A chance encounter at a community event opened the door to Amber Smith’s time at The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative in 2022. The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative is a vital hub for Charlottesville’s artistic community, offering dedicated studio spaces and a versatile event and co-working space. Artists can collaborate, network, and access resources in this dynamic environment. The adaptable event space hosts exhibitions, performances, workshops, and community gatherings, thus promoting a supportive and inspiring atmosphere for artistic and cultural exchange.

Smith joined the staff as an Operations Manager. Amber states, “I mentor children through Integrity Mentoring, and I was doing a visit [with one of my mentees.] It was the first night of Soul with C-Ville… I happened to see that they were doing a community mural, but I didn’t know that it involved The Bridge or anything like that.” Smith shared that a mutual colleague of hers and Jay Simple, Executive Director of The Bridge at the time, introduced them.

She shared that a colleague informed her about an opening for an Operations Manager at The Bridge. At that time, she was committed to running her own business and had promised herself never to return to a full-time job. The part-time, 20-hour-per-week position fit perfectly into her schedule. When she submitted her application, she didn’t realize it was going to the person she had met at Soul of C-ville.

Smith, a Charlottesville native with a background in administrative processes, still owns her own business, CAMPed Administrative Services, and has generously made room for both entities to exist in her personal mission, on top of continuing her work in youth development through mentoring. In her new additional role at The Bridge, Amber worked under Jay Simple until his departure at the top of 2024. Smith notes that there were some learning curves when joining The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative team.

Q: Do you feel like there were any large leaps or any learning curves for you at all?

Amber Smith: Jay had already started the process of moving The Bridge into this particular location that we’re in now, working on how to revamp those things. I can’t ever take credit for any of that. There were lots of learning curves. What I do for my own business is provide administrative services, so a lot of that work is dictated by the person that’s giving it to you: how they want it to look, what they want it to say, um, how they want to come across. People are dictating to you exactly what they need. There’s not really a lot of room or necessity for extreme ideation at that point. You know, the creativity that I had been used to up until that point as it relates to businesses like this was very contained—you fit within a box. The growing part was me recognizing that we’re not trying to create a box; we’re trying to create open air and equity for artists that look like me and artists who wouldn’t otherwise have a voice. Not saying that I was the box, but… sky’s the limit and being able to think outside of that. There were a few times where I was like, “Well, I don’t know,” or “What should I do?” The question thrown back to me was, “What do you think?” and I had never been asked that. As it relates to moving an organization forward… we were given a blank slate kind of, and I don’t want to say a blank slate like The Bridge wasn’t something magnificent before, but in moving into this new space, we were given more of a blank space to really extend all of the things that The Bridge was doing and transform it into being able to create equity and space for artists to actually create.

The work Amber was able to accomplish under her Operations Manager title landed her the role of The Bridge’s new Chief Operations Officer (COO) in April of 2024. Adamant that she does not do this work alone, Amber emphasizes the importance of partnership in achieving the organization’s goals. She is committed to nurturing a collaborative environment where contributions are valued and integral to the success of The Bridge. Her leadership style focuses on empowering others, encouraging innovation, and maintaining open lines of communication. As COO, Amber plans to continue driving the initiative’s mission forward, ensuring it remains a thriving space for creative artists as a whole, while also shining a light on Artists of Color throughout Virginia.

Child posing at Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative

Q: You’ve seen an influx of artists of color coming in. What is that like? And what have you been able to see happening as a fly on the wall in this space?

Amber: Oh man, we have so much untapped talent in this town. My goodness, so much untapped talent. I just struggle with the fact that there’s somebody in charge of art. I struggle with that because art encompasses everything that we do right in life. Everybody demands art and wants art, but sometimes we don’t know how to really facilitate the conversations behind it… The project that we’re working on right now, with Hamilton Glass, he’s been able to transform what it is that he loves to do. Um, if I’m not mistaken, his background is in architecture. He was able to transform whatever it is that he does into actual artistic work. And he’s been able to work as a sustaining artist. So, being able to put other artists in front of people like that to say, “Well, what did you do?” and [it is helpful in] encouraging people.

Glass, an Artist residing in Richmond, spent time at The Bridge in June to share his work in collaboration with Star Hill Pathways and the Equity Center for the Charlottesville Mural Project, by serving as an instructor for a youth-centered mural camp. Glass and other artists of color are utilizing time at The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative to expound upon their creative visions, develop new projects, and engage with the community in meaningful ways. Hamilton remarked, “I’ve had two previous experiences with The Bridge and the Charlottesville Mural Project. Both of them were great experiences, and this was no different. Amber and [The Bridge] staff supported my day to day work with the kids which made the process very organic. The students were able to come up with something that they genuinely designed from scratch and painted.”

Amber shares, “I did have someone ask me one time is The Bridge a Black space?’ And I had to let them know, no, we serve every facet of the community: Black, white, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, atheist, agnostic, Mormon, LGBTQ+, straight, minding their business; we serve every facet of the community. I do think that having people of color within a nonprofit arts organization that has the voice that The Bridge has been extremely helpful to other Black businesses and organizations, as well as other folks and people of color in our community. I don’t want to say we set out to necessarily target a specific community, but we also understood that being in places of leadership and being able to take whatever it is that we have as The Bridge, as influence, and being able to work with organizations that serve people of color, has been greatly beneficial.”

To learn more about  The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative, please visit thebridgepai.org