Today we’d like to introduce you to Gregory Magyar.
Gregory, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Katy Visual & Performing Arts Center (or KVPAC) was started as a collective of artists who found a way to afford studio and instructional space as a group. As the instructional programming grew, KVPAC was formed to address the demand in the community, offering classes in performing and visual arts for all ages. KVPAC occupied numerous spaces in the growing years, including an old motorcycle shop, before finding its way to the campus of the Great Southwest Equestrian Center, where we eventually found our way to the pair of buildings we now occupy. The two-building scenario enabled us to open the Pre-K at KVPAC, an arts-based academic program where our three to five year-olds receive a daily rotation of art, music and theatre along with their academics. KVPAC has experienced enormous growth and development in recent years, including the community theatre’s most recent entry in the American Association of Community Theatre’s AACTFest going all the way to the national stage.
We’re extremely excited to announce our future plans of a new space in Fulshear, TX. We will be moving the organization to a temporary facility in Fulshear this month while we await construction, but will now be operating as Encore Arts.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It’s never a smooth road for a non-profit. Financial support ebbs and flows, the public often assumes we’re supported by the school district and seems confused when we seek financial support. Working in facilities that were not designed for the arts has its own set of challenges—and charm. Often seeing horses being groomed for shows across the parking lot can be exciting for the kids, at the same time having meetings in your office that comes complete with horse tether rings in the wall is sometimes hard to explain. We have periods when we’re lean, but then remind ourselves how lucky we are to get to do what we do.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Katy Visual and Performing Arts Center story. Tell us more about the business.
Our mission is simple: to instill a life-long love of the arts. We offer training in the performing and visual arts for all ages. I think we’re most prod that have become a welcoming home for every experience level…a child who wants to try something in the arts for the first time is every bit as welcome and comfortable here as the advanced student. Additionally, our Fall/Spring weekly calendars enable kids who can’t take their school’s arts classes due to scheduling a place that can fill that void. High school students, for example, may have to choose between athletics and theatre, but here we can work that.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I’d love to say none at all, but then there was Hurricane Harvey. It has impacted everyone in our area, and we’re no different. Obviously it affected enrollment as many of our families were directly impacted by flooding, but the damages to our buildings have been a tough scenario to recover from as well. While our damages seemed small compared to what so many others went through, it ultimately led to our decision to move.
Pricing:
- Tickets to events can range from $10 to $20
- Classes in theatre and art for the spring session start at $140
Contact Info:
- Address: 2501 S. Mason Rd.
Suite 290 - Website: www.kvpac.org
- Phone: 281-829-2787
- Email: info@kvpac.org
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EncoreArtsTX/
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