With experience in event planning, Kahler felt inspired to pursue an array of creative endeavors to promote the area such as founding the Downtown Phoenix Journal and serving as president of Artlink, a nonprofit that helps coordinate First Fridays.
She also owns her own marketing company, Urban Affair, which publishes the Downtown Phoenix Journal and is appropriately named after her love for the city.
At Arizona State University in the 90s, Kahler felt apathetic toward her classes, rotating from history to teaching to liberal arts unaware of how she would apply what she learned to a future career.
Above all, she learned how vital the arts were to the growth of the city. “It just became part of that natural thought process that you couldn’t separate the arts and culture from the success of downtown,” Kahler says.
In 2010, she reached out to Artlink to help produce their map for First Friday, a monthly nighttime art walk attracting visitors from around the Valley. She has worked for them since and now serves as president. Albeit not an artist herself, Kahler’s appreciation for the arts is evident.
Artlink is currently planning Art Detour 29 – the 29th anniversary of the event that helped launch First Fridays on March 16-19. The event differs from First Friday in that it takes place annually in the spring and gives visitors an opportunity to tour several artists’ studio spaces.
“To see the space where the artist is inspired, and creative and create works that we sometimes just see on a wall or a pedestal­, to see where these things are born, is special,” Kahler says.
Kahler works out of the Coe House, a 121-year-old home in the heart of downtown Phoenix that is on the National Register of Historic Places. Art receptions are held in the downstairs living room and an array of tenants, ranging from a chiropractor to graphic designer, enhance the collaborative environment of the building.
Courtney McCune, managing editor of the Downtown Phoenix Journal, says her favorite project she worked on with Kahler was recent. Inspired by Netflix’s “Gilmore Girls” revival and their resemblance to the characters, the two wrote a piece likening downtown Phoenix to Stars Hollow – the town from the series.
To dwindle Kahler’s sizable workload, Leslie Criger helps by coordinating with “articipants” for upcoming events and keeping local businesses updated with Phoenix Urban Guide, an intuitive online database Kahler developed.
Kahler and Criger have known each other for 15 years and have worked together for the past three years. Criger admires Kahler’s ability to conceptualize projects with precision from start to finish.
“She’s very thoughtful in the things that she does and why she does the things that she does,” Criger says.
Reach the reporter at Hailey.Mensik@asu.edu or follow @HaileyMensik on Twitter.