¶ Introducing Eric Kleiner and Art Press Fund
Philanthropy Today is brought to you by the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation . In this episode we feature a recently broadcast segment of the GMCF Community Hour as heard on NewsRadio KMAN . Back with the second segment on the GMCF Community Hour here on NewsRadio KMAN . Yes , we originate the show in Manhattan and I , dave Lewis , and in Key West , florida .
It's a vacation , but I am taking , you know , an hour and a half or so to do this little gig , and so it's always fun and challenging to go through all the technology . So special thanks to Felix for all the work he's doing to navigate that world . Speaking of navigating a world , how about Eric Kleiner ? Eric Kleiner is joining us here on the program .
He is with the Art Press Fund and this is our . I think this is our first time to visit . About Art Press , or Art Press , eric , tell us what Art Press is .
Well , the Art Press Fund is a non-profit that aims to bring different events of all kinds to the area . I excel in the concert and the rock and roll side of things , but we have a few different workers that deal with different stuff . We do all kinds of events and we're trying to make them bigger and better for Manhattan .
I feel like so , eric .
Go ahead , sorry .
Eric is the band . Is what ? Sorry , eric is a musician . You are the band . Is what ? Headlight Rivals ? Yes , uh-huh .
That is .
So you are a musician but you also coordinate a lot of musicians at a lot of bands and you also work with Manhattan Parks and Recreation on bringing the Arts in the Park concert series to town .
We do . Yeah , we've been doing that , for this is our third year doing that and it's a blast it's . We're lucky to have a tradition of 50 years of music in the park for free . We were very happy to be part of it and I think we've improved it quite a bit as well .
I think everybody has a different great memory of arts at the park over the past . I mean , we've seen some . Blake Shelton was there when he was , you know , just getting started we had Chuck checker , my gosh , we've had some real legends there , you know . And you know Martina McBride came and did a benefit concert after the 93 flood .
There was all kinds of great stars that we have had and we got a lot of local talent . That's just wonderful . And and art center park is always just and he waved for juneteenth . How about that that would have been . I wasn't able to go to that , but that would have been a blast .
Yeah , yeah , it's really cool what Juneteenth has done down there . I'm glad I think that everything went okay with that , but I don't think it rained at all . Usually we get recursed on Fridays and just pop up rain , but we're getting lucky this year .
Well let's get back to the Art Press
¶ Goals and Vision for Art Press
Fund . You're a new entity and let's talk a bit about who all is involved , who the players are and what you all hope to achieve .
Well , there's many people involved . The top three players are myself , my partner Derek Richards , who owns the Ag Press building with his wife Corey and the press building , and then my sister is also on the art press board and she does a lot more of the paperwork side of things . I'm kind of the big idea show guy .
So what are your let's just say your top three goals with art press . We'll come back and talk about the ag press building here in a little bit , which is a great story in its own right too . So you've got some goals .
Our number one goal is to bring you know affordable or free entertainment that can be great for everybody . You know we're definitely not for dividing the crowds . We want kids and adults and older people and all people to like the events that are going on . The second thing would be to bring in diversity to Manhattan amongst the genres of music .
You know we're lucky in Manhattan where we have quite a rock and roll and country thing going on here , but we want to keep bringing in different genres of music and and different , you know , levels of artists .
And the third thing you know would would probably be , you know I mean , arts in the park and the president is is awesome , but we we do have like an off season right now , but when our building is completed we don't want to take time off from having events . We want there to be a constant stream of entertainment for the people in Manhattan .
Let's talk about the Art Press building or the Ag Press building , and it's , you know , original form , now with a new
¶ The Historic Ag Press Building Project
name . Apparently it's registered as a historic building because of the Art Deco type . Look that it has the architecture world .
It's just a neat building and it's been well maintained and it's just got so much potential and I know Derek had just really had this great vision about trying to make something special out of this for the community yeah , and and it's going to be amazing .
You know , we we run the outside venue right now and we've had shows up to about 600 people there and we've had events as small as 50 people there . The inside will be a 400-person cap , which , for a promoter like me , it makes your job a lot easier to have indoor shows and outdoor shows .
As much as I love Arts in the Park and the Press's outdoor venue , we have a lot of weather variables , um , so it'll really take the stress off of me promoting and we'll be able to get bigger acts and , as soon as the building's done , have a roof over their head .
So I'm very excited for that absolutely well , there's , uh , is there a time frame that you have with the uh , the building itself , to do a lot , lot of the improvements that you want to be able to incorporate ?
Yeah , you know , derek would know a lot more about that than me but they're expecting to have it open in this next year . So hopefully , by hopefully after New Year's or in the spring of next year , we will have an indoor venue . On Yuma of next year we will have an indoor venue on Yuma .
So you have established the Art Press Fund to help assist financially with this . You had , like you had , acknowledged you're a non-profit .
Let's talk about this fund and how that's starting to come together . For the effort , oh , you know it's been great . Um , you know , our , our , our goal besides , you know , bringing different art and , um , different shows and events to the area is to .
You know , I'm a musician and I kind of get to see things from both sides as a promoter and I've seen hundreds of venues and played hundreds of shows and I and I know how this works . But we want to ensure that the audience , the artists , the production teams , anybody involved or going to these events are taken care of and everybody is treated very well .
You know , the Art Press Fund basically started out of when I was in high school and then I went to college . I started booking bands
¶ Fundraising and Community Support
and , uh , derek started coming to our shows and liking the way that we were doing things and you know , it got to the point where the shows were getting pretty big that Derek had thought we could do something with them .
So the art press fund kind of spurred off of just me trying to bring bands and book my own bands here in Manhattan and we have a bunch of things Fantastic .
This is a rather large undertaking , with the work that you want to do , and it's not just live music that you want to see happening there at the art press building in the future .
Yeah , you know we want there to be . It's more than just a concert venue . It's an event space . You know we want there to be art showings , speakers , you know , community meetings . However , the building can be used to benefit you know , the people that want to rent it or the events in the community . That's what we'll use it for .
But yeah , it's far more than just a rock and roll venue , that's for sure . It really it's four acres , you know , in the middle of town . It's kind of unbelievable that it exists and the promise it has yeah , do you have some things in the works for fundraising events ?
yeah , you know , um , with arts in the park , you know we try to um , you know , have benefactors for every show and and we try to to not only raise money , you know , to have our events , which we're very lucky to have , you know , a good community support behind us .
But , um , one of the inspirations for the art press fund was this organization out of kansas city called the mmf , the midwest music foundation , and I they help bands out all the time to get insurance and things like that for touring musicians . They were a big , you know , inspiration for ours .
So right now , during our arts in the park season , it's kind of awesome because we kind of get to help those through them being our benefactors , help them raise money alongside us for our events . So so like , we're helping organizations and you know non-profits in kansas city and and all over manhattan here do their thing too .
Um , but you know , in a non-profit when you're trying to do events we're always looking for , for support in the community , for sure let's jump back a little bit to like um arts in the park for a little bit
¶ Arts in the Park Event Selection
.
Uh , because you know , you , you obviously have a lot of the connections , you know , with the talent that we have in the area and and much of what you have done there is is pick out local talent , which I think is just a wonderful aspect that you bring to arts in the park . But what's that selection process like to determine ?
You know , because I know you got goals . You got so many different people that are into different types of music . But you know , when I go out and I see you know several hundred manhattanites there for arts in the park , that their representation , their age group , does not necessarily define the type of music .
They just want to be entertained and take advantage of something that's just really unusual and unique about Manhattan .
Yeah , you know , arts in the Park is cool because there is everybody , from , you know , babies to people that are , you know , 80s or 90 years old and a lot of the like . Via Christi brings their from the nursing home , brings a lot of people out for the shows .
So , you know , when , as a promoter , when I'm looking for bands , you know , or entertainment , you know , the first thing is , you know they have to be a credible artist , like they have to have generally recorded music or , you know , somehow show us that they're , that they're good , a live band , you know , or have cds or or whatever , however they distribute
their music . Um , but you know A lot of local bands I'll go see , because some of these college bands that do have a good pull around here and do bring people out , they might not have that . So a lot of the discovering bands will be , you know , as far as local talent , going out and seeing them yourself sometimes help , but not so much anymore .
Um , for me , you know , even if we get bigger bands , and I always want to have local artists and local bands be part of arts in the park , because that's really what it's all about . You know a lot of these people are patrons for years that go to arts in the park and we do have a lot of local talent . That's really good .
So I I do like to showcase that and I think that you know a lot of people compare manhattan to places like lawrence and kansas city and and I think that we , we do have a competitive market and have a lot of good musicians and a lot of those musicians from those areas really like playing in manhattan .
So so booking manhattan and you know especially the press in the park stage is very fun and there's a lot of eager people to play there . So we we try to be selective , very selective , but but we try to balance , you know , different genres with locals and touring acts as well . We don't just want one simple recipe for anything you know .
We've got a great story to tell and we're pretty excited about being able to share it here on the GMCF Community Hour . How can people find out more and , if they got a notion to help out with the Art Press Fund , what's the process like ?
Yeah , you can search the press on . All forms of social media will be there . Media will be there . The art press district um website is a really good place to find all of the shows , all the events , the , the goals and the vision of the building
¶ Finding and Supporting Art Press Fund
um . But really , you know now we we advertise on radio and we use every avenue , but I personally think most people get a lot of information from facebook and instagram . So facebook and instagram the press are probably the best places to go to to find information absolutely , eric .
We've covered a lot of things here , anything that we didn't touch . Based on that , you want to make sure that we share no , I don't think so , you know .
I think we're on to something really good in manhattan and since I was a , I've seen a scene and entertainment go up and down , and I think we're on our way up , so I'm pretty happy about that .
Definitely , so definitely . Eric Kleiner is here representing the art press fund . What a great story to tell .
So we'll find out more about them in the future and you , as our listeners and supporters of the community foundation , we certainly hope that you'll lend him an ear and also get out and help support them and and efforts in the future all right eric have a good day , and when we come back from the break , we're going to be visiting with some folks from salvation
army . we had a little bit of a change in our plans here mid-show , so we've got , uh , carla and , I believe , sarah that are going to be here and we're going to be sharing the Salvation Army story coming up here in just a couple of moments when we return from the break .
On the GMCF Community Hour , which is brought to you on KMAN every Monday morning at 10 , sometimes and mostly in Manhattan , but this week in Key West Florida . How about that ? Huh ? Always find out more about us at the website , which is mcfksorg .