Member Minute: Interview with Kate Van Steenhuyse

Meet Kate Van Steenhuyse, who is the point of contact for the South Central and Southwestern Kansas regions for the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission (KCAIC). She joined Groover Labs in October and has become an integral part of our community. I connected with Kate last week over Zoom to learn more about what she does. Below is a lightly edited transcript of our discussion.

Parker McConachie, Community Development Manager at Groover Labs: Hi Kate! Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Kate Van Steenhuyse, Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission: I’m a painter and artist. I’ve always been a working artist and also an arts administrator. I grew up in a small town in Iowa. My husband and I met in New York City, and since then we’ve lived in New York, California--even a small cabin in the woods in upstate New York. I went to college in St. Louis, and I have BFAs in Fine Arts and Women’s Studies and an MFA in Fine Arts.

Parker: Arts administrator? What do you mean by arts administrator?

Kate: I like to help artists and other organizations do cool projects in the community. If I can help you properly format your budget or write a great grant application that helps you get the funding you need to do this really cool thing, then that’s incredibly rewarding. I try to help by being able to translate between the artist and the fundraiser.

Parker: Is it safe to say that someone, an artist or creative person, who’s really good at their craft may not be as good at something like applying for a grant or funding for a project?

Kate: Not necessarily. It’s more like a lack of training. Most creatives are self taught, or they study art, but they study it academically. It’s a very old fashioned model. Without any training about how to apply for grants or tap other funding resources, they have to pick up all of these entrepreneurial skills as they go. A lot of what we do at KCAIC and Harvester Arts** is to help artists navigate these worlds.

[Kate gets animated.] Artists are entrepreneurs and so much of that entrepreneurial spirit is under the surface, but you can see it come out in their projects. No one really thinks about entrepreneurship as the engine of activity that makes an art project happen.

Over the past eight months (during the pandemic), people are watching TV, they’re streaming shows. Who makes those shows? Artists, creatives. We think of artists in old-fashioned models. We’re not all Jackson Pollock – slaving away quietly in our studios making masterpieces and selling those works for top dollar.

Parker: How did you get started in your job?

Kate: I've been with KCAIC full time since August. Governor Kelly and the state legislature increased the budget for the arts, which allowed KCAIC to add more staff and so I’ve been consulting for them since the spring of 2019.

Parker: I’d originally written down to ask what your favorite project is; but now that I think about it, I don’t think that’s a fair question!

Kate: They’re all so different. There are so many different parts to a healthy arts and cultural ecosystem across the state--there are massive organizations that everyone has heard of and then there are tiny organizations in small communities on the other side of the state--it really is an example of a rising tide lifts all boats

We’re part of the Kansas Department of Commerce, so our focus is to support arts and cultural activities which in turn shows how focusing on the arts and cultural activities supports economic activity and growth.

Parker: Why did you choose Groover Labs?

Kate: I wanted to be at Groover Labs because it’s a nice, new space and I feel like the goals of my job and the constituencies I’m here to support and represent are really encapsulated well in what Groover Labs is all about--innovation, the arts, and technology. It just makes sense to physically be in a space where those things are happening.

Parker: If someone Googles you, and this interview pops up, what do you want them to know?

Kate: I’m here to connect with anyone involved in the arts and culture community and how they intersect with economic development. There are so many ways for these ideas to work together, so get in touch with me!

Parker: What are you reading right now?

Kate, very excited: I’m reading the best book! I’m reading Manifesto for a Moral Revolution by NYT bestselling author Jacqueline Novogratz.

Parker: What Netflix show are you willing to confess to binging right now? 

Kate: I am not embarrassed to say I’ve enjoyed watching Jane the Virgin and Outlander. Oh, and I’m rewatching The Gilmore Girls. 

Parker: I’m watching The Crown.

Kate: That’s next!

Thank you, Kate, for making time to sit down with me to share about your work. I know you’re busy!

** You may have noticed I placed two asterisks next to Harvester Arts. Kate and I didn’t discuss it during our interview, but she’s also the Founder and CEO of Harvester Arts, a space in Wichita that provides a platform for visual arts experimentation.