Over the past year, if you attended a gallery opening, concert, festival or other cultural event in Kingston, chances are you would have run into Kitt Potter, the city’s Director of Arts and Cultural Affairs. Appointed at the beginning of January, 2022, Potter brings to the position an impressive background in arts administration, resource development, project and festival management, community and media relations, and more. Over the course of her career, she substantially increased grant funding at the nonprofits she served, including the Orange County Workforce Investment Board, the Hudson Catskill Regional Economic and Workforce Development Institute, Boys and Girls Clubs of Newburgh and Wallkill, and the national Colour of Music Festival. Most recently, Potter served as the first-ever Executive Director of the historic Maverick Concerts. But just as important to her recent appointment is her unflagging energy and passion for supporting the many individuals, organizations, and businesses comprising the heart of the Kingston arts community. Furthermore, Potter is an artist herself: the whiff of casual elegance this slender, animated woman emanates hints at her decades-long career as a professional vocalist. She has performed at top clubs in in New York City and Washington, D.C. (where she graduated from Howard University, and served as a Research Fellow for the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on the Status of Black Americans); celebrity events and weddings around the world; and as first soprano with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra Spiritual Ensemble.
Pointing to a mural-sized painting by Nancy Ostrovosky hanging on a wall of her ground-floor office at City Hall, Potter noted the artist painted it at TR Gallo Park during Art Walk 2022 as bassist Michael Bisio invoked “tens of thousands of years of Native history.” She explained how the painterly gestures describing a figure ecstatically leaping, bowed over, and with arms extended as it moved over the background from left to right reflected a story of Native American freedom followed by subjugation and death at the hands of the European colonists and subsequent solidarity with the incoming population of black slaves. Her daily contemplation of such a powerful image is bearing fruit regarding one of Potter’s priorities for 2023: establishing formal relations with the Association of Native Americans of the Hudson Valley (ANA). At our interview in her office last Friday, Potter talked about that development as well as her other priorities.
HV 1: What attracted you to the position?
KP: Research for the city’s new Arts and Culture Master Plan revealed the arts reinvested $160 million back into the Kingston economy in 2019, making this sector the city’s primary economic driver. With workforce and economic development one of my specialties, I knew I had the background to engage the arts community and related partners in sustaining and growing this. It’s a difficult undertaking, but the auspices from Mayor Noble, the Kingston Arts Commission [KAC], and my fellow senior Directors are good, and so I believe the goal is achievable.
HV 1: You have worked in many other cities and communities. What stands out about Kingston?
KP: Thanks to the hard work of the mayor, my commissioners, my predecessor Addie Farr, Lord Cultural Associates [the consultants who created the master plan] and the long list of community leaders who served as advisors, my position came with a research-based, fully comprehensive Arts and Culture Master Plan, which is a big advantage. I’m not sure every facet of the plan is doable post-covid, but a lot of the goals are feasible and attainable and I’m hitting the ground running.
HV 1: You’ve only been in the job 10 months, but are there any accomplishments you can point to so far?
KP: After two years of a shut down, and with festival organization as another specialty, I was determined that our children and families would have a great summer. With Parks and Recreation, we welcomed hundreds to parks all around the city to enjoy a fun and safe series of free movies and concerts. Our beloved Radio Kingston provided the world-class sound technology and tenting accommodations for the events.
I served on the Community Outreach Committee for the Dorksy Museum’s “Benjamin Wigfall &Communications Village” exhibition, which closes December 11. The opening reception was so crowded, especially with Kingstonians, I have to go back so that I can actually see the exhibition. Our “Kingston Revealed” exhibition of works by local artists on City Hall’s ground floor opened October 1, welcoming over 200 during the opening reception. The exhibition came about after Rita Worthington, Common Council majority leader, decried the absence of any mention of the contributions of people of color at the city’s 150th Anniversary celebration at City Hall, and in response, Mayor Noble decided that Rita and I organize the show. I didn’t want it to be reactionary and put out any “no whites allowed” sign, but rather throw a “party” that celebrates the diverse spectrum of artists that illuminate the abundance, complexities, heritages and contributions made by all Kingstonians. The exhibition is groundbreaking in that it includes gifts handcrafted by ANA’s President Paul (Coyote Song) Tobin and presented to the mayor and me during the annual Peace Treaty Renewal. We’ve extended the exhibition through February 29 and will be hosting a series of artists’ talks.
HV 1: How can your office help support the local arts community?
KP: It is especially difficult for individuals, small nonprofits and businesses in the art world to stay afloat. One of the main goals is to make sure the arts economy remains stable and the organizations driving this economy can keep their workers and hire more. This office will soon be banding together with the major resource, workforce, and economic development partners in the mid-Hudson Valley to host seminars in fundraising, finance, and more on behalf of the Kingston arts community.
Permits for filming in the city are being transitioned to Arts and Cultural Affairs from the mayor’s office, and I have been meeting with incoming filmmakers to introduce them to our arts community and encourage them to consider becoming true partners by hiring our local artists, including graphic designers, set builders and the like.
HV 1: One big challenge, and I believe it’s a Master Plan priority, is putting together a calendar of events on the city website.
KP: This is a major challenge. A new city website is in the works (it will take quite of bit of time) but as Frank Waters [who runs My Kingston Kids and organizes the city’s Black History Month events] said, having a fancy website doesn’t mean much unless you take it to the streets. So that’s why you see me just about everywhere during the weekends, supporting and helping to promote Kingston’s arts community. In the nonprofit world you’re expected to do more with less and do it better, and the only way to do that is as a community. I’m starting to refer to our community leaders as the Arts and Cultural Alliance because we are always moving together. Showing up at major festivals, gallery openings and kids’ events and posting on social networks is how it happens. We have a true arts colony here in Kingston, where people look out for each other. Many are now referring to me as“the glue” because I’ve forged quite a few winning arts collaborations throughout the city.
HV 1: Let’s talk about Native American relations.
KP: I spent the bulk of my childhood and young adulthood with friends and family at Shinnecock, who would all come stay at the house during hunting and fishing seasons. I’m of Dutch, African and Native American heritage, so New York State history relates to me in three flavors. While I’m proud that my Dutch ancestors turned from being slavers to abolitionists, I’m still a slave rape baby and emotionally affected, often to tears, by the unimaginable horrors done to my Native and African ancestors. Last year I produced a Martin Luther King celebration and felt a strong need to include Rev. Nick (Tecumseh Red Cloud) Miles to encourage us all to never forgot the horrors the Indigenous peoples faced and still face here in on sacred land. When I came on board, I expressed concerns to the mayor that Kingston has never formally apologized and established formal relations with Natives who are still here. He was very supportive and encouraging. Jeanne Edwards [code enforcement officer for the city], who is native, introduced me to Paul Tobin, the president of the ANA, and together we’ve been in talks about a formal Wiping of the Tears and Peace Tree Planting ceremony at City Hall in the spring, a hopeful first-ever Kingston-based Powwow in 2023, and advancing true Native history, arts and culture for the long term. This is groundbreaking, often gets painfully emotional, and Paul is engaging with the Pine Street African Burial Ground leadership. Nothing can right the wrongs done, but we certainly can start to let the healing begin and move forward together.
HV 1: A traveling bronze statue of Harriet Tubman by artist Wesley Wofford will be on display at the Ulster County Office Building from November 1 through January 2, accompanied by a program of events hosted by various local cultural organizations. What was your role in this?
KP: The city of Kingston is indeed a partner in this incredible exhibition of General Harriet Tubman, a true hero to all. The statue is breathtaking. Organized by the Midtown Arts District, D.R.A.W., the Kingston Library, and arts commissioner Susie Linn, the programming has involved so many arts and history partners, including IONE, Harambee, Center for Creative Education, Jaguar Mary X [Kingston’s Distinguished Artist 2022-23], My Kingston Kids, Old Dutch Church, and more.
On December 31, the city is co-hosting its 150th Anniversary finale at Old Dutch Church, which is called “Forward Together” and is also a farewell to the Harriet statue. Ars Choralis will perform and the event will unite the whole city. It’s scheduled for 6 p.m. and will be free and open to everyone.
HV 1: Other initiatives?
KP: We would love to meet with transportation bodies, from the county as well as local, so that when we have a festival or concert, we could organize transportation available for people in other communities. We are in a healthcare crisis, but here in Kingston, we are fortunate to be part of a community that cares, with such organizations as the Institute of Family Health, Family of Woodstock, People’s Place, help for victims of domestic violence, and immigrant shelters. For 2023, along with music partners, I hope to organize world-class performances for the homeless population, disabled veterans, the elderly, and more. After all, the arts keep us alive. And of course, we’ll be expanding our popular Music and Movies in the Parks series and doing everything we can to support our major festivals and events.
I’m also so grateful to the mayor and our Housing Initiatives Director Bartek Starodaj for involving me and the KACin the decision-making process regarding new housing projects. Affordable housing is perhaps the city’s biggest challenge.
HV 1: Can you be more specific?
KP: I’m referring to the new proposed development at 615 Broadway, the site of the former Kings Inn, for starters. One Master Plan priority is to integrate the arts and culture with planning for affordable housing. So last Wednesday, our KAC, neighborhood organizations and businesses, Ulster County Human Rights Commissioner Tyrone Wilson (who was tasked with taking on Housing as a Human Right in 2021), and I attended the press conference for the mayor’s announcement that community development firm Baxter had been chosen to develop the city-owned property. The firm is planning to build 60 residential units, 30 percent of which would be affordable workforce housing, as well as commercial space and a community center that will be integrated with the arts. I appreciate their plan for workforce housing and affordable business rental space. This is where my phone rings off the hook, with a lot of folks not only struggling to find an affordable place to live, but affordable gallery and studio space as well. But we’re now the only city north of Rockland County to have rent control, and the city’s leadership is taking this all very seriously. If we want the arts economy to stay strong, we need places where artists can thrive without fear that they will be displaced by overwhelming increases in rents.
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