
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