The Kings Art Center’s longtime executive director, Bruce Kane, will step down in August and join the staff of the Visalia Rescue Mission.
“Bruce was truly exceptional [in] nearly seven years at the helm of the Kings Art Center. He will be greatly missed, but we certainly wish him the best of luck in his challenging new position,” board member Dean Osterling wrote via Facebook.
Members of the arts center’s board of directors conducted interviews for the position on Friday, Kane said.
As well as being an art enthusiast, Kane, originally from Hanford, was drawn to working at the art center in order to strengthen the cultural identity of the community.
“Without fine arts in a community, a community’s cultural identity suffers. And when a community doesn’t have a cultural identity, the culture can fracture,” he said.
His mother also worked with the art center, honing her watercolor skills when Kane was young, which added a bit of nostalgia to the institution for him.
Kane cites the arts centers’ expansion of youth programs as something he’s happiest to have been a part of during his seven years in office.
“The growth we’ve seen there has been significant,” he said. “Adding a preschool program to what we originally offered to elementary school children is a powerful expansion of our influence in the community.”
Improving and expanding children’s programs is an important issue for Kane.
“Working with children and watching children find themselves through art has been very meaningful to me,” he said.
Kane said a particular highlight of the past few years with KAC has been helping a young artist gain national recognition through the annual Congressional Art Contest.
“It was great to see this high school artist go from thinking she was just a little high school girl painter to seeing that someone at the highest level of decision makers in this country thought her art was worth the price. worth hanging in the hallowed halls of the Capitol Building,” he said.
This young artist became an art teacher herself, Kane said.
“People with a creative mind don’t always find their space during their high school and college years,” he said. “So having a place that is their place where they can meet people with the same values and inclinations and the same creative spirit as them is more meaningful than we’ll probably ever know.”
He also cited improvements to the facility as a highlight of his work with the center.
“We are better able to serve people who come to visit us safely,” he said.
One area where this is evident is in the center courtyard, where work was taking place on Thursday afternoon. Funds are raised for yard covers as well as improved landscaping.
The courtyard received further beautification and maintenance improvements and has since been used as a community meeting place, not only for KAC functions and openings, but for events hosted by other community organizations.
Kane said he felt the center was in good hands and was looking to improve the stability of the organization.
“I have an entrepreneurial spirit, so I’m happy with the internal work and operations of the organization and the stability it brings,” he said. “The ability to forecast our financial future and protect our organization’s funds creates a much longer future for the organization to continue doing its job here.”
Kane’s last day with the center is August 12, after which he will join the staff of the Visalia Rescue Mission, a nonprofit organization that seeks to help homeless and economically disadvantaged people in the Central Valley.
