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A podcast focusing on the perspectives, lives, and stories of Kansans to provide greater insight into the state we all call home.
Ep59
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Dad’s Drone Antics
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[00:00:00]
Sydney Collins: So for those, I, I don't think I've talked about my dad very much. So my dad, Kevin he worked at ADM Milling for a very long time. Very, like, blue collar kinda guy. I tease him 'cause he's the electrician that rewired our basement but just forgot to hook everything up to the breaker box, so none of the outlet works when we were kids. Anyway, he got a new drone apparently, and he posted this on Facebook, and it's just really funny because it's, like, a kid-
Gus Applequist: Is this affiliated with his fishing content?
Sydney Collins: Yeah, we get- Okay ... a little bit. he got a new drone. It's, like, the DGI, like, Neo or Nano- Oh ... or whatever it is Follows
Gus Applequist: you
Sydney Collins: around ... that follows you around. And he just keeps looking back at it, see if it's still following him. So he's over in the neighbor's yard- Yeah ... and kinda hanging out. He's like, "Hey." Puts his hands up. So he's just like a kid- So-
in a candy store. [00:01:00] And this thing goes on for, like, a full minute of him just walking around the neighborhood- talking to it, and then he realizes the audio isn't on.
Gus Applequist: Do you know that song that's like, 'Cause they're best friends Like Like that's, that's the best music ever. That's probably
Sydney Collins: what it
Gus Applequist: needs
Sydney Collins: to, needs to have.
Big Kev Fishing Plug
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Gus Applequist: What is your dad's fishing channel
Sydney Collins: called? Um, It is... I should know this off the top of my head. I think it's Fishing with Big Kev.
Gus Applequist: Yeah.
Sydney Collins: I believe. I don't know. I need to look it up. Sorry. He's got,
Gus Applequist: like, a pretty
Sydney Collins: serious following, right? He has a pretty serious following.
Gus Applequist: Yeah.
So if you're into fishing-
Sydney Collins: If you're into fishing- ... you should check out Big Kev ... go, go check out Big Kev.
All about fishing with Big Kev. It's all about f- he has like 500, over 500 subscribers, but some of his shorts and videos have, like, thousands and- Yeah ... tens of thousands of views. Fishing's
Gus Applequist: big business.
Sydney Collins: It is big b- Yeah. Well, he has a Lund, Lund boat, and so that's part of it.
Nice. Anyway. Yeah. We can go o- on and on, but- Yeah he's a pretty funny guy.
[00:02:00]
Podcast Two Parter Setup
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Gus Applequist: Welcome to Ask a Kansan
Sydney Collins: podcast, where we're amplifying, connecting, and uncovering stories across Kansas.
Gus Applequist: And today is a bit of like a two-parter episode. Yes. The first part we're gonna talk to our good friend Brad Anderson from Salina Arts and Humanities. We're gonna talk a little bit about River Festival, little bit about arts in our community, and then we're gonna back that up with a part two with our producer here at Fyli, Alicia.
Sydney Collins: Who is the director on our film Four Days In June, that it features the River Festival, that we will talk
Gus Applequist: about.
Sydney Collins: And
Gus Applequist: Brad. And Brad, yeah. So yeah. So, so come for, for one of these. Hopefully stay for both. So without any further ado, here is Brad Anderson.
Meet Brad Anderson
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Gus Applequist: Hello, Brad.
Sydney Collins: Welcome,
Gus Applequist: welcome. How's it going today? [00:03:00] What's up? Good. Very good. Yeah. But, uh-
Brad Anderson: Looking like- Okay ...
Gus Applequist: Like that. Yeah. Looking comfortable. Well, we know you very well. Yeah. But would you mind introducing yourself for our audience?
Brad Anderson: My name's Brad Anderson. I'm a uh, lifelong Kansan uh, th- multiple generations from the early Salina settlers here, and uh, raised my family here.
I've been married for 44 years and have uh, three kids and seven grandkids. Yeah.
Gus Applequist: And, and what do you do here in Salina?
Brad Anderson: My job is uh, right now I'm the executive director of uh, Arts and Humanities for the city of Salina.
What Arts and Humanities Does
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Sydney Collins: For people who aren't aware of, like, what Arts and Humanities is, can you give us a brief?
Brad Anderson: Sure. Um, Our department, there are lots of arts commissions and, and arts and humanities programs across the country, but less than a third of those are part of city government. Some are nonprofits. Some might be a division of, of [00:04:00] parks and rec or a division of the city manager's office, but Salina is the only city in the state of Kansas that has a Department of Arts and Culture, much like parks and rec or, or public works or utilities and, and police and fire.
So, it's a unique position and one Salina's supported since 1966, and so I'm thrilled to be a, be a part of that. Our work includes advocacy, arts education, public art event programming equipping local and area artists to improve in their professional practice and, other duties as assigned.
Sydney Collins: How many do you have on your team?
Brad Anderson: We have seven staff upstairs. The Smoky Hill Museum is a division of Arts and Humanities also. We're in a 1937 WPA post office that's on the National Register of Historic Places. They have six [00:05:00] full-time and four part-time employees, so, all together we're 13 full-time and, and four part-time employees.
Sydney Collins: You know what's sad? I have grown up and lived in this town for 30 years, and I did not know that. I thought y'all just- Yeah ... shared a building.
Brad Anderson: Oh, yeah. No, they- I did
Sydney Collins: not know that.
Brad Anderson: We were the Salina Arts Commission for the first 25 years or so roughly, 30 years and then- No, 20 years. And in 1986, when the old Smoky Hill Historic Society or museum that was in Oakdale Park in an old bathhouse, when that- Classic
that collection was turned over to the city a new department, a new division was formed. And so we then weren't just the Arts Commission, we became the Arts and Humanities Commission in 1986.
Sydney Collins: Oh, that makes sense.
Humanities Explained
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Gus Applequist: I think so few people really know what the humanities are or is.
They've heard of- Yeah ... that term. Right. Would you [00:06:00] mind breaking that down just a
Brad Anderson: little bit more? Sure. Uh, Humanities can include things like museums or art history. Humanities can involve a, a broader net than just the fine arts. And so humanities can include literature, public speaking, oratory, historic reenact- enactments uh, other kinds of, uh, concept presentations. It's, it's kind of a wide net. So Kansas has an arts commission, the Kansas Arts Commission, but they also have the Humanities Commission. And so, they sometimes bridge the gap where an arts commission may not do poetry or literature, the humanities commission does. Mm. And so, there's room for, for all of that.
Mm-hmm.
[00:07:00]
Gus Applequist: I'm close enough to you, Brad, that there's like, it's really hard to, to like Think about which direction to go. There's so many different things we could talk about.
Brad Anderson: Yeah.
Salina Cultural Plan Big Picture
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Gus Applequist: I think one thing I wanna ask you about, or have you explain to our audience, is the cultural plan that you are completing or that, that you're- Yes.
Oh, yeah ... working on currently.
Brad Anderson: Yeah.
Gus Applequist: Just, you know, not every city has an arts and humanities department, and I'm guessing ev- even fewer of them have something like a cultural plan. Yeah, so could you explain- Right ... to our audience what it is and, and what it, what you're hoping it will do?
Brad Anderson: Sure. Um, We're in the process right now of doing surveys and, and gathering information with a, with a company we hired on a, after a national call. But if, if you let me regress just a little bit. Sure. This is the third time I've been involved in a Salina [00:08:00] cultural plan. First time, I was just a local artist and I was asked to serve on a steering committee back in the late '80s, early '90s sometime. And we had meetings for, like, six months about what is Salina, where are we headed, where are we going? And I finally I thought that was the plan, and I, I said- ... "Well, so when are, when is this done? When do we get to see these results?" They said, "Oh, no. The last six months, all we've been doing is building the RFQ to hire a firm." And, and as a, as a 20 or early 30-something-year-old, I, I, I thought, "Okay, my timeline was very different."
I
Mm ... ready to get something done. Ready to go. So, anyway, that was called the Wolfe Report, and it had some unique findings, and it was the first cultural plan Salina had done. Fast-forward another 20 years after that, roughly, 15 to 20 [00:09:00] years the Big Ideas was done. I was on a steering committee with that one. The prep didn't take us long to get a f- an individual hired to do the plan. But the Big Ideas for, since 2009 has had four goals, 58 strategies, and a roadmap to try to help improve Salina's cultural life. And so that included things like how do we not just ask business for money as a, as a community?
How do we provide service and, and support to local business? How do we strengthen the relationship between cultural organizations in our town? You know, I meet monthly with 13 cultural leaders and directors from across the coun- or from across the city, both the nonprofits and other entities. And those kinds of steps resulted in part from direction in the cultural plan. And then most importantly, where [00:10:00] we gain the most understanding in, in a cultural plan and what I hope to see in the one that we're currently working on, which is called The Big Picture I hope in this big picture we get to see some ways to connect with both art lovers and, and those who engage with arts and humanities already, but also how do we build bridges to those that we aren't connected with right now? How do we show relevance and value of, of what we do and what this community has? And all of those kinds of things are, are discovered through online meetings surveys group meetings, a visioning session that we had a few weeks ago at the temple with about 16 citizens who came out for that.
So all of that gets compiled, and then the public is engaged throughout the whole process. So by the end of 2026, we'll have a uh, roadmap for the next 10 years, and including [00:11:00] population projections and needs analysis of, of, facilities and locations of facilities and, the types of programs that, that people want to continue to support and some they feel we're missing. So that was a long rambling answer- No, it was ... but that, that's kind of in a, in a nutshell. I, I'm a, I'm a cultural plan geek. I, I think it's really important to have that roadmap to help both staff and leadership and our citizens know where we're going.
Gus Applequist: You know, culture is, is such an interesting word.
Sometimes I think it gets thrown around and people ... I guess I don't always know what it means.
And I guess in, in this conversation, in, in my limited involvement with this cultural plan, I, I did fill out the, the survey and got like 90% done, and then I got distracted and came back and lost all my progress. So I've been waiting to get back onto that. Yeah, yeah. But, but a- as I've been thinking about it, like there is a [00:12:00] element of culture that is dependent on a community. Like, and there's different communities we could be talking about. You know, there's- Yeah ... as you mentioned, the community of art lovers- Right
in Salina, or the community of, of, people that go to the library, or people that, you know, are, are always at the City Commission meeting. Like, cars. Yeah, that... Yeah. You know, there's, yeah, there's always, there's these different communities. And so- You know, obviously Ask a Kansan, we are focused on the state.
Statewide Arts Funding Impact
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Gus Applequist: And so I'm just curious, is there anything similar to, to the work that you're doing here at a city level that's being done at more of the state level engaging a, like that really broad community of Kansas?
Brad Anderson: Yes, and, and Salina's in kind of a unique position in that 40% of our retail and, and, and day-to-day traffic, if you drive up and down Santa Fe or go through any restaurant in South Salina on a weekday or, or a weekend 4 out of 10 cars come from outside of Saline County. So in terms of reaching the state, [00:13:00] our season ticket holders for Theatre Salina and for the symphony and for the zoo, I mean the zoo has a nationwide connection. But for those entities, at Stiefel Theatre, 70% of their ticket sales come from outside of Saline County.
Sydney Collins: Really?
Brad Anderson: Yes.
Sydney Collins: I did not know that.
Brad Anderson: Yeah, yeah. Just
Gus Applequist: before you came in Tanner was telling us about some friends he had that came all the way from Dodge City for the concert last night. Yeah. So yeah.
Brad Anderson: Wow. Yeah, they're pulling from eastern Colorado and, and down as far as, I mean, and Oklahoma, Oklahoma City. Mm-hmm. We're pulling stronger from the Kansas City area than we used to for arts and culture events. Our River Festival marketing, we're targeting some neighborhoods in Kansas City and, and having some success with growing those numbers. and so in terms of in the two layers of that, Kansas has an arts commission. The state legislature just cut a third of their funding or so but they're still up and functioning. My first year as arts and humanities director, [00:14:00] our previous governor eliminated the arts commission. We were the only state in the nation without an arts commission. And by not having that, we lost our avenue for funding through the Mid-America Arts Alliance, which is a regional 10-state area that supports arts and culture through federal funding, and then the NEA that has major grants from across the country, and we lost all of that because the state wasn't invested. Mm. It's been a journey and, and there's still the Kansas Arts Commission was reinstated a few years ago, and they've started to rebuild, but they're still in terms of their staffing, administration, and even funding isn't near where it was a decade and a half ago. So we've got some work to do to show relevance and value to our legislators and, and to understand that an investment in the arts is good for communities, especially when we're trying to do [00:15:00] economic development, workforce development. The quality of life for your generation and younger, quality of life and amenities that help keep you sustained are more important than the job You know, people are choosing towns or cities or amenities first and then saying, "I'll find work when I get there."
Well, if, if Salina wanted to market itself and black out all of the things in the Chamber of Commerce recruiting material that had to do with arts, beauty, and culture we'd have a few ball fields you know, and and some boring parks, you know. And so with the, the richness of, of all that's going on now we're in a much better and more competitive
space.
Sculpture Tour and Boom Salina
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Gus Applequist: One of the things that I think points at the health of our local culture is that not everything happening within arts and, and enter- arts and culture are, [00:16:00] are coming from your department.
Brad Anderson: Correct.
Gus Applequist: And, and just this week here in Salina we had, or I guess last week technically, we had the debut of the, the 2026 Sculpture Tour-
Brad Anderson: Yeah
Gus Applequist: here in Salina. Could you talk about what it's like seeing some of these things like that or Boom Salina come about that, that didn't come about directly because of your work, but- Right ... but you're definitely aligned with it.
Brad Anderson: Yeah, when, when I speak around the state or, or with other communities or arts leaders at conferences and other places I'd say I talk about how proud I am to be from a place that there are private sector investments of time and money and resources to help us fulfill our mission, you know?
Mm-hmm. And, and so, Sculpture Tour Salina started this is the 16th year of uh, Sculpture Tour and they started after a Chamber of Commerce visit to Sioux City, Iowa, and, and they saw a sculpture walk in their downtown, met the guy who helped start that and said, [00:17:00] "We need to do something like that here." And with the chamber's help and the city's agreement to purchase a piece each year that group of volunteer and private citizens raises money, sets all the sculptures, coordinates the event throughout the year, works with Salina Downtown Incorporated and the chamber to help and our office. Um, But it's a private program. And Boom is much the same way, you know, an international mural festival that grew out of one person's vision and then a small group to say, "Let's-" create our own kind of Eiffel Tower-like experience in Salina. And so Mural at the Mill started, and right on the heels of that you know, five years later now, we have 35 or so murals- Wow
in town that we didn't have half a decade ago. And so, we're now looking on the outside in Salina like we were operating on the insides of places for a lot of years.
Gus Applequist: so I was out of town [00:18:00] this weekend, so I wasn't able to be at the sculpture tour-
event. But I'd, I, you know, I tuned into Facebook and, and there's, there's a lot of negative Nellies out there that are- Yeah
are detractors.
It’s Okay to Dislike Art
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Gus Applequist: But, but there's something we've talked about that I wanted to ask you to, to speak on again, and that's that it's okay to not like every piece.
Brad Anderson: Absolutely.
Gus Applequist: And, and I think, I think that's an important part of, of discovering art and, and learning to love art, is learning that you don't have to love every piece of art. Could, could you talk a little bit about that? And, and I... Is it Mike Coppock? I think he has a story.
Brad Anderson: Yeah. May- Yeah And he's our current mayor. Yeah. Uh, at, uh... Yeah. A number of years ago there was a piece just down from Ad Astra near where City Lights Plaza is now. And it looked like a... It looked kinda like an outhouse.
You know, it was just a small wooden old style building. It looked like an outhouse on wheels, but the wheels, there were three wheels set in a triangle, which meant that the only way- It could spin ... that thing could go was in circles and, and it [00:19:00] couldn't ever roll in a straight line. And when I saw it, I just cracked up.
I thought it was a hilarious piece and the title of it was Any Which Way. And As I was meeting with, uh, with Mike after the unveiling of things I said, "Well, it, it looks like things went well and, he goes, "I, I really like this year's show overall, but I can't stand that piece." And I said, "Well, that's my favorite." And so he goes, "What? wh- Why would you like that?" Uh, uh, Plus it was kinda heavy and hard to move and get in place, so, that may have contributed also. But, uh, but so we just talked about it. He said why he didn't really like it, and I said, "Well, let me talk to you about why I do."
And when it was done he had a greater appreciation for the perspective that I had brought, and I understood his frustrations with how it was made and how it looked, and it wasn't, you know, all that pretty. but we were [00:20:00] able to have a civil dialogue. I didn't convince him to like it any better.
And, and he didn't change my mind of why it was still my favorite. And, and we were okay. And so, I think having 20 to 24 pieces on our street every year- That change. Some get permanently added to our collection, but many leave and a new one comes in. That's done more, I think, to elevate and to, to lower the temperature of people who think that if they don't like it, it must be bad.
And, and that's just not true. Murals and, and sculptures and other art forms somebody's favorite is gonna be somebody else's least favorite, and it's okay. And that's part of what makes us unique and, living in a civil society, so.
Gus Applequist: Yeah, part of what living in a community means is, I mean, two people, [00:21:00] just us- there's enough things that we're not gonna agree upon. If you expand that to 50,000 people, you know, we, we agree on very little in some ways, you know? But, but we decide to, to make the most of those differences and still choose to live together in community. And I think what, what this art gives us a chance to do is to have conversations that on one hand you know, it's about something that, that doesn't change the big things of our society. So it's not, it's not like we're arguing about something foundational to everything.
Brad Anderson: Right.
Gus Applequist: But it allows us to get out some of the tension and to have conversations with people we may not agree with, and there's value to that.
Brad Anderson: There, there is. it's kind of a two-edged sword with the private and public sector of things because we're able to navigate through I'll give a, another brief example. My brother one time said something about art, you know, or about a piece and, and he goes, "I think that is the worst [00:22:00] piece I've ever seen in my life." And, And I said, "No, it, it's got some merits. It's got some..." He goes, d- I don't care. I'm never gonna like it, and I don't want my tax dollars paying for it."
Well- My tax dollars paid for it and yours didn't have to. You know? You can attribute the small amount of money that's invested in the arts across the community that, that helps support our agency and the work. My guess is you're gonna find more than one piece in the community that we've been a part of that you can say, "Yes, I helped with that. I'm not as crazy about that, but I'm just gonna consider my f- money didn't, didn't go to that." But what's kind of interesting is that people can see challenging theater or a music concert or hear music on the radio and the intensity of the negativity isn't the same as it is [00:23:00] with something tangible.
So sculpture and painting, because of its Implicit permanence rather than a three-minute thing on a radio or, or that's being broadcast that, that, maybe isn't, isn't, you know, you can turn off. Something about that raises the intensity level. So we've still got work to do, not to change people's minds about what is and isn't art.
It's a wide-open field. to continue to have those conversations about it's okay to, to have differences of opinion, but we don't have to hate each other.
[00:24:00]
River Festival Origins and Scale
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Gus Applequist: This episode will come out the week of, I believe, the Smoky Hill- It is ... River Festival. Yeah, the
Brad Anderson: Monday
Sydney Collins: of. Yeah.
Gus Applequist: Which is sort of the elephant in the room-
Brad Anderson: Yeah, absolutely
everywhere you go. Because I already
Sydney Collins: see you wearing your wristband.
Brad Anderson: I am. May 1st we uh, put 'em on. Those are part of our uniform once they go on sale. And all of our staff wears a wristband about every 10 days or so. I like the color this year. It gets a little grimy.
Gus Applequist: Yeah. There's, it's-
Brad Anderson: Yeah.
Gus Applequist: It's uh, almost kind of spring-like. Yeah.
Brad Anderson: Yeah.
Gus Applequist: I like it. Color.
Brad Anderson: You know, it's a celebratory, uh- Yeah ... uh, color. Yeah. So yeah.
Gus Applequist: Well, you know, there's obviously a lot of Kansans that have never had the opportunity to go to the River Festival. Yeah. Could you talk a little bit about what it even is?
Brad Anderson: This year we're celebrating a 50th anniversary of this event. It grew as a community vision mostly from a handful of, women leaders in arts and culture in our community that had an idea back the, when the nation was celebrating its 200th birthday [00:25:00] to do a street fair that included art and music and vendors and just a two or three-day celebration in downtown Salina. And it was so highly attended and well-received that my predecessor the director then said, "You know, we've been thinking about doing an arts festival of some kind. We need to see this, yeah, through. We need to," and, and meeting with some of the organizers of the street fair within about eight months of the first festival in June of 1977, it was created.
And over the last 50 years, it's grown from a single stage and about 40 exhibiting artists to uh, we now have 120 exhibiting artists. We have three stages of entertainment, national talent from across the country, and local groups that are featured. We spend about $30,000 a year on site-specific art installations. Those are things that may have a life beyond the [00:26:00] festival, but many are installed, are up, create the magic of the weekend, and then they're gone. And we have a huge hands-on activity area for kids to be able to do unique crafts that they may not find in other places and free face painting and 35 food booths with a, a wide variety of choices.
And it's just a, a huge four-day community celebration of around the arts, but it's more than the arts.
Gus Applequist: There's times when I feel like I'm a bit of a, of a journalist, not that I actually am a journalist at all. This is one topic where I am so biased. I love the festival dearly and, and, you know, over the last five years have grown to love it even more, as, as we will talk about more after the s- the interview.
But you know, there's so many things that are just beneath the surface of the festival-
Brad Anderson: Yeah ...
Gus Applequist: that, that I think people miss out on, and they, they don't realize how cool it, how special it is in many ways.
Festival Value and Access Programs
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Gus Applequist: For, for people that [00:27:00] haven't been, I, I think this is an unparalleled value in the state of Kansas.
Brad Anderson: Absolutely.
Gus Applequist: For $15 you can get in for four days. Four
Sydney Collins: days. You can bring your own snacks, you can bring your own drinks, you can bring your chairs. You can, you can literally camp out all day, go to three different stages. Your kids can hang out at the kids' stage- that only has kid programming, and you can just sit there and- have a day off basically. Granted, there, you do still have to watch them. You are still responsible for your own children. But it's like I... Sorry, I'm gonna get on my high horse now. Yeah. Because as a parent, 'cause kids under the age of, what, 11-
Brad Anderson: 11 and under
Sydney Collins: are free ... 11 and under are free. Free. Free. And nowhere else- Yeah ... can you find four days of entertainment for free- for your kids. Yes, you have to buy a wristband to get in, but [00:28:00] again, you ha- there's Construction Junction where you can literally just sit there all day and your kids just build things and destroy things all day.
Brad Anderson: Yeah.
Sydney Collins: You s- you, you build... Th- they, they have cardboard, they have duct tape, they have mannequins, they've got random arms. They've got all these different things and they can just build all these things. And I g- I get really upset when people are like, "Oh, it's so expensive." I'm like, "It's free!" It's... "Families can't afford it." Yeah, you can.
Pack a PB&J, bring your own lunch. You don't have to go to the food vendors. You can just walk Food Row and just smell the smells. I'm like Anyway,
Brad Anderson: sorry. Well, to, to show the, Whoo ... I mean, and, and to further support that, I mean, $15 if you're, if you've got two teenagers and, and two adults in a family- Mm-hmm
that's $60 to get in.
Sydney Collins: True.
Brad Anderson: And that can be a stretch for some. We have a program, thanks to the generosity of some of the m- donors in town who don't care about having- their name or their logo plastered on something. Mm-hmm. They'll [00:29:00] say, "Hey we just wanna support this event. How can we do that?" And we say, "Well, we have a program called Festival Families First that anybody who identifies as, as being financially limited to be able to come to the festival, w- we pay for their four-day wristband." And so, working with local nonprofits and those who provide services to some of those folks, or reaching out directly to our office, we don't want anybody to not have an opportunity to enjoy the event. And, and we even provide them with a free drink when they get there, and a little sheet of paper that lists how to do the festival on the cheap, you know?
Oh, I love that. What you can do. I didn't know that. So yeah, it's, it's a cool program, and we have between 5 and 650 people each year who benefit from that.
Sydney Collins: Wow.
Gus Applequist: So-
Brad Anderson: That's awesome.
Gus Applequist: Yeah. I never
Brad Anderson: knew
Gus Applequist: how many.
Brad Anderson: Yeah. And that's great. Yeah. we, we have more requests, and we distribute more of the coupons, but those that actually come [00:30:00] and redeem them- Mm-hmm
that weekend are, are limited. But even getting... I mean, and this doesn't help out-of-town folks, but, but if you're in Salina and you've got a wristband, you can ride Citgo bus to the park for free during festival week. Oh, I
Sydney Collins: didn't know that either.
Brad Anderson: And then if you do drive, there's free shuttle services in. Oh, yeah. Yeah, all the parking right around- Free parking ... is free. We used to, we had a, a games area for many years, you know? Mm-hmm. Shooting and games of chance and skill, and, and we used to give away little trinkets or prizes- Mm ... for that, but they paid 50 cents, and for each game.
And the nonprofits who ran those booths used that as kind of a fundraiser. Oh,
Sydney Collins: cool.
Brad Anderson: Well, again, to just-
Sydney Collins: Yeah
Brad Anderson: not restrict access, we went to a different series of mostly self-guided games. No prizes, but they're all free.
Sydney Collins: Yeah.
Brad Anderson: So, and face painting is free.
Sydney Collins: Face
Brad Anderson: paint's free. You know? Uh, it's, it's a-
Sydney Collins: Yeah.
All the arts and crafts.
Brad Anderson: It's a- Great ... it's a wonderful uh, [00:31:00] program.
Sydney Collins: First Treasures, $5
Gus Applequist: Yeah.
First Treasures Explained
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Gus Applequist: Let's talk a little about First Treasures-
Brad Anderson: Yeah ...
Gus Applequist: and what that, program is.
Brad Anderson: That started in about 2001. 2000 or 2001. It was a program d- for two reasons. One, to get kids engaged in the idea of owning art and picking something they like. And two, it was recognizing that we needed to continue to grow a patronage program for the festival to succeed. When you have 120 artists showing work from all across the country, paying $300 for a booth fee to come in it's, it's an expensive endeavor when you add hotels, and, and transportation, and the other things with that, time away from home. So part of the idea was if this goes on long enough and we teach kids how to be patrons, then when they get to be adults, they can do so. So, each year, all of the [00:32:00] exhibiting artists are told about the program and given a chance to donate one or 100 pieces of their work. They can be reimbursed for what the kids pay, but the price points for any artwork that's in the First Treasures tent is from $1 to $5.
And the kids don't get to bring their parents in the tent. So the kids are guided by volunteers. They get to look at... At, at... any given time, there might be 80 to 100 pieces on display, but we have another 300 or 400 in reserve, and we freshen the shelves each hour, each 30 minutes, actually. And so, we'll have 500 kids or more go through the booth guided by a volunteer and getting to choose a piece, and then they get directions and a map to where the artist's booth is, and they get to go and take a picture with the artist or hear about how they made the work and make a connection. [00:33:00] And 25 years later, we now have adults in our adult patron program who participated in First Treasures as kids. They can do that up to age 13, I think. Or it's 13 and below. But uh, there are kids who, after they graduated out, saved their allowance for a year to continue buying from their favorite artist.
And it's a wonderful program.
Festival Heart of Salina
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Gus Applequist: It's my belief that the River Festival is the, sort of the beating heart of Salina. It doesn't necessarily represent every last person in Salina, but it touches everyone in Salina- in some way, shape, or form. And okay, go with me on a, on a wild- Gus thing. Neil deGrasse Tyson, a famous science communicator- Yeah ... has a, a video where he talks about how crazy it is that, that we as humans are composed of atoms, and these atoms are from all around the universe, you know? And, and they, They're capable of... It's basically like we're a group of atoms, and we can perceive atoms. Like [00:34:00] we- we can think about them. For some reason, that is an allegory for me with the festival, and how the festival, you know, it isn't, it isn't a sentient being. It doesn't have, you know, it is a group of humans, right? And, and it is self-sustaining.
Brad Anderson: Completely.
Gus Applequist: And that- Yeah ... it grows people. And you are a manifestation of that idea. Yeah. That you, you were an attendee of the festival. You found the arts through Arts and Humanities and through the arts in our community.
Brad Anderson: Yeah.
Gus Applequist: And now you are leading. And, and who's- Yeah ... to say what, what kid in the first Treasures Tent this year might be a future executive director of Arts and Humanities in Salina in 2050?
Absolutely.
Brad Anderson: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Gus Applequist: So it's, it's just remarkable and it may not be obvious to somebody visiting their first time, but just how deep and how important this event is to the life of Salina.
Brad Anderson: Yeah, it's v- voted on by citizens you know, multiple ways and, and different media sources as [00:35:00] their favorite event or the one they're most proud of.
You know, we spend 14 months in the planning of each event. We're starting now on 2027. We gotta pitch to you then. Yeah, making lists. And so, and so it's, it's a, it's a continuous process that is uh, always moving forward.
Art Without Distractions
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Brad Anderson: But um, you know, and, and not to segue too early into your, your final section here, but, It's been the hardest for me to explain to others that I, I mean, I'm the arts director, and so I'll advocate for the arts.
I'll say, "Yes, it's always gonna be an arts festival. There's gonna be cool art things to see and do, some of which you might never have seen before, hopefully." And, and to stretch your expectations of what the, what the art world is and, and m- means and does and, and, and the songs we sing or the, the instrumentation that's [00:36:00] on a stage or the, the passion and the beauty of just being in a place filled with art is special in and of itself. But when you walk across those bridges and the people who love this event, who are invested in the event, who have their family and friends surrounding them and are making it its own community and we don't look like a NASCAR track. We don't look like a minor league baseball stadium. You know, we, we minimize advertising and marketing as much as we can. We don't politicize. It's not a state fair. We are not handing out brochures. It's just the magic of being in a community without day-to-day distractions that sets a whole new tone for us and for the community. And so I don't think Boom, I don't think the, the sculpture tour, I, I don't think the success of some of the other cultural agencies would've [00:37:00] been as much as it is now had we not fertilized that ground for being open to new ways of expressing yourself uh, through the, the festival.
So it's, it's, It's, uh, an honor to be a part of that
Gus Applequist: we haven't even touched on your personal story, which is something we're gonna have to have you come back on the podcast and talk about sometime. Yeah. 100%. Because, 'cause I've definitely-
Brad Anderson: For a bedtime story. If anybody wants to, that needs some help getting to sleep, I can tell you all about me.
Tickets Dates and Discovery
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Gus Applequist: So just to hit the, the, the key things really quickly, so $15 ahead of time, $20 at the gate. Is that right?
Brad Anderson: Correct.
Gus Applequist: Mm-hmm.
Brad Anderson: Or there's a 10-day daily wristband. Daily. Yeah. We don't sell those in advance. Those are just available at the gates- Mm-hmm ... but for $10. And,
Gus Applequist: For a day pass. Excuse me. And this year, festival is the 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th,
Brad Anderson: I believe.
Yep. Thursday at 4:00 the gates open, and we close at a little after uh, 4:00 on uh, Sunday. Okay. And so.
Gus Applequist: And there are a [00:38:00] plethora of things we haven't talked about, about the festival that are there- Yeah ... for you to discover, so, so go check out the website and hopefully you can join us here in Salina during that event.
Sydney Collins: Yeah.
Volunteers Keep It Affordable
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Sydney Collins: Also, volunteer please.
Brad Anderson: Yeah.
Sydney Collins: Appreciate that.
Brad Anderson: We couldn't do it... I mean, if, if we lost one third of the festival budget is private donations. And if we lost that, our, our price would go up to closer to $40, you know, 35 to $40. Um, If we lost volunteers and we had to pay for all of the different services that are needed to, to welcome and engage with artists and, and to help do all the things that those volunteers do the entry fee would be somewhere in the $75 range. Which, by the way, is about- Which
Sydney Collins: it still would be cheap.
Brad Anderson: That's what uh, some of the Colorado music festivals- Just throwing that out there ... charge for a single day. Yeah. You know? So.
Sydney Collins: Just to listen to music. You don't, you ain't even gonna make anything.
Brad Anderson: it is a great value.
It's 38 cents an hour or something if you make a weekend of it, so.
Gus Applequist: And it says great things about our [00:39:00] community too, that you can fill... How many slots is it a year? 2,000?
Brad Anderson: 2,000.
Gus Applequist: 2,000. 2,000. Yeah. And, and- I see this as a huge plus, although not everyone sees it this way, but those volunteers buy their own wristbands.
Brad Anderson: Correct.
Gus Applequist: Yeah. So they're not just volunteering, they're also committing to, to coming to the festival. And that- Yeah ... says a lot about those people.
Brad Anderson: It does. And, and it's a model. I mean, it, it, if I look forward to the next 50 years, I'm hoping that there are some ways in either cost savings or revenue generation that we could say, "Thank you for giving of your time."
Mm-hmm. "Here's a wristband or admission." Mm-hmm. But if, 1,500 or so of those volunteers don't pay $15, that's, that's a lot of revenue. It is. And, and we don't, we don't have a way to replace that right now. So-
Gus Applequist: Yeah so- As long as there's people willing to do that- Yeah ... I think it, it just means that that's more money that can be made to, to benefit the festival and everybody who comes and loves it.
Brad Anderson: Yeah, absolutely.
Gus Applequist: [00:40:00] So, well, thank you, Brad, so much for everything you do- Oh, it's- ... and for taking time for us today.
Brad Anderson: Certainly. Yeah.
Sydney Collins: Thank you.
Brad Anderson: Been my pleasure.
Post Interview Reflections
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Gus Applequist: Hope you enjoyed that interview with Brad Anderson
Sydney Collins: I tend to get on a lot of rants.
So-
Gus Applequist: You don't say. Yeah. Free. Free. Free.
Sydney Collins: Free.
Gus Applequist: Brad is one of those guys who, if you ever go to coffee with Brad, You kinda have to really stay focused because so many people come up to him.
Sydney Collins: So many.
Gus Applequist: He is one of those recognizable [00:41:00] faces in the community. Yes. And he is so gracious all the time, both with us and with the public, just-
Sydney Collins: So much ...
Gus Applequist: engaging and, and keeping up with all the different things they're up to at Arts and Humanities.
Four Days in June Origins
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Sydney Collins: And one of the things we didn't even scratch the surface on, which is what we're gonna scratch the surface on now, which is why we have Alicia here- um, is Four Days in June. So Four Days in June Brad reached out to Gus, really six... Five, six years ago and said, "Hey, we're gonna celebrate 50 years in 2026. I want you to create something amazing in order to celebrate that." And that." was it. No parameters, nothing.
Gus Applequist: He... I will say, he, he did ask. It wasn't a demand.
He did ask. But but yeah, we, we were sort of naive enough to say yes, and the project has- Mm-hmm ... sort of gone all over the place since then, in a good way and grown into a- Mm-hmm ... full-blown thing.
Sydney Collins: And Alicia's had a really interesting perspective on this, because when you started, you were an intern.
You were so- Yeah. Yeah ... you were so cool. When we said yes to this, that was my first year as an intern, [00:42:00] 2021. And that is when the festival... Was that the September year it was in- Yes Yeah ... September?
Gus Applequist: Mm-hmm.
Sydney Collins: The first year- Mm-hmm ... after COVID, it was in September rather than June.
Gus Applequist: And Alicia kept coming back as an intern for two year, or one year.
And then one
Sydney Collins: more year after that.
Gus Applequist: One more year. And then joined the full staff.
Sydney Collins: Yeah.
Gus Applequist: And then we dumped the directorship of the film on Alicia. Mm-hmm.
Alicia Joins the Team
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Sydney Collins: So I, I, I guess also for our audience, Alicia, can you introduce yourself for us?
Yeah. So that our audience actually knows who you are.
Alicia: Yeah. So, I'm the producer here at Feli. So I do a lot of client relationship kind of things and, and project management. And uh, I'm from Salina, so I've lived here since I was one year old. And then I went to Sterling College for four years, and then I came back and now I live here again. Anything else that you...
Gus Applequist: maybe just your... I don't know. Share, share your interests with with acting maybe.
Alicia: Yeah. So outside [00:43:00] of video production I enjoy acting on stage. Spend quite a bit of time in, in theater productions. I like vocal music and then just everything that has to do with every kind of story, basically.
You know, reading. Dance is a form of storytelling. Yeah. Any, any kind of story, I will get on board with it- Yeah ... for sure.
Finding the Film Story
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Gus Applequist: Well, it was you know, the first couple years of this project, 2021 and 2022 I- we didn't really know what the story was we were trying to tell- Mm-hmm ... about the River Festival.
We just kinda showed up and filmed. And it wasn't until Alicia and I started having deeper conversations about- Mm-hmm ... the festival and what it meant to us that kind of the, the the current form of the festival doc was born.
Alicia: Yeah. Um... I mean, I think my memory of it is I started working at Fili full-time in May of '23. Right. And so we pretty much went into shooting for that, that '23 festival, like- Mm-hmm ... right away. So after w- we did that year's [00:44:00] shooting, I was kinda thinking to myself, "We don't have a trajectory. Like, we are sh- we are showing up, and we're pointing cameras at stuff. And if we want this to materialize into something meaningful in a few years, we need to start creating some kind of plan."
And so I kinda started, like, writing notes and thinking to myself and then, and then I go to Gus and say, "Here, what do you think of this? I came up with these ideas. You know, do you like any of this? Does any of this speak to you? Could we go any of these directions?" And- I don't think it probably is directly connected now, what it has become, to any of those ideas. I don't know, maybe. Well, we couldn't
Gus Applequist: have
Alicia: arrived
Gus Applequist: at the ideas
Alicia: that we have- Yeah without- The, the whole process of this has been come up with an idea, chase that idea, see if it works, see the parts that don't work, rework it, try it again, look at that, see what's not working, rework again. The number of outlines and lists- Oh.
and [00:45:00] plans that got scrapped or we took part of it and scrapped the rest there's so many documents and- Yeah. There's a lot of outlines.
Sydney Collins: Uh-huh.
Gus Applequist: What's really fascinating is, is kind of what has emerged from this I guess the inherent challenge of making a film about a festival like this is that unless you're taking sort of a reality format where you're following the organizers around and finding something controversial- Yeah
to drive the energy if you're not gonna do that, which we decided we didn't wanna do, you have to come up with other things to keep the story energizing and interesting. Yeah. And we believe we've done that. It has been a challenge.
Festival Meaning and Openness
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Gus Applequist: so Four Days in June is the name of the film, and it is called that because we literally will show you four days in June, and a little bit of what happens before and after those four days.
Alicia: Mm.
Gus Applequist: And, and at its heart is sort of a, a, I don't know if it's a hypothesis or just an idea that we share as a creative team that the [00:46:00] festival is more than just a festival. Like, it has a deeper meaning.
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Gus Applequist: So Alicia, for you, what is the deeper meaning of the festival, and what is that, that we're pointing at?
Alicia: I think it took me a long time to put my finger on it, but I think I've spent enough time with it now that I know. And it's that that space, people are so much more open. They are just there to experience whatever's gonna happen. And they're open to each other. You know, they like, people, like, really see each other as just other humans in that space. And kind of all those, like, we kinda profile people really quickly, I think, a lot of the time when we see them, and I feel like that is much less at the festival. I feel like I can just walk up and talk to random strangers there and it's not gonna be weird, and I'm not the person who talks to random strangers. But I have, you know? I, I'm there with the filming or whatever and, and I have a moment, and there's somebody working the information booth. We just start chatting about stuff. [00:47:00] Or there's an artist, I think something that they, some of their work is interesting, and I start asking them about it, and it just feels so natural and normal to, to do that in that space.
There's def- yeah, there's this kind of just, like, freedom and- that we're all like, we're all there for the same purpose, but at the same time there's that freedom to be yourself. And I- isn't that the beauty of art?
Gus Applequist: Yeah. Totally.
Alicia: Yeah, the- That you're expressing yourself- Self-expression ... and sharing it with everybody else. But like you're free to share that.
Gus Applequist: Mm-hmm.
Choosing Interview Voices
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Sydney Collins: how did you guys pick the voices in the film? I know this is gonna come up, so- Yeah, great question ... how did you pick your interviewees?
What was the process around that? Because the film was- You should go first. ... very, had a very different direction when, when we picked- Yes ... a lot of these people, so...
Gus Applequist: I guess a, a, potentially controversial choice that we made was not just going to the, the people who have the most experience with the festival.
Mm-hmm. While they're perfectly qualified to [00:48:00] talk about it, we realized that we wanted to try to get a cross-section of the- Mm-hmm ... community involved, and that was difficult figuring out.
Alicia: Mm-hmm.
Gus Applequist: We wanted... You know, diversity is a word that gets thrown around, but we really wanted a diverse perspective of what the festival was. Yeah. You wanna talk about how we kinda did that?
Alicia: Yeah. So I, we sat in the conference room, and we made a list of people that we knew loved the festival who had enough experience that they'd probably be able to talk about it, people that we felt like would be comfortable enough with this whole idea and being on film and being in front of a camera and, especially for a long-form interview.
I mean, these interviews were, like, two hours long. Yeah. So, so you want people that are gonna be okay with that. Mm-hmm. And then kinda from there we said, "Okay, how, how do we get that diversity? So who do we pick who has these beliefs or ideas who has this kind of life experience, who has this kind of [00:49:00] position in the community?" And then tried to make sure that we were getting kind of some different things from each of those people.
Gus Applequist: What was really beautiful was how many of their ideas and thoughts surrounding the festival really coalesced around shared ideas um, despite them... They will meet each other actually tomorrow as we're filming this.
For the first time they will be in a room together. Yeah. So it'll be really interesting to see how they interact because for us, they've all kind of been interacting on screen for a long time.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
But yeah, there's... What we have found, thankfully, is that the hypotheses we brought into this project we are now discovering through Brad, through the organizers, through the original founders of the, the River Festival and now, and even through our interviewees.
it's a beautiful sort of coalescing of all of these different thoughts.
Alicia: Yeah. On this side of it, I kinda forget how unsure we were. Yeah. But you really just don't know. You don't know what people [00:50:00] are gonna say.
No Narrator Documentary Craft
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Alicia: And you kinda just have to have faith that you'll figure it out and it will work out somehow the way that it's supposed to because I tried really hard in those interviews to not lead people to the answers I wanted. Mm. But to try to bring up the topics I wanted to talk about, and then let them share whatever they wanted to share. And so that definitely means, like, as a director, you want, you wanna be able to control the film, right? 'Cause you want it to turn out well. But with a documentary you can't. Mm ... not, not fully.
You know, part of it is just in other people's hands, and you just have to, like, let go and, and trust.
Gus Applequist: we chose a hard path by not allowing ourselves the luxury of a narrator. Yeah ... so, there, we do have some titles that are printed on the screen, but we... You never hear our voice directly- Mm
as director or whatever, you know? And, And so, that was, made it more challenging, but it also forced us into more creative solutions, [00:51:00] which I think I'm really proud of how it-
Alicia: Yeah ...
Gus Applequist: came together.
Alicia: Well, and I guess I, I think we both felt like we just really wanted the f- story of the festival to be told by the people who create it.
I mean, the festival is people. It's all made of the things that people bring to it individually, and that's what creates this thing, so. As opposed to sort of an outside God voice-
Gus Applequist: Yeah ...
Alicia: telling us things. A w- you know, you want it to, like, the story to well up out of the existence of the festival itself.
Gus Applequist: So, for those of you out there in our audience listening wanna talk a little bit about w- what's happening now. So for a long time this project was kind of our team in the park most of the... or, you know, four days each year, and then the two of us in an editing bay-
Sydney Collins: Yeah. ...
Gus Applequist: or in the, in the conference room just trying to figure out what we were doing. And, and now it's grown to be a much larger kind of beast. We have a composer working- Mm-hmm ... on music. We have a, a mixer working. And [00:52:00] many of our staff are working on marketing right now- ... in a major way, and, and how this thing is gonna roll out into the world.
Premiere Screenings and Partners
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Gus Applequist: So- Mm-hmm ... there's gonna be a private screening here in Salina on July 9th.
That will be our premiere. Yep. And then the following six days? 10th 10th to- ... 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th. Six days. Six
Sydney Collins: days. 10th through the 15th of July it will show at the Salina Art Cinema. So you would get tickets how you would normally get tickets from there. You can, I think, get them online. You can just go up to the box office. But it will show at the Art Cinema. And also shout out to the Art Cinema because-
Gus Applequist: They have been-
Sydney Collins: Truth ...
Gus Applequist: a wonderful
Sydney Collins: partner They have been amazing. So, part of making a documentary or making a film in general is, what does it look like on the big screen? What does it look like when you actually put this thing in the theater for people to watch?
And so we are so unbelievably lucky to have the, one, the resource in Salina that we do. Yeah. 'Cause if we were to do this in any other [00:53:00] town, that just would not be possible. We'd have to build our own theater, basically. And two, for them just to being able to, "Oh yeah, we can schedule you this day, this day, this day.
Let us know what you need." Like- Insanely helpful
Gus Applequist: And we should shout out a few other partners. The Stiefel Theatre, uh- Yes ... is allowing us to do all sorts of crazy things in their space. We're, We're introducing- Put a premiere, yeah ... surround sound into their theater, which we're really excited about.
Yep. And obviously Arts and Humanities. Both Brad and Anna and Crystal, and I'm not gonna be able to name everybody. Yeah. But there's so many good people at Arts and Humanities- Mm-hmm ... who have been so patient with us throughout the process. Mm-hmm.
Release Strategy and Outreach
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Gus Applequist: So, um, beyond that, we do hope to find a streaming home for Four Days in June at some point in the future.
Although uh, that's not a guarantee.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, We'll be, we'll be entering it into festivals uh, after our screening week.
Mm-hmm.
And also uh, we're, we're practicing something I'm calling a cultural release strategy, where we wanna show this film to any organization that, maybe they're an arts organization or they're an organization that, that's focused [00:54:00] on building some sort of common ground.
Mm-hmm. Um, We believe this film does a really good job of, of talking about the importance of common ground, and hinting at how it's created and, and what the benefits that, that we can kind of distill from these four days into the rest of our lives is and are.
Sydney Collins: So with that, if you are one of these organizations and you're listening right now, please reach out to us as soon as possible so we can start those conversations. Get on your books. We will come to you. We will screen it. I have no idea what this looks like yet. This is still very new, but we would like to start having those conversations. So reach out to either info@askakansan.com or info@filycreative.com and we will start those conversations.
Gus Applequist: And I think I can...
Wait, when is this episode coming out?
Sydney Collins: June 1st.
Gus Applequist: June 1st. June 1st.
Sydney Collins: The, yes, June 1st.
Gus Applequist: Okay.
Trailer Website and Wrap Up
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Gus Applequist: Uh, so, so we, we can't share our trailer for this film yet. w- We do have a website, Four Days in June, both spelled out or the numeral four.
Yep. Either way works. Um, And you can find out about [00:55:00] all the different things, see a lot of behind-the-scenes content that's gonna be coming out between now and July.
Sydney Collins: Follow us on Facebook for behind-the-scenes content and updates. We also have a YouTube channel that you can find all the trailers and behind-the-scenes content on.
It'll post as, as it comes out.
Gus Applequist: So thank you for allowing us the chance to be self-promoting for uh, not for once, we are self-promoting more than once, but especially in this moment as, as we're kinda doing something we've never done before. Yeah. And really excited to get this baby of ours out into the world.
Sydney Collins: And if you wanna know about Kansas film incentives, Check out all of our March, film month episodes with Ken Spurgeon Ki- Deb
Gus Applequist: Goodrich ...
Sydney Collins: Deb Goodrich, Kiki Bush, and Rolf Potts.
Gus Applequist: And we're thrilled to be continuing to work with them to advocate for film in Kansas, so yeah. Well, that brings us to the end of another episode of Ask A Kansan.
Sydney Collins: Please make sure to like and subscribe, leave us a review. Make sure to visit our website, [00:56:00] askakansan.com. We do have merch. Buy a T-shirt, buy a water bottle. We'd love to see it out in the world.
Gus Applequist: Here's my water bottle with all of my stickers on it. And it says, "Curious Kansan" and "Ask A Kansan." Really good water bottle, keeps your water cold and fresh. As long as you replace it often.
Sydney Collins: That's the key part,
Gus Applequist: though.
Sydney Collins: See you later.
Gus Applequist: Thanks.