Whether he is staying on the “Sonny” side or keeping things “low key,” Sonny Kay, executive director at Low Key Arts, has had a busy year building up the arts scene in Hot Springs.
The Valley of the Vapors Independent Music Festival, the Persistence of Vision Film Festival (formerly known as Arkansas Shorts), the Inception to Projection filmmaking program, also known as I2P, and solar-powered community radio station KUHS are just some of the projects for which Low Key Arts is responsible.
Its flagship event this year almost eclipsed all other offerings in a literal way. In partnership with Atlas Obscura, VOV happened for four days in conjunction with the 2024 solar eclipse, with the path of totality passing directly over Hot Springs. Atlas Obscura’s Ecliptic Festival at Valley of the Vapors brought in 2,500 people from around the world for the music festival’s celestial 20th anniversary. It was Atlas Obscura’s second eclipse-based event, the first having been held in 2017 in a remote part of Oregon without a local partner organization. There were a host of musical guests gathered in Spa City, as well as artists, performers and speakers from NASA. Comedian Fred Armisen and former Mythbuster Adam Savage also made appearances.
“The opportunity to bring the artists we did to Arkansas for the eclipse was truly incredible and something I’m very proud of,” Kay said.
He said the six months between October 2023 and April 2024 were spent collaborating one on one with Atlas Obscura and that the festival was “essentially a collaborative curation between myself and their vice president of experiential, Megan Roberts.”
Having moved VOV to Cedar Glades Park from its downtown space in 2021, the music festival will return downtown next year to Whittington Place for a “cozier and more intimate experience that can still accommodate a big crowd.”
“We plan to bring even more foreign acts to Hot Springs and create an opportunity for an exciting event that feels even more international, pushes boundaries and puts smiles on as many faces as possible,” Kay said. “We’re so grateful that this tradition is ours to maintain and feel like it embodies the spirit of Low Key Arts both then and now.”
The nonprofit was founded in 2005, and Kay took over in 2017. Kay moved to Arkansas seven years ago to take on the executive director role. He has previously worked as a freelance graphic designer and was the art director for a handful of Los Angeles-based record labels. He founded and co-owned independent record label Gold Standard Laboratories, which operated from 1993 to 2007.
“Probably the most rewarding thing of all has been to surround myself with the creative community in Hot Springs and take inspiration from work being produced by some exceptional artists here,” he said. “My own artwork has improved as a result, and I think that makes me a better and more effective leader.”
Kay said his work today is roughly half administrative and half creative. He manages fundraising correspondence, bookkeeping and day-to-day operations while helping maintain the studio. He is also responsible for much of the graphic output, social media, printed posters and programs, and merchandise that includes T-shirts, stickers and more.
“We fill the gaps and offer things people who live in big cities take for granted,” Kay said. “Without the kind of specialized arts education we offer, a lot of people who live here would simply not have access to it. For example, this year, Inception to Projection partnered with the [state] office of workforce development, trained nearly 40 people to crew a film production and put them to work in the industry right here in Arkansas. Likewise, our Ecliptic festival attracted a phenomenal lineup of legendary headliners, many of whom had never set foot in this state before.”
LKA opened a digital arts studio in downtown Hot Springs two years ago to support its ever-growing I2P program, which teaches locals the basics of filmmaking and gives them a chance to screen completed films at POV Fest when the course is over. The move came after the organization left its warehouse space during the COVID-19 pandemic to go fully virtual.
In addition to the events and radio offerings, LKA launched a series of classes in 2011, including a recent three-day course about designing film posters led by Kay. I2P classes originally took place once a year until the digital arts studio opened in 2022.
Supporting a growing film industry in the state, the I2P program has quickly grown over the past two years to offer classes year-round at various skill levels.
“The ambition to turn Inception to Projection into a legitimate film school is real for us and something we feel is perhaps only a couple of years away, the rate things are going,” Kay said.
Like the rest of his activities, his advice for others is full of attitude yet poignant.
“Don’t be a spectator. Be an instigator,” he said, “or at the very least, an active participant. Take comfort in the fact that the future is unwritten, and do the things that bring you joy to the best of your ability.”
Photo by Aaron Brewer
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