Kitty Love, an Asheville resident for 16 years, has traveled a seemingly magical path of committed vision and passionate intention. On a blustery January morning, she sits at an intimate meeting table in the Asheville Area Arts Council artist's resource space, a small office area designated for artists to access free business resources such as meeting space and computers.

Recently appointed Executive Director of the Asheville Area Arts Council (AAAC), Kitty intersperses her vision for the council with not-so-long-ago stories of a downtown languishing under economic depression, stagnating development, and graffiti. She had a vision then, one she shared with many cherished collaborators. She envisioned a safe, sunny, prosperous space for all, and the Lexington Avenue Family Fun Festival was born. It’s been many years since then. She looks up quizzically, remarking, “It’s weird—I’m a part of history.”

The council, she explains, operates much like a chamber of commerce does for business people, supporting artists and the arts as an industry. It utilizes programming, policy guidance, and granting to accomplish its goals. At the center of all this, she says, is the idea that the council should lead the way to make an artist’s job easier. AAAC’s gallery space, The Artery, sits just a few steps away, immediately revealing this idea. The gallery is available to artists through an online application process.

AAAC often operates behind the scenes, creating and facilitating critical connections between artists, the arts community, and civic and business entities. Much of this work is “invisible” and takes place through advocacy and policy guidance. Kitty states that she has always operated at a “make it happen versus allow it to happen” level and the council has the ability to make it happen for artists, arts organizations, and the communities that benefit socially and economically from them.

For example, she recalls that it took a year and a half to get permission from the Department of Transportation to create a strategically placed public mural on a graffiti-ridden bridge on Lexington Avenue. The mural has been in place for eight years now, and has completely ameliorated the graffiti problem. She states, however, that a council “could have helped me by decreasing that time significantly.”

The council also serves as a “regranting” center that obtains grant funds to redistribute to local artists and arts organizations. Essentially, the council navigates the maze of grant infrastructure, acquires funds, and re-allocates them, greatly easing access to resources.

Kitty describes herself as a “meta-thinker” and is comfortable working at the invisible level where policy decisions are made. She looks around the gallery space, though, and says, “I feel a really strong need to be visible with this work.” The visibility of AAAC often relates to its programming.

Historically, some of the programming includes an arts and education program, connecting artists with residencies in schools. AAAC also provides access to arts events and performances to low-income children. One of its most visible events is a color ball, an annual fundraiser that in years past was “the best party in town.” Kitty wants to grow these existing programs, as well as create viable new ones, such as a "signature cultural event."

It’s been approximately a month since Kitty began the job and she recalls a woman walking into AAAC and handing her a $1,000 check, communicating her confidence in AAAC, under Kitty’s leadership and vision.

In looking at the AAAC building, nestled in the bright Pink Dog complex on Depot street in the River Arts District, it’s easy to see what the donor saw: a colorful patchwork of business fronts, most memorable for its turquoise and fuchsia dog mural. Nearby is a small wellness shop, an eatery, galleries, and an art supply store. A girl crosses the road and struggles to protect a large portfolio of work from the wind as she opens the door to the AAAC. All of this—these businesses, this community, and this girl – illustrates Kitty’s mission. It is vital, she says, “that the community, at some level, understands the importance of a council, that advocacy is needed to unify, support, and galvanize . . . and I intend to do that.”

Asheville Area Arts Council is located at 346 Depot Street in Asheville's River Arts District. For more information, call 828.258.0710 or visit ashevillearts.com.