By Colin Secore

On May 18th, I interviewed the Executive Director of the Midtown Kingston Arts District: Lisa Kelley. She’s been with MKAD since its inception, and helped build it up while also building her role over time. As such, she has been a foundational part of the success of development of MKAD into what it is today. Lisa has been mainly fiscally responsible for MKAD. Recently, she’s been leading the charge into a new phase for MKAD after Lara Giordano retired as The DRAW Director.

“One of my main jobs right now, in this big transition, is shifting our leadership structure,” Lisa told me, “Our operations are organically developing so now I’m in the midst of codifying it, being like ‘yeah this is what we do, and this is how we do it.’ SOP’s are my new learning curve at the moment. Standard operating procedures. [Lisa laughs]

“When I took on the job, Maggie Inge, the MKAD Board President at the time, supported me as a developing Executive Director because I didn’t have all the experience for the job. The board was very gracious and believed in me enough that I could learn on the job and develop my skills and figure out what the organization needed.”

I believe that Lisa is in her position for the right reasons, satisfied by the interns that have come up through the available programs here. I asked her about what she felt like MKAD contributed to her, and she insisted on using me as an example.

“Seeing you as an intern when we first moved here to Energy Square,” She said to me, “Being a high school student, seeing how you’ve grown, how you’ve returned to us, how you’ve been learning in very unique ways, and contributing along the way, is really beautiful! I love seeing that development in a person. Watching someone self-realize, if you can just observe a little bit of it, it’s like ‘oh they’ve just figured something out about themselves.’ I think arts education is a great breeding ground for that.”

“The way I learned to be an artist? I didn’t even realize I was learning. And then one day it hit me, ‘Oh wait, I’ve been learning all along. Okay, I could be a certificate holder for Deep Listening because I’ve been doing it for ten years.’ It just happened by osmosis. That’s where I see mentorship as an incredible gift in my life. That level of support has inspired me to keep building MKAD: Lara’s firm belief that the creative process is paramount to a successful life.”

I knew Lisa Kelley was an artist who was greatly tied to Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening practice, but I wasn’t sure to what extent. I asked her about her creative practice, and discovered just how universal Lisa believes creativity really is.

“I guess my art practice comes from the concept that our life is a work of art. So, there’s that! The way that I do that is–Do you know Suzuki? Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind? It’s a good book. It’s all about how every task, every action, if you treat it as if you’re doing it for the first time, you can learn something new from it. It’s about being mindful of your everyday actions and interactions. Part of my practice is to always keep myself open to learning something new. As an improviser, for the last 15 years or so, it’s called on me to being open, listening, responding and sending my ideas sonically. It’s an all day, all the time practice. That’s my practice. It has no form I guess. [Lisa laughs] It’s mostly just a mindset and a state of being.

“I have had form in my art in the past. Actually, I’m working on a piece for the upcoming Youth Workforce show, the sound and light show that’s going to be up in October. Our board member Sophi Kravitz invited me to participate so I’m creating a sound piece. It’s been interesting to figure out what that’s going to be. So I’m doing a lot of field recordings right now. Been doing a lot of thinking and daydreaming. [Lisa laughs]”

Lisa is not only deeply tied to MKAD and the local arts scene. She is also a true Kingstonian. I asked her about her relationship with Kingston and her thoughts about the community.

“Friendly, caring” Lisa replied, “It’s my neighborhood, it’s my town. I’ve lived here, I have a home here, I’ve built my life here, my family. We bought our house in 2007 so we’ve been here almost 20 years, but I’ve lived here since 2004. Basically, my whole adulthood has been in Kingston.

“My relationship with Kingston? Yeah, I think it’s mostly friendly. There’s a lot of ‘Kingstonites,’ people who were born here, their generations lived here and I love to get to know them and learn from them. And all these new people who are coming, I meet them at the dog park, and they’re all fresh and excited to be here. I learn things from them too. We have a great community here in Kingston. There’s just so many friendly people and they’re real and most of them just want to do good and contribute to the community, one way or another, whatever sector they’re in. I feel really lucky to know a lot of amazing, talented and caring people.”

Lisa was the first person I wanted to interview at the beginning of this new practice of interviewing MKAD staff to learn more about their place in MKAD and Kingston, as well as their practice as artists, so that I may introduce them to our community. She’s become an invaluable mentor and role model in my developing writing practice and has pushed me into various practices I might have otherwise never engaged in, including interviewing itself! I owe a lot to her, and I’m grateful to be able to learn more about her. Not just for my sake, but for the sake of the people who are curious about the people behind MKAD.