HOT SPRINGS — Two weeks ago, Bill Solleder did something he has never done before — he reported to work at 8 a.m. in a collared shirt.
“I’ve always created my own job or worked in unconventional work places,” Solleder said. “I’ve traveled the world as a musician or worked in the music industry.
“But for the first time, I had an office, a choice of printers to print from, staple pullers, laminating machines, a staff and a receptionist. This is something I’ve never had in my life.”
Solleder and his partner of 24 years, Shea Childs, co-founded Low Key Arts, the organization responsible for the Valley of the Vapors music festival, the Hot Water Hills Festival, Arkansas Shorts: a Night of Short Film and KUHS 97.9. Recently, however, Solleder has stepped down from his position at Low Key Arts and is now the special-events manager for Visit Hot Springs.
“Friday, after my first week here, I sent an email, and after I had written this email and shut it down, closed my office and headed home, I realized how powerful this email was to me personally,” Solleder said. “And all the email said was, ‘OK. Let’s talk about it on Monday.’
“I have never in my life been able to send that email, to put it to sleep and go home to my family as a regular ole person.”
Childs said Solleder “lived and breathed Low Key around the clock.”
“I work as a midwife, so we would spend most of our time at home, back to back in our dining room where our offices are,” Childs said. “He would spend many hours in front of the computer. There were no weekends, no evenings or holidays.”
“So this is something really fresh and new. It is kind of an exciting new chapter for us. Now if I could just get babies to be born between 9 and 5.”
Childs said not having Solleder at home was a bit of a shock to her at first.
“To not have him at the house all day,” Childs said. “Before, he would make lunch meetings to get out of the house. Now he comes home for lunch.”
Low Key Arts has hired two new directors, David Hill and Bobby Missile, to replace Solleder. Hill will handle the administration side of Low Key, while Missile will be responsible for the promotion and talent line for the nonprofit organization.
Childs said she is very confident in the two guys stepping in to take over for Solleder.
“Bobby is a performer and has owned a booking agency for a number of years,” Childs said. “He has worked with Bill closely over the years, so he knows the nature of the business already.
“David has a lot of experience as a writer and is a hometown guy. He has some relationships built already that are important to the growth of Low Key.”
The Hot Water Hills outdoor music festival takes place at the end of September. For more information about Low Key Arts, go to lowkeyarts.org.
Solleder’s duties at Visit Hot Springs will include managing events such as the World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade and the upcoming Spa-Con, and he will also assist in the organization’s marketing program.
Spa-Con will take place Sept. 23-25 at the Hot Springs Convention Center. In conjunction with the Garland County Library, the event will feature a multigenre entertainment and comic convention, ranging from virtually all genres, including video games, anime, movies, novels and television shows.
“It is a super fun and interesting event that we could grow to drive the downtown economy,” Solleder said. “What if we could get 130,000 people to attend a future Spa-Con? I don’t even know if we have enough hotel beds to do that.”
Solleder said he immediately put his signature on the convention by booking a musical act called PEELANDER-Z, a Japanese action comic punk band based in New York City, to kick off the weekend event.
“Music is kind of how I am known in town,” Solleder said. “Bringing PEELANDER-Z and adding a music element to a comic con is not a completely new idea, but it is for an Arkansas con.
“That will be a unique start to it and will be a lot of fun.”
Solleder said sci-fi is such a big part of culture now.
“Whether you are talking about people that watched the original Capt. Kirk or people who are walking down the street playing Pokemon Go,” Solleder said, “it is a big deal right now.”
Highlighting the inaugural year is actress Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed Lt. Uhura on the original Star Trek television series. For more information on Spa-Con, visit www.spa-con.org.
Over the past 12 years, Solleder said, he has produced events that benefited and “bridged the culture vitality of Hot Springs.”
“All of those events were done 95 percent volunteer run and paid for with a shoestring budget,” Solleder said. “I guess it goes hand in hand, when you are trying to produce your own events on a larger scale and working with Visit Hot Springs.
“I was already working with Visit Hot Springs and serving the city in an unofficial capacity, but now I’m doing so in an official capacity.”
Solleder said he has been waiting on the call for about 10 years. “When it finally came, I jumped on it,” he said.
As director of Low Key Arts, Solleder formed ties with the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, the Hot Springs School District and cultural organizations.
He also established links with the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, the Hot Springs Music Festival, the Hot Springs Jazz Society, the Spa City Blues Society, Emergent Arts, Fine Arts Central, the Hot Springs Cultural Alliance and Red Door Productions.
“We are very excited to have [Bill] join our staff,” Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs, said in a statement. “He did a fantastic job for Low Key Arts as their founder and director. We here at Visit Hot Springs have had the opportunity to work with him and see his professionalism firsthand.
“We can’t wait for him to join our team.”
Solleder is a graduate of Southern Illinois University with a degree in radio and television. He and Childs have two daughters together: Elizabeth, 16, and Luna Mae, 13. Elizabeth is a student at Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, and Luna Mae attends Hot Springs Middle School.
“They got a guy who works hard, works smart and is creative on how to bring folks together,” said Jeff Stepp, who managed Solleder’s former band Blue Meanies for five years. “He believes very deeply in that community, and he loves that community.
“Hot Springs is lucky to have him.”
Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.