Katy Vizdal gets by with a little help from her friends. This past summer, soon after Vizdal graduated with a degree in music history from the University of Illinois, she became aware of the AmeriCorps program through her interest in the Peace Corps. Then one day, “my roommate stumbled across the IMC [Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center] positions because she’s a member here,” Vizdal recalled. “And she saw the All Ages Performance Venue Coordinator position, and she thought about applying for it, but she was like, ‘Katy, this is perfect for you.’ She didn’t even apply, to give me a better chance.” Now, Vizdal has the opportunity to enrich the local arts and music scene through her new job.
While at the U of I, Katy Vizdal developed an appreciation for a wide array of musical performance. She grew up playing the piano and bass clarinet, but she branched out in college, playing such instruments as the Mbira (a Zimbabwean thumb piano) in ensembles, and interning in the Engagement Office at the Krannert Center.
She hopes to share that broad-based appreciation with the rest of the community. Vizdal will spend her one-year AmeriCorps commitment booking a variety of shows at the UC-IMC.
Ed Hawkes, Vizdal’s supervisor and the leader of the UC-IMC’s shows group, is happy to have the help. “Our Americorps volunteer gives us an opportunity to expand our programs, and have more events at the IMC,” he explained. “We plan to do more events promoted by the shows group and the IMC, and be able to give more community organizations an opportunity to have performances and exhibits in the space.”
Vizdal’s goals are right along those lines. “Two things that I specifically want to do in the next year that I’m here: it’s an all-ages performance venue, so I want to really emphasize events that are accessible to kids and their parents, just get more youth involved,” she said. “And the other thing I want to do is to get more ‘world’ music in this space, because I don’t think that there’s been enough of that [at the UC-IMC], and I don’t think there’s been enough of that in this town. The musicians and the performers are here, but as for performance, I don’t think that it’s marketed well outside of the university.”
Hawkes in confident that Vizdal has the abilities necessary to accomplish those goals. “Katy is a person that is very personable and can create relationships with people and organizations,” he noted. “Her connections with the university and department of music will be invaluable in bringing a wide variety of performances to our space.”
As an example, Hawkes pointed to an event that Vizdal booked for November 13, “Bossa Nuevo playing music of South American Composers.”
Vizdal wants to make sure that things are hopping around the UC-IMC. “By the time the year is done, I just want there to be things going on all the time,” she professed. “Two hours in the middle of a Monday, I want there to be things going on. I want it to become more apparent in the community that musicians and artists and spoken-word performers, etc., and people that partake in things like that, they have the opportunity to use the space.”
Artistic freedom for performers is an advantage of the UC-IMC that Vizdal cites. “They’re not censored in what they want to do,” she explained. “They get to choose if they want to have an admittance fee; they choose how much it is. I just like being a part of that. I knew about the IMC before, and I completely agree with the mission of this place.”
One hurdle, though, is getting the word out. “A big obstacle in the community is that a lot of people don’t even know that the IMC exists,” she noted. But having eight full-time AmeriCorps volunteers on staff for the next year should help the visibility of the UC-IMC, and Vizdal is glad to be part of the group. She said, “It’s fun hearing about what everybody else is up to, and we are striving to have a more unified IMC. It’s a building, but it’s also a movement.”
Vizdal can’t do it alone, though, so she’s looking for some help. She said, “Come to a shows group meeting! We meet every Thursday at 7 p.m. in the IMC library and all are welcome to get involved!”
——
This article is part of a series profiling the UC-IMC’s AmeriCorps volunteers. Previous entries include: