Today we’d like to introduce you to Karen Louis.
Hi Karen, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
From the moment I could register what I wanted to do in life, it was clearly centered on the arts, performing, and building community. It felt like I was wired that way- any opportunity to jump on a stage was an opportunity to explore the world. Any opportunity to learn about people and places outside of the town I was in was an exciting jump into my certain future. And every jump was always more fun with friends, so it has always been in my core to extend or grasp a hand on the way to each adventure.
In my teen years, I was deeply entrenched in theatre and music. Any time spent out of school or rehearsal was spent catching (usually punk, new wave, alternative) shows in Cleveland.
When I was an undergrad at the College of Wooster, I was sent out on an acting internship to the NYC Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute where I fell in love for the first time- with an entire city. The whole of the city was so rich with so many different and incredible people, cultures, art, histories, humanity, and character. I felt as though I finally found the place where I fit- and when I didn’t fit, I could just turn the corner and be in a whole new world. New York encouraged me to change, evolve, leave, return, and reinvent myself to become my truest form. So, I did. As an actor, NYC was my home base as I bounced around doing shows, seasons with theatres in other states, tours, and adventures. And when I decided to take a break from bouncing, I settled into restaurant management and working with the Women’s Project teaching the 10 Centuries of Women Playwrights program in Harlem and Washington Heights, where I was placed as a teaching artist in public schools that did not have arts programming. It was through this experience that I understood what a powerful tool the arts are in full education. I also learned how deeply underserved our most creative communities are, and what a disservice it is to our society, and to the arts overall.
Now, as a mother, partner, and nonprofit director, it is clear to me the power and necessity that arts development and training provide our whole community, and I am proud to advocate, learn, and develop leadership that is inclusive, expansive, and generative.
I also believe that unexpected circumstances can catapult you into unexpected places, and from that point, you determine when and how to realign or dig in. In 2001, I was in the late-planning stages of moving from NYC to Los Angeles, stopping in Chicago to spend a weekend with friends before I became a full West Coast resident. I landed in Los Angeles on September 10, 2001, to start looking for an apartment, with the intention to return to NYC, pack up my life, and go west. September 11, 2001, changed that plan immediately. I focused on the mantra of “live what you love,” because it was the only sense I could make of anything at that time, and ended up returning to Chicago with the intention of being there for a year, and then returning to Los Angeles. Chicago revealed itself to be a vibrant city full of opportunity, lessons to learn, and ways to grow. I connected with a performance company and was actively teaching at schools on the southside, Westside, and Wicker Park, and centering my arts outreach programming while making art. I ended up getting a Master’s degree in interdisciplinary art from Columbia College, Chicago when the Great Recession hit. When the recession hit, all of my teaching residencies for the year ahead were canceled. This was a little surprise, as the arts are always the first cut, and I knew I could find ways to make ends meet through the myriad of side hustles I always had going on (bartending, museum, performance, etc), but what I couldn’t get past was all of my students who no longer had access to consecutive, consistent arts programming, particularly during a time of challenge, hardship, and strife. After nine years and a recession, I packed up my car and drove (this time) to Los Angeles to pick up where I left off nine years earlier. This time, I had deeper wisdom and more concrete experience to support the journey.
Once out here, I began exploring solutions to the larger problem of arts access, opportunity, and the exclusion of our most creative in the creative capital of the US. I learned development and fundraising while working for the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts Foundation (LACHSA), a tuition-free, public arts-centered high school that is available to all students in the LA County region. I explored arts advocacy to learn the art of raising your voice and coming together to support the arts across sectors, When I had my son in 2014, I made the commitment to myself, my family, and my sector to step into arts management and leadership to be a part of the change from the exclusion of some communities to the inclusion of all communities, in the deepest way possible.
In 2019, I became the Executive Director of The Neighborhood Music School in Boyle Heights. For me, I have found an idyllic space in which we cultivate an artistic home for 22 teaching artists and 300 students that is based on individual development and collective investment. The school was founded in 1914 and has seen generations of students from all levels, ages, backgrounds, and cultures develop in our beautifully restored Victorian home, just down the street from Mariachi Plaza. The house itself is whimsical and functional, steeped with history and music, and the community we serve is a vibrant, diverse, resilient, and dedicated representation of the whole of Los Angeles.
In addition to running NMS, I am also proud to serve on the board of the Boyle Heights Chamber of Commerce and LA Dance Chronicle. I feel both grateful and mindful of the path that has led me here, and seek to advocate and extend opportunities that will serve our community, artists, and families in Los Angeles (and beyond) to live vibrant, healthy lives.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The funny thing about challenges is that they become meaningful teachers for our greatest success. For example, when the pandemic hit and we were all in a space of uncertainty, closure, fear, and all else, I was most grateful for the time I had in 2008 as a teaching artist when all of my residencies were suddenly cut due to the Great Recession, and I had to find my way through that rough and uncertain road financially, physically, emotionally, and artistically.
It was through friends, mentors, and those who created pathways and beacons that I was able to do so and emerge with a focus on development, problem-solving and living a life of love. I recognized my opportunity to create pathways and beacons at NMS. So, rather than dwell on the confusion, fear, and frustration of 2020, I set to work solving problems, as I could, and engaged as many as I could in the process so we could do it together.
We immediately set goals to keep our teachers teaching, our students learning, and our community connected. I found the funding to ensure our teachers were paid, our teachers pivoted to teaching online, creating content for students, we used social media and our website to connect our community, we established frequent check-ins, and connected with our support community to ensure that we emerged from this period with more resources and lessons learned than we had before 2020. As the pandemic wore on, we focused on connecting with our community partners, finding ways to support and engage, whether that be through a virtual concert, a back-to-school backpack distribution, or providing music at resource fairs, hospitals, and senior living facilities. At times like these, we know that there are so many things that we can’t do, but when we focus on what we CAN do, we discover our strength. And when we do it together, we discover the support and resilience of our community.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about The Neighborhood Music School Association?
The Neighborhood Music School was founded in 1914 as a Settlement House with a mission to bring music and language instruction to the immigrant communities who had settled just outside of Downtown LA. We originally began in Lincoln Heights- on Mozart street(aptly named), and moved into our 1892 Victorian house on Boyle Avenue in the mid-1930s. The goal was to help the immigrant community adapt and engage with their new home by learning the language to communicate in business and learning music to communicate the journey. 108 (and counting) years later, Boyle Heights is a multi-cultural and lively community with a dynamic arts ecosystem and a bustling network of independent businesses. We are proud to have a historic anchor in our neighborhood and continue to teach one on one music lessons at a strategically affordable cost to students of all ages and all levels of development. Our focus is on the individual and using music as a means to engage, adapt, and grow. We host a scholarship program that includes tuition support, our tuition-free ensemble program, and professional development opportunities and workshops. We are a creative home to our 22 teaching artists and 300 in-house students weekly, and we are poised to grow over the next few years!
As we emerge from the pandemic, we are focusing deeply on outreach and our community partnerships to bring music into the community in as many ways as we are able. This includes partnering with PUENTE Learning Center, The Bionic Ear Lab-CI Music Hour, Boyle Heights Community Partners, Adventist Health White Memorial Hospital, Art in the Park, and many others.
We’d love to hear what you think about risk-taking.
After 2+ years of feeling that EVERYTHING is a risk, I’m not sure I can define risk-taking the same way as I once did. I do believe that the nature of creativity and artistry is embodied in bravery and sharing perspective, which is innately risk-taking and always liberating. I think I have always felt that way.
When I was an actor, and moving from city to city, theatre to theatre, place to place, I romanticized packing up the entirety of my life in two suitcases. The idea of starting new, meeting people, and discovering differences and allegiances has always been exciting to me, more than terrifying. It becomes terrifying if I don’t feel my anchor. I don’t see my guides, and I don’t trust my atmosphere. I do take risks, but I also have a back pocket full of backup plans and adaptations that will steer me back to the core of my humanity, leadership, and community.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.neighborhoodmusic.org
- Instagram: @nmsmusicla
- Facebook: @nmsmusicla
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChDbO2gnmA9yvxjJn5aDiZQ
