July 27, 2023 • 25 mins
German Village is charming and historic, instantly identifiable by its brick homes and streets. Learn all about this tightknit community’s evolution, character and beloved local businesses and shops from Sean Kessler, Executive Director of the German Village Society.
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Fun experience. Columbus's Live Forward Livepodcast introduces you to a new frontier of
undiscovered possibility. Columbus is a citywith an energy of its own. Joined
Boxer, Kelsey and their guests foran insider's look at a destination that invites
(00:25):
visitors and locals alike to share andexplore. We'll go behind the scenes of
popular attractions, uncover best kept secretsfor things to see and do, and
meet people who embody what it meansto live forward. Welcome back to another
episode of Live Forward, Live andExperienced Columbus podcast. I'm Boxer along with
(00:46):
Kelsey, of course I work O. Hi. How are you doing?
By the way, well how areyou? I like the well good,
I like the flower of the flowerhair clip. I'm just trying to be
a kid again. You never growup, Disney right, just to Disney,
it was fantastic trying to be akid. Well, yeah, I'll
never grow up now. That's justthe way it is. We're glad that
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you're with us and you're listening becauseour next guest and by the way,
the theme for this season is livingto explore the different, beautiful neighborhoods of
Columbus. This specific one is GermanVillage, and we want to welcome Sean
Kessler, who's the executive director forthe German Village Society, who is a
wealth a knowledge and a heck ofa background to Sean. Welcome. Thank
(01:29):
you for having Sean. Yeah yeah, yeah, I was a little late
with that. Sorry, guys.Hey, so let's dive into this.
You know, German Village to me, and I realize you're probably having to
walk a tight thin line here becauseof those who represent the German Village,
but it truly is, I thinkone of the most charming places in Columbus
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to go. It's a whole vibe. Yeah, it's a vibe exactly.
Kelsey, Yeah, yeah, it'sit's fantastic. You know, I've only
been there for seven months now inmy position, but it's you know,
I try to walk out on thebricks as much as I can so that
I can I can meet people whoare always walking their dogs or going to
one of the shops or the restaurantsor to get coffee or anything like that,
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and just trying to meet people asmuch as you can and meet the
businesses and and it's so much fun. It's off if you wear heels though,
very tough if you wear heels.Also, when I hate to take
my kids down there, they tendto not pay attention to work. You
know, that's a whole other thing. So skin, knees and palms happen
too. Are there ever complaints aboutthe bricks? They're so beautiful and how
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often are they cleaned? Well,I don't know how often them they're cleaned,
but we're always trying to put morein. We don't like we don't
like cement down there. We likepeople to have sidewalks at our bricks.
So we have initiatives for reward.You know, if somebody's getting bricks,
we have an initiative that we givethem a little bit of refund or bonus
money to help take the sting offof that, you know, nine thousand
dollars bill that it costs to putin whatever your bricks are and for how
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much space you have. But right, we try to embrace the history of
the area and love it and loveto people, love people to coming down
and visit us. Sean, Idon't even know about German. I mean,
I've been there. I love it. Everyone knows it's the coolest place
to go. You've never had Schmidtattachment, all right, I don't know
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the history. It was funny,so I took the job and I went
across the street to the book Loft, which if you haven't been, you
got to go because as went acrossthe street and bought I think four or
five different books on the history ofGerman Village. And I've been so busy
that I've maybe gotten halfway through oneof them. So but it's been I
think nineteen sixty around there is whenthe German Village Society was founded because of
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the effect of putting in I seventy. So German Village used to go all
the way up to the southern partof downtown. So when you go across
Third Street and you see the GermanVillage music Store and you're like, German
Village is back there. Used tobe all the way up there. So
Frank Fetch was the founder of theGerman Village Society, and he and his
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band of people put together a groupto fight so that the history of German
Village would stay intact and eventually camea national historic place. And here we
are now, so you know,we have German Village Commission just like a
lot of other neighbors. Neighborhoods havecommissions, So if you have a house
down there and you want to puta new windows or renovate your house,
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you have to go through the commissionbecause there's a stringent process and requirements of
what you can do in this NationalHistoric Preserve Preserve right. Stringent is an
understatement. I heard it's it isvery strict to get some things done.
But there's a reason. There's areason, and you know it's there are
lists of things that you can andcan't do, and vendors and things like
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that. If you work with theright people, they know what they know
what you're they're supposed to do andcan't do. And yeah, it's really
charming. I think so I wouldhave a hard time buying a house and
renovating it completely because I don't havethat kind of patience, but a lot
of the people really do. Andit's a really close knit neighborhood because of
that. Sean Kessler is the executivedirector of the German Village Society. Hey,
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tell us about yourself. Did youare you from Central Ohio Columbus?
Were you from I'm originally from NortheastOhio, Okay, ane O Youngstown.
Oh my god, I'm a Cantonboy. So so my background. So
you know, I grew up downtownCanton, where I could hear football from
every single, every single, youknow, corner of the neighborhood. And
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and somehow growing up I never wentthat route and I became a ballet dancer.
So I was from the age ofeight until I retired when I was
around thirty, so at the historicage of thirty for a dancer. So
it's so cool. Yeah, Idid that for a long time. I
came to OSU. That's how Icame to Columbus for college. I was
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a dance major Ohio State for fouryears, dance professionally on the side in
a small dance company. Moved toChicago dance professionally there for fourst years,
four or five years, and thencame back when I retired. I had
kids and here I am. Sowent back to Columbus Dance Theater where I
danced professionally in college and did kindof a more administrative side on that.
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You know, it's a very smallorganization, so we would have to do
a little bit of everything. SoI was helping to light shows and then
running down the hall and plunging atoilet over life and nonprofit is how it
worked. But did that before Imoved on to GCAC at the Arts Council
and was in grants there and thenmissed the production side of life and found
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my way back to the Arts Festival. So I was the director of the
Columbus Arts Festival from twenty seventeen untilthe last year. Not the twenty twenty
two festival was my last one.So that's an undertaking I'd be so stressed.
Yeah, that seems like a verystressful job beast. You know,
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it continues from there to here,and when you're in a nonprofit you rely
so much on volunteers. It's avolunteer run show. You know. We
had two staff members who worked onit full time all year long, and
then there was an eighty five membervolunteer committee that that really some of them
have been there for twenty plus years, so they know it. You know.
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It was always the joke of whatif Sean and the other coordinator get
hit by a bus, you know, My answer was, they know what
they're doing, they'll be fine.So so it was you know, it
was a fun, fun, afun event and the way I looked at
it growing up in ballet and inmodern dance, it's a three day show,
that's all. That's the only difference. The scales a lot bigger than
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what I was used to, butit's three day show. So you just
put it on and if you doyour job leading up to the events,
just putting out little fires, andit all runs itself. So what's the
toughest part of that job? Wasit just that it's all pretty much volunteer.
What's the most stressful? Keeping everybodyhappy? You know, artists have
personalities, and that's part of whatmakes them eclectic and make interesting work,
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is they have personalities. But yougot to keep them happy. You know.
We had anywhere from two hundred tothree hundred artists every year for that,
and they came from all around thecountry and a couple international ones.
And and then you have all thestages of performers, from from theater to
dance to spoken word, and youknow, we try to do a little
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something different every year, and andso keeping those artists happy and while also
keeping patrons happy and and making itrun was a lot of fun. So,
but that was challenging. But that'show I found it easy to go
to German Village, really is Ilook at the residents and businesses of German
Village as those quirky artists. SoI'm keeping interesting the connection there. I
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keep you know, I'm at heart. I'm a dancer, so I can
I can really everything back to backto a batlet class anytime, any time
I need to. So yeah,so how do how do you become the
director of the German Village Society?Is it on? Indeed? Um it's
funny. I mean it was,it was listed, but um so through
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some friends had conversations with um peoplein leadership there they were because of COVID,
they lost their executive director for acouple of years. Their president of
their board was running the organization.Made it through. They found it time
to to it was time to hiresomebody to get going again. And and
because they hadn't done anything for basicallytwo years, and and I had some
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conversations, and I was ready tolead, lead, be the leader of
an organization on my own. Andand you know, had good experience through
that and a lot of great contactsand references that taught me have taught me
a lot. So really, youknow, having those conversations. It just
kind of trickled in and had interviewsand it worked out. So it was
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you know, yeah, Sean Kessler'swith us, who is the executive director
of the German Village Society. Sean, you you spoke a little bit about
similarities with artists and then those thatlive in German Village, But what are
some of the differences now overseeing thissociety. Those artists went away and I've
got these people, these people,these are the ones we have, the
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residents of German Village, they're there. We sometimes are mistaken as as as
an hoa. Essentially for some ofthese people, it's like all my lights
out, how can I get thisfix? And it's like, well,
I can help you. I cangive you advice, but you know that's
not really my job. Yeah,but it is my job. I you
know, I want to make surethese people are happy and engaged in the
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in the neighborhood and whatever we're doing, whether it's events or you know,
historic preservation. Yeah. I'm fondof German Village. I've I've already said
how much I love it there.I don't live there, I live in
the Burbs, but I have tosay if you're in it, like if
you live there, you're you're init to win it, like you're very
passionate. And that's why I don'tlive. No. Somebody says when I
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first started, somebody from the villagethat do you live down here? And
I said no, And they saidthat's probably for the best, because I
would get that if anything, youknow, but but we get you know,
I got a call this morning fromsomebody who's having a hard time with
um drainage or something like that,that the city was running and and it
just isn't working the way it wassupposed to. And so I'm here to,
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you know, be a connector forfor residences and businesses to the city
or just help them through whatever theyneed life wise. You know. Yeah,
it's just kind of as a connectorfor that. And that's how I
see myself as as a community builder, community connector, and that's what I
like to do. It's always whatI like to do. Sounds like that.
(12:03):
It really inspires you as far aswhat you do in the community.
I really like to create, youknow. My favorite part of being a
dancer was being in the student notnecessarily the performance aspect of it, but
was being in the in the studioand making dance and creating things together with
a choreographer. And and that's kindof how I look at this as I'm
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trying to create a good community andkeep the history alive, but while I
kind of try to put my ownlittle stamp on it too at the same
time. So bringing people together,really trying to become efficient in all the
ways, and that's really fun forme. I really enjoy that part.
Yeah. Yeah, what kind ofpeople live in German Village, like lifelong
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residencelants. A lot of them arelifelongers. I will say it's starting to
skew a little younger. I'm seeinga lot more residents who are, you
know, young professional age, goingto have a kid. I mean,
that's kind of how it. Italmost seems like those houses are smaller.
So it's like, all right,we're young, we only have maybe one
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kid, and as our family growsbigger, we moved to Bexley or to
Worthington or to Upper Arlington, andthen our kids go away and we come
back to the German Village. Sowe've got a lot of those kind of
people. But you know, it'sit's probably skews a little older to if
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not retirement age, close to retirementage. But again seeing those younger people
starting to starting to come in,it's a good time. And also just
get involved with the things we do, you know, That's what I'm trying
to do. I'm trying to bringthat young crowd down there to yeah,
make sure it's renews, show whatkind of projects are going on right now
in German Village and what's the future. Sure. We just got done with
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our House and Garden tour that wasin the end of June, and that's
always on the end of June.It was the sixty third or something.
I think COVID messes with those numberswith all the things that are out there
now, but um sixty third Houseand Garden Tour just ended in June.
We do a couple different events throughoutthe year, so we have that.
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We have kind of a Halloween partycalled our Monster Bash in October. We
do Village Lights in January or inDecember, the early December. Next year,
we're going to bring back there usedto be something called Art Crawl.
We're gonna bring it back in adifferent way. I'm going to try to
reimagine that and bring a little bitmore to it. So Art and Music
Festival next year in twenty twenty four, in August, we'll do that.
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But there's always restaurants, there's alwaysnew stuff, you know. I mean,
I'm excited, so that probably didn'thelp my waistline when I was going.
You know, I can walk.You know, the meeting house for
German Village Society is right on thethird, so you know, stare at
my out my window front window,I'm looking at the new Camera Mill restaurant
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Cento that's going opening hopefully in thenext several weeks. I can walk up
the street to Katzinger's and get asandwich and a salad or something like that.
I can go to Kiddies and geta cookie or a muffin. I
can go to Stoff's right across thestreet and get a cup of coffee.
I can go to the Old Mohawkand get turtle soup when they have it
on the menu, or whatever theyhave. I can get a beer.
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I can go around the corner toLindy's and get sit on the patio that
they have as a beautiful you know, there's so many brown Bag Deli is
one of my favorite things down there. You know, by the way,
did you read this col See Ijust read. I think it was last
week Sean that Lindy's landed in theI don't know if it's top ten,
top twenty, but best patios inthe country. It's fantastic. And that's
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something else that I'm looking forward towith Cento is it's another They're gonna have
a big patio outside of their buildings, so I think it'll almost double the
space of their restaurants. So,you know, we weren't having trying to
have good conversations and good partnerships withall of those restaurants. We try to
publicize them as much as I can. You know, I try to talk
about them as much as I can. I try not to choose just one
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of them that are good. Butyou know, we've got a right next
to the brown Bag, there's aJenny's window that Jenny's is in there seasonally
and you can get the Scoop icecream there, Windings, you can go
and get chocolate House, frou Haven, you can go and get wine.
They've got a little bar there that'sopened, you know, little times during
the week. There's so much,there's so much, and it's not just
on Third or not just on Mohawk. There's little shops that come through all
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over the place, whether it's urban. Sundry is a great little a great
little, a great little boutique that'sgot tons of little things. Can walk
across the street, go to thebook loft, get lost in there for
who knows how long have you experiencedthe collaborative and cooperative community that Columbus is
known for. Yeah, I meanthat I was lucky going through and learning
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a lot from Tom cat ameer Atat the Great Columbus Arts Council, who
you know, has had a longcareer in Columbus and knows everybody. So
he really taught me a lot aboutcollaboration. When I was running the Arts
Festival, I loved collaboration. Ilove focusing on Ohio, if not Columbus,
you know, partnering with as manyother businesses as we can. You
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know, the thing that I stilllive with is, you know, when
I'm doing a partnership with somebody,it has to make sense for both of
us. I'm not just going toask you for money and then walk away.
I need I need it to workfor you too. So collaboration and
you know, get it back tothe dance studio. You know, it
was always being a partner and beinga collaborator is really important. So I've
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been doing that since I was eight, so it really Yeah, I'm just
forty some years old. So lookgood Loo Shod Kessler's with this executive tractor
of the German Village Society. Whenit comes to German Village, what kind
of impact does it have on therest of like, let's say, city
of Columbus, Because you would thinksometimes it would be easy to be overshadowed
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by such a big city, butGerman Village definitely stands out. I think
that it's I mean, it's ait's a hub. You know. We
were just in Pennsylvania for a fewdays and we're driving in across seventy and
there's a Schmidtzville board. So it'sbringing people from all around. You know.
I saw people at the House andGarden tour who said they live in
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Dayton and they come they or Cincinnatior Dayton, and they come with their
group of girlfriends and they have forlike twenty years and they come for that
weekend every year. So it's it'sreally a place that's a destination for people
even outside of Columbus to come to. But everybody in Columbus knows about it,
so it's you know, whether they'rethere a ton or not is another
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thing. But the restaurants bring people. Schmidtz brings people. There's a fudge
house next to Schmidts. I don'tknow how I didn't mention the Schmidtz before
when I was you know, it'sit's it's a destination and it really drives
tourism. It's one of those destinationsin Columbus. You know, you've got
the Memorial and all the different festivalsthat we have in this city, but
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those are seasonal. So German villagesthey are all year long and and it's
always bringing people. So it's it'sreally great. We've got great parks down
there. Schiller Park is an awesomeplace with a great rec center. It's
got great playgrounds for kids, tonsof benches, artwork is going in there.
They do a great job. Thefriends of Schiller Park did a great
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job to bring art down there andand really keep it lit and safe and
and exciting for residents and people tocome down. Um. Frank Fetch Park
is a really cool little place.They just put a new pergola in there.
They're celebrating that new space. It'sa much smaller but really beautiful and
you know, people people down therereally take pride and their flowers they grow,
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and and just their yards and andit's you see people on foot all
the time down there, So it'sreally it's really a destination I think for
not just Columbus people, but peopleoutside of Columbus as well. Yeah,
describe German village and one word,one word community. I mean, it's
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it's really tight knit. Roads.Bricks follow the brick roads. The people
who live down there really do youknow, they don't always all see eye
to eye, but what they dohave is that is that tight knit group
to say, we are residents ofthis neighborhood and they take huge pride in
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it, like they really do umas they should, as they should and
we're lucky, you know. Iit makes my job easier because I've got
these built in advocates and volunteers wholive it. And you know, I
don't live there, but I cansee the passion they have for their neighborhood
and it's infectious. So it makesyou want to be down there more.
Yeah. Yeah, By the way, technology and German village. There was
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a time where it was really difficultto either park down a German village or
you'd get towed in a wrong place. Now but I feel like with the
Columbus parking app now, if Ican just ask has that gone away?
There has there been any more issuesanywhere with that? So we don't have
those down there yet. They're parkingstudy now. We'll find out probably in
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the next year or so, whatthey're going to do down there. But
it's not always easy. But Ican say, having to go down there,
you know, at least five orsix days a week, Yeah,
I can always find something and saynot super far to have to walk if
you're just down the street a littlebit, you know, and it makes
it, you know, this makesit easier to say, oh well,
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I'll just park down here and I'llstop it Stofts and get a cup of
coffee in a bagel on my wayover to the office or something like that.
But you know, there are somany streets. I think there are
some permit times, but it's it'snot you just gotta read the sign.
You just gotta read the sign.There's there's a lot of parking down there.
And it ultimately people will be finewhen they're when they're finding a spot.
(22:12):
By the way, do you stilldance? Do you still do?
Valet? I don't. I uhdidn't you see me walking? Um?
No, I need to, Ineed I've been saying to myself, I
need to get back in the classevery once in a while, just for
no other reason than to try tobe a little healthier. But um,
someday I'll get back in the studioand at least take bar. Well.
(22:34):
Look, this has been very enlightening, especially learning so much more about German
village and gotta get you down there, Kelsey. No, I've been there.
No, no, I know,I know, but Schmidt's I'm talking
Schmidt. I've had a cream puffbecause now they're at the Jackets games.
Jackets great, they're everywhere to stayFair. Yeah, yeah, they're too,
(22:56):
Sean. I obviously you're very busyin the German village area with what
you do. But when you getsome downtime, when that happens, where
do you like to go? Whatdo you like to explore in the city.
We so I have four kids,three of mine and one through marriage,
and we love our metroparks here,our metroparks are incredible here, so
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you know, we try to goto as many as we can. We
go to Slate Run Living Farm whereyou can see tons of animals and and
you know the historic building of whatthat used to be like to live in
and the eighteen hundreds and things likethat, and so we like to see
the kids there every season to seewhat the farm's doing and what baby animals
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there are and all that kind ofstuff. We love the arts where arts
people you know, um Ballet Mettis fantastic. I'll plug going back to
German Village Actors Theater is fantastic inChiller Park. They run all summer long
and it's pay what you can,so it's you know, if you've got
(24:02):
a litter of kids like I do, you can go in and just put
as much as you can in thetill and see see whatever you want.
But you know, metroparks, artsfestivals, this city has something every weekend.
You know, when we're talking aboutscheduling some of our programming at German
Village Society, I said, youknow, my thing is people will say,
(24:23):
well, we don't want to goagainst this. I said, you're
gonna go against something because there issomething every single weekend, So Clippers.
You know, I'm also a sportsfan. I'm like I said, rom
can't Ohio. So we have alittle bit of sports in football in US.
So you know, I went toOhio State. I'm a buck eye.
I like to go to football games. I like to go to Clippers
(24:45):
games. The stadium, you know, Lower dot Com Field is beautiful,
and we just we're lucky to haveso much in this city. There's always
something to do, you know.I my kids occasionally say I'm bored,
there's nothing to do. I'm like, there's always something to do. So,
you know, I think the metroparks. We take a hike whenever
we can, and I think that'sprobably our number one thing to do that
(25:07):
we that we like to do sowell, we're excited. We're excited about
all that German Village has to offertoday in the future. And h Sean
Kessler, executive director of German VillageSociety, thanks so much for joining us.
Thanks for happiness Sean's first podcast.Oh my gosh, I didn't know
that. Yeah, you're a prowl. Listened up so much. This is
so much easier than going on TV. I have to tell you, thanks
(25:37):
for listening to Experience Columbus is Livefor Live for this podcast and others,
go to experience columbus dot com.
Fun experience. Columbus's Live Forward Livepodcast introduces you to a new frontier of
undiscovered possibility. Columbus is a citywith an energy of its own. Joined
Boxer, Kelsey and their guests foran insider's look at a destination that invites
(00:25):
visitors and locals alike to share andexplore. We'll go behind the scenes of
popular attractions, uncover best kept secretsfor things to see and do, and
meet people who embody what it meansto live forward. Welcome back to another
episode of Live Forward, Live andExperienced Columbus podcast. I'm Boxer along with
(00:46):
Kelsey, of course I work O. Hi. How are you doing?
By the way, well how areyou? I like the well good,
I like the flower of the flowerhair clip. I'm just trying to be
a kid again. You never growup, Disney right, just to Disney,
it was fantastic trying to be akid. Well, yeah, I'll
never grow up now. That's justthe way it is. We're glad that
(01:06):
you're with us and you're listening becauseour next guest and by the way,
the theme for this season is livingto explore the different, beautiful neighborhoods of
Columbus. This specific one is GermanVillage, and we want to welcome Sean
Kessler, who's the executive director forthe German Village Society, who is a
wealth a knowledge and a heck ofa background to Sean. Welcome. Thank
(01:29):
you for having Sean. Yeah yeah, yeah, I was a little late
with that. Sorry, guys.Hey, so let's dive into this.
You know, German Village to me, and I realize you're probably having to
walk a tight thin line here becauseof those who represent the German Village,
but it truly is, I thinkone of the most charming places in Columbus
(01:52):
to go. It's a whole vibe. Yeah, it's a vibe exactly.
Kelsey, Yeah, yeah, it'sit's fantastic. You know, I've only
been there for seven months now inmy position, but it's you know,
I try to walk out on thebricks as much as I can so that
I can I can meet people whoare always walking their dogs or going to
one of the shops or the restaurantsor to get coffee or anything like that,
(02:13):
and just trying to meet people asmuch as you can and meet the
businesses and and it's so much fun. It's off if you wear heels though,
very tough if you wear heels.Also, when I hate to take
my kids down there, they tendto not pay attention to work. You
know, that's a whole other thing. So skin, knees and palms happen
too. Are there ever complaints aboutthe bricks? They're so beautiful and how
(02:35):
often are they cleaned? Well,I don't know how often them they're cleaned,
but we're always trying to put morein. We don't like we don't
like cement down there. We likepeople to have sidewalks at our bricks.
So we have initiatives for reward.You know, if somebody's getting bricks,
we have an initiative that we givethem a little bit of refund or bonus
money to help take the sting offof that, you know, nine thousand
dollars bill that it costs to putin whatever your bricks are and for how
(02:59):
much space you have. But right, we try to embrace the history of
the area and love it and loveto people, love people to coming down
and visit us. Sean, Idon't even know about German. I mean,
I've been there. I love it. Everyone knows it's the coolest place
to go. You've never had Schmidtattachment, all right, I don't know
(03:20):
the history. It was funny,so I took the job and I went
across the street to the book Loft, which if you haven't been, you
got to go because as went acrossthe street and bought I think four or
five different books on the history ofGerman Village. And I've been so busy
that I've maybe gotten halfway through oneof them. So but it's been I
think nineteen sixty around there is whenthe German Village Society was founded because of
(03:47):
the effect of putting in I seventy. So German Village used to go all
the way up to the southern partof downtown. So when you go across
Third Street and you see the GermanVillage music Store and you're like, German
Village is back there. Used tobe all the way up there. So
Frank Fetch was the founder of theGerman Village Society, and he and his
(04:12):
band of people put together a groupto fight so that the history of German
Village would stay intact and eventually camea national historic place. And here we
are now, so you know,we have German Village Commission just like a
lot of other neighbors. Neighborhoods havecommissions, So if you have a house
down there and you want to puta new windows or renovate your house,
(04:33):
you have to go through the commissionbecause there's a stringent process and requirements of
what you can do in this NationalHistoric Preserve Preserve right. Stringent is an
understatement. I heard it's it isvery strict to get some things done.
But there's a reason. There's areason, and you know it's there are
lists of things that you can andcan't do, and vendors and things like
(04:54):
that. If you work with theright people, they know what they know
what you're they're supposed to do andcan't do. And yeah, it's really
charming. I think so I wouldhave a hard time buying a house and
renovating it completely because I don't havethat kind of patience, but a lot
of the people really do. Andit's a really close knit neighborhood because of
that. Sean Kessler is the executivedirector of the German Village Society. Hey,
(05:16):
tell us about yourself. Did youare you from Central Ohio Columbus?
Were you from I'm originally from NortheastOhio, Okay, ane O Youngstown.
Oh my god, I'm a Cantonboy. So so my background. So
you know, I grew up downtownCanton, where I could hear football from
every single, every single, youknow, corner of the neighborhood. And
(05:39):
and somehow growing up I never wentthat route and I became a ballet dancer.
So I was from the age ofeight until I retired when I was
around thirty, so at the historicage of thirty for a dancer. So
it's so cool. Yeah, Idid that for a long time. I
came to OSU. That's how Icame to Columbus for college. I was
(06:00):
a dance major Ohio State for fouryears, dance professionally on the side in
a small dance company. Moved toChicago dance professionally there for fourst years,
four or five years, and thencame back when I retired. I had
kids and here I am. Sowent back to Columbus Dance Theater where I
danced professionally in college and did kindof a more administrative side on that.
(06:25):
You know, it's a very smallorganization, so we would have to do
a little bit of everything. SoI was helping to light shows and then
running down the hall and plunging atoilet over life and nonprofit is how it
worked. But did that before Imoved on to GCAC at the Arts Council
and was in grants there and thenmissed the production side of life and found
(06:49):
my way back to the Arts Festival. So I was the director of the
Columbus Arts Festival from twenty seventeen untilthe last year. Not the twenty twenty
two festival was my last one.So that's an undertaking I'd be so stressed.
Yeah, that seems like a verystressful job beast. You know,
(07:09):
it continues from there to here,and when you're in a nonprofit you rely
so much on volunteers. It's avolunteer run show. You know. We
had two staff members who worked onit full time all year long, and
then there was an eighty five membervolunteer committee that that really some of them
have been there for twenty plus years, so they know it. You know.
(07:30):
It was always the joke of whatif Sean and the other coordinator get
hit by a bus, you know, My answer was, they know what
they're doing, they'll be fine.So so it was you know, it
was a fun, fun, afun event and the way I looked at
it growing up in ballet and inmodern dance, it's a three day show,
that's all. That's the only difference. The scales a lot bigger than
(07:53):
what I was used to, butit's three day show. So you just
put it on and if you doyour job leading up to the events,
just putting out little fires, andit all runs itself. So what's the
toughest part of that job? Wasit just that it's all pretty much volunteer.
What's the most stressful? Keeping everybodyhappy? You know, artists have
personalities, and that's part of whatmakes them eclectic and make interesting work,
(08:16):
is they have personalities. But yougot to keep them happy. You know.
We had anywhere from two hundred tothree hundred artists every year for that,
and they came from all around thecountry and a couple international ones.
And and then you have all thestages of performers, from from theater to
dance to spoken word, and youknow, we try to do a little
(08:37):
something different every year, and andso keeping those artists happy and while also
keeping patrons happy and and making itrun was a lot of fun. So,
but that was challenging. But that'show I found it easy to go
to German Village, really is Ilook at the residents and businesses of German
Village as those quirky artists. SoI'm keeping interesting the connection there. I
(09:01):
keep you know, I'm at heart. I'm a dancer, so I can
I can really everything back to backto a batlet class anytime, any time
I need to. So yeah,so how do how do you become the
director of the German Village Society?Is it on? Indeed? Um it's
funny. I mean it was,it was listed, but um so through
(09:24):
some friends had conversations with um peoplein leadership there they were because of COVID,
they lost their executive director for acouple of years. Their president of
their board was running the organization.Made it through. They found it time
to to it was time to hiresomebody to get going again. And and
because they hadn't done anything for basicallytwo years, and and I had some
(09:48):
conversations, and I was ready tolead, lead, be the leader of
an organization on my own. Andand you know, had good experience through
that and a lot of great contactsand references that taught me have taught me
a lot. So really, youknow, having those conversations. It just
kind of trickled in and had interviewsand it worked out. So it was
(10:11):
you know, yeah, Sean Kessler'swith us, who is the executive director
of the German Village Society. Sean, you you spoke a little bit about
similarities with artists and then those thatlive in German Village, But what are
some of the differences now overseeing thissociety. Those artists went away and I've
got these people, these people,these are the ones we have, the
(10:31):
residents of German Village, they're there. We sometimes are mistaken as as as
an hoa. Essentially for some ofthese people, it's like all my lights
out, how can I get thisfix? And it's like, well,
I can help you. I cangive you advice, but you know that's
not really my job. Yeah,but it is my job. I you
know, I want to make surethese people are happy and engaged in the
(10:54):
in the neighborhood and whatever we're doing, whether it's events or you know,
historic preservation. Yeah. I'm fondof German Village. I've I've already said
how much I love it there.I don't live there, I live in
the Burbs, but I have tosay if you're in it, like if
you live there, you're you're init to win it, like you're very
passionate. And that's why I don'tlive. No. Somebody says when I
(11:20):
first started, somebody from the villagethat do you live down here? And
I said no, And they saidthat's probably for the best, because I
would get that if anything, youknow, but but we get you know,
I got a call this morning fromsomebody who's having a hard time with
um drainage or something like that,that the city was running and and it
just isn't working the way it wassupposed to. And so I'm here to,
(11:43):
you know, be a connector forfor residences and businesses to the city
or just help them through whatever theyneed life wise. You know. Yeah,
it's just kind of as a connectorfor that. And that's how I
see myself as as a community builder, community connector, and that's what I
like to do. It's always whatI like to do. Sounds like that.
(12:03):
It really inspires you as far aswhat you do in the community.
I really like to create, youknow. My favorite part of being a
dancer was being in the student notnecessarily the performance aspect of it, but
was being in the in the studioand making dance and creating things together with
a choreographer. And and that's kindof how I look at this as I'm
(12:24):
trying to create a good community andkeep the history alive, but while I
kind of try to put my ownlittle stamp on it too at the same
time. So bringing people together,really trying to become efficient in all the
ways, and that's really fun forme. I really enjoy that part.
Yeah. Yeah, what kind ofpeople live in German Village, like lifelong
(12:48):
residencelants. A lot of them arelifelongers. I will say it's starting to
skew a little younger. I'm seeinga lot more residents who are, you
know, young professional age, goingto have a kid. I mean,
that's kind of how it. Italmost seems like those houses are smaller.
So it's like, all right,we're young, we only have maybe one
(13:09):
kid, and as our family growsbigger, we moved to Bexley or to
Worthington or to Upper Arlington, andthen our kids go away and we come
back to the German Village. Sowe've got a lot of those kind of
people. But you know, it'sit's probably skews a little older to if
(13:31):
not retirement age, close to retirementage. But again seeing those younger people
starting to starting to come in,it's a good time. And also just
get involved with the things we do, you know, That's what I'm trying
to do. I'm trying to bringthat young crowd down there to yeah,
make sure it's renews, show whatkind of projects are going on right now
in German Village and what's the future. Sure. We just got done with
(13:54):
our House and Garden tour that wasin the end of June, and that's
always on the end of June.It was the sixty third or something.
I think COVID messes with those numberswith all the things that are out there
now, but um sixty third Houseand Garden Tour just ended in June.
We do a couple different events throughoutthe year, so we have that.
(14:16):
We have kind of a Halloween partycalled our Monster Bash in October. We
do Village Lights in January or inDecember, the early December. Next year,
we're going to bring back there usedto be something called Art Crawl.
We're gonna bring it back in adifferent way. I'm going to try to
reimagine that and bring a little bitmore to it. So Art and Music
Festival next year in twenty twenty four, in August, we'll do that.
(14:41):
But there's always restaurants, there's alwaysnew stuff, you know. I mean,
I'm excited, so that probably didn'thelp my waistline when I was going.
You know, I can walk.You know, the meeting house for
German Village Society is right on thethird, so you know, stare at
my out my window front window,I'm looking at the new Camera Mill restaurant
(15:03):
Cento that's going opening hopefully in thenext several weeks. I can walk up
the street to Katzinger's and get asandwich and a salad or something like that.
I can go to Kiddies and geta cookie or a muffin. I
can go to Stoff's right across thestreet and get a cup of coffee.
I can go to the Old Mohawkand get turtle soup when they have it
on the menu, or whatever theyhave. I can get a beer.
(15:24):
I can go around the corner toLindy's and get sit on the patio that
they have as a beautiful you know, there's so many brown Bag Deli is
one of my favorite things down there. You know, by the way,
did you read this col See Ijust read. I think it was last
week Sean that Lindy's landed in theI don't know if it's top ten,
top twenty, but best patios inthe country. It's fantastic. And that's
(15:48):
something else that I'm looking forward towith Cento is it's another They're gonna have
a big patio outside of their buildings, so I think it'll almost double the
space of their restaurants. So,you know, we weren't having trying to
have good conversations and good partnerships withall of those restaurants. We try to
publicize them as much as I can. You know, I try to talk
about them as much as I can. I try not to choose just one
(16:10):
of them that are good. Butyou know, we've got a right next
to the brown Bag, there's aJenny's window that Jenny's is in there seasonally
and you can get the Scoop icecream there, Windings, you can go
and get chocolate House, frou Haven, you can go and get wine.
They've got a little bar there that'sopened, you know, little times during
the week. There's so much,there's so much, and it's not just
on Third or not just on Mohawk. There's little shops that come through all
(16:33):
over the place, whether it's urban. Sundry is a great little a great
little, a great little boutique that'sgot tons of little things. Can walk
across the street, go to thebook loft, get lost in there for
who knows how long have you experiencedthe collaborative and cooperative community that Columbus is
known for. Yeah, I meanthat I was lucky going through and learning
(16:59):
a lot from Tom cat ameer Atat the Great Columbus Arts Council, who
you know, has had a longcareer in Columbus and knows everybody. So
he really taught me a lot aboutcollaboration. When I was running the Arts
Festival, I loved collaboration. Ilove focusing on Ohio, if not Columbus,
you know, partnering with as manyother businesses as we can. You
(17:22):
know, the thing that I stilllive with is, you know, when
I'm doing a partnership with somebody,it has to make sense for both of
us. I'm not just going toask you for money and then walk away.
I need I need it to workfor you too. So collaboration and
you know, get it back tothe dance studio. You know, it
was always being a partner and beinga collaborator is really important. So I've
(17:44):
been doing that since I was eight, so it really Yeah, I'm just
forty some years old. So lookgood Loo Shod Kessler's with this executive tractor
of the German Village Society. Whenit comes to German Village, what kind
of impact does it have on therest of like, let's say, city
of Columbus, Because you would thinksometimes it would be easy to be overshadowed
(18:07):
by such a big city, butGerman Village definitely stands out. I think
that it's I mean, it's ait's a hub. You know. We
were just in Pennsylvania for a fewdays and we're driving in across seventy and
there's a Schmidtzville board. So it'sbringing people from all around. You know.
I saw people at the House andGarden tour who said they live in
(18:29):
Dayton and they come they or Cincinnatior Dayton, and they come with their
group of girlfriends and they have forlike twenty years and they come for that
weekend every year. So it's it'sreally a place that's a destination for people
even outside of Columbus to come to. But everybody in Columbus knows about it,
so it's you know, whether they'rethere a ton or not is another
(18:49):
thing. But the restaurants bring people. Schmidtz brings people. There's a fudge
house next to Schmidts. I don'tknow how I didn't mention the Schmidtz before
when I was you know, it'sit's it's a destination and it really drives
tourism. It's one of those destinationsin Columbus. You know, you've got
the Memorial and all the different festivalsthat we have in this city, but
(19:11):
those are seasonal. So German villagesthey are all year long and and it's
always bringing people. So it's it'sreally great. We've got great parks down
there. Schiller Park is an awesomeplace with a great rec center. It's
got great playgrounds for kids, tonsof benches, artwork is going in there.
They do a great job. Thefriends of Schiller Park did a great
(19:32):
job to bring art down there andand really keep it lit and safe and
and exciting for residents and people tocome down. Um. Frank Fetch Park
is a really cool little place.They just put a new pergola in there.
They're celebrating that new space. It'sa much smaller but really beautiful and
you know, people people down therereally take pride and their flowers they grow,
(19:55):
and and just their yards and andit's you see people on foot all
the time down there, So it'sreally it's really a destination I think for
not just Columbus people, but peopleoutside of Columbus as well. Yeah,
describe German village and one word,one word community. I mean, it's
(20:15):
it's really tight knit. Roads.Bricks follow the brick roads. The people
who live down there really do youknow, they don't always all see eye
to eye, but what they dohave is that is that tight knit group
to say, we are residents ofthis neighborhood and they take huge pride in
(20:37):
it, like they really do umas they should, as they should and
we're lucky, you know. Iit makes my job easier because I've got
these built in advocates and volunteers wholive it. And you know, I
don't live there, but I cansee the passion they have for their neighborhood
and it's infectious. So it makesyou want to be down there more.
Yeah. Yeah, By the way, technology and German village. There was
(21:03):
a time where it was really difficultto either park down a German village or
you'd get towed in a wrong place. Now but I feel like with the
Columbus parking app now, if Ican just ask has that gone away?
There has there been any more issuesanywhere with that? So we don't have
those down there yet. They're parkingstudy now. We'll find out probably in
(21:29):
the next year or so, whatthey're going to do down there. But
it's not always easy. But Ican say, having to go down there,
you know, at least five orsix days a week, Yeah,
I can always find something and saynot super far to have to walk if
you're just down the street a littlebit, you know, and it makes
it, you know, this makesit easier to say, oh well,
(21:52):
I'll just park down here and I'llstop it Stofts and get a cup of
coffee in a bagel on my wayover to the office or something like that.
But you know, there are somany streets. I think there are
some permit times, but it's it'snot you just gotta read the sign.
You just gotta read the sign.There's there's a lot of parking down there.
And it ultimately people will be finewhen they're when they're finding a spot.
(22:12):
By the way, do you stilldance? Do you still do?
Valet? I don't. I uhdidn't you see me walking? Um?
No, I need to, Ineed I've been saying to myself, I
need to get back in the classevery once in a while, just for
no other reason than to try tobe a little healthier. But um,
someday I'll get back in the studioand at least take bar. Well.
(22:34):
Look, this has been very enlightening, especially learning so much more about German
village and gotta get you down there, Kelsey. No, I've been there.
No, no, I know,I know, but Schmidt's I'm talking
Schmidt. I've had a cream puffbecause now they're at the Jackets games.
Jackets great, they're everywhere to stayFair. Yeah, yeah, they're too,
(22:56):
Sean. I obviously you're very busyin the German village area with what
you do. But when you getsome downtime, when that happens, where
do you like to go? Whatdo you like to explore in the city.
We so I have four kids,three of mine and one through marriage,
and we love our metroparks here,our metroparks are incredible here, so
(23:18):
you know, we try to goto as many as we can. We
go to Slate Run Living Farm whereyou can see tons of animals and and
you know the historic building of whatthat used to be like to live in
and the eighteen hundreds and things likethat, and so we like to see
the kids there every season to seewhat the farm's doing and what baby animals
(23:40):
there are and all that kind ofstuff. We love the arts where arts
people you know, um Ballet Mettis fantastic. I'll plug going back to
German Village Actors Theater is fantastic inChiller Park. They run all summer long
and it's pay what you can,so it's you know, if you've got
(24:02):
a litter of kids like I do, you can go in and just put
as much as you can in thetill and see see whatever you want.
But you know, metroparks, artsfestivals, this city has something every weekend.
You know, when we're talking aboutscheduling some of our programming at German
Village Society, I said, youknow, my thing is people will say,
(24:23):
well, we don't want to goagainst this. I said, you're
gonna go against something because there issomething every single weekend, So Clippers.
You know, I'm also a sportsfan. I'm like I said, rom
can't Ohio. So we have alittle bit of sports in football in US.
So you know, I went toOhio State. I'm a buck eye.
I like to go to football games. I like to go to Clippers
(24:45):
games. The stadium, you know, Lower dot Com Field is beautiful,
and we just we're lucky to haveso much in this city. There's always
something to do, you know.I my kids occasionally say I'm bored,
there's nothing to do. I'm like, there's always something to do. So,
you know, I think the metroparks. We take a hike whenever
we can, and I think that'sprobably our number one thing to do that
(25:07):
we that we like to do sowell, we're excited. We're excited about
all that German Village has to offertoday in the future. And h Sean
Kessler, executive director of German VillageSociety, thanks so much for joining us.
Thanks for happiness Sean's first podcast.Oh my gosh, I didn't know
that. Yeah, you're a prowl. Listened up so much. This is
so much easier than going on TV. I have to tell you, thanks
(25:37):
for listening to Experience Columbus is Livefor Live for this podcast and others,
go to experience columbus dot com.
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