The ArtsXchange, the former Grant Park organization known as the Arts Exchange, is preparing to open in its new digs in East Point this fall and has put a new management team in place. Floyd Hall has been hired as Managing Director and Ivan Davis and Operations Director. The co-founder and former Executive Director Alice Lovelace will assume the title of Chief Financial Officer.
The new ArtsXchange building will open this fall and will function much like the original, with private artist studios (ranging from $325 to $900 per month), a gallery, a dance studio, a theater and multi-use space for meetings, performances and classes. Celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, ArtsXchange is launching the Ebon Dooley Arts and Justice Awards, named for the organization’s original founder, on Saturday, September 22, at the Chosewood Ballroom.
Davis, a Los Angeles native, has a background in technology, project management and as a musician, having worked at Uber Technologies and major recording labels. Hall, who hails from College Park and received his MBA from Columbia University, is well-known in Atlanta for his involvement in the arts through WonderRoot, the Hudgens Center, BURNAWAY and ArtsATL.
Lovelace, who is a poet, playwright and arts administrator, has been the executive director of the Arts Exchange since 1986, and also served as director of Alternate ROOTS in the late 1990s. She now serves as president of the Board of Directors for The ArtsXchange.
As noted in the press announcement: “The new management structure signals an innovative shift in arts administration, as the non-profit is eschewing the norm of an Executive Director position, instead dividing high-level responsibilities that allow ArtsXchange—both the arts organization and the building—to flourish, with Hall focusing on the creative direction and Davis guiding systems implementation.”
The organization sold its former building and the surrounding acres for $5.2 million, according to a source with knowledge of the sale. That tidy sum will go much further in East Point than in Atlanta (unless Mayor Bottoms and city legislators do something, and soon, to keep its creative talent in place.) As real estate prices force artists out of Atlanta, cities like East Point, College Park and Hapeville have beckoned with sprawling spaces and low rent. [Read about one East Point studio building here.]
