Patch Talk: A Conversation With Kim Hall on the Arts, ‘Arty Party,’ Doc Silverhawk and More

Kim Hall, a founder of the Greater Brandon Arts Council, has owned and operated the Kim Hall School of Dance in Brandon for decades. Her love of the arts dates back to her youth. And the power of the arts she witnessed firsthand at the bedside of her brother, Kenneth, who survived one accident but not the head-on collision a few years ago that claimed his life.

Hall spoke to Brandon Patch on the morning of March 5, about seven hours before set-up would begin for the “Arty Party” membership drive and fundraiser hosted annually by the Greater Brandon Arts Council.

The event, in its fifth year, runs from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Center Place Fine Arts & Civic Association, which shares space with the Brandon Regional Library in the Sandy Rodriguez Center, at 619 Vonderburg Drive. Cost to attend is free for GBAC members. Otherwise, the cost is $10, or free with the purchase of a $25 yearly GBAC membership. Students pay $10 for the annual membership. Food, drink, door prizes and a raffle for a frame full of Florida Lottery tickets will be on tap. Also, live entertainment and visual art displays.

Brandon Patch: What is the “Arty Party?”

• Hall: It’s to get artists and art patrons together for a night to socialize. It’s a night for us to get together with our own, with other arts people.

Brandon Patch: What makes an “arts person” an “arts person”?

• Hall: Everybody is an arts person, even if they haven’t yet found their inner artist.  

Brandon Patch: What is art, and why do you say it is all-encompassing?

• Hall: Art is what makes the world function. If you look at mathematics, science, nature in general, it all comes full circle. You can’t have science without art. You can’t have art without science. You have to have that creativity. I’m constantly using math in my job. And someone else might not get up and jump and dance around their chairs but if they had a more artistic approach to their jobs, a more creative way of thinking, they would be better at what they do. 

Brandon Patch: What do you hope people walk away with from the “Arty Party” membership drive and fundraiser?

• Hall: I hope that their eyes are open to the fantastic local talent that we have.

 Brandon Patch: Some of that talent will perform?

• Hall: We  have Christian Stewart, who’s going to play his own original music on the acoustic guitar. We have special-level dancers who will do improvisational dance. They haven’t heard his music before and they’re going to move as they feel. We’ve got members from the Bloomingale High School orchestra who will be playing jazz and classical music sets throughout the night. We have numerous dance acts and Doc Silverhawk, who specialize in Native American music.

 Brandon Patch: What about the visual arts?

• Hall: Local professional artists will be exhibiting as well and the standing art exhibit [in the Center Place Mook Art Gallery for March] is work from high school art students.

Brandon Patch: What’s the one thing you want people to walk away with from the “Arty Party” event? 

• Hall: That we intend to, and continue to, grow and nurture the arts in Brandon and that everybody needs to be aware that the arts community is thriving. We want to create a better future for all of our residents. All of our residents.

Brandon Patch: You emphasize “all.”

• Hall: Art has no boundaries and no restrictions. It has no racial boundaries. It has no cultural boundaries. It has no age boundaries.

Brandon Patch: You said it can even reach a person in a coma?

• Hall: My brother was in a coma and he wasn’t supposed to survive. I sat at his bed 24/7,  no response. Nothing. We were told by the doctors he was not going to live and, if he did wake up, he would pretty much be in a vegetative state or have the mind of a 3-year-old. I wouldn’t accept that. My mom had been in a coma when she was younger and she said, “You have to talk to him, he hears everything.” I asked the doctors if I could get a headset and play music for  him. Cat Stevens was our connection. He was our favorite artist. When I was 16 I started driving and got tickets for us to see Cat Stevens at the Lakeland Center. I popped the music in, put the headset on his head, and I swear to you, within four to six beats of the music, his foot started tapping, to “Tea for the Tillerman.” He eventually got out of his coma and went on to take college courses. You know, when I say art has no boundaries? If art can reach an unconscious person in a coma, who we were told would not survive, or at best be in a vegetative state, then that’s quite a story in itself.