Before we are wheels up from Arkansas, we'd love to get together for a send off to see all our friends and family! Any and all who want to come are welcome! Hope to see you there!
And if this is the first you are hearing of our departure below are the statements from Sonny and myself with a little background for this upcoming change:
STATEMENT FROM SONNY KAY:
In 2017, I moved to Hot Springs to become the executive director of Low Key Arts, arguably the best decision I’ve ever made. Low Key’s Board of Directors handed me the keys to the organization and encouraged me to dream big, reimagine the possibilities, and ultimately do what I always do, follow my heart. For nearly eight years, for better or worse, I’ve done just that. Being ED has afforded me a sense of purpose and an opportunity to incorporate many different experiences from my life before Arkansas in service of the wholly unique undertaking that is Low Key Arts. Helping make it flourish, along with the immense contributions of our teaching staff, directors, volunteers, and financial supporters, has been one of the most rewarding challenges of my lifetime.
By now it’s no secret that I met the love of my life almost the moment I arrived in Hot Springs and she just so happened to work for Low Key Arts, too. In what we’re well aware is an unorthodox arrangement, Jennifer Gerber and I chose to invest ourselves in the organization almost as if it were our child. To call it a labor of love for both of us would be a severe understatement. For me, Low Key Arts is a way to embrace my ideals, focus my skills and apply them to new challenges, amongst a community who encourage me and appreciate what I bring to the table. For Jen, on the other hand, as personally rewarding as her programs are, it meant setting her own filmmaking ambitions to the side and putting service to others before service to herself. This she did as she does everything, with grace and expertise.
The pressure of fundraising has been ever-present and Jen’s skills with grant writing and luring in sponsors remains unmatched. Her ambitions for Low Key Arts’ Inception to Projection Filmmaking Program, for example, blasted it into the stratosphere, to the degree that in 2024, Low Key Arts partnered with the State of Arkansas to train nearly 60 filmmakers.
But for every high there’s a low and finally I’m getting to my point. The recent, very drastic changes to the National Endowment for the Arts have had immediate and profound effects on Low Key Arts. A large portion of our annual funding disappeared overnight, and with it went the certainty of our staff being paid for the rest of the year (and beyond). With the stroke of a pen, much of the work Jen in particular has accomplished in establishing Low Key Arts with the NEA, Mid-America Arts Alliance, etc. over the past decade was wiped away.
In response, Jen did the pragmatic thing and accepted a professorship in the Film Department at the University of Arizona at Tucson, a truly exceptional accomplishment in itself and a real testament to her skill. She and I are moving there in the middle of August. Jen's programs with Low Key Arts, however, will continue.
This isn’t how we imagined leaving Hot Springs and we don’t intend for it to be a hard break. We will, of course, be on hand for Osees at Cedar Glades Park in October and the annual POV Film Festival in January. By that time, perhaps the path ahead will be clearer. I can say for certain that Jen and I will always represent Low Key Arts with pride and a sense of accomplishment. We have nothing but love in our hearts for our time here and the many wonderful people we’ve worked with along the way. We believe so much in the things this organization endeavors to do. I’ve never held a job this long in my life and certainly never had one that meant as much to me as this.
Low Key Arts now finds itself at a critical juncture that we couldn’t have seen coming or avoided, and I hope very much that it finds a way to persevere, thrive and continue serving Hot Springs. I am so beyond grateful to this organization and its supporters for giving me the opportunity to be the best version of myself, to try to come to terms with my own shortcomings, learn from my mistakes, and be a better person in the world. I’m proud of the things Low Key Arts has accomplished and hope its legacy continues for years to come. Thank you to all my friends and colleagues here for welcoming me to Hot Springs and making these 8 years truly unforgettable.
STATEMENT FROM JEN GERBER
"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." This statement couldn’t be truer for this chapter of my life. Many of you have heard by now that Sonny Kay and myself will be moving to Tucson this August and I want to take a moment to officially share an update regarding the changes on the horizon.
For 10 years I’ve been working for arts nonprofits in Arkansas with either Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival or Low Key Arts. During this time, I’ve taught hundreds of aspiring filmmakers, each of which are truly the center of my life. Your stories, your struggles, your triumphs, your creative breakthroughs have all been an honor to witness and I’ve been personally transformed by the vulnerability and courage required for each of these movies to be made. Over the past decade, I’ve shared sets with many of my students, which makes this experience even more rewarding as many of you have moved from hobbyist to professionals. I love Arkansas with all my heart and I’m struggling to grasp this upcoming transition.
Low Key Arts has been hit hard by recent changes in grant opportunities for arts nonprofit and it has resulted in the organization losing roughly 70% of its funding. Almost exactly 3 years ago we opened our doors to a physical film school in downtown Hot Springs. If we were to be judged by our impact, I would say we’ve achieved unimaginable success, but our fundraising has not keep up with our growth, especially in light of these changes. Running Inception is the hardest/most rewarding thing I’ve ever done and I have given it every fiber of my being. But the writing was on the wall, so I started applying for teaching jobs as a backup last Spring. It soon became apparent that finding a new form of employment was a necessity. While this change is bittersweet, I am sincerely honored to be joining the faculty at the University of Arizona, Tucson in the fall. I fell in love with the school immediately and I feel very fortunate that the prestigious faculty at this school have so graciously welcomed me.
I’m committed to seeing Inception to Projection thrive and I will continue my work with the Persistence of Vision Film Festival. But it will be different!
As part of my departure, I want to encourage my community to consider the role the arts play in your life. It’s easy to dismiss its importance, but I've been honored to have witnessed profound transformation in the lives of those who have participated in these programs. The arts need community support more than ever before. I hope that the takeaway from this transition will only increase your support of the programs that give meaning to this community. I reject the idea that to be an artist you must be starving, which believe me, I’ve had to be for most of my adulthood. But if you are an artist, you can’t escape it. The need to create haunts you incessantly to the point that you would actually rather starve than not create. But this is not sustainable. If you are part of the support system of an artist, I hope you will find ways to make their lives a little easier and one way to do that is to invest in the organizations that help artists create and thrive.
Hot Springs is still my home and you’ll be seeing me again, especially during summers and holiday breaks. I love you all more than you can fathom, and I appreciate the many ways this community has supported my projects, programs and ambitions. The films that define my career have all been shot in Hot Springs and I hope for that to continue because this place is my home and the source of my creative inspiration.
Above all, I hope that those of you who have been bitten by the film bug, continue to tell your stories, continue to support each other and continue to invest in this very special place and we all love to call home. With all the gratitude in my heart!
Also check out other Entertainment events in Hot Springs National Park, Arts events in Hot Springs National Park, Festivals in Hot Springs National Park.
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