Quick-Fire Quips is a speedy questionnaire where we get to know people who stand out in the State of Alabama! In this episode, Alabama Public Radio host Baillee Majors talks with the Exa Skinner, executive director of Kentuck Art Center and Festival.
The official website bills it as a hub for arts and culture, and with 54 years of expertise, Kentuck enriches the lives of people from many different backgrounds, both locally and across the country. Kentuck's mission is "to perpetuate the arts, engage the community, and empower the artist."
Baillee: Hi, Exa!
Exa: Hi, Baillee! How are you?
Baillee: I'm great. So happy to have you on!
Exa: Happy to be here!
Baillee: For those who are not familiar, can you talk about the Kentuck Art Center?
Exa: Kentuck Arts Center has two campuses. One is in downtown Northport, Alabama, and the other is in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. [On] our Northport campus, we have artist studios... and we have a gallery shop where we represent around 120 different artists whose work is available. It's open seven days a week. We also have exhibition spaces on this campus... We also offer a lot of workshop opportunities.
Our Tuscaloosa campus is actually called Kentuck at Queen City. It was originally the Queen City Pool House, built in the 1940s and it is our museum of our permanent collection. So we have art there that has been collected by Kentuck and also by a private donor who has who's been working to collect museum quality work from the festival for the last 20 to 30 years. So it's a really special place. We also have some early childhood programming there, as well as art markets.
Baillee: Kentuck in itself is awesome... But the Kentuck Festival and the Arts is coming up. For those who have never been, can talk about the event?
Exa: It is impossible to imagine if you haven't been. So, I highly recommend that you go! It is October 11 and 12th of this year, and it's in Snow Hinton Park in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
It's a juried art festival, which means that every single artist that you see there is very high quality work... We also have artists who demonstrate throughout the festival.... We also have live music that happens both days. We are really, really excited to have Bonnie Hawley.
We also have a wonderful spoken word stage. And our spoken word stage was actually started by Kathryn Tucker Windham... We have free children's activities. So everything from tie-dye to paper marbling, we have the woodworkers association of West Alabama comes and helps kids build bird houses. It's really is a very immersive experience... It's something you'll never forget!
Baillee: All right, now that introductions are out of the way, let's get you warmed up to answer the questionnaire. To do that, I'm going to have you say Quick-Fire Quips, three times fast.
Exa: OK! Quick-Fire Quips, Quick-Fire Quips, Quick-Fire Quips!
Baillee: Here's the first question. What is the first word that comes to mind when you hear Alabama?
Exa: Roll Tide!
Baillee: Are you football fan? Are you happy that it's football season?
Exa: I love Alabama football. I'll say that. I love the tradition of football. I love tailgating and wearing my crimson every Friday and Saturday. I love living in Tuscaloosa!
Baillee: Okay. Next question, what is a bad stereotype or something that people get wrong about Alabama?
Exa: I think people misinterpret the culture a lot. There's a lot of negative history in the South, and I think we all acknowledge that, but that does not mean that everyone you meet here doesn't know anything about art or literature or that they're unintelligent.
Being in a state that is so naturally beautiful has been really inspirational to a lot of people and a lot of artists, a lot of deep thinkers over the years, I think that that is really overlooked in our in our state.
Baillee: What is something you wish more people knew about art?
Exa: I've just read this wonderful book called Your Brain on Art. They did a study people who passively engage with arts. That means, just like going to a museum or going to a play, listening to live music regularly, live on average, 10 years longer.
Baillee: Oh, interesting!
Exa: I know! It is actually good for you. It doesn't just feel like it, it really is good for you.
Baillee: Well, what is something that you think people misunderstand about creativity?
Exa: That we live in a world where everything has to be a marketable skill. You find the thing you're really good at, and that's what you have to do for a living. If you're not really good at something, there's no point in doing it.
But what I stress to my staff in our classes and to myself, life is about process, not product. So, it's not about what you produce when you're creating art. It's about the fact that you sat down and created, that you cared enough about yourself to take a moment and create something
Baillee: What is your favorite art museum in Alabama to visit
Exa: Kentuck's founder, Georgine Clark, after she left Kentuck, she went and worked at the Alabama State Council in the Arts, and she established the Alabama Artist Gallery. They have shows that move in and out different exhibitions, but it's always Alabama artists.
It's not a huge exhibition space, but that it really does allow you to have time to sit with each piece and take it in. You don't feel like there's a lot that you're having to take in all at once.
Baillee: What is your favorite getaway spot in the state, and why?
Exa: I have a friend in Evergreen, Alabama. She has a pine tree farm, and she just has this little cabin. Every now and then she and I'll go out there, and we'll both take our kids. We just sit out there. There's no TV or phone reception or anything like that. [We] make night, and look at the stars. It's really beautiful. That's kind of like the quintessential look of Alabama in my mind.
Baillee: Do you have any superstitions or irrational fears?
Exa: So, when I was really young, my older cousin watched this movie where a baby alligator got flushed down the toilet and lived in the sewer and came up and started terrorizing people. And so every time I swim at night, I'm always like, "There might be an alligator!"
Baillee: Well, you never know!
Exa: Yes, you never know! That could be true.
Baillee: Tell me something on your bucket list.
Exa: I want to go to the Maldives. It just, it's really fascinating to me. It's 99% underwater. It just looks really beautiful and seems like a magical place.
Baillee: What is a hidden gem in Tuscaloosa or Northport that more people should know about?
Exa: Kentuck, obviously! (laughs). Recently, more on the radar in the last few years than it ever has been before, are our adult classes... I recently took Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
If you're stressed, come take this class.. You have to shut off that part of your brain that lets you over analyze things and worry about things to be able to make art. It does calm you, and you come out of it feeling totally relaxed. It's like going to the spa, but a lot less expensive.
Baillee: I love that! Okay, here is the last question, what does Alabama need?
Exa: I think a lot of times, especially along political lines, we get very divided, and that translates into a lot of other things.? So, we start to think the arts are separate from big business or politics.
The thing about putting on a huge event like the festival is that you see that all those things have to work together. Those difference in ideology don't really matter as much as the fact that everybody cares about this community and making this artistic community grow. It takes all of that together to really make something happen. And that is not just true for a large event, that is true in life.
Baillee: That's it for today's Quick-Fire Quips, a speedy questionnaire where we get to know people who stand out in the State of Alabama. That was Exa Skinner, executive director of Kentuck Art Center and Festival. I'm your host, Baillee Majors.
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