Today we’d like to introduce you to Liza Zenni.
Hi Liza, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was eight when I stepped on the stage of the Oak Ridge Community Playhouse. And that was it. Supporting and defending the arts has been my life’s passion and career.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I’m a person of very narrow interests. I try, within the considerable limits of my means, to be sure that whatever happens, it is good for the arts. Likewise, if something enters my viewfinder that is not good for the arts, I look for ways to redirect its path. Having a value system as simple as that is liberating. The road is not always smooth but the struggles are nearly always worth it. It helps that I enjoy a good dust-up. Conflict is stimulating, and I find that it usually renders a higher quality outcome than one during which the path was smooth.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My purpose of my job with the Arts & Culture Alliance (ACA) is to make life easier for local artists and arts and culture organizations. One of the joys of the job is to be able to listen to artists talk about their work, their challenges, and their frustrations. I actually think a lot about what they tell me. I try to imagine ways my organization can celebrate the artwork created here and devise tools like grant programs that provide resources to support that work. Thanks to the City of Knoxville, one of the assets ACA has at its disposal is the Emporium Center, which we manage. For the last 21 years, the Emporium Center has been the hub of First Friday gallery walks and a home to a dozen artists and not for profit organizations. I’m so damn lucky to have spent my working hours surrounded by the creative process. Which brings me to one of the things I’m known for: colorful language. I find that profanity has a way of breaking the ice and, if employed with skill, can make a tense situation funny. When people laugh, it releases hostility. As an industry, the arts are both powerful and vulnerable. Its value to any community is inestimable, which means “too great to calculate”. And that is what makes the industry vulnerable; as Americans, we respect what we can measure. I guess what I’m most proud of is having the honor of serving an industry I so deeply respect. With the perspective of decades (yipes) in the job, it is easy for me to see the impact of the arts around here as an economic generator and civic binder. Because of the arts, Greater Knoxville is a stronger, more unified place. One thing that sets me apart from others is my willingness to engage in hand to hand combat. When it comes to the arts, I am not afraid to fight.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
To be truly fascinated by every aspect of your work is a gift. There’s so much I don’t know, even after all this time, but I never tire of learning about it. I can talk about the arts for days, which makes me a boring dinner companion! When I come to work, I don’t feel that I’m there to do a job. I’m there because the job is my life’s fascination. I’m just that fortunate to have been given the opportunity to spend my days in a beautiful place surrounded by beautiful things and creative, often peculiar people. The tiniest thread of whatever helps the arts or hurts it is of particular interest to me. And I actually think that is the one characteristic that has been most important to any success I may have had.
Pricing:
- The Penny4Arts program allows children to attend arts and culture activities for free.
- Penny4Arts.com
Contact Info:
- Website: https://knoxalliance.com
- Instagram: @artsandculturealliance
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/KnoxArtAndCultureAlliance
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/liza-zenni-255a82112/
