Art has the ability to lift us out of the everyday, create meaningful conversations and connect us with one another and things that are larger than ourselves. As storytellers, designers and creative problem solvers, art offers us inspiration and creates meaning. 

Art also defines cities and Charlotte is home to vibrant, talented artists and organizations creating and developing work that is uniquely ours. As Charlotte has difficult conversations about how we’ll fund the arts in our community, we’ve thought more about how art has impacted each of us. Members of Team Kcomm asked ourselves the question, “What does art mean to you?” We hope you’ll ask yourself the same and share your own thoughts.

 

Left – Marty in his middle school production of “Bye Bye Birdie” nailing the direction of “Curl your lip like Elvis, make the Mayor’s wife faint and don’t fall off those platform shoes.” Right – When Marty marched with his kindergarten class on Flag Day, everyone was asked to draw the American flag. His creative interpretation was a skull-and-crossbones pirate ship flag. That’s him in the white coat and, yes, bell-bottoms (thanks a lot, Mom!).

Marty Kelso
Partner/Creative Director, The Greaser and The Pirate 

What does art mean to you?
“The only way for me to answer this is to picture a world without art. And the only picture that emerges is drab Soviet Bloc architecture with everyone shuffling around zombie-like in the same shapeless uniform. Real 1984 stuff. Sure, you may be alive, but are you living? 

The arts add the color, the jolt, the joy, the danger, the comedy, the search for meaning and the brain-bending perspectives that make us question, but more importantly, make us free. We’re talking about a primal need here. I agree with Dutch philosopher, Erasmus: “When I get a little money, I buy books; if any is left, I buy food and clothes.”

 

Top Left – At a film screening with Charlton Heston (Moses blessed our daughter in utero). Top Right – At 15 playing a 65-year-old-woman in “Inherit the Wind.” Bottom – Bossy and lover of politics from the start, Marcie was not simply a Thespian, but a Kempsville High Thespian officer.

Marcie Kelso
Partner/Director of Accounts and Strategy, Sarah Heartburn/Eva Green (pet names from my mother and father respectively)

What does art mean to you?
“My father was an engineer who went to college on a music scholarship. My mother was a ballerina in her youth. Sundays in my house were filled with Broadway show tunes from my father’s cast soundtracks, accompanied by my mother dancing. My first experience with theater and film was as a three-year-old on “Romper Room.” 

Film and theater allowed me to catch early glimpses of the world, gave me my closest lifelong friends, and influenced my views socially and politically. My love of the arts even led me to Marty Kelso – we met in an acting class in college, performing a scene from “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” How’s that for an auspicious first date? (If this play is before your time, Google it).”

 

Dee lip synching to “Material Girl” in her middle school theater performance.

Dee Grano
Vice President of Public Relations, Award-Winning Madonna Impersonator  

What does art mean to you?
“This may come as a shock to everyone, but I was a theater major. I discovered my love of the performing arts in eighth grade, shortly after I transferred to a Catholic school in the middle of the year. Everyone already had their friend groups and not many were willing to reach out until I was cast in a school play. I found myself on stage, in a red formal dress and blonde wig, covered in thick makeup and rhinestones, lip synching to Madonna’s “Material Girl.” (Performing this at a Catholic school was my first introduction to dramatic irony.) The next day, I was invited to sit at the cool kids’ table for lunch.  

Being in that play didn’t change who I was. It helped me see that being myself was plenty good enough. At a very difficult time in my family’s life, theater gave me a place to escape, make new friends and create something magical. I performed all through high school, college and beyond. I acted professionally here and there, and even won a couple of awards. 

My theater experience taught me confidence, teamwork, resilience and how to think critically, making a dramatic impact on my life, pun intended.”

 

Karen and her family before the tour of “Aladdin” in September 2019.

Karen Barrett
Brand Strategist, Broadway Musical Fangirl 

What does art mean to you?
“It’s almost impossible to define what art means to me and my family in just a few words. I have loved theater all my life, performing in musical theater in high school and college and minoring in it, as well. My husband is an artist with a degree in illustration so art is something that is a vital part of our children’s daily lives, whether it be singing along to Broadway soundtracks, drawing or painting at the kitchen table, seeing live theater (which we do often) or visiting museums (also a family favorite). Art is excitement, art is passion, art is unifying, art is the element of surprise, art is open-minded, art is motivating, art is universal, art is a teacher and guide, art is impactful and art is everything to us.”

 

Amanda pretends to be a dancer (per usual). This caption applies to both photos. In the group, she’s bottom row, far left.

Amanda Fowler
Digital Strategist, Living Room Interpretive Dance Performer 

What does art mean to you?
“I grew up with an appreciation of art but my relationship with it deepened during a six-and-a-half-year tenure on the marketing team at Charlotte Ballet. As a bit of an introvert, my emotions are less on my sleeve and more encased in Russian doll layers of boxes. My first day on the job, I sat in a dress rehearsal of a performance showcasing new works for the company. Enthralled in the artistry, I found myself with tears rolling down my cheeks next to the boss I’d just met hours before. Since then I’ve been known to cry in public at countless performances and exhibitions.

Art has the ability to elicit emotion like little else I’ve experienced. It mutes the activity of the day, the relentless spinning thoughts in my brain and the anxieties of everyday life. It catapults me into stories, realities and relationships outside of my own experiences and my life is richer for it. 

Though I haven’t performed publicly since a choreographed routine to C+C Music Factory’s “Everybody Dance Now” in my elementary school talent show, I will continue sharing new moves with my dogs in the living room.”

 

Left – Kristi, age 4, posing backstage during her second dance recital. Right – Kristi and her two children before the (amazing) performance of Aladdin this past September.

Kristi Sweeny
Account Supervisor, Dancing Machine 

What does art mean to you?
“My mom loves to tell the story of my first dance recital at age two when I was petrified to walk onto the stage at the Theater of Performing Arts in New Orleans. I cried and cried but finally joined the others and once I stepped foot on that stage, I didn’t want to leave. I guess you can say the rest is history as I went on to dance for more than 20 years and never passed up an opportunity to be on stage – whether it was my debut as Diana Ross in the middle school lip sync contest (took home the gold two years in a row) or dancing with a group of California Raisins (remember those?!) in the summer camp talent show. I’ve even been known to put brush to canvas from time to time. 

During my formative years, the arts gave me a way to develop and express my creative side, helped me gain confidence, gave me a community that became like family and opened my eyes to the beauty that surrounds us – and for those things I am eternally grateful. These days, I love sharing my passion of the arts with my two children by enjoying cultural experiences of all types with them.”