The CX 049: Art Will Save the World with Alex Bryant

The CX 049: Art Will Save the World With Alex Bryant

Alex Bryant: Creating could be like for yourself or it can be for others and if you can figure out to do both, you're doing really well at that point. But it has to be for yourself first. The things that you create for others that you're not putting any of your soul into, people can tell it's not authentic and it feels corporate and it feels all this whatever. And it's like, "Oh this doesn't, oh." And so you're upset because people don't want to buy it or people don't engage with it. And then you're also upset because you're not finding any meaning in it. That's the whole point is like, why make something beautiful if it's not making you happy?

Jillian Benbow: Well, hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Community Experience Podcast. I am your hostess, Jillian Benbow. Hopefully you know that by now, but hey, if it's your first time, welcome. You're going to have a blast, especially because this week I am interviewing Alex Bryant, who is the executive director of the Ix Art Park Foundation in Charlottesville, Virginia. And this is such a cool foundation, organization. It's an art park. Hello. I mean, this is hitting all the things that I personally love. And we just talk about how did this physical space in a literal physical community really turn into the heart of that community. A lot of people think like, "Art park, okay, how is that really helping a community?" But man, they do it all.

They really care about the people that live around the area and they create both free and paid programming that is accessible and that exposes people to a way to process, to utilize creative expression just for the sake of joy. And we need more of that in the world. I'm going to stop gushing about it. Let's get right into the interview with Alex so you too can learn about this and see how the things they're doing at Ix can better inspire your own community and your own offerings this week on the community experience podcast. Let's go.

Jillian Benbow: Okay. Welcome to this episode of the Community Experience podcast and today I'm here with Alex Bryant. Well Alex, tell me, what is your title at Ix? What do you do, Alex?

Alex Bryant: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I do a lot of things, I'm the executive director of the Ix Art Park Foundation.

Jillian Benbow: That's fantastic. And we were talking about this earlier, so it's in Virginia.

Alex Bryant: That's right. Yeah. We're located in Charlottesville, Virginia, which is 45 minutes west of Richmond, like two hours south of DC.

Jillian Benbow: Okay. Yeah. And an art park. Well, first of all, I love it. I love everything about it. I'm so excited about this and I love the work you're doing, but tell us, because I'm sure this must come up a lot. Ix, I-X is somebody's name. So tell us about the name.

Alex Bryant: Yeah, absolutely. So in our park, we're a 24/7 outdoor sculpture, a mural park that's free to the community and we are in the like bones of an old textile factory. I think they actually produce silks. And that is the Frank Ix & Sons Textile Mill. And that was, I think it came to Charlottesville around the 1920s and they operated until '99. Huge employer for central Virginia. They won some awards in World War II for their production of parachutes. And so it was a really important economic part of the city. In '99, it closed a foreign competition and it sat empty for about 15 years. And I think in 2014, the property was purchased and it was started to be revitalized again by putting murals up on the wall, by putting sculptures out and by keeping the space thriving.

And so the cool part about where we are is we're actually two blocks from the downtown mall. So anyone who knows Charlottesville knows that we have the longest continuous downtown pedestrian mall anywhere in the country and not necessarily a good thing, but it certainly is true. And from that that's really the economic heart of the city. You have varying neighborhoods and things like that. Charlottesville is a very, very small city. It's only 10 square miles. And so there's not a ton of things to do, or a ton of variety, but it's like, there's one or two of almost anything you need. And so it's really a nice place to live. And it's really wonderful. But being where we are centrally located downtown means that we have a lot of people who are able to walk to the park. A lot of people who can enjoy the park.

Something that we've been really excited about is over the pandemic since we have 60,000 square feet outside, a lot of people just come work in the park and we've got free high speed internet, thanks to our local fiber optics provider, Ting. And we have bathrooms and water and all of those things. And so it helps to create this sense of a community space where there's a lot of common grounds for everyone.

Jillian Benbow: It's like, it's the heart of the community. I love that. Yeah, it's funny. So we went to England and France and did a bunch of World War II things But something we learned in a lot of the museums, there is the parachutes in particular that fabric, especially after the war, the like economic regrowth after war, a lot of the surviving soldiers still had them. And so their fiances turned them into wedding dresses. Because there was a shortage of materials. And so it's interesting to think about that, because it is a very creative resourceful way to use that material and then jump forward to this art park. And it's kind of like the legacy continues. You mentioned that there's free high speed internet and the actual park is, it's free to run, correct?

Alex Bryant: That's right. Yeah. All of the park is free. As often as we can make it every once in a while we'll have a fundraiser or something like that and those have tickets, but they're going towards good causes. So it's okay. But we do a lot of free programming in the event or I'm sorry in the park. And every week we try and have these series of things. There was a point in time for Ix where it was doing special events and doing these one off things. And Ix was this place of art. You want someone crazy enough to do something? You've come to the right place. And I think now while that was a really fun period, now we're shifting gears to saying, "What's actually beneficial and long term sustainable for our community and for us is the foundation."

And so we're doing a lot more of these weekly series. So one of the things that we have, it's like our crown jewel and we love it to death, is a Saturday morning farmer's market. And this arose out of the pandemic because they had a city market and it was operated for a very long time and it was quite popular and successful. And during the pandemic, they were like, "We can't do this. We have to shut it down," even though the governor was like, "No, no. The farmer's markets are essential businesses. This is how people get food." The city was like, "We can't take that risk." And we were like, "Well, we can." So we started doing a winter market, I think right at the very beginning of the pandemic. And it was pre-orders. You walk up, get your food, go out and leave.

But from that, we were able to grow. We started with 25 vendors and then the next week it was 30, then it was 50. And now we have, I think, 75 plus vendors who come every week and the wait list is three or four times that length. And it's such a wonderful benefit to the community because these farmers who are growing organic, who are growing local, are able to take SNAP dollars because of the size of the market and because of our partners. And so people in our neighborhoods are able to spend those dollars on organic and fresh and local produce that you can't necessarily get at your big chain grocery store, not to mention where we are in the neighborhood. The park itself has Section 8 and public housing on every side. So for those people, they can't just walk to a grocery store.

We're in like a light food desert, but every Saturday we're able to bring food to them by doing this farmer's market and creating these accessible opportunities for food. And it's helping to introduce different vegetables and things into young kids who are like, "I had no idea that's how carrots are made," or "That's what a carrot looked like. It's not a baby carrot." So, those are the stories that people don't necessarily think about when you work in food and you work in Ag and you're so like around that and sorry, I'm very into food and agriculture because that was my first job out of college was running this Heritage Harvest Festival, which was at Monticello. And it looked at specifically Southern food ways and dissecting the origin of those and spoiler alert, it's from enslaved laborers, which it's a wonderful narrative and it's an amazing tale everyone who lives in the south should know and should really be proud of.

Jillian Benbow: Well, as you were talking, I was just thinking, do you have community gardens on the property? And if [inaudible] is that a plan, because I just can see all these kids, like let's get them in the dirt, get them growing some carrots. It's so magical.

Alex Bryant: Well, all of those properties have community gardens locally, so they're all very close and there's a lot of food justice work I'd say in Charlottesville, getting those gardens started and educating. But for us, we had a community garden and I think maybe it's gone to just flowers now or something like that. The gardens especially tend to change.

Jillian Benbow: Yeah. It's a pollinator garden now. That's still good. Well that's wonderful. It's almost as if, it seems like that property has just become and thanks to the leadership at Ix, but also I'm assuming, partnerships in the community, it really, like I said before, I mean, it's like the center of this community. And I love that that's something you all are like actively growing. I'm curious. So I asked before if it was free, I'm curious, how do you fund it with... You mentioned the fundraisers, occasionally. It sounds like you have strong community partnerships, but I know people listening may be doing similar work and would love to know how you're funded because looking at your website, it's like, "Oh, is this like a Meow Wolf? This is big."

Alex Bryant: Thank you. Yeah.

Jillian Benbow: I'm curious how it all works.

Alex Bryant: Yeah. Yeah. It's an interesting funding model. It didn't always used to be this way, but the way we have it right now is I'd say about 50% of our revenue, our income comes from Looking Glass, which is what you're referencing the Meow Wolf. That's our immersive art space. And that space is really, it's a cool thing. It's 6,000 square feet interior immersive art for those who don't know is the kind of, if you could step into a painting, but that painting also had projection and lights and scents and all of these things are activated. That is what immersive art is. It's really building off of this installation art movement that a lot of people have been seeing. And I mean, if you're on Instagram, you're seeing it everywhere constantly. But we have a permanent installation here in downtown Charlottesville. It's called Looking Glass and it was made by all local artists as a way to, one, provide jobs for artists, especially during the pandemic and before the pandemic too.

And also to just showcase the high caliber of art and artists that we have in the city. Charlottesville again, for those who know it, know of Dave Matthews, who is incredibly talented and it certainly has its merits, but it's really become a very music oriented town. A lot of folk, a lot of rock and that's wonderful, but the visual arts and especially the technological arts and the immersive arts, the intersections of theater and that category is something that Charlottesville really should be known for because we have a ton of talented artists who are often from all around the world who've just said like, "I love this place. This is so wonderful. This is where I feel home." And to honor those people and to say like, "Great, like you're part of our city, you're part of our community. And here is a space. We're not Brooklyn, we're not LA, but we can be just as great if we're only a little smaller."

So that provides a lot of income for us. It's a lot of tourism dollars that go into that space. It's a $15 admission. We try and keep that price as low as we can to make sure that we're not benefiting or not putting a burden on the community to use the space. And then that money all comes back into the foundation and goes out into art projects, paying artists, doing workshops for kids. One of the ones we do is a weekly afterschool program at the Boys and Girls Club. And they are just finishing now because of the end of the school year. But they just went through nine weeks of an intro to stop motion animation, which is amazing and it's so cool. Yeah. And the kids just having this access to creative outlets and to creative expression have so many complex and, we're talking middle schoolers, like very complex and very sophisticated ideas and storytelling and it's like, "Wow, this would've been lost had you not had a medium to express this or to get it out."

And so that's really special for us and that's really special to continue to offer these programs. One of the ones that we're pioneering on and trying to figure out the kinks is an outside art room. And that's something that, again, started during the pandemic. And essentially the idea is... The big idea is 24/7, you want to do any art? You can come down to Ix. We've got watercolors, we've got sketch hogs, which are like sketch boxes. We've got the chalktopus which is chalk. We've got paint sticks and paper and all of these things that you need to like, if you need to work through something, if you're thinking about something or if you're just trying to hang out with some friends, you can come down, it's free. It's there. There's a table. We'll move a tent for you so you can be in the shade or we'll get you some light if it's dark.

That's the idea about making these creative moments accessible anytime of day for anyone who wants to do them. And that's our big push towards the community. And that program is entirely funded from tourists coming through Looking Glass and being really wowed by the creative might that we have here in the city.

Jillian Benbow: My cup overfloweth. things like this just are that glimmer of hope of there is some good in the world still and there are people coming together and art is such an important like creating and I call it soul joy. You get in that zone that creative flow zone. Everybody needs that. And so allowing people to come and just create limitless... Because art shouldn't have rules, right. And so giving that safe space for people to explore and create and storytell in a way that works for them, that's just beautiful.

Alex Bryant: Yeah. No, absolutely. having that medium and having that just safe space and I think that's a lot of what Ix is and what we're trying to be is a safe space. And having that sense of community of like, I'm safe here. This is okay for me to be vulnerable. And it's okay for me to process some of these really complicated emotions, whether need it be it by myself or with my friends or my family is, it's invaluable, I'd say. And it's like, there should be more spaces like that in this country and more spaces where it's like, "I can go in and I can break down and that's okay. It's fine. This is okay."

But you can't go into a coffee shop and then have a meltdown because you read an article on the Trace and that's part of the problem. It's like we need more spaces to be vulnerable and to be human.

Jillian Benbow: I'm not saying I wouldn't do that. I mean, you can. Sometimes you just got to let it out. But I'm not trying to discount what you're saying. I'm just making fun of myself because I would probably do that. Be like "Whatever."

Alex Bryant: No I would too. That's the issue.

Jillian Benbow: Let's get people feeling free to have meltdowns in public again.

Alex Bryant: Yeah. I was just crying this morning.

Jillian Benbow: So that leads into the tagline of Ix is everyone is an artist. And I think that's what you're speaking to now. But go on, elaborate. I love this idea, everyone is an artist.

Alex Bryant: Yeah. Absolutely. I mean it's really, if you think about it, it's like everyone is creative and everyone has creativity and creative thoughts and then all of those thoughts are valuable. Because I think when you start, especially in the art world it can be very competitive. It can be very like, "This person's so talented. I'll never get there." Or like, "This person is just born with this natural, beautiful stroke talent and whatever." And it's like, "No." I mean, "They worked at it." Some people have an innate understanding of color theory and all the stuff. But at the end of the day, we're all like a couple percentages difference off. It's just that they're able to put their energy in that where maybe you put your energy into gardening or baking or whatever. But when you look at it across the board, almost any activity that you're doing as a human is a creative activity.

If you're gardening, like you were thinking about the colors and the way the plants look or what they need. If you're baking, I mean, obviously that's a beautiful intersection of creativity and science and there're just all of these creative outlets. It's like, yeah, if you don't like sketching or if you don't like doing watercolors or you don't like doing this, there's something that you do like doing. Maybe it's poetry, maybe it's collage. Maybe it's taking found trash and making sense of it in some beautiful mosaic. Maybe it's origami. People love to fiddle and fold with things. That's what I love to do. Any piece of paper or trash, I'll just like fold it up and whatever. Just leave it more beautiful than I found it.

Jillian Benbow: Oh, I love that. Do you origami bomb around Charlottesville? Make a little like crane, stick it on a table?

Alex Bryant: It's a lot of like Lily flowers from receipts. That's like parking. And then too, there's orating. Everyone is an orator or everyone tells stories and that's creative process. Whether you're delivering it like a journalist or you're delivering it like it's the Odyssey, I mean, that's like the most basic human form of communication and that's creative. That's a creative outlet. And then, the music, of course that's another one where people, I think often think, "I'm not a classically trained," blah or this. But it's like, I don't know. If you can figure out beats, if you like drumming on your desk, if you like humming along to things, all of those things are valuable and all of those things are skills that you have that maybe someone doesn't have and that just helps make the ecosystem more diverse and richer.

Jillian Benbow: I love that. And I think reminding ourselves, giving ourselves permission because capitalist society. Everyone's like, "Oh well you have to make something of it." Like, "Oh you want to be an artist? How will you make money?" Or, "Oh, well you have to have a website," and all these things. And that is valuable in certain arenas. But I think we have to give ourselves permission to just do something for the sake of joy, nothing else. So like for me, I always put a lot of pressure on myself.

I have a whole art corner in our house, which is a little selfish, but it's also like, that is where I go to process and do things. And I was feeling down, I was doing a lot of like resin kind of stuff and I have this giant jar full of these crappy things I've made out of resin. And I was feeling guilty because I'm like, "I'm not making anything worth making." And I had to give myself permission like, "It doesn't matter. You enjoy the process. You don't need to turn it into something that then you sell and make money off of. You don't need to hang every piece up. Just enjoy the process," right.

And I think we all need that. It doesn't need to be sticky resin. It could be anything. It could be drawing. Like you said, it could be drumming on your desk. You don't need to think you have to now be in a band, right. Just do it because you like it and that's the prize.

Alex Bryant: That's exactly right. And I think, creating could be like for yourself or it can be for others and if you can figure out to do both, you're doing really well at that point. But it has to be for yourself first. The things that you create for others that you're not putting any of your soul into, people can tell it's not authentic and it feels corporate and it feels all this whatever. And it's like, "Oh this doesn't, oh." And so you're upset because people don't want to buy it or people don't engage with it. And then you're also upset because you're not finding any meaning in it. That's the whole point is like, why make something beautiful if it's not making you happy?

Jillian Benbow: Absolutely. I love that. I need to write that down. Why make something beautiful if it doesn't make you happy? So this podcast, a lot of what we do is all about community, right? And we talk a lot about digital communities, we talk about in person, but your community very specifically seems to be such a great example of bringing a literal, physical geographical community, Charlottesville and bringing it together. Can you speak on that? Have you noticed from a community camaraderie, community building through your organization?

Alex Bryant: Yeah. I mean, I think that a lot of this stems from the origin of Ix with where we're located and the neighborhoods that are around us and also just the kind of willingness to try risky things or to try things that maybe don't make money. We're really good at not making money, especially with events. And it's one of those things where it's like, if the event was cool and it really meant something to 50 people, 100 people, 1,000 people, that's like that's worth it in and of itself.

I always say it's like going into event, I expect to lose money. I'm really excited when we break even. Very rarely do we ever make any money and certainly never any that's meaningful. But when you're there at an event and you're seeing two groups of people collide and intersect in a way that's like that never would happen anywhere else in the city. And maybe like anywhere else in our state at the very least.

It's like, that's so special. And that's so special that it's happening in tiny, tiny Charlottesville where people feel divided and people feel like you have to be in your circles. And we're obviously still dealing with a lot of historical racism and injustice and to have a common ground where it's like, "No, it's okay. We can both be here and we can both exist." And in fact, it's not no one's saying, "You can be here because you're black," or like, "because you're white," because that's equally straining and frustrating and jarring. It's like when you have celebrations and I think they're very important. I'm from Richmond originally and Richmond, if they know anything, they know how to throw a good festival.

So I grew up going to tons and tons and tons of festivals, like the Greek Festival and the Watermelon Festival and the Second Street Jazz Festival and the Folk Festival and all of these things. And it's like, when you can go there and say like, "We're honoring X today," but the whole community shows up and they're like, "Yeah, X is part of our community. We are going to honor them." And then next week it's Y and the week after that, it's Z. And that's just the way of how community should work. We're all in it together. We all live in the same area. We all go and eat at the same coffee shops and restaurants and we shop at the same stores. It's like, we have to be in this together. If we're divided, we're just tearing ourselves apart. And so, when we do something at the park, it is through this mind of like, "Is it authentic? Is it for the community? Do people want this? Is this going to help bring different groups together?" And for us, it's like, is there an artistic flare in it?

Is there an artistic medium of predevelopment? I mean, again, the secret is is that, yes, there's creativity in everything so you can always find it. Sometimes it's just about pulling it out and making it make sense. But having a space where people feel comfortable and people feel safe. One of the things that just happened recently is Charlottesville received 200 Afghani families who are moving over because of the things happening over there. And they don't really have a safe community outside of their 200 families in the city of Charlottesville, city of Charlottesville being predominantly white, predominantly a big divide between the economic classes. And so they're moving in to some of the housing that's around the art park. Immediately they're starting businesses that are vending food at the farmer's market because that's one of the easiest jobs, especially for women to say like, "Oh, I was doing this at home anyway. I can sell this and now I can make an income and I can be providing for my family as well."

We just got a call from the city schools and they're trying to do this summer program for these families specifically for the moms to create community with them. And the moms were like, "We don't feel comfortable being in anywhere except for the Art Park." And so the city had to call us and say, "Hey, can we come do this program at the Art Park? And it's not your program, it's our program. But it's at your space because your space is so... They feel safe and comfortable there and they don't feel that anywhere else in the community." And it's just like, I mean, how can you say "no "after that? It's like, "Oh my gosh." Your heart melts. And it's just like something that you're doing is working when people who have only been here for a year, like, oh yeah, that's their space. We know Joe and we know Alex and we feel comfortable there and that's a really special thing.

Jillian Benbow: That's so beautiful. And thank you for doing that. We need more of that everywhere. I'm curious. Charlottesville is synonymous with some negative things, white nationalist protest or gatherings, whatever you'd like to call it. A lot of racial tension in general. Do you get pushback from more of the hate groups for creating such an inclusive place and for having a safe space for all people?

Alex Bryant: It's really interesting. My job before this, I was at a foundation that did like... It was like an idea summit. But they were specifically looking at ideas for small cities and how they can be more equitable, more inclusive, more welcoming and all this stuff. And that got a lot more hate and I think anger towards it. But for us, I don't know that we are broadcasting on such a large level, especially for these community events that are for the community where we're actually getting people who are upset. My wife, she works at the Jefferson School for African American Heritage and she's the director of education curation. And they're doing a project which is called [inaudible] share where they're taking the statue that was the statue, Robert E. Lee, and they're going to melt it down and give it to artists to recreate monuments for the city.

And when they launched that program, I remember she would come home. My wife who's black and is young and she's from Newport News, so both of us aren't from Charlottesville. And she would be so upset because she's like some guy from Nebraska called and just reeled into us for an hour. And it's like, what is the dude from Nebraska care? It doesn't involve him. It doesn't matter for him. And it's like, that's when people get upset. It's like, what happened in Charlottesville? Those people weren't from Charlottesville. They weren't from Virginia even. A lot of them were from out of state. A lot of them were here, I think, because Charlottesville was promoting itself and was trying to be a national player and trying to get really big. And that ultimately, I think, ended up hurting us because we put a target on our back and we didn't have the facilities like a New York.

I remember again from Richmond when, the week after that they were going to go, "We're going to march on Richmond and we're going to do the same thing." And the people in Richmond were like, "No, you're not." And then they didn't. And it was, it's just to have a city be that sure of itself and that confident and to have their mayor... I think it was Marcus Stoney, have him so confidently say, "You will not come here. You are not welcome here. Bye." And just putting into that and then there's nothing. Nothing happened there. And it's, I think that you need that strong leadership. And especially times it's like, some of these ideas can be divisive and some of them can be controversial. But when you start talking about equity and you start talking about race in America, it's like, it's not controversial. It's a human right. It's like, it's nothing in the gray about this. There's a right and a wrong and I think that that becomes... That's something that we all need to embrace and to speak openly about and not to be afraid to address it.

I think when you're beating around the bush you're saying, "Well, maybe we could figure this." It's like, "No, no, you're doing a disservice to everything. You need to have a strong stance. You need to have strong morals and strong ideals that are going to provide leadership for a city that was divided." I mean, the one thing that was a silver lining, if there could be any, was that it exposed a lot of injustices and inequities in the city. It reopened some dialogues that needed to happen. And I think it brings a lot of forms of closure and reparations to the table where it's like, okay, yeah, Charlottesville wasn't always predominantly white. In fact, it was predominantly Black at one time. In fact, you had a thriving Black middle class and you had Black city councilors. So it's like, how did something that was like this become something where it's like, I think 70% white.

It's like, "Oh, well Jim Crow, racist housing acts." All of these things that are actively working against a subset of the population based on their color is just ludicrous that that ever happened. And that things are not being immediately dealt with to say like, "Oh, we know this is wrong and we should do something to fix this." And so I think that from that you have a lot of powerful organizations that rise up and that have a lot of momentum. The New Hill Development is one that I'm really excited about. They are working on revitalizing Vinegar Hill in the Star Hill neighborhood. Vinegar Hill was the neighborhood in the 1960s that the city raised for urban renewal. And then it sat empty for about 10, I think it was 10 years. And during that time, it was just like a mud pit on a hill.

And now it is a beautiful parking lot and a Staples. So it's a really important part of our city right next to the downtown, right in the historic City Center. So it's like doing work to repair that, to provide opportunity for Black and Brown entrepreneurs, for Black and Brown startups in a place where it was historically Black and Brown just makes sense.

Jillian Benbow: Yeah, it does. Are there conversations within the community that Ix is involved in towards that progress? What, I guess what role does Ix play in any of that, if any?

Alex Bryant: Yeah. We, I think, play an appropriate role. We act as that convener, we act as that cities, that safe space. So there are things like the Discover Black Cville launch was just here, which is a tourism campaign designed to promote Black owned businesses and restaurants and things like that in town. As part of that campaign, we put up one of our first Black murals, which is really, really, really moving. It's actually of the muralist Jay Johnson. It's his daughter. And I just can't imagine being a 12 year old girl and seeing your mural go up on a 30 foot wall and then to be a 25 year old girl and be like, "That's still my mural." That's a really powerful thing. We hosted the first Soul of Cville, which is like a Black Excellence Festival for Charlottesville.

Again, I, like from my roots, it's like, "There's a culture we should celebrate it with a festival." So that's one of the things that we're working towards and we're going to do a bigger one this year. It'll actually be just how the dates fell on August 12th, which is the day. And it'll be on the five year anniversary. And we are kicking that day off with a free film screening outside as part of a film series that we have with Do the Right Thing. And then one of the local, like hip hop nonprofit groups, Nine Pillars is going to do a Public Enemy showcase following that. And that'll be like the Friday of it. So I think a very important and a very powerful piece to do on the five year anniversary to have a Spike Lee film and to showcase that is just really, really important, especially because Spike Lee and the Klansmen had those clips from Charlottesville, which was hard to watch in a big theater.

And even if it's still hard to watch. But it's like, "Oh obviously, this was important. This is important. It's an important thing. And just because it's hard doesn't mean we shouldn't talk about it. We shouldn't move forward with things like that." And then we try and just support those who are working with it. So partnering with people like New Hill Development, Culinary Concepts AB is another... I think they're actually an LLC, but they're doing work on food startups, specifically for low income and minority chefs and chef owners. We partner with CIC, which is a Community Investment Collaborative, which is like an entrepreneurial bootcamp, again, for minority women owners. And a lot of those funnel through and out of the farmer's market.

So that is like a nice incubator for startups where people can have a low stakes buy in. You don't need to get a full rent. You can just literally buy one week. It's $26 and you have your booth and you can try these things out and you can fail miserably, but you're only out $26. So it's like, it's okay.

Jillian Benbow: Oh that is so cool.

Alex Bryant: Yeah. And so I think that's the kind of role that we're playing. And then of course, I'm probably a little bit more invested in it just because my wife and we talk and all these things. And so the work that the Jefferson School, African American Heritage Center is doing the work that the Mapping Cville Project is doing, where they're doing a map of Charlottesville and finding the racial covenants and the... It's like everything short of redlining. There wasn't a physical red line on a map, but the practices were there and the impacts of those practices are still here, telling those stories, telling those narratives. The thing I hate the most is when we're talking about Vinegar Hill and it's usually with a more senior person and they're saying like, "Well, it was really important that we put a road through." And it was like, "No, it wasn't."

Jillian Benbow: Yeah. Roads are real hard to move around, so.

Alex Bryant: Yeah. It's just, there's absolutely no way you need to raze an entire neighborhood because you wanted to add two lanes. Think about what you're saying and like that's not why. Yeah.

Jillian Benbow: Yeah. I mean we all know, to put it very lightly, a lot of shenanigans happening and even still now a lot of shenanigans happening to try to keep certain people down. And I'm glad to see a lot of us and bless the younger generations because they're just like, "No." I think, at least for myself as an elder millennial in that transition of like, "Wait a minute." But looking at my daughter's generation who, she's in middle school now that they see things and they're like, "How did you let that happen? That's a completely unacceptable," like just dead pan, right. And it's like, "Yes, progress." As Michelle Obama said, "Progress is slow," but it's nice to see that we're challenging some things and pushing back and trying to correct things as much as we can. Yeah. I think Ix's involvement in all that, I think you play a beautiful role and being that connector, be it between organizations, between groups of people that may not ordinarily interact and can just providing that space for people to come to that common ground of the creative joy. It's beautiful.

Alex Bryant: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

Jillian Benbow: All right. We're getting to the end. My producer had a great question to ask you and I'm like, "Why haven't we asked this before?" So if you, and I realize Ix is in person. There's a digital component, of course, through the website and participation and that kind of thing. If you, Alex Bryant, had to start a digital community right now, like today, and it was like, got to do it. It's just like a mandatory. I don't know what this scenario is. Why you have to do this, but you do, what kind of community would you want to create? What problem would you solve or group would you want to get together in that capacity?

Alex Bryant: Yeah. Ooh. Well, it's a tricky question.

Jillian Benbow: It is so low. Yeah. It's kind of a loaded question, but-

Alex Bryant: Because if I, Alex Bryant, were to do it it would probably be a different than if like I, Alex Bryant, the executive director of Ix Art Park would do it. So I'll give you two because one is the Ix Art Park vision and that's for a more united creative ecosystem for Charlottesville. And I see that as a portal where people who identify as creatives and artists have a platform where they can share their works, showcase their things. But it also acts as a tourism platform for someone who's coming to Charlottesville is like, which gallery should I go to? Where are they? I mean the basic things. It's like, "Oh, here you can do this. Here's a walking tour of all of our public murals. Here's a biking tour of the public murals that happen to swing by pubs and breweries. And the more exciting stuff. Here are all of the chefs in the city. Here are all of the custom designers. Here are all of that..." Creative economy putting them into a book together so that they don't necessarily have to do that.

Or it's as simple as you sign up once and then your information's in there and it's good to go. I think that is an achievable goal. I think that's something that I personally know how to code and create and could happen if I had more than a couple minutes every day. The goal that I would really like stems back to my previous job and that was connecting civic leaders and public, private partnerships and a platform where people can say, "I'm with the city of Charlottesville, office of economic development. The pandemic just hit. And we have these weird zoning laws on our mall where you can't do outside dining because of X, Y, and Z. How did you guys handle it?" And the person who's in the OED or the downtown partnership of Hopewell, chimes in and says, "Oh, we had similar laws. We went, boom, boom, boom, and passed these things really quickly and then were able to do this." The person from Stanton's like, "Oh, we also had that. But what we did is we just did this thing and circumstance bypassed it."

And those are the kinds of things that's like, if our cities talked about their solutions, the pandemic was an amazing time for innovation, amazing time for collaboration. And I think cities were still slow to the punch. And part of that is, you don't know what you don't know, you don't know your peers. It's hard to create that relationship. But if there is a platform where civic leaders, people who are thinking about urban design people, who are thinking about solutions or reparations or anything that small cities in America, and like specifically in the south are facing and thinking about today, it's like, we just had a playbook share essentially, where it's like, "Oh, we're doing this in Savannah." And the people in Charlotte were like, "Oh cool. We're going to take X and Y of this. And I think that's going to work really well for us."

It's just about sharing ideas. And it's not really about the ego of having the idea or saying like, "Well, this was my solution. I'm so intelligent." Just like, no, the best solution's the one that works. And if the people in your city have been there for 50 years and have not ventured out to look at what other cities are doing, it's just like, oof, that's not really, it's not working. It hasn't worked for the last 50 years. It's not going to work for the next 50 years.

Jillian Benbow: Civic solutions. I can see it as like a... It's a great idea. They're both great ideas. Now you just need to clone yourself so we can bring them into the world. I understand that deeply though. There's so many programs I'd love to launch in our own community. I'm like, I just need three more heads to come off my body to do the work.

Alex Bryant: Yeah. The sleep just really gets in the way. You got to figure out how to get past that.

Jillian Benbow: Right. Okay. Well, we are going to transition into the rapid fire, which is the final questions of the podcast. I'm going to ask you questions and the goal is rapid fire, which I'm terrible at because I want to ask follow up questions, but I will not. So I will ask you a question. First thing that comes to your mind. There is no math and there are no wrong answers. So, not stressful. Okay. So Alex, first question. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up

Alex Bryant: Veterinarian?

Jillian Benbow: How do you define community?

Alex Bryant: I think community are the ties that bind people together.

Jillian Benbow: Whether or not you have a bucket list, what is something that's like a bucket list thing that you have done in your life so far?

Alex Bryant: I got married and we're about to have our first kid in October.

Jillian Benbow: Oh congratulations.

Alex Bryant: Thank you.

Jillian Benbow: That's so exciting. You thought sleep got in the way before. Wait till you're like, whoa.

Alex Bryant: That's what I've been told.

Jillian Benbow: Yeah. I know everyone says it and it doesn't make sense until... Once you feel it you're like, I feel it now I get it, but it's okay. It's worth it. Okay. And then on the flip side of that, what's something on this supposed bucket list that you have not done, but is like high up there for you?

Alex Bryant: I think that there's still a really big community celebration that Charlottesville needs and that needs to happen. That is more like a little all encompassing and probably takes a little bit longer. But I would love to be a part of that team that makes that a reality.

Jillian Benbow: What is a book that you wish everybody would read?

Alex Bryant: Well, the one that came to my mind, which I guess is that's what you asked was The Book Thief. I don't know if it's by Markus Zusak. It's about a little girl in World War II, Germany. And it's I think it's told from the perspective of death. It's just a really powerful and important book.

Jillian Benbow: Yeah. I know I've read it. I'm trying to remember the details. Anyways, you live in Charlottesville. As we know. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

Alex Bryant: My family is originally from Japan, so I'd probably live somewhere maybe outside Kyoto.

Jillian Benbow: Okay. And final question, Alex. How do you want to be remembered?

Alex Bryant: Kind.

Jillian Benbow: What a perfect answer to the end, to the end of the episode. Alex, this has been so fun. Thank you for being on the show, telling us all about Ix and also just the work you're doing. I am here to support. I think it's just like a fantastic organization and ideology and just all of it. It brings all the great things together. So I'm so thankful to have here today.

Alex Bryant: Thank you.

Jillian Benbow: Where can the audience find out more about Ix, if they want to follow you? Where can they find you on the internet?

Alex Bryant: Probably don't want to follow me, but you can follow Ix @IxArtPark. That's I-X A-R-T P-A-R-K. And if you want to follow the Looking Glass, which is the immersive art space, that's Ix Looking Glass and then the best website for us is IxArtPark.org.

Jillian Benbow: Awesome. Well, thank you so much. And I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.

Alex Bryant: Thank you. This has been wonderful.

Jillian Benbow: And that was my interview with Alex Bryant, executive director of the Ix Art Park Foundation in Charlottesville, Virginia. I mean talk about a fantastic role to have, first of all. Talk about, of the top 10 employments available, it just, I just love it. And it's definitely different than a lot of the communities we talk about because this is a physical location. They focus on obviously different ways to interact with art, with creativity, but they also look beyond what you would call an art park. They launched a farmer's market. They figured out in a pandemic how to get nutritious foods to their neighbors. And then the farmer's markets, it sounds like has just taken off. And they found ways to also make having a booth at a farmer's market affordable and attainable, solving a lot of problems.

The fact that people can pay in a variety of different ways, having that flexible option, the fact that people are not just at the farmer's market, but in general, the vibe of the area of the Art Park is very welcoming. The free, fast Wi-Fi. The fact that a lot of the programming is free, And I think that's what's really special about them. I loved when Alex said, "We're really good at not making money." And as you know, an organization, a foundation, they have that privilege. Absolutely. Let's s not discount the fact that a lot of us would do a lot of things if money wasn't a barrier.

But I think the fact that that is the way they look at things, that it's about creating the community, creating the place for the people, really just caring about the people around the park. I mean, that's amazing. And a big lesson I think we can all take from this, probably, I mean, there's so many, but the biggest lesson in terms of community builders and how can this inspire your own community building be it digital, in person, be it you have to charge, or maybe you have some wiggle room to do some free things. I think it's just the idea of how can you help people feel safe and welcome and supported in a way that's meaningful and maybe brings together the things you are good at and the things they need.

So Ix Art Park, obviously they use creative expression. They use art, especially the idea of having the chalktopus which is worth looking up by the way on their website. If you know, you know. It's so cute. But having sidewalk chalk, and an area where people can come and process through creative expression, that's marrying a lot of things. I mean, how many times as a kid did you have a really bad day at school even? And the idea of you could come home and there's this park that's safe and free and there's fun things to do. And hey, you love sidewalk chalk. And the chalktopus is out and the chalk is there and you can just go and draw and doodle with the chalk and process and just sit with your feelings and use that as a healing moment. That's huge.

I don't know how that necessarily translates into your community, but I encourage you, I challenge you to think about it. Even if you're a digital community and you like the idea of it being art centered, what about having everybody go color something, set some guidelines like, "Hey, everybody go. Whether you need to print something off from the internet for those of us who still own home printers, apparently the youth don't. Or maybe many of us have several adult coloring books. That was a thing for a while. Maybe it's just go color a page and post a picture of it. If you want to.

You don't even have to post a picture. Just to have that feeling, right, and doing it digital. I think that could be a fun shift and maybe something entirely different. Depends on your community. Anyways. So many good things here. If you're ever in the area, definitely go check out their immersive art experience, the Looking Glass. I have never been to Virginia, but this is on my short list of things to do if I'm ever in that area. It looks so cool. A lot of communities are doing more of these immersive art expositions and experiences. So maybe, if going all the way to the Ix Art Park doesn't work for you, depending where you are in the world, maybe check out what's happening locally.

I'm going to leave it at that. I think there's just so much. I can't possibly say all the things that I want to, and for your sake, I'm going to stop. So maybe you can go get some sidewalk chalk and color and think about it. I don't know. Let me know on the Twitter sphere @JillianBenbow or try @teamSPI or both. Just tag us both. I'll see it either way. Let me know what kind of things do you do? And if you haven't already, please, please like, subscribe and review the podcast. Maybe share it with a friend who builds community. I would appreciate it. I hope you enjoyed. And on that, I'll see you next Tuesday.

Learn more about the great work Alex is doing at the Ixartpark.org. Ix is I-X. That's their handle pretty much everywhere. Twitter, the TikTok. Go check them out and see the amazing things that Alex and his team are doing at Ix Art Park.

Your lead host for the Community Experience is me, Jillian Benbow. Our executive producer is Matt Gartland. Our senior producer is David Grabowski. And our editor is Paul Grigoras. Sound editing by Duncan Brown. Theme music by David Grabowski. See you next Tuesday.