Visual Eyes - The Community & Collaboration Podcast

S2 Ep 22 - Jason Hughes on How ArtServe Builds Safe, Creative, and Collaborative Communities

• Visuals by Momo • Season 2 • Episode 22

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In this powerful episode, Jason R. Hughes—CEO of ArtServe and a longtime leader in nonprofit innovation, media, and community advocacy—shares his journey from Atlantic Records to leading one of South Florida’s most dynamic arts organizations.

With over 25 years of experience spanning journalism, LGBTQ+ media, public broadcasting, and nonprofit strategy, Jason discusses how ArtServe operates as a creative incubator, a safe space, and a collaborative hub for changemakers, artists, and social advocates in Fort Lauderdale.

You’ll hear firsthand how ArtServe:

  • Offers accessible resources to underserved artists and emerging talent
  • Collaborates with nonprofits like Mission United, Hope South Florida, and even brands like Tito’s Vodka
  • Tackles community challenges such as mental health, housing instability, and representation
  • Fosters authentic conversations by putting lived experiences at the center of its programming
  • Recognizes unsung community heroes through the Impact Awards Gala

Jason’s leadership model is both compassionate and data-driven—focused on growth, healing, and storytelling through art. Whether you’re a nonprofit executive, philanthropist, community builder, or cultural strategist, this episode is a masterclass in using the arts to fuel social progress.

🎧 Subscribe and listen in as we uncover what it takes to lead with purpose, build lasting partnerships, and inspire a thriving arts ecosystem.


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Special Thanks to Stacy Daugherty for the beautiful wall artwork in the background. Socials: @artographybystacy

Chris Baker:

Chris Baker, and each week we'll explore incredible connections between nonprofits, businesses and the community. This is a space where we highlight inspiring partnerships, uncover strategies for creating meaningful impact and share stories that show how working together can make all the difference. Whether you're a nonprofit leader, a business owner or someone just passionate about building connections, this podcast is for you. Welcome back to Visual Eyes. Today, I have Jason Hughes from ArtServe. Welcome, Jason, Thank you very much. Thank you for having me, Chris. Thank you, Can you tell us a little bit about your journey and how you got into the role of working here at ArtServe?

Jason Hughes:

Sure, I started my career in Atlantic Records in New York City. Actually after University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where I went to school. I took journalism and mass communication there, worked at Atlantic Records. That was way too much fun. So I moved back to Toronto, ontario, where I'm from, worked at radio stations there for-profit radio stations which I learned a lot about the industry that way.

Jason Hughes:

Then I started my own magazine called Fresh Magazine, and Fresh Magazine was aimed at Gen Xers, 18 to 34-year-olds at the time. Now we're in our 50s but we still read magazines, believe it or not. So I had that magazine. Basically it was a culture, arts and culture magazine. We covered everything from fitness, finance, sex, photography, art like that. So I had that magazine for a while, sold that magazine and then I was recruited to be part of starting the first LGBT television station in the world called Pride Vision TV. Now it's called OutTV. So I was the director of sales, then became director of sales and marketing. I got on the programming side, launched another channel pay-per-view channel as well. So that was a lot of fun.

Jason Hughes:

And after that I was recruited in Toronto to come down and start Classical South Florida Radio, which was a nonprofit public radio station. We were based in Fort Lauderdale, miami area, and then we bought stations in West Palm Beach and naples, fort myers, so we're the largest radio network in the state of florida at the time. So I started as marketing there, then became the general manager. Um, in between that, uh, I was uh on the board here at art surf. I volunteered my services on the board of art surf. I was board president for two years and our ceo, our executive director, had left and I quit the board and applied like everyone else, blind, blind, you know, interviews and stuff until they met me and I was hired about almost five years ago, right when COVID started. Covid started March, so this was August I started. So when I started we were closed. So that was fun.

Chris Baker:

We were closed.

Jason Hughes:

And our first exhibition was on Sudan Sudanese art and I felt, really I felt terrible because we couldn't have an opening with nobody could see the art, but what we did was, I think our art serve life, which is very similar to what you're doing here, where we had over 100 episodes with artists. We talked about depression, we talked about how to sell your art just what they're thinking. You know, if everybody was going on and the curator of that exhibit, I I apologize to him, I'm so sorry. Your first exhibition here, my first one, there's nobody here, but we did everything, virtually everything, on the internet and we actually got a way wider audience, an international audience, because everyone was on the internet. So that really is what built our online audience, our database of people, people knowing us through Instagram, facebook, linkedin, whatever.

Jason Hughes:

Sure, when we opened again, then we could have people again and life was good. Then they closed us down again and then we reopened again. So it's been an interesting, interesting journey. But what's great is our team here were amazing, they continue to be amazing, and so I've been in this role about five years now.

Chris Baker:

No, we've been blessed to be here, uh, working with you guys at art surf for over a year now, and it's just been fantastic it's crazy, I know it's like kind of like rushed through it like whoa, what happened to this last few you know months? Oh my gosh, it's been a year, yeah. So it kind of like went really fast, and one of the things I didn't really realize is that you guys closed and reopened and closed again.

Jason Hughes:

Yes, yes. Well, all the county buildings, all the state buildings were closed the second time, so it was only about six weeks or so, but still, you know we had to find ways. You know my job is to bring in money for the organization as well as run the organization, so you know having to meet donors and meet people you know a lot of people weren't having lunches or going to events. There were no networking events for a while.

Chris Baker:

Yeah, exactly everything was kind of closed down and like yeah I mean, for me I was up in minnesota at the time, so it was kind of a different like space. Um, definitely in minnesota we were closed down, closed down, yeah, like there was no movement, no, nothing, nothing was happening. Everything was at home, right, um. But I did hear some states did open up for a little while, then close back down, like yeah, there was that fluctuation yeah, yeah which I I didn't really get to experience.

Jason Hughes:

Yeah, that same way you know you mentioned minnesota, so the class was self-loved. Radio was owned by minnesota public radio. Oh, american public media group yeah, oh, okay, so home companion. All those marketplace, all those shows were the company that I worked for oh, that's fantastic. So I was in Minnesota all the time In your winters.

Jason Hughes:

In our winters, yeah, but I managed to figure out how to get off the airplane from the airport to a taxi or Uber right to the hotel and then never have to go outside again because of all the tunnel, all the raised walkways.

Chris Baker:

Oh, the skyways are amazing.

Jason Hughes:

Yeah, I mean it's just two times. I'd be cold In from the Uber, out to the Uber. That was it.

Chris Baker:

Yeah, they make sure you were bundled up really well at that point. But the minute you were in there. Those skyways are fantastic. They really got you anywhere you wanted to go in downtown.

Jason Hughes:

Minneapolis and we were St Paul, oh yeah.

Chris Baker:

They do have a smaller network of skyways there, but if you're ever in minneapolis, that was where I spent most of my time downtown and that one was fantastic. We would go for 45 minute walks for an during your lunch, right, and you could walk all around the entire city just inside the skyways. It was fantastic it is amazing.

Jason Hughes:

Toronto is something. A similar thing where I lived is it's underground. Underground it connects. You know you can walk same Same thing. You can walk 45 minutes, like in my condo. I could go downstairs down below the basement, walk in the underground and go to the gym, like a 40-minute walk and back all underground. That's fantastic yeah.

Chris Baker:

Wow, oh, that's so interesting. I didn't know that Toronto had that same kind of system.

Jason Hughes:

Yeah, Okay, yeah, okay.

Chris Baker:

So one of the other things that we would love to talk about is a little bit about the collaboration. So what collaborations have you had here at ArtServe with either some other for-profits that kind of like you know, move the organization forward, or even some other nonprofits that you brought in and like work together with?

Jason Hughes:

Yeah, I mean our job, our goal at ArtServe is to collaborate. I mean that really makes everything much more rich in the experience. Um, funders, people applying for grants, um, possible sponsors, donors, love to see that collaboration. Um, it's, it's really important. So almost everything we do is a collaboration, so we bring other partners in.

Jason Hughes:

Uh can give you an example we did an event with the veterans. We did a veterans exhibition here, which is the first time we've done that and we did usually we do like a big opening, you know, sometimes a big event in the auditorium, and we involved Mission United, which is part of United Way. We worked with them. We worked with the USS Fort Lauderdale, the commissioning ship they're still trying to keep the name alive, even though it's in Norfolk Virginia Park there since 2022. But Pat Dumont there, she's an amazing champion of it.

Jason Hughes:

We worked with a few other different Ed Morse Automotive. We honored Teddy Morse, who was, or Ed Morse the grandfather, the father, who was a veteran as well, so we honored him. So that kind of collaboration was really exciting to bring all these different people together. Just as recently, we did a collaboration on Thursday with the Broward County Status of Women event, which they honored 18 women in Broward County, a lot of judges, former commissioners, people who started nonprofits, activists. So we partnered with their planning committee. Uh, believe it or not, we worked with tito's. Tito's vodka gave us a grant for it to help pay offset the cost for it. Um, you wouldn't think that kind of partnership would would match not necessarily, but I mean honestly.

Jason Hughes:

At the same time, it's good branding, it's great marketing yeah, it's great good marketing for them and um and so that kind of. You just never know where there's money out there and people who want to collaborate in the for-profit side. You just never know. Sometimes you have to ask. When we did the mental health exhibitions here, we purposely went out to a lot of the healthcare providers Holy Cross, obviously, your Broward Health who were involved, broward Health who were involved but then you catch some of the for-profit companies that are also interested in being part of that, because the mental health issue is a huge issue in every sector of the economy of life Right now. It's extremely important.

Jason Hughes:

So a further one we did. We did a one-off kind of town square. ArtServe in some ways become a town square for ideas and people to talk. So we did a one-off night for people who are unhoused and homeless two different things. Homeless and unhoused are two different things. We brought in Showering Love, where they actually had the showering buses here to see tours of that we had. I think we had the mammogram bus here at that time as well. We had all these just different people here.

Jason Hughes:

And then we invited through Hope, south Florida, and they brought some people who were unhoused and we had a student art exhibition. So these are students who go to school, of course, but at the end of school they go home and live in the car. You know they're parents and the art that these students did was incredible, incredible. So we had a little mini art fair for them and the impact of that was one. One lady said she works at a rent-a-car place by the airport. She works all night. The kids sleep in the car with the father, kids go to school, she sleeps in the car, he does his shift and come back and the issue is they lost their job during COVID, their home sorry during COVID, their home sorry during COVID. And where we live in Broward County, you need first, last and security deposit for rent and the rents are so high here. Often that could be over $6,000.

Chris Baker:

Easy, easy. I mean, that's not even a question, and that's probably even just for a studio for some places.

Jason Hughes:

It's crazy.

Chris Baker:

So, yeah, I understand that that is a lot of money to come up with. Just even get in to have a safe space to.

Jason Hughes:

Yeah, how rough over your head and I hadn't, I hadn't thought of that it's. It's that, you know, even if you have jobs doesn't mean that you don't have the money to put down on a place. And then if you have children, you need two bedrooms, sometimes three, you know so. So it's a lot. Uh, the other thing we did was we had one of the organizations create uh food, what a food bank would give to show, like beans, just the. You know it's enough protein to get by in a day, but that's not the kind of food that are given out to networking events and and galas and balls. You know what I mean. So we wanted people to experience what homeless and unhoused people eat every day, you know. So that kind of a, that kind of collaboration, bringing those people together, is exciting.

Chris Baker:

I think that would be very eye-opening. It was for me. Because, honestly, when you think about it, you do go to a gala, you go to a networking event and you probably have a nice surprise. You have the sandwiches you have. You know, sometimes, depending on it, you have shrimp and you have all this amazing food choices, but then you come to this one event yeah, and here's, here's your protein.

Chris Baker:

Yeah, just proteins. Yeah, here's your hard starch yep, some rice, yep, that's it. That's it, and this is what people are living on. It is true. It's true because, like I remember, when I was talking to my best friend and she was having some money issues at the time, this was years ago and she specifically said that her therapist said you need protein and beans are cheap beans and rice and that's it, and I didn't really put it together until you just said this again.

Chris Baker:

It was like you know, that's very true that there is, there's, a lot of good protein in beans, but it's, it's not that flavorful, it's just very bland, right, right, but at the same time it does get you some of the nutrients that you need to get by Exactly, exactly, and we are blessed to have other options out there, and not everybody has that.

Jason Hughes:

Right.

Chris Baker:

Exactly, we need to take that into consideration. So I really love the fact that you put that in an event style so that people could see it and experience it.

Jason Hughes:

Yeah, I think that was really important. You know, I tell my nieces and nephews I have 22 of them between husband and I. That's a lot and I tell them all you're three months away from being homeless. You're three months away from being homeless. You need to have cash on hand, you know available. You need to have a plan, you know you need to have a support group built in. You can't just wing it. You can't just wing it because everyone is three months away from being homeless.

Chris Baker:

It doesn't take much. One wrong thing, thing that goes wrong, like there's an extra bill and a medical expense, whatever that case may be, you work for a clone. Boom, boom yeah, and you lose your job, lose your job.

Jason Hughes:

There's a lot of things like that. So that's why I so much enjoy working at ArtServe and doing what we do, because we can talk about these issues and talk about these ideas and bring them to community. And a lot of what we do is we try to research and hear what's going on before the community even knows what's going on. Like we were the first one to do a veterans mental health exhibition. Specifically, we met with Broward uh BSO, broward Sheriff's office.

Chris Baker:

We met with some um Fort Lauderdale police about their needs from their mental health perspective I mean, that was just eyeopening and some of their um people that were on the panelists back and we actually interviewed them, and so it was fantastic to have Heather and Kat and Ed even come back here and like specifically get some of those in-depth interviews after the panel was actually done Right.

Jason Hughes:

Yeah, it's like a debrief. You know it's interesting to bring that up because panelists, you get up there and you plan for it, you execute it. You can't really remember what you said.

Chris Baker:

Yeah.

Jason Hughes:

And then people want to talk to you afterwards, which is great. But then it's nice to have like a one-on-one time with yourself or an interview like that. Just kind of think about what just happened.

Chris Baker:

You know it's more interspect uh, inter perspective perspective, inner, inner. Yeah, you get to relive it, but in a different way. Introspective, yes, introspective. So it is that taking that debrief, like you called it and I think it actually brings it forth like oh wow, I really did talk about this. I really like this is real, yeah, like you're taking it in a little bit more deeper. So I think that actually was extremely valuable that we actually got to help put that video together.

Jason Hughes:

Oh yeah, it was an incredible video. What you guys do is incredible. You know documentation video. You know I'm your champion. No, thank you, I mean that's where it is, you know. Also, I think it's important when you're collaborating is to not only have the quote experts in the field. It's good to have regular, everyday people up there sometimes.

Chris Baker:

In my opinion, I really wish that there was always at least one person that's not necessarily in the field, but it's the regular Joe or Jane or whatever we're going to call them being on that panel to get the other perspective. Because sometimes we don't get the whole round scope because we're like we're living in our industry, we talk specifically our own verbiage and then everybody else doesn't actually hear it or understand it right. But if we could pull it together and like ask the right questions so that everybody is like oh, that's the way that they're interpreting and that's the way they're explaining it, because you have that other person on that panel to really pull it in two examples of that.

Jason Hughes:

Like I wish we'd done the unhoused exhibit or event a little differently. I wish we did it more in the round in a way, and not on stage, because the people who talked about their actual experiences were in the audience and those were really sometimes more impactful than the executive directors of the organizations who are talking about their organization and I can say, like no one wants to really hear me talk. I would. That's why my introductions are quick, sweet over with Um, but I want to give time for other people to talk and I think that would have been really good to have that more in the round.

Jason Hughes:

Another example is we did a coming out day, national coming out day for a couple years. We used to do a panel there and one woman came and said her son had come out and his father, her husband, divorced her, dropped the kid and they just stuck alone with him because he came out and we had this dialogue with her and she was off the stage, you know, in the stand in the dark in the chairs, and I brought her up to the stage just to talk, like not on stage but to talk a little more because what she was saying was more impactful. You know, so you can collaborate with other people in the community in your own audience, and you don't even know they're there. You don't even know who's there.

Chris Baker:

You know, you really don't, cause there's so many people out there that their stories are the ones that actually make the most impact. Yeah, yeah.

Jason Hughes:

Well, that's what reporters do. I mean, reporters don't go interview the CEO all the time, they go and interview the people who are impacted. Exactly Right, that's what. That's what a reporter does, and I like to think, I think my journalism background having my magazine and taking journalism at Carolina is that, I think, and even with the way we approach things, our curator, you know, working with her to try to figure out. We're journalists, we're trying to figure out what the issues are and we try to figure out who do we bring in together?

Chris Baker:

such a hub for moving forward, you know, bringing something ahead of the curve before everybody else in the community actually gets to it, because you are looking at it more as a journalist. Yeah, Um, and you're trying to make sure that. Hey, we're staying current and we might even be ahead. Right right, right. So you're taking those issues, you're bringing them forward and making sure that it's being discussed.

Jason Hughes:

And the great thing about ArtServe is like having you know Visuals by Momo, having you and Chris, you, chris and Momo here, yourself and all our other organizations like Funding Arts, broward here, our artists here who are Artists, studios we all can collaborate, talk about different ideas and don how we can help each other out. Exactly, right. I mean, we recommend you guys all the time to everybody and, you know, recommend, hey, come to ArtServe, hold your event here, that kind of thing. We're working together. Have you seen Sharon Swift's art? Have you seen Julian Castro's art? That kind of thing. Yeah, you know, and I think that's the nature of this incubator that's been set up. It was so brilliant because, you know, we were only one of six arts incubators in America in 1989. Today we're the only one of those six remaining, that's yeah, and now there's art incubators everywhere, everywhere, right, but because the model At the time, yeah, one of six.

Jason Hughes:

So I mean that just shows how the community has supported this organization. It also just shows the need True, the need for Artserve and an organization like this, where it's important. We have a diversity of people, for-profit and non-profit companies, different types of artists, and the goal is, I mean, the artists don't want to maybe hear it, but we want them to come here and then we want them gone Because we want to bring new people in. Well, yeah, that's the goal.

Chris Baker:

You want to get them to the point where they've learned what they needed. They've gotten the skills that they needed so that they can get their own space exactly, and so they're actually bringing out, um, yeah, and doing bigger things yeah exactly, that's the goal.

Chris Baker:

That's the whole goal. That's the whole goal. You know, like you said, it's an incubator. Yep, yep. Well, you know, you don't have baby chicks in a incubator forever. You have them until they've grown and then you set them out into the, you know, the pasture or wherever they need to be.

Jason Hughes:

Well, a lot of kids still live at home in their 20s, in their 30s, yeah, watch that rent thing.

Chris Baker:

There's a lot of the rent thing, especially with all the prices going up and everything. But one of the things that I love about being here and I do bring people here a lot because I like having the meetings here specifically- Right right, and so we get to use the creative hub.

Chris Baker:

We get to use the creative hub, we get to walk people through and say, hey, here's all these different tenants, all these different people here in ArtServe, and I walk by and like, here's, you know, wham, here is Sharon Swift, here is Julian, all of these different pieces, yeah, we get to showcase them.

Jason Hughes:

Yeah.

Chris Baker:

And we get to do it as a community as like a family, almost Exactly being a part of Art Fair. So I love it Exactly.

Jason Hughes:

Yeah, that's exactly what I was going to say. Yeah, and we love that. I mean, I love giving people tours here. I tell them do you have five minutes or 50? Yeah, great question. I would like to know, because I could like go on and stuff, and because people half the people come in here never know this. This site exists. Of the building they don't know.

Chris Baker:

They actually see the auditorium gallery, the gallery. Yeah, they see the library and that's like the kind of like stop yeah, yeah and they're like oh, we didn't know I could go back there right.

Jason Hughes:

Well, back in the day, you couldn't sure. Sure, that's why we opened it up?

Chris Baker:

when did when did it actually open up back here for the tenant?

Jason Hughes:

well, it's always been. This used to be the business center, um, and it was a computer center back in the 90s oh years were around, so it was a very big computer center, uh, and when tech went, everybody had their own computers and printers and stuff at home it wasn't necessary.

Jason Hughes:

So these were always set degree some degree of studios and offices, but it was always kind of doors were closed. And that's what I want to do is open the doors up, like the creative hub we have right now was a gift shop that no one ever went to. I'm like you know, um, and, and I wanted people to have a place they could come, fire up their laptop, you know, have a cup of coffee, meet other people and just just relax. There was no place to sit here. You know what mean. And it's such a great place because it's in between the business center and the studios and the gallery and whatnot. So that's why we created the Creative Hub.

Chris Baker:

This art serve is a safe space for everybody, and I do feel that and I really appreciate that, because that's something that you don't have a lot of, those spaces out in the community. So having art serve here, be a safe place it's, you know, important it is yeah yeah, and you see that by, you know the art fund foundation hall.

Jason Hughes:

They sponsor the hall at art serve, our big hall. Recently, this last year, we had florida power and light company sponsor a gallery, which is a great for-profit. You know major company investing for several years in art serve and what we do, and those, when those sponsors come on board, others want to be involved, others want to be involved in it, and then they start to see other people's art, other people oh, we have design by Momo here when they would never know, and then they go tell people about it. It's that trickling effect, the trickle effect of it, which is really really, really cool.

Chris Baker:

So we did ask a few people about ArtServe and they did not know about ArtServe.

Jason Hughes:

Yeah, oh, it happens all the time.

Chris Baker:

It happens all the time, all the time.

Jason Hughes:

To me it's an opportunity. It's not a challenge. It's an opportunity Because some people, if they have not been here before, great, let's get them in. Once we get them in, then they go. Oh, I love that place Once they get them in. But it's fascinating because you have some people who knew this as a central library back in the 80s, 70s and 80s. This was the whole thing was a library. So a lot of people came here, did their homework after school, right and whatnot, and partied in the park.

Chris Baker:

That's still happening.

Jason Hughes:

It's still happening, yeah yeah, that was a change and then when it became or, people didn't really know what it is. Some people say, oh, I vote there, that's a big thing. Or people are like I lived in Victoria Park for 30 years. I've never been in that building Because there wasn't the sense of welcoming in here. You know, that's one reason we had Lori Pratico, one of our original artists, do that mural up front. We had all these people in the world, all the words.

Jason Hughes:

It's a way to in the county to redo the outside of the building to make it look fresher and get rid of some of the old shrubs from the 80s. You know, you know things like that to make it more welcoming. And also look at the influx of people moving into fort lauderdale. Look at fat village. I moved here 18 years ago. The fat village was just where a couple warehouses, you know, and the art walk and a great irish pub wires. That's gone, you know. And now it's like if you look at fat village, all those you know people are moving here, generally under 40 living in those buildings have never probably even come to this side of holiday park.

Jason Hughes:

You know, they go to the beach they go to los olos, they stay in their, their neighborhood. Then you get another group of people who lived inland families, who are empty nesters. They're selling their homes, they're buying condos down the beach or downtown. They kind of lived a suburban life for a long time. So they've never. They don't know what ArtServe is. So to me it's an opportunity.

Chris Baker:

So what would you want to say to the community, like as we were talking to those individuals on the street, like they didn't know what art surf was like, what would what would be something you'd like to tell that the community in the whole? Like, come down to answer. What is your call to action to them?

Jason Hughes:

it is such a hard uh story to explain what art surf is. Do you know what I mean? The often need the 5 to 50 minutes. How long do you have is like, how long is the elevator if your speech is a 34 building, or is it? You know five story? Um, what I would say is you got to just come in, come in, come in, say hi, check out the art gallery. Talk to anyone on the staff here, the team here. We'll give you a tour, show you around, find out what your needs are.

Jason Hughes:

Are you looking to take classes? Are you do you like coming to art openings? We do four of those a year. They're always free. All our events are free, except for our fundraiser, hence, hence, fundraiser. Yep, yeah, to raise funds, but everything's always free. We used to have other events where you paid to come in and we stopped. All that. You know it honestly, is getting people in the building. Then they know about it, they convert it and they feel a sense of almost like pride and slash embarrassment. They didn't know about it before. You know, which is interesting. What other things did people say? I want to know.

Chris Baker:

What else did they say? I want to keep going to the gala, actually, because that's actually coming up.

Jason Hughes:

It is April 25th, friday. What we do is it's our third annual Impact Awards we honor unsung heroes generally in the community, some people who don't normally get nominated. Yeah, so this year we have four nominees, different categories we have like Philanthropist of the Year, collaborator of the Year, artist of the Year, educator of the Year. And what we do here at ArtServe it's catered, and when I say catered it's a huge, massive meal made by a dear friend, mark Montorano, who's very generous in the community and doing events, hosting events at his own home as well. We have four tables of food around the world Tuscany, mediterranean, a huge dessert table. Asian. We do the awards ceremony. We have champagne in the beginning, we have an amazing silent auction and we have DJ Joy Joy this year, who is the top DJ in Broward County and the first female DJ ever as DJ of the year in Broward County. First, first 2024, first female DJ.

Chris Baker:

Wow so she's amazing.

Jason Hughes:

So it's very exciting and it's just a really nice community event. It's a fundraiser for Artserve. Obviously, it's presented by Seacoast Bank. Seacoast Bank again, obviously.

Jason Hughes:

obviously they're a bank for profit uh, but wonderful community partners, you know, they just get it. They get it. Yeah, and in florida, power and light again are a sponsor and what we do is we don't have a lot of sponsors. I call it logo soup. What do you have? Multiple sponsors everywhere, like no one sees it. You know um dr steven atclick Magazine, the owner of the publisher he and I talk about that all the time is that he can have his logo stamped, you know, with 20 other people and it doesn't mean anything. We'd rather focus on good, great sponsors than we can provide impact to them at the event and pre-event and post-event.

Chris Baker:

That's one of the things that we've actually been trying to change at. Visuals by momo is actually, it's not about the placement of the logo because, like you said, it does get lost in a sea of all these other logos. As a sponsor, right, what can we stand out and how can we do it differently to help impact and make a bigger impact either? A for the sponsor, sponsors, collaboration with a non-profit, and so one of the things that we are trying to collaboratively look at is what if they had some type of ad component as their sponsor level? So they're going to come in, they're going to get like a video ad.

Chris Baker:

Obviously, when you do add yeah and we'll create it, yeah and it's a higher tier, it's an extra level of them standing out a little bit more. They're getting some actual you know media in addition to getting their name and helping out the organization. So working with a nonprofit, that's something that we've been trying to work on and like add on as another.

Jason Hughes:

That's an excellent idea. You know it's funny. You mentioned that because just yesterday I was reading an article about how to make your galas build it different than they usually are. And the gentleman was saying, instead of doing people up there doing introduction reading it, have a video introduction.

Chris Baker:

Yeah, exactly.

Jason Hughes:

Or have a friend or colleague of theirs do it, but do it by video.

Chris Baker:

Exactly, you know.

Jason Hughes:

We're hopefully getting pretty much are getting a massive LCD wall in the back of the auditorium. We have a new partnership with a new tenant City First Fellowship at church and they've again investing a lot of money in redoing the auditorium and stuff. And once we have that LCD screen it's going to change things forever. I've been trying to get a screen for like two years, trying to find donors and sponsors for it. The price has come down a lot on that. But to me that visual, that digital visual thing, is going to change that space entirely, because anytime I'm at an event where they have a digital screen, it changes the event.

Chris Baker:

Well, it's going to actually make renting out that space that much easier. Yes, because you're already providing. You know, you're already providing sound, you're already providing space, you're already providing all the tech and all of that's already included. Yeah, but now you're going to have these LED screens. Yeah, like it's just going to be a wow. No, exactly Exactly Like when do I sign up? How do I get it? Yeah, it's going to be this like hard to get into now, which is good.

Jason Hughes:

Yeah, that would be awesome, but I love that idea. I think that's so important and it's something we'll look at for our next year, because, yeah, I would love to have, you know, dan Chappelle from Seacoast Bank here, or Eddie Rodriguez, who's the market president, come in and talk about why they want to sponsor and then fill that out. Do we still have time for that? I don't know. I've got four weeks.

Chris Baker:

So yeah, yeah, we don't have a ton of time, but yes.

Jason Hughes:

That's really really a smart idea.

Chris Baker:

Yeah, thank you very much, Because it's something that we're trying to give more value and, I think, the more that we can give that collaboration, partnership, not only just between us and helping nonprofits, but us and the ones that are supporting the nonprofits.

Jason Hughes:

Right.

Chris Baker:

Like make a triangle collaboration instead of just a one-to-one.

Jason Hughes:

Well, the one you did when we did the Florida Power and Light dedication that you did with Juliet here. You had her speaking. I mean, that goes all over LinkedIn, all over Insta, but they send it around. She sends it around and it's so much different sponsoring. We wanted something and you guys did it so masterfully of capturing by video what exactly happened, because the next day the logo is up there and it's a static logo. How do we keep that message going on?

Chris Baker:

and now they have a video that is forever correct yeah, you don't it lives and it's captured in that time period.

Jason Hughes:

But you have something to document the entire journey so when I got married, we just had a photographer, didn't? I didn't think about videographer, didn't even like think. Now, this was like 12 years ago yeah didn't even think of it and, um, I wish we had. Now I have a photo album, so it's funny this, but the photo album is like you have to bring that moment alive in your memory, whereas, but then, as the open bar was ending, I'm kind of glad there was no video but that can always be cut, yeah it's always got guts.

Jason Hughes:

Yes, you have 30 of your college friends at your wedding, you know yeah yeah, oh, like a reunion yeah, I, I do understand.

Chris Baker:

I can actually picture my wedding, yeah, and, like my brother-in-law at the time was completely drunk like through the roof. It was not a pretty sight, yeah. But the interesting thing that you say about that is you want to keep that memory because your pictures are wonderful, but sometimes it's those other components, like maybe your father was at your wedding and they're no longer with you, but at least you captured them speaking at you know, or giving away their the daughter, whoever. However, the wedding was, happening.

Chris Baker:

Hearing their voices and get to experience it in another manner, and you may not need that for 10 years.

Jason Hughes:

Right, right right.

Chris Baker:

But after that 10 years, like I wish I had that, yeah, and now you think back. So it's very valuable, even if you're capturing anything document all of the massive big events in your life, yeah yeah.

Chris Baker:

Because it's so valuable. Right, exactly exactly. I am going to do a plug for us right now. So one of the things that we have actually done now we're talking about weddings is, specifically, we do wedding documentaries. So the minute you actually get engaged, it will follow you the entire time, for your entire journey. We'll go with you to the venues to try the food, see the different venues, try on the dress, try on the tux all those back end stuff that most people right the bride and the groom never get to see. We'll capture it from both angles, right, and then we put it into this short like movie for you, okay?

Jason Hughes:

how long is the movie? So the?

Chris Baker:

last one we did was about 30 minutes long cool and it captured all of the pieces. And then we actually showed up at the wedding and we captured all of that. So it was just this amazing story. By the end of it, you got interviews from family members. You got interviews from the parents. You got interviews from everybody that they cared about you and they wanted to talk to you, about you. It's beautiful, yeah, and it's just this beautiful video. That's a lot of work. It is a lot of work, yeah, but at the end of the day, like this is something that's going to be cherished for years and years and years to come.

Jason Hughes:

Yeah, Okay, so it's, that is really. That's really. That's a great idea, Because if you do think about it like the of the bride and groom the groom and groom the bride and bride, yeah, we've got that shot list.

Chris Baker:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jason Hughes:

And then the pictures. Then you see that and then it's like okay, but really what makes a wedding is everyone else around.

Jason Hughes:

Everyone else around you, I think, like you do officiate weddings as well, right, and the recent trend the last couple I've done, which has become a little I just wish they'd give tell me in advance is drones. So I was doing one wedding and I did my niece's wedding the other couple years and it's like you're reading, you know drones, like where they're, like you could have told me you're having drones, you're giving me a haircut, like you're right on top of me. So if you do do drones, ever make sure that people know there's going to be a drone.

Chris Baker:

And, yes, drones are A whole different thing. Yeah, it's a whole different other thing. So there's a lot of legal issues that you have to take into consideration, so make sure, A lot of times that's a third party. And it needs to be, Because, honestly, you have to have somebody that actually knows how to use it. They can look at the laws and make sure that you're saving, flying it safe, and you're not, you know, over the head of people or all of the other stuff that needs to go with it. It's crazy, yeah, wow.

Jason Hughes:

I mean, I guess you could take that concept with you know the weddings to like, even behind the scenes of starting a new marketing project for a for-profit or even nonprofit business. Profit in business, I mean, even like talking about a gala, you know, let's just take the mayor's gala.

Chris Baker:

Yeah.

Jason Hughes:

You know going on, which is a huge event on the hard rock every year. I think they have almost 800 people there. It'd be fascinating to see, you know, the planning behind it. You know, and what's the mayor really think about that? I want to know what he thinks about 800 people. They're all focused on the mayor. It's a lot. What do you think? So, like you know, did they leave early? No, I guess not. You know things like that, but even any any kind of a gala event, or or you know if you're launching a new brand, a new product line or something. I'd like to hear how the copy. I want to be in the room to hear the copywriters what they're talking about, concepts and groups. Yeah, all that's fascinating, fascinating things. No, it's like remember in school how a bill becomes a law remember that you know that conversation and that'd be a study.

Jason Hughes:

Yeah the studying. It's all like that you're kind of documenting that whole process, which is you do yeah, that behind the scenes.

Chris Baker:

I mean, if we look at a lot of documentaries that are actually being played right now on tv, you have a lot of that backstage component um, one of my favorite ones I watched recently was about Pink. I love her as an artist and she, you know, had all of her journey, like her kids are with her, like this is what's happening. This is all the training she had to do so that she could basically be suspended and fly around her concerts, Like all of that.

Chris Baker:

You're showing everything. They didn't show anything of the actual like stage performances, but a couple minutes. I mean it's an hour hour and a half long, yeah, and they only showed that it's mostly everything that's back behind the stage and that's the most interesting part. It is yeah.

Jason Hughes:

Because you get it behind the scenes. I just recently watched one about we Are the World.

Chris Baker:

They're making a.

Jason Hughes:

We Are the World. Okay, so I had no idea it was all done during the award show. That's how they got all those artists there, because they're all in LA at the same time and they had a 20-hour window. There was no after parties. They'd get in there. They finished writing the song overnight. Some people left because they got tired of it and the process behind it. Just seeing Michael Jackson there and seeing like who's spring scene, like how he changed his voice, the pitch and how it all came about it almost the song is almost irrelevant at this point.

Jason Hughes:

It's like the the behind the scenes was what was so incredible and we just see the finished product of them sitting on the stage yeah yeah, so I agree with you. I mean so that was like an hour documentary. My husband hated me for watching it and then he was like this was amazing you know, and I think with documentaries people don't realize that um how many great ones there are are out there because I mean, yeah, there's a, there's an amazing amount of documentaries out there that really kind of show toronto has an amazing one called hot dogs festival.

Jason Hughes:

Hot dogs is one of the biggest festivals in the world. Yeah, in toronto. Yeah, hot dogs, it's called. Yeah.

Chris Baker:

Hot Dogs Docs.

Jason Hughes:

Docs D-O-C-S.

Chris Baker:

Yes, like documentaries, oh okay.

Jason Hughes:

Hot Dogs is like a whole different thing.

Chris Baker:

Yeah, I was going to say Like.

Jason Hughes:

Look at my poodle. Look at my poodle.

Chris Baker:

Or look at my hot dog.

Jason Hughes:

Look at my hamburger. Oh, wow, yeah, hot Docs Interesting and your branding for what you guys are doing for weddings.

Chris Baker:

We love that. We really do love actually working with creating that document, that behind-the-scenes component, because not everybody gets to see it and a lot of times it doesn't get documented, which isn't something that we want to do.

Jason Hughes:

If you documented mine, you would have seen me pick up our wedding cake and they had the wrong cake day of. You want to see Bridezilla at Publix? Bridezilla had the wrong cake day of you want to see bridezilla? I publix bridezilla.

Chris Baker:

Fair enough, the culmination of the same dead wrong some parts you might want to cut, maybe, yeah, so, as we wrap up today, what is the legacy that you would love to leave for future generations and and this is the personal side question- oh, personal side.

Jason Hughes:

Well, a couple weeks ago we had a couple come in. I was in here on a Saturday randomly and, long story short, he was the one that designed the space back in 1989. He designed the space, the whole build-out of that, and she actually was one of the first employees at ArtServe. And they now live in North Carolina, in Chapel Hill ironically is where I went to school. They moved there and they just came down to Fort Lauderdale.

Jason Hughes:

They've been here in like a decade or something and they came by here and they couldn't believe what ArtServe turned into like. They felt so proud of how nice it looked and, and what a random chance that was here on a Saturday and they just were here. So we had a great conversation and I was thinking like I want to be that person that comes back in my 60s or 70s and see art serve and be so proud of what they've done, to take something to another level, different level, that we hadn't thought about. Um, I don't think I'll be working in my 60s and 70s here, but well 60s maybe we'll still be here, we'll both be like talk loud.

Jason Hughes:

What, what, chris? What's your question? It?

Chris Baker:

It's there.

Jason Hughes:

Yeah, I think from an art server perspective. You know, that's it. I've had a really blessed, cool career. A lot of my friends are lawyers and doctors and they do amazing things, but for me being backstage at an event is like the coolest thing ever. I mean, I've done working at for-profit radio stations and tv stations. I'm in, you know, an elevator in a sound stage with b arthur for world aids day at a sports station because we were owned by a sports station score so all the sports guys had to leave. But they all came back and said b arthur from the. And then you know I'm in the elevator with her purse lettering downstairs and her phone's ringing and her pr person like be your phone, your phone. She's like what your phone, your phone's ringing. She's like what your phone, your phone's ringing. She's like what I'm. Like. This is the best. It's those little experiences.

Chris Baker:

It's those experiences that make life just amazing.

Jason Hughes:

Yeah, like so, yes, I think being behind the mic, behind the lights, behind the camera. You know, backstage are some of the most exciting things out there.

Chris Baker:

Oh my gosh, this was an amazing episode, so thank you, jason, so much for being on. Visual Eyes today.

Jason Hughes:

Thank you, chris, thanks, thanks a lot.

Chris Baker:

Thank you for joining me on this episode of Visual Eyes. We hope that the inspiration and practical insights can help you foster stronger connections and meaningful change. Don't forget to subscribe, share the episode and leave us a review. To learn more about Visuals by Momo and how we support collaboration and storytelling, visit visualsbymomo. com. A huge thank you to everyone out there listening. Until next time, remember, collaboration fuels change and your connections can inspire the world.