DT | A Better KC: Cheryl Kimmi - KC Creates - 11:45 a.m.

Rachel Merlo of Google will moderate a discussion with Cheryl Kimmi, founder of KC Fringe.

Ms. Kimmi left a marketing position at a local company after 9/11 to pursue her passion for the arts. She became the associate director of the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival and has since worked with other arts non-profits, such as Chameleon, Just Off Broadway Theatre Association, The Barn Players and Arts Alive.

Encouraged by civic and nonprofit leaders in Kansas City, she consulted with the staff of other Fringe Festivals to decide if a model could be developed for a local Fringe. From a small, three-day event in 2005, the Festival has grown to almost two weeks, with a total of almost 500 individual performances and events featuring 120 artists/groups in 2015. In its first decade, total attendance at Fringe events is estimated at more than 100,000, with visitors and performers from throughout the region and country.

Cheryl leads an all-volunteer organization by team and consensus-building. She actively recruits volunteers with diversity in mind, with the goal to build an organization that reflects the diversity of Kansas City. She continually works to build bridges between different arts and performance organizations and KC Fringe, as well as plan for programs for arts education for KC youth. In May 2015, she announced the formation of KC Creates: a new production company that will produce events all year such as the beloved Waterfire at Brush Creek, a corporate arts program, and a new culinary arts event, in addition to Fringe events.

Learn the history and take a behind the scene peak at KC Creates.  The producer of the KC Fringe Festival, an 11+ day arts festival presenting works of new, emerging, amateur and professional artists in theatre, music, visual, spoken word, and cinema arts.