Currently the
Kennedy Heights Arts Center serves about 5,000 people a year, but according to Ellen Muse-Lindeman, the nonprofit’s executive director, that number is expected to double with the grand opening of its
Lindner Annex.
The new space, which allows the Center to quadruple in size, is already home to local artists — including the
Ohio Valley Woodturners Guild — who are using studio space to develop their craft. It will soon play host to a variety of performing arts, public and private events and classes ranging in subject matter — everything from photography to graphic design in its new state-of-the-art Scripps Howard Media Center.
“We find that digital art forms are really popular,” Muse-Lindeman says, “Kids and young adults have lots of interests, so we want to help harness that activity and provide ways for young people to learn how to develop their own content and develop their own voices through that content.”
The Center, as it’s done for years, will continue its inclusion policy, so classes will be accessible to all.
“We don’t turn anyone away for inability to pay,” Muse-Lindeman says. “We have a sliding scale for tuition, so people pay what they’re able to afford. We have a real core concentration of participants from the area.”
And the hope is for that core to continue to expand, bringing more children, teens and adults — novices and already-established artists — into a space that fosters creativity and collaboration, while enhancing the region as a whole.
“There are so many benefits to bringing more artists to urban communities,” Muse-Lindeman says. “It brings more vitality and excitement, and when artists invest their time and their talents in this neighborhood, it attracts more types of activity and leads to positive revitalization.”
Do Good:
• Help celebrate the grand opening of the new space by attending
Raise the Heights, an art parade and festival 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Aug. 29. The official ribbon cutting is planned for 10 a.m. Aug. 28.
• The Lindner Annex, in addition to the
Kennedy Heights Montessori Center, make up what will now be known as the Kennedy Heights Cultural Campus, but they're looking for a third partner to move in and complete the campus. The partner can be either a nonprofit or for-profit venture but should align with the education/arts theme.
Contact Ellen Muse-Lindeman if you’re interested.
• Connect with the Kennedy Heights Arts Center on
Facebook, and stay tuned for information on events, space rental and fall programming, which begins enrollment in September.
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