Kentuck Art Center announces leadership changes

The Kentuck Art Center's shifting leadership upward, with current Deputy Director Exa Skinner stepping up as executive director Jan. 1. Executive Director Amy Echols will move to a newly created role, as advisor for arts and strategic growth, a consultant-type position for which she'll work from home.

The Kentuck Board of Directors voted also to promote Ashley Williams from marketing manager to director of marketing and communications, and Molly Nelko from program assistant to program manager.

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The moves come as the center and its year-around programming, including classes and workshops, outreach to the community, first Thursday Art Nights and more, continues to expand. Kentuck also plans and runs the yearly mid-October Kentuck Festival of the Arts, the 52nd edition of which was held Oct. 14-15, 2023, and maintains artists' studios, offices and exhibit spaces in its campus of buildings at the corner of Fifth Street and Main Avenue in Northport.

"It's an amazing responsiblity I have been handed," Skinner said. "This has been something I have dreamt of since even before I worked with Kentuck," when she and her family attended and enjoyed the festival and other center activities.

Skinner, a University of Alabama graduate in theater and creative writing who completed her executive Master of Business Administration degree from the University of North Alabama in 2023, was hired in 2015 as Kentuck program director, having worked previously with the Children's Hands-on Museum in Tuscaloosa as coordinator of education.

She has moved up and into new offices multiple times on the Kentuck campus at 503 Main Ave., as her two children recently reminded her, from program director to director of operations in 2018, and then deputy director in 2021.

"It really means a lot that the board has entrusted me with this," she said, "and I don't plan to disappoint."

As executive director, Skinner will follow path laid out by mentor Echols, handling day-to-day operations including staff and festival management, working with the board, and more. Echols' new role will be more advisory, yet still close at hand, Skinner said.

"Kentuck has been expanding for the last few years at an insane rate," Skinner said, "with so many classes, so many students .... We hardly have enough space to hold all these people. As we increase our needs, and increase our programming, Amy will be strategically looking at connections with the community, helping us get where we want to go.

"Even before the succession plan (began formulating), she taught me so much about business, about life, about the community. I hope to continue learning from her."

Board President Bobby Bragg said they're happy about the staff moves, bolstering a team that will continue to do great work, he said. Skinner has been part of board meetings for the past two years while moving up in responsibilities, he added, and has been instrumental in procuring "substantial grants" for arts outreach.

In a written release, Echols said promoting Skinner has been her vision for a while. "Her passion, dedication, excellent business acumen, and leadership abilities to fulfill our mission and vision for the betterment of our community will ensure that Kentuck will continue to reach new heights of success," she wrote.

The other promotions were also well-earned, Skinner said. Since Williams came on as an an intern during her senior year at UA in 2017, she's been handling Kentuck's extensive social media and contact lists, designing advertising for print and digital use, creating signage for the festival, overseeing all official emails, and otherwise insuring the Kentuck brand stays consistent in all forms.

"She designs billboards, answers the press, goes on TV and radio," Skinner said. "She is really involved in every aspect of public interaction." In 2018, Kentuck created a full-time position in marketing, which it hadn't had before, to fit Williams. Now she's getting a promotion and raise, and Kentuck will soon hire her a marketing assistant.

Nelko has been teaching many of Kentuck's on-campus classes, and working with outreach groups at the Benjamin Barnes YMCA, West Circle development (the Northport housing authority's main office) and Maxwell Elementary. She'll continue to teach, but also take on leadership of overall programming, including initial stages of exhibition lineups.

As the center ponders possibly moving the festival to a new location for 2024, following disputes with the city of Northport over funding and site questions, it will also be opening Kentuck's Clay Studio, in what has been for years clay artist Kerry Kennedy's Fire Horse Pottery; Kennedy is moving to a new at-home setup with expanded space for both her work and that of her huband and fellow artist Joe Rossomanno.

To offer more classes with greater accessibility, including ceramics, stained and fused-glass and more, Kentuck is in the midst of a year-end fundraising project. For more, see the site at www.kentuck.org.

Reach Mark Hughes Cobb at mark.cobb@tuscaloosanews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Exa Skinner to become Kentuck Art Center's executive director