Musician, record label owner and visual artist are some of the titles that follow Low Key Arts' new executive director into Hot Springs.
Sonny Kay, who is perhaps best known as the founder and owner of the record label Gold Standard Laboratories, will take over as executive director of the art-forward nonprofit Low Key Arts at the start of November. He plans to expand the reach and influence of Low Key, which has already created and sustained events such as the Valley of the Vapors music festival and Arkansas Shorts film festival.
Unlike his predecessor, David Hill, who served as interim executive director for a year, Kay plans to stay in Hot Springs for the long run.
"There's a huge amount of potential here," Kay said. "There's lots of aspects of this place that would attract performers and creative people from all over the world."
Kay accepted the job while living in Las Vegas creating album art for musicians. Prior to working in the field of visual art, Kay ran Gold Standard Laboratories, producing records for artists such as Chromatics and The Mars Volta.
Kay's hiring comes three months after Hill's departure. Kay heard about the opening from Low Key Arts' artistic director, Bobby Missile, who has known Kay as a producer and fellow musician for more than a decade.
"Everybody on the board was working, trying to find somebody that could fill the position," Missile said. "I had always dreamed of working with Sonny on projects, so I just kind of randomly called him up out of the blue and pitched it to him."
Kay did not take long to commit to his new job.
"He told me he would get back in a week or so because he had to kind of think about it," Missile said. "He called me back the very next day at noon and told me that he was totally interested."
"I realized it was exactly what I was looking for in my life," Kay said. "It worked out great."
Having lived in entertainment hubs such as Los Angeles, Kay said Hot Springs appeals to him, especially with his new job description.
"It has a lot of I guess what you'd call small town charm, but it's not unsophisticated," Kay said. "There's a lot of kind of eclectic attitudes here, and a lot of progressive-minded people, which I can relate to, but it hasn't yet developed some of the jaded sort of trappings of big cities that are overwhelmed with a surplus of choices with what to do for entertainment."
Kay described Hot Springs as a "blank slate," but also noted Low Key Arts has set a solid foundation for the arts in Hot Springs. He said the fact Low Key Arts is a household name in Hot Springs is "a big obstacle out of the way."
With the foundation he has been given, Kay said he hopes to take Hot Springs' art and music scene to a new level and that his experience in these areas will be advantageous to making it happen.
"I look at so many tour itineraries, and there's so many people who just bounce over this area. Maybe they hit Little Rock, but it just seems like nine times out of 10, they don't even do that," he said. "I would love to have a role in establishing this place as someplace that you have to stop and play, because I think it's already halfway there."
"I'm just extremely excited to have Sonny here," Missile said. "He's a huge get -- not only for the city of Hot Springs, but even for the state of Arkansas."
Local on 10/10/2017