Kitty Barnes is a local business owner and artist who volunteers her time and expertise as Event Organizer for Ashland Fourth Fridays.
Barnes is co-owner of RED VEIN Escape and Ashland Haunted History Tours on Robinson Street in Downtown Ashland. And she is newly elected to the Board of Directors for Downtown Ashland Association.
Beginning in 2020, she began volunteering her time to organize Ashland Fourth Fridays as a showcase of the arts and culture that flourish in our community. Recently, Downtown Ashland Association visited Barnes to learn more about the motivations for her volunteerism.
Q: Tell us about Ashland Fourth Fridays. What will visitors find at the monthly events?
Most of all, we invite people to come and experience the unique and amazing businesses that are here in Downtown Ashland. We have a lot of great restaurants, quirky shops, and unique experiences that we want people to discover.
Start to finish, we want customers to find discovery and excitement. We want customers to have a sense of excitement every time they go into a new shop. People will say, “I didn’t know this was here” or “oh, this place has a new menu. I want to go there!”
I want customers to have that sense of anticipation when they come to Ashland Fourth Fridays. Hopefully, they discover a new artist. An artist needs to be sought after, and you can’t seek them if you haven’t discovered that they exist.
Q: How did Ashland Fourth Fridays get started?
I began working on Ashland Fourth Fridays in the spring of 2020, shortly after we opened our business in downtown. The event was started in years past, but had gone dormant. We wanted to bring the idea back and expand it to include as many downtown businesses and local artists as possible.
So, I just started by inviting my neighbors to stay open on a Friday, and then a few more people joined. When Downtown Ashland Association got involved, it really took off!
Now, I’m able to focus on bringing new and existing artists into the spotlight and on publicizing the event to new customers. It has been a lot of work to get to this point, but it’s rewarding to see the positive results!
Q: Do you consider yourself a promoter of the arts?
Yes! We at RED VEIN see ourselves as artists. We design immersive visitor experiences and we tell stories. We want what we make to be living art. You walk through and experience what we have created and it sticks with you. Also, RED VEIN tries to partner with artists as much as we can. For example, all of our t-shirts and posters are designed by local artists.
So, when we learned about Ashland Fourth Fridays, I was excited to expand it and make a community celebration of the arts. We really want to encourage the creatives and makers who are already here. It’s intended to be a showcase of our community--a celebration of what makes Ashland vibrant and unique.
Q: Anything else you would like to add?
Ashland is a destination! It’s not just a quick gas station stop on I-95. There is something to see for everybody. Ashland Fourth Fridays is our way of inviting visitors to come and experience it for themselves.