We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Andrew Lutes. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Andrew below.

Andrew, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I had the opportunity in 2020 to join a project team and co-lead the development of a first-of-its-kind cooperatively-owned mixed-use community center, Commongrounds Cooperative.
The development successfully opened in 2022, and includes 3 floors of visual art exhibition space and The Alluvion– a 170 seat listening room/ performance venue– adding much needed infrastructure to the missing-middle performing arts category in Northern Michigan.
Since opening, The Alluvion has hosted Grammy award-winning artists while providing opportunities for regional emerging talent.
This opportunity was meaningful to me because, in hindsight, I started writing music and performing in my teens and 20’s to find community and a sense of belonging. It was difficult to foster that sense without the intentional space provided by the small venues that would provide the platform for connection.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Today, I am a songwriter in the contemporary realm of folk that looks forward and backward through the human experience to tease out resonant themes.
In parallel, I am an executive-level operations leader whose focus is helping organizations implement systems and policies that provide growth and the ability to embody their chosen culture in ways big and small across functional teams.
These vocations are related and balanced in that they both inclusively stakehold the experiences and stories of the people doing the inner and outer work of living an abundant life and building an empowered community.

I got into operations leadership via the hospitality industry. My former band, The Stationary Set, spent most of its life in NYC, where I bartended and eventually managed bars to make ends meet. Upon relocating to Northern Michigan in 2016, I set music down and expanded my hospitality experience to mission-driven businesses. I was drawn to this shift by the work I was doing within myself to understand my own privilege and my trauma, a study that seemed terrifying but necessary as my partner and I pursued having children.

The work spurned a return to songwriting and performing in 2021, and ultimately led my career to enter the non-profit and educational spheres.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Communities must invest in intentional space for art.
We know that the most resilient communities in the world and North America also have thriving art economies. But from the viewpoint of a funder and their impact-metric approach to stewarding their resources, art’s importance is very hard to measure.
We also know that healthy and resilient communities have more social infrastructure (libraries, community centers, venues, clubs, etc). So, it appears to us that we can be active and courageous in investing at the local level to create more infrastructure for the arts if we want the insulating effect that the richness of art can provide us.
This is in opposition to the approach of many communities that signal their awareness by commissioning a graffiti mural in a downtown alley and paying an emerging artist $100 + “exposure” to play a public park/street concert series.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership

This book illustrates a concept about how at any given moment in a day we are either “below the line” (closed off, defensive) or “above the line” (open, curious).
We are all by default– the book presumes– below the line more often than not. But, the game is to create awareness around that on a daily basis and pursue getting above the line when we notice it.
It has been transformative and I carry many of the commitments with me to each project.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michicanandwill
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aslutes
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/32Ct42ef9NwDISXEQWh1Ae?si=GeSghahLTQqqofLnA8sA7A

Image Credits

Shawn Roach (blue backdrop venue) shots
Tyler Franz (marquee)
Lana Lutes (theater interior)