The Studios of Key West

A video slideshow: the first year of TSKW
from late 2006 to early 2008

TSKW Executive Director Turns One

by Eric Holowacz
from The Studios of Key West newsletter, March 2008

One year ago this week, I got on a plane in Wellington, New Zealand, and got off (several planes and several days later), in Key West. It was my first visit to the Southernmost Point, and four weeks later, I was moving my family here to take up the role of TSKW's first executive director. The past twelve months have been, in all ways, like a beautiful dream.

The immediate challenge was formidable, but not insurmountable: expand the TSKW physical plant, establish a professional staff, work with and grow an already impressive board of directors, forge new and unimagined partnerships with the community, investigate national and international cultural connections, and find innovative ways to support local creative people. When I got off that final propellor-driven plane in March 2007, taking in the hot and humid Key West air for the very first time, I could not have predicted the wondrous things that would follow.

But somehow when I look back on all we've dreamt together, much of the early challenge has already been met. As The Studios of Key West moves into its second year, our campus is becoming a center of creativity, artistic collaboration, community gathering, and cultural experience on this small, fruitful island. This remarkable transformation, still unfolding before our eyes, has been the result of hundreds, if not thousands of people who are making our creative community what it is. I'm talking about the painters, poets, young dancers, film-makers, drummers, educators, sculptors, actors, students, workshop participants, partner organizations and the friends and patrons who make this place real.

Anybody could have stepped off that plane last March and walked into this new organization. But nothing about the past year would have been possible (One Night Stand, Walk on White, Faces & Stories, Return of the Key West Picture Show, Sculpture garden installations, humanities lectures, big band concerts, student scholarships, visiting artist residencies, great workshops, potluck dinners and many an outreach opportunity) without the wonderful creative people who have added themselves to the TSKW vision. They have helped our organization harness its dream, in magical and impossible ways. They have turned us into a bold reality. And for that, I humbly offer 365 days of gratitude: with many more days, and a few more challenges, to come!

In March 2007 I also left behind another remarkable creative place: the Southernmost world capital of Wellington, New Zealand. There I grew my family, served as arts officer for the city government, helped establish a new multi-disciplinary arts center, advised and worked with hundreds of great creative folks, and managed to produce a basket of interesting arts projects for the city. It is a community I still miss, with people and places I will always love dearly. So I wanted to share the below audio conversation with newfound friends here in my new Southernmost community. The below link is my last interview before leaving New Zealand and taking up the challenge offered by The Studios of Key West. The show, hosted by Kiwi presenter Kim Hill, is called "Playing Favourites." And it's captured my voice from one year ago this week, and 18 time zones away.

You might call it the beginnings of my own beautiful dream...

Click Here to Listen

The Studios of Key West

On Culture: Dr Larry Hickman discusses American Scholar John Dewey's time in Key West

Southern Visions Quarterly - Fall 2007

PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT: THE STUDIOS AT KEY WEST TO HOST ARTIST RESIDENCY
published by the Southern Arts Federation

Link to Southern Visions website

The Studios of Key West, Florida (TSKW), an emerging organization at America's Southernmost point, will host the Faces & Stories, A Portrait of Southern Writers exhibit early next year. The exhibit will coincide with the 26th annual Key West Literary Seminar, a two-week gathering of well known writers, aspiring poets, published essayists, and other important literary figures.

TSKW invited exhibit photographer Curt Richter to participate in a two-week artist residency, in which he will set up a temporary portrait studio and capture the literary figures of Key West as his new subjects. Additionally, a lecture and artist workshop have also been planned, with Richter sharing his creative process and influences. We recently caught up with Eric Holowacz, Executive Director of TSKW, to learn more about this exciting project.

What about this particular exhibit seemed like a right fit for your community?

First of all, the images are extraordinary. Most were captured with an old school large format camera, under tungsten lighting, in what always seems like a quiet and contemplative moment. This is the magic of Richter's work. Secondly, the subjects and writers themselves are amazing. These are people who have built the Southern literary canon, whose books we read and keep, whose voices have influenced the 20th century American psyche, and who continue to do so. Key West is America's Southernmost point, and is rightly proud of its storied past and its extraordinary literary and cultural heritage. Of course this exhibition was the right fit.

What about this particular exhibit made you want to explore the possibility of public programming?

The Studios of Key West is a new kind of creative community, and we have attempted to absorb and synthesize the lessons of colleague organizations like the MacDowell Colony, Anderson Ranch, and Georgia's Hambidge Center. But beyond these role models, we intend to create a new mold that connects with our surrounding community, explores collaborations, and always seeks to connect people to the creative process. In a way, the idea of a residency by Curt Richter, to accompany his Faces & Stories exhibition, was an extension of our mission as a young, new, ambitious arts organization at the end of the American highway. This will become our first non-local visual art exhibition, and Richter will become our first visiting artist in residence.

What do you hope this residency will accomplish for the members of your community?

In short, we strive to make people's lives more creative, to express culture, to connect artists and audiences, and to celebrate our unique sense of place through the artistic process. For us, the public is an essential ingredient, collaborator, and guide. Key West is a small community made up of long-time residents, Cuban fishermen, famous novelists, families, free spirits, sun-tanned tourists, almost all walks of life. We exist fully within this island neighborhood, and in a very short time have been able to generate new ideas, collaborative projects and partnerships for and by all of the above. You could even say that in our effort to build a new kind of creative community, we are mimicking the artist's own creative process: trying this, adding that, tweaking things, distilling concepts, and seeking to discover the unknown.

Look for more information on this residency in the next edition of the Southern Visions Quarterly.