parrish gibbons
Parrish Gibbons lives art.
As the former assistant director of Kenan Center (Lockport, NY) and current deputy director at Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center (Buffalo, NY), Parrish has married her deep interest and studies in art and business into a symbiotic work/life balance.
“I think that is a result of me just doing something really authentically myself, and that’s where the lines start to blur for myself, and probably for others who have their work-life really be a mirror to their life-life, and to not have such a separation line there,” she said. “It’s this symbiotic take and give with my own job. I give this to the community, and I benefit from it too, and I want to do more. So it becomes this wheelhouse of work and life all becoming one thing.”
I give this to the community, and I benefit from it too, and I want to do more.
Parrish began her career journey at SUNY Fredonia as a psychology major, did a stint at Erie Community College for a bit, then transferred to Buffalo State University for her third year, finishing her studies with a degree in business management and a minor in design. She delved into metalsmithing during this time, which honed her understanding of art as a discipline. “I am very business-minded but I love the arts and I love creativity, and I really liked that hands-on approach [of metalsmithing] – it gave me the understanding of how much work goes into that type of craft,” she said.
After graduating in 2011 she secured an administrative job with Starlight Studio and Art Gallery, a gallery and learning center in downtown Buffalo for adults living with developmental disabilities in Western New York. “I was not familiar with the organization yet but I knew that it was an organization that supported artists with disabilities and so that was really intriguing to me and summed up a lot of my previous studies,” she said. “I think about that more later in life, but I don’t think I was so conscious about it at the moment.”
Within her first year with the organization she was promoted to director of community relations for the agency that runs Starlight, the Learning Disabilities Association of Western New York.
I’d watch these people come in from all throughout Western New York and create work and it was just the best part of their day, the best part of their week.
“I still had an office at Starlight and I loved being around those artists. Starlight Studio was not just a day hab program for people with disabilities, it was a space for those individuals to be completely themselves,” she said. “It was a really beautiful program, and to still be very young in my career and to be impressionable and impacted, I viewed art as something that would benefit people. I’d watch these people come in from all throughout Western New York and create work and it was just the best part of their day, the best part of their week.”
She stayed with the Learning Disabilities Association for 5 years before moving forward in 2016 to the next chapter of her career in arts business, serving as an associate of Arts Services Institute (ASI), located in Buffalo and serving Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties. Here she acted as coordinator of the Arts Access program, which provided free admission at cultural institution partners for people receiving financial assistance through New York State.
Arts Services Institute Crew & others at Pitch 10.
“I think about big cultural projects taking place in our community and someone who lives nearby not being able to go,” she said. “I really think that that is a crucial need because how the arts impact us is so important.
“If you have two third graders and you give a trumpet to one of them and not the other and you follow them through life, they live different lives because of the impact of those arts,” she said. “It’s performance and self-discipline and learning and camaraderie and patience with yourself. So much is learned through the arts that the arts are really just a gateway for learning and it makes you have all those attributes in other sectors…We’re really creating pathways in our brain to be more patient, to be a better listener.
Parrish at the Kenan Center.
After a couple of years with ASI Parrish was presented with an opportunity to continue her work in her new hometown of Lockport, NY. She had purchased a home here just prior to the start of her work with ASI, in 2015. After learning and growing with the organization, which included assisting arts organizations with professional development and grant writing, she “felt ready” to take what she learned and apply it in her community. “I wanted my hand at doing it instead of just consulting and supporting people and giving them the tools,” she said.
“I was pumped at the idea of working within and getting to know my own community because I was still so new to Lockport.”
When Parrish began at the Kenan Center, she knew it to already be a stable and beloved organization in the community. “The only thing it needed was a little bit of a fresh face and an uplift,” she said. In her time as marketing manager she increased engagement on social media and made things more accessible to families. It was also the first time she began writing (and securing) capital grants. “I was writing grants and getting commitments in the millions for the first time in my career,” she said. In addition to these larger scale campaigns, she also had the opportunity to work on smaller capital projects, like Daisy’s Adventure Garden, a project she oversaw from concept to fruition.
“I got all the grant money in support, of course, with the board, with raising private funds, and the leadership at the Kenan Center and the maintenance crew, honestly, it was just this whole community and staff effort to make this happen,” she said. “And that was really cool. Creating that garden is definitely a staple in my career.”
The Daisy Garden.
Recognizing the beauty of the property and wanting people to be able to access and experience the space, Parrish also started Music in the Gardens, a summer concert series on the lawn of the Kenan Center that coincides with the township’s garden walk, Lockport in Bloom.
Madeline at the Kenan Center.
Parrish helped steer the ship at the Kenan Center for almost 5 years, while at the same time a new mother to her daughter Madeline, born in 2016. “She has built a love of Lockport for me in a way through her lens, because this is her hometown. I’m a transplant, and I work in another city, but this is my daughter’s home,” she said. “I am grateful to experience Lockport through her eyes.”
She has built a love of Lockport for me in a way through her lens, because this is her hometown. I’m a transplant, and I work in another city, but this is my daughter’s home.
Madeline is a budding artist in her own right, with drawing and performance as her mediums du jour. She and Parrish take in programming at the Palace Theatre (and in fact, Madeline was in the ensemble of the recent Willy Wonka Jr. production presented by Roy B. Kelley Elementary School, where she currently attends and takes part in a robust theater program) as well as at the Kenan Center, which offers youth and enrichment programs.
“She’s also taught me about a dance studio here in Lockport, because she does dance,” Parrish said. “She goes to OnStage Dance Studio, and she does that three days a week. She’s in four different dance classes…Now we’re realizing we kind of signed up for a lot,” she laughs.
It’s no wonder Madeline’s staying busy just like mom. “She’s very influenced by my career. It’s all she’s ever seen,” Parrish said. “She’s doing a lot right now, but she likes the visual arts for sure. She likes performance. Music, we both dabble a little.” Parrish had recently taken up guitar lessons with Matt Rutschmann, owner of Tone and Design.
Right on cue, Parrish receives a text from the school reminding her about Art Club in the morning. Madeline is also a part of this group at Roy B. Kelley, which meets two mornings a month, creating the artwork seen throughout the hallways of the school. Those days are an early start for her, but just like mom, art is life.
In early 2023 Parrish was presented with another opportunity to move into yet another chapter of her arts business career. “I received a phone call one day from a staff member who was leaving and they relayed, hey, you know, I’m leaving my position. Would you be interested in considering coming down and working with the team?”
Someone has to make that commute and be the voice of the other counties in
Western New York.
She opted to join a conversation and present for an interview, and shortly after was offered the position of director of development and communications at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, a prestigious contemporary art gallery, performance space, and learning center housed inside Babeville, a converted church owned by Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records in downtown Buffalo.
In addition to believing this opportunity to be an important new chapter in her career, Parrish also saw it as an opportunity to connect arts societies throughout the greater WNY region. “Someone has to make that commute and be the voice of the other counties in Western New York. And I feel like I’m a representation of that at Hallwalls,” she said. “It’s also just the coolest place to work.”
Parrish at Hallwalls.
Parrish describes the center as a legacy when it comes to contemporary art and boundary-pushing thought, featuring provoking performance and visual art, film, and music. Being at the center is also a wildly personal evolution for her, as well.
“I pulled into the Hallwalls parking lot, and it’s the same parking lot I would park in when I worked at Starlight,” she said. The buildings stand opposite one another on Delaware Ave., just north of downtown Buffalo.
It’s just a true full circle…I started off this Craigslist job as an administrative assistant. And 15 years later, I’m helping to run one of Buffalo’s most beloved contemporary arts centers.
“It’s just a true full circle…I started off this Craigslist job as an administrative assistant. And 15 years later, I’m helping to run one of Buffalo’s most beloved contemporary arts centers. It’s just been a whirlwind of 15 years,” she laughed.
Parrish accepted the move to deputy director of Hallwalls in January of this year and is slated to take over the directorship in August 2025. Her business acumen is going to especially come into play for this role, where she’ll be working to strengthen the center’s financial stability while in the midst of federal funding cuts to the arts. This doesn’t phase her, not really. When she began her career at Starlight, she experienced both disability funding cuts and arts cuts, and learned very quickly that stable organizations cannot rely on government funding alone.
“I did have the understanding that you have to make that part of the pie as small as possible. You need to get private funding. You need to find foundations that understand and believe in you. You need to find people who believe in you. The most untapped source of revenue is individuals,” she said. “Not to say advocacy shouldn’t always continue, but you need a team that’s looking elsewhere, you know? And so I’ve just been really focused on looking elsewhere and focused on stabilization.”
Although back working in Buffalo, Parrish remains focused on the Lockport community, where she and her daughter call home. “People don’t necessarily need to go down to Buffalo for things,” she said. “When I was at the Kenan Center there was always this mentality of, how do we bring Buffalo people here? How do we bring Rochester people here? And I’d say, how do we get the people across the street here? You know? People in our own community are looking for things to do, and they have rightfully felt overlooked, I think, a lot of the times.”
People in our own community are looking for things to do, and they have rightfully felt overlooked, I think, a lot of the times.
In the past decade that she’s been in town, Parrish has seen a steady public sector growth, with the main driver being young people willing to go through the trials and errors of opening businesses, and anchor businesses that have set a proven course for new players to enter the market.
As we sat in the multilevel Big Ditch Brewing Company on a Monday afternoon in downtown Lockport, which had had its long-anticipated opening a mere few weeks prior, we marveled at the steady, bustling stream of folks coming in for bites and beers in the refurbished old Post Office building. If not for young visionaries like Brian Junke at Lock 34 Bar & Grill and 80 Main Catering, which has been also serving a steady stream of folks since 2011, this path for new businesses might not have been carved. “He’s one of the best business guys in Lockport,” she said.
While new businesses have and can continue to take root here, the arts community has yet to really solidify and show itself, she said. There are large-scale community spaces like ART247 on Market Street, the Kenan Center, Imagine That Studio & Gifts, and the Palace Theatre, but there is room for a lot more growth in the city’s arts sector.
“I think there are a lot of talented people here, but they’ve been programmed to have to go elsewhere to show,” Parrish said. “The cultural scene is hidden here, but it exists.”
Although the development of place may still be nascent, there are still so many ways people can take in art in their everyday lives, Parrish said.
And so we can’t let our life only be getting out of the house for work. We have to get out to experience some sort of culture.
“I’m a big proponent of getting out of the house. I heard really good advice recently in reference to happiness. When you’re feeling kind of disgruntled and on edge, either go to sleep or get out of the house,” she said. “Your nervous system is dysregulated. And one or the other will regulate you. But I think that art is a big regulation, for sure.
“People view art as like a bowl of fruit being painted. But we have to recognize that the only thing that people get out of the house for is art. And our jobs or sports events, right? It’s literally those three things,” she said.
“And so we can’t let our life only be getting out of the house for work. We have to get out to experience some sort of culture.”
Photos around town by Kristy Lock
Whether it’s a local gallery showing, or a guy playing music at a bar, or a film on television, art is something that enriches our worldview and perspective. “I think the first step is getting out of the house, and you’ll start to see art everywhere,” she said. “It’s like starting to appreciate everyday life. The craftsmanship and the artistic approach of humans really is everywhere. Our hands are everywhere.
I think the first step is getting out of the house, and you’ll start to see art everywhere.
“And to build that lens is really important. And then a person will find themselves wanting to do that more in a deeper way.”
Follow Parrish on Instagram to see her analog collage art and associated events & showings at Planet Pea and on her website, Planet Parrish. She is also co-owner of Plak Art Plus in North Tonawanda – visit for all of your art mounting and framing needs!
Written by Kristy Lock
My name is Kristy and I’m an American journalist, specializing in profile writing. I’ve told the stories of frenetic & fascinating people in Chicago, Illinois, Los Angeles, California, and my hometown of Western New York for nearly two decades. Feel free to drop me a line! I would love to hear your story sometime.
Photos provided unless where noted.