June 3, 2022
Marian Thomas has been part of the Westport Center for the Arts since, really, before it started. She joined the staff of the Westport Presbyterian Church in 1994 as their organist, bringing with her an interest in doing “some sort of arts ministry.” It made sense to her for a church to be involved in supporting the arts, especially for children and those who could not always afford to attend high-dollar concerts or other events.
“Visual arts, dance, musical arts, literature, all put you in touch with something greater than yourself. That’s very important in our world,” Thomas thought then. She still believes it today, perhaps more than ever.
Others at the church agreed with her. Church minister Scott Myers began leading foreign film discussions. Dance groups used the church gym. Others formed the Kids Team Up for Art program, an effort initially run out of libraries that taught children about art and how to work collaboratively.
Thomas founded the Westport Brown Bag Concert Series (now called the Noontime Concert Series) and directed it for twenty-one years. The concerts feature professional-quality musicians performing in the church sanctuary for free (although donations are accepted and encouraged).
Her background helped to shape the concert series.
Thomas had been a teacher, so she reached out to the Willow Woods Day Care Center next door to the church, encouraging the staff to bring the kids over for the music. “If you hook kids young enough, they will appreciate the arts later,” she says. She’d been active in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, which led to her idea to begin an annual Martin Luther King Junior concert, which continues today. And since she played the piano and harpsicord, Thomas in the early years was often the accompanist for whatever musician was playing.
In addition to offering accessible music to the community, Thomas saw the concerts as a chance to give musicians an opportunity to perform. Over the years, the Noontime Concerts have allowed professionals from the Kansas City Symphony to play solo or in small groups; have allowed musicians to perform outside of their usual setting; and have allowed young performers to gain confidence.
Now that she’s turned over the management of the program, Thomas continues to perform at the Noontime Concerts.
As arts activities energized folks at the church, they explored ways to form a non-profit umbrella group that could receive grant money. Westport Center for the Arts (WCA) was officially established in 2006, allowing the group to have a more secure revenue stream to take on new projects. Thomas has been on the WCA board from the start.
“Creativity is at the heart of the organization,” she says. “If something doesn’t work, we think about something else.” The group struggled after the church was ravaged by fire in 2011, requiring WCA to find other spaces until the structure could be rebuilt. Recently, WCA has struggled to provide its arts programming through the pandemic, learning to live stream concerts and do art workshops while socially distanced. It has also added a new creative medium, the dancing word, which combines poetry and dance.
And for Thomas, it has been worth it to stay involved with WCA. The goal, she says, is simple. “Keep going. I love going to the concerts and seeing the core people and new people.” She enjoys working with other creative members of the WCA board and she believes the organization has a special way of finding communities that are in need.
“It’s a chance to be part of a creative effort to bring accessible arts to the community,” she says.