Hays Public Library
The Hays Public Library will premiere “The Art of Change,” a Turning Points film, at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17 at Fort Hays State University’s Robbins Center.
The event will include live music, the film premiere and a community discussion. There will also be refreshments and food from Gella’s Diner & Lb. Brewing Co. The HPL would like to invite the Hays community to this free event.
Hays was selected by the Kansas Humanities Council as one of four communities in Kansas to have a story put on film. The KHC defines a Turning Point as “an idea, event, action, or moment in time that directly or indirectly causes decisive change in a community.”
Hays’ film, “The Art of Change,” is about the formation of the Hays Arts Council in the 1960s; it was filmed in coincidence with the HAC 2014 Spring Art Walk.
“Not only was our arts council the first in the state of Kansas, but it is still thriving, growing and touching lives all over Western Kansas” said Luci Bain. Bain is the Kansas Room librarian at the HPL and is the project director for the Hays Turing Points.
There will be a reception with refreshments from 6:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., with the film premiere following. At 7:30 p.m., there will be a community panel discussion with Mayor Henry Schwaller and HAC president Dennis Schiel.
Bain hopes for community support at the event.
“This film is for the people of Hays,” she said, “for fifty years it has been the people in this community that have supported the arts and contributed to the Hays Arts Council to make so many amazing projects and programs possible.”
Bain first heard about the opportunity for a short film during an oral history seminar sponsored by the KHC in 2013. “For the proposal I had to do quite a bit of background research and find people who would be willing to do interviews,” she said.
After Hays was accepted, Bain continued to find pictures, newspaper articles, and had to prepare for interviews. “I think it’s a mark of how important the Arts Council is in Hays that no one I contacted refused the possibility of an on-camera interview.”
The three other communities that were selected for Turning Points were Kinsley, Ulysses, and Olathe. You can find more information about these projects at www.kansashumanities.org. All four Turning Points short films will screened at the event.
Turning Points is supported by the Kansas Humanities Council through a generous gift from Suzi Miner in memory of Kansas historian Craig Miner.
For more information please visit www.hayspublib.org.