NORTHPORT, Ala. (AP) - The decision to cancel the annual Kentuck Festival of the Arts caused more than just another COVID-19 related scratch from the social calendar of West Alabama.
“Once the board gave us that final word, that’s when we were really emotionally sad about it even though we knew it needed to happen. We really cried,” said Amy Echols, executive director for the Kentuck Art Center.
The festival normally provides a $5 million economic impact for the Northport business community and brings more than 10,000 people into the city. The festival has been an annual event for 49 years, so the decision to cancel was not just a difficult one, but also a costly one. The festival provides one-third of the operating capital for the Kentuck Art Center’s annual budget, but the decision to cancel this festival was based partly upon cost and partly upon risk.
“We are very concerned because the majority of our artists live off of festivals, and they haven’t had any this year. They were hopeful that we would have ours, but we knew, even if we tried it, it would not be the same because not as many people would attend. A lot of our wonderful folk artists are of the age, too, where they wouldn’t need to be at a festival like that, but they would come anyway. It was just too risky,” Echols said.
She also said the staff presented the board of directors with a cost analysis that showed Kentuck would have to spend so much on COVID-19 related precautions and would require so many volunteers that this year’s festival would have lost money. The decision, though heartbreaking, was the right one, she said.
Echols said she and her staff, after hearing the final word, went across the street to Billy’s Sports Grill, where they took some time to cry, but they also reflected on the many things they had to be thankful for.
Among those positives was the fact that no member of the staff had lost a job. Thanks in part to the federal Paycheck Protection Program, Kentuck was able to pay its staff all through the quarantine. The program is currently a loan program designed to help small businesses maintain their staffing through the COVID situation. Echols said there is legislation pending that could forgive the loans as long as the business can show the money was used to pay staff.
Amid all the chaos that has been 2020, new ideas are emerging to keep Kentuck afloat and also to help their artists. The biggest idea is the pinch-hitter for the Kentuck Festival of the Arts. Echols said that Kentuck is launching the Kentuck Festival of the Arts Virtual Marketplace. It will kick-off online the day the festival would have opened, Oct. 10 at 9 a.m. The virtual marketplace will run through the end of the year.
“All of our artists who juried in to come to the festival this year are going to have the opportunity to be online under our festival online umbrella, so they can sell their work directly to customers. This is a way to connect these artists directly with the people who would normally go to the festival. They will buy from them, and the artist will ship to the buyer. You could shop every single booth online that would have been at the festival,” Echols said.
Canceling the festival put Kentuck in a financial pinch, which they will be working to overcome all year. Echols said they are working hard to ensure that Kentuck not only survives COVID but also thrives.
“We will not be able to make up the $200,000 deficit, but we will also not have the expenditure it takes to put on the festival. We are constantly planning programming and workshops where you can safely social distance. We have applied for a lot of financial assistance. We have been fortunate to get a few of those, and our members have been phenomenal.”
The staff is watching every penny to ensure that no money is wasted. The penny-pinching effort is so intense they have even forgone replacing light bulbs in a restroom that has plenty of natural light. Director of Operations Exa Skinner is constantly writing applications for grants to help ensure they survive and Sherri Warner, the director of experiences is making sure that art classes are ongoing. Gallery shop manager Mary Bell keeps the door open and the showroom sales flowing.
“We feel that Kentuck, as long as we keep working as hard as we can, that we will survive,” said Echols. “We have done some projections on our budget to see when we will run out of money to see what would have to happen for us to close the doors. We feel very confident it is not going to get to that. We know we have to watch every expenditure very closely. We’ve cut back to the bare bones as much as we can and we have put off a lot of things. We are really watching every penny. We feel very confident as long as the community supports us we will definitely be here.”
Anyone wishing to support Kentuck can do so through their website at www.kentuck.org, by calling the Kentuck Art Center to donate by credit card, by dropping a check in the mail or you can call Kentuck and they will come to your home or business to pick up a donation.
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