The Arts Hub, formerly known as The Arts HUB (they got tired of everyone thinking the capitalized “HUB” was an acronym), is a nonprofit educational arts center that’s just starting to dip its toes into Lafayette’s music community. Since its original founding as “Arts Underground” in 2007, the Hub primarily focused on theater, dance, and visual arts, with teaching staff drawing from their personal backgrounds to guide their curriculum. Mekenzie Rosen-Stone, the current director of programming, made her Broadway debut as a literal child, so naturally she’s concentrated more on theater and other performance arts at the Hub in recent years. But Andrew Krimm, The Arts Hub’s new executive director, has a background in music and is working to expand the Hub’s music offerings, starting with this year’s Lafayette Music Fest.
Knowing he was a musician himself, I asked Krimm what his instrument of choice was, and he pointed to the massive viola tattooed on his forearm. (Observational skills are SO important in journalism!) He previously founded a string ensemble called the Altius Quartet and acted as their manager, which led to him pursuing more administrative work in the music industry. Krimm then served as the executive director of the Boulder Symphony for four years before joining The Arts Hub this past spring. “We’re keeping all of our theater programming, but just diversifying and adding more music stuff. And I don’t think we’ll ever get back into the dance realm,” he says, citing the already oversaturated dance market (not to mention feral dance moms). Krimm is kicking things off with a series of four concerts, which will be the first live music events the Arts Hub has presented outside of Lafayette Music Fest 2022 and 2023: “I’m sure people have rented the space for concerts, but as far as us presenting concerts, that hasn’t happened in the past outside of Lafayette Music Fest.”
Arts Underground began in a basement, but in 2016, they built and moved into their own multimillion-dollar facility in Lafayette, and rechristened themselves The Arts Hub since they were no longer subterranean. Walking into the Hub, with Pride flags, kid’s artwork, and lots of bright colors lending warmth to the brick walls, it’s obvious that they want everyone to feel as welcome as possible. “The biggest thing that we want people to know is that we are for everybody,” Krimm emphasizes. The building is home to many classrooms, a preschool, two outdoor “pods” housing a recording studio and private lesson room, and my personal highlight of the tour, the prop room. My favorite prop was a pair of gigantic cardboard scuba goggles left over from a recent production of Finding Nemo. But the jewel of the Arts Hub is their 200-seat theater, where the Lafayette Music Fest acts will perform on Saturday, October 5. Size-wise, it’s in a sweet spot where it’s big enough to host a full stage production, but still small enough to have the hominess of a black box theater. “Especially for the theater stuff, you know, you go to Broadway and it’s like a 2000-person theater. This is a more intimate and personal experience,” explains Krimm.
Krimm wasn’t involved in the booking process for Lafayette Music Fest this year, since he had just started working at the Hub the week before. So while he’s not well-acquainted with many of the acts, he’s still stoked to be involved, especially after reading some of the names on the lineup. “There’s Guerilla Fanfare, they’re doing some sort of parade from The District, and hopefully bringing people from The District down here. And then based on the names, DJ Don Diggidy sounds pretty cool,” he says with a laugh. As a nonprofit that aims to empower all community members to express themselves through art, The Arts Hub holds many of the same key values as Lafayette Music Fest. “The biggest value alignment is the community building,” Krimm says. “We really like to make it a point that no matter your race or gender or sexuality, we’re an open place for you to come create. With the music festival, their whole goal is building community.”
Besides the whole wholesome community event aspect, participating in Lafayette Music Fest is also an opportunity for The Arts Hub to reintroduce themselves and announce their foray into music programming. A continuous hurdle The Arts Hub faces is that people don’t know what art forms the Hub offers, if they know it exists at all, says Krimm: “Most of our programming has been theater-based, so we’re [working on] getting anybody in our building who may not know that we exist, or getting them in our space so maybe they’ll see some other things we’re putting on and be interested, or maybe they don’t even realize we’re doing theater, and they’re huge theater fans.”
It doesn’t help that The Arts Hub is tucked away in the back corner of an office park, with only a run-down “Lafayette Tech Center” sign at the lot entrance. “We’re not allowed to put any signage on South Boulder Road. You can only put signage on your property. So a lot of people drive past us all the time and don’t realize that we’re here,” Krimm laments. The misleading sign is a relic that has humorously been grandfathered into eternity: “There’s that dilapidated Lafayette Tech Center sign, and I guess that was some HOA that was managing all this stuff in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and now it’s defunct. Now that the sign isn’t on anybody’s property, no one can take it over. It’s pretty funny that they have this big ugly sign and won’t let anybody use it, and I don’t think there’s any tech over here.” Krimm has even considered turning to guerrilla (Fanfare?) marketing in protest: “I’ve been leaning towards just getting a bunch of yard signs made and just sticking them down the road, and if the city comes and throws them away, whatever.”
The signage grudge match aside, Krimm, who has lived in Boulder County for a decade, praises the diversity and sheer number of musicians who call the area home. “It’s really diverse,” he says of Boulder County’s music scene. “Bluegrass, DJs, big band jazz. Every night there’s some sort of concert happening somewhere. What happens in Boulder is, CU has a really good college of music, people go there to study and then realize the Front Range is awesome, and nobody leaves.” As a result, there’s a surplus of independent music projects–like six orchestras made up of slightly different combinations of the same musicians. Boulder County’s musical prowess will be on full display at Lafayette Music Fest, where The Arts Hub will host four acts: Starlight & Pine at 3:15, DJ Don Diggidy at 4:15, Guerrilla Fanfare at 5:30, and finally Brandywine & The Mighty Fines at 7:45. Their bar area will be open for wine and beer sales, but don’t bring any outside drinks into the Hub! And that parade Andrew mentioned? After 5 pm, the three free stages at The District will close down, and Guerrilla Fanfare will lead attendees in a second line to The Arts Hub for their 5:30 performance. Now that’s a sight you definitely won’t want to miss.
The third annual Lafayette Music Fest is Saturday, October 5. The Arts Hub will open its doors around 2:15 p.m. prior to the first performance at 3:15. Tickets start at $43 and will be exchanged for wristbands upon arrival. For more information and the full Lafayette Music Fest lineup, visit lafayettemusicfest.com.
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