Morning Edition; Connect 2 Culture

It's morning edition on KRPS. 2020 was an unforgettable year. Most of us are glad that 2021 has arrived. And joining us this morning is the director of Connected Culture in Joplin, Emily Fronkowski to talk about what's in store for the arts and entertainment nonprofit in the coming year. Good morning, Emily. And thanks for joining us. Hey, thanks for having us. All right. So what are what are you and connect to culture looking forward to in 2021? I think you have some big plans to talk about. Yeah, so it's so funny that you ask what we're looking forward to because we've been spending kind of the last two weeks really doing a deep dive into all of the things that happened in 2020. We always do this annual retrospective called Looking Back where we kind of just go through all of the most memorable arts and cultural moments. And we were kind of anticipating 2020 being the unprecedented year than it was that there wouldn't be a lot to look back on. But I encourage everyone to do so because there are so much positivity that happened during this difficult time. So many different colorful public arts that has been

created awards, different creative programs. Everyone has had to be so flexible. So really encourage people to do that. Obviously, we're looking forward always. We're looking for new ways to fulfill our mission as connect to culture, being droplands community arts agency, and as well as bringing performances as a performing arts presenter. And you know, the big building project that we're spearheading with Spiva Center for the Arts, the Harry M. Cornell Arts and Entertainment Complex. That big project is really taking off and we're hoping that we have a ground breaking actually in early 2021. A ground breaking for what? For the Harry M. Cornell Arts and Entertainment Complex. Early 2021. So is that going to happen in January, February, March? I think one of those months is definitely going to happen. I always am just like, let's just say early. So if we don't

have it in, we're all hoping for January, but it could be late January, early February. Right now, the entire project, you know, in 2020, a lot of work has been happening behind the scenes, not very glamorous, lots of zoom meetings, but things have really been finalized and the project has been taken out to bid, and we're going to receive that information shortly and kind of take a look at the scope and make an adjustments that are needed. And then once all of that business is taken care of, that's when we can have the ground breaking and start realizing the center, with hopefully it opening in late 2022. That was my next question. Thank you for answering it already. Yes, no problem. That's really, I'm really excited for connected culture and for you. I know it's been a lot of work behind the scenes. In some ways, 2020 was going to be a really busy year for you. And you mentioned zoom meetings. And I wanted to mention that you've continued to have

virtual meetups on the second Tuesday of each month at 11 a.m. and those will continue at least through June. Yes, they will. Yeah, these are our connect culture check-ins. And something we'd kind of just, you know, immediately when COVID-19 hit, we decided to have these. There are zoom meetings, like you said, and all arts and cultural representatives are invited to attend. We just kind of talk about what we all have coming up. If we have any challenges, we can brainstorm on how to help each other fix those problems. And it's just really good to have that sounding board when we're not usually going out and talking with people and meeting up. So those have been really helpful on the performing arts side for connected culture. It's been, you know, we were really lucky with having our last performance for the 20. What was it? 2019, 2020 season, all of the years, you know, are mixed up now because of this 2020. But our last season kind of start or ended in March, which was right before the pandemic. So we were lucky. Others were not

as lucky as us. But in 2021, we're looking at bringing some virtual performance opportunities to the area. So be looking out for those. That would be in the early spring, summer. But hopefully, I think everyone really wants to get back to live in-person entertainment safely. We hope we can do that sometime in the fall of 2021. Okay, Director of the Arts and Entertainment Nonprofit, Connect to Culture, Emily Fronkowski. Thank you for your time this morning. No problem. Thanks for having me and happy new year.