By Michael Solender

One of Tarik Kiley’s favorite ways to connect with culture in the Queen City is through our evolving music scene, especially if that means hip-hop and inspired collaborations with guerilla poets and aspiring musicians. For Kiley, however, vehicles where musicians can spontaneously jam and make connections with other Charlotte creatives could be elusive.

A musician and long-time Charlotte resident via Baltimore, Kiley intuitively knew other artists in the community likely shared his interest in making creative connections and he set about creating a platform to make that happen. Along the way he found an even broader opportunity to actively advocate for the cultural sector as an ASC Advisory Council member.

Kiley began serving in January as the Mecklenburg County at-large member of ASC’s South/East Advisory Council.

“I wanted be part of the solution and made it my mission to help build the local arts and music scene,” he said. “This role allows me to be a voice and ambassador for the arts community and share input and ideas about arts and culture in Charlotte and the impact it has on strengthening our community.”

Kiley is one of dozens of area residents who have made two-year commitments to volunteer their time and talent serving on one of three geographically distinct Advisory Councils (North/West, Central and South/East) as community representatives.

Council members serve as two-way conduits in their respective communities, both educating and informing their neighbors of ASC-supported programing, artists and ideas and sharing input, feedback, and recommendations to ASC’s Board to ensure cultural offerings are aligned with community needs.

Extensions of listening and learning

“Advisory Council members are ASC’s extension of the listening to and learning from community that we do for the sector,” said ASC president Krista Terrell. “We look for our Advisory Council members to be champions for the cultural sector and connect people with cultural experiences ASC supports where they live. This may include visits to artist’s studios, attendance at community programs and resident interaction to observe first-hand how the community engages with the cultural sector.”

Terrell emphasized ASC’s charter is to create programing WITH the community and, as such, equity and inclusion is at the core of the work they do.

“In 2016, ASC restructured our governance framework to better serve the region,” said Terrell, explaining the Advisory Councils were first established in response to resident feedback seeking broader and deeper community representation. “Support for this ‘bottoms-up approach’ was reinforced when results from the 2020 Community Priority Study (conducted with UNC Charlotte’s Urban Institute) echoed the desire for diverse voices across the communities we serve be consistently heard.”

For Susan Patterson, ASC’s immediate past Board Chair and community arts advocate, extending ASC’s messaging across the community and gaining broader perspective on what’s working, where gaps exist, and how residents across Charlotte engage with ASC supported programing has been invaluable.  

“Advisory councils are really critical to how we work,” Patterson said. “It’s important there is an understanding of what ASC does is so much more than fund artists and cultural organizations. We do much more for the community such as workshops and coaching for creatives, resource identification on external funding opportunities, promotion of cultural community events and activities and raising up cultural organizations and individuals who may not be visible to the community to help increase their exposure. Advisory council members are essential in this regard in bringing our story to their neighbors and beyond.”

Community Conduit

For Kiley, his tenure as an Advisory Council member has been enlightening. He’s met with an interviewed scores of creatives who’ve received ASC funding in his area to better understand how they work and interact with the community.

He met with Charlotte Art League to discuss their Building Bridges project, Brand New Sheriff Productions (BNS) to learn about their work with Black artists on fundamentals of theater, CN Jenkins Memorial Presbyterian Church Fine Arts Ministry to explore their hosting of the Global Village Arts Gala Celebrating Humanity Across the World, Rosalia Torres-Weiner to continue to explore the role of technology in the arts by using her Red Calaca Mobile Art Studio, and others.

“I summarized my conversations with these people including observations on how these organizations are making inroads and positively impacting our community,” Kiley said. “I shared this with each of the Mecklenburg County commissioners and the county manager. It’s important they know how the funds they allocate are being put to work. My role on the Advisory Council allows me the platform for this type of advocacy, for which I’m grateful.”

Connections that Kiley has made through his ASC Advisor Board service have also paid off on his personal musical mission.

“Through a meeting I attended hosted by John Tosco (Tosco Music) I was able to connect with others including the folks at Jambox (Charlotte music rehearsal space) and share my ideas around a regularly scheduled open Jam session,” he said. “I’m excited about the energy that will flow from these.”

Interested in ASC Advisory Council membership?

 The Arts & Science Council is seeking community representatives for our geographic Advisory Councils. If you would like to nominate yourself or someone to represent your local community for the North/West, Central or South/East Advisory Councils and help ensure that the cultural community is responsive to local community needs, learn more and apply at bit.ly/ASCAdvisoryCouncil.