Anna Russo-Sieber runs and opera ARS Arts and Cultural Center out of Benton Harbor, Michigan.

I'm Anna Russo-Sieber founder and executive director of ARS Gallery Arts and Culture Center.

And I do a bit of everything, It started on the foundation of a summer arts camp, and I literally intended to only open the space for two weeks just to try it out, just to see if I could, you know, reach out to the youth in the surrounding area, And I had this sort of idea that if I could bring socially and economically, diversely different children together under one arts program to see, you know, if I could do that.

And and it worked.

We had 23 youth from the surrounding community.

And I just said to my landlord, Hey, I'm not leaving.

I'm staying right here.

He's like, Cool.

It's it can hurt your heart to see kids not have the same opportunities because they don't have the money, you know?

So my girlfriends are all writing checks in the beginning, could you sponsor that child?

Could you sponsor that child?

You know, could you still have to buy art materials, You still have to pay the art teachers.

There's still a cost to turn on the air conditioning or the heat.

So you have to pay for things, In 2014, we became a not for profit and we are considered a community arts center, a small rustic warehouse, you know, But we are we're community art center.

I'm proud of it.

We've seen oh, my goodness.

Oh, well, over a thousand, probably 1300 to 1400 just underserved youth alone, I think it's always been probably in our family that cultures highly important and so that was a very big part of just my upbringing and what seemed important to me.

So art and culture made sense.

And it's been from the very beginning like a goal to offer those things.

I had a beautiful, lovely opportunity to take five women this last October to Italy, we were like in Venice, to Udine and a few other lovely places, some nice wine tasting and fabulous food And just lots of art.

here's the problem.

Okay?

Deep down, the big problem is I like way too many things.

I love cooking.

You know, I love creating art.

I love teaching art.

I love talking.

I love throwing parties and having opening receptions.

And I just I like like, like a lot of things and I thought, you know, if I'm going to do this, why can't I do what I want?

a lot of stuff under one roof and it seems to make a lot of people happy, you know?

I'm happy about that, you know?

So tonight, beginning at 5:30, we have a program that we've done a couple of times before called the Women Empowering Women.

And it's where ARS invites thought leaders and the community to come in and speak about whatever they desire, if So it's anybody's guess tonight what might happen.

There is nothing I like more than collaborating with other women and hearing their stories.

Everybody's journey is different.

We can all learn from it.

So I'm excited to introduce Tami So Anna just sent me a text saying, hey, I've got this event coming up, would you like to be a speaker?

And we we shared a few emails back and forth about what the event was and what the purpose of it was.

And and it was just very good timing.

So I have been at the Krasl Arts Center since 2008, and in the last six months I transitioned into the executive director position.

This is about going from being assisting to leading is the idea behind this talk and I don't have a tight talk to give you.

I don't have a tight strucuture.

I've tried to tell this talk in advance out loud in my living room for the past two hours.

And I just can't decide which wa And it's also an unusual shift in that my predecessor, my boss, is now a direct report.

She did not leave the organization.

She stepped into a new role and I now manage her.

Well I sat down with my boss Julia Gourley and I said "Julia it's time for me to move on, it's time for me to leave the Krasl.

And I'd like to do that the next year come."

And she looked at me and said well how about you be the director of the Krasl Art Center and I was like, Are you serious?

I love the idea that the woman empowering women gives female leaders a chance to speak with other female professionals and just talk for real about what's going on in our work lives, what those what those shifts mean to ourselves.

You know, they can be challenging their rewarding.

And I love that opportunity just to have dialog about about our workplace and how it's impacting us and how we're impacting it.

So the idea of taking on the upcoming projects was just super exciting to me still and allowed me to say that Yes I did want to do this and to mean it, you know, And to release that burnout to release those feelings of what was sort of holding me back in the first place I think, the first time I met Anna was at an opening of an exhibition at Krasl Art Center.

And our our paths have crossed many, many times since then.

So we are a small community and you get to know one another in the arts in this community.

I love what Anna's doing here with her gallery and what she does with the youth in Benton Harbor.

Hello everyone my name is Soroya Pierre-VanArtsen if you don't get it right the first time it's okay, I've heard everything.

I'm the President of now the Corewell Health South foundation.

Sounds pretty impressive doesn't it?

Long fancy title.

But you know really what my business card should say is mother, wife, daughter, granddaughter, friend, caretaker, employee, leader, executive, chauffeur, cook, housekeeper, gardener, pet-owner volunteer, board member, PTSA member, neighbor, and that list goes on and on and on.

How many of you can relate to that?

They're very powerful, lovely humans.

And they they have some pretty big jobs.

But it's it's really inspiring to others to to hear them speak that it isn't all that easy.

You know, it's a challenge.

Like it isn't easy for me.

I want to help my parents right now.

They're getting older.

You know, I have grandchildren.

I want to be with them more.

with Tami and Soroya, same thing.

They're trying to balance all of these things.

me personally Anna and ARS are so thrilled to have Soroya speak and Tami.

That was real.

Talk to you guys When we have visitors come through the door during open hours, you want to evoke many, many feelings.

And I hope they walk away with a bit more knowledge, a bit more understanding of the arts.

And I hope they feel like they were really welcomed in.

And, you know, sometimes I'll serve coffee or a little prosecco or something, you know, just make people feel comfortable and welcome.