In well-established nonprofit institutions, the ideal leading administrative figure is a visionary leader who by encompassing every dimension of that organization creates the right conditions for fundraising success that ensures the institution’s long-term viability. In 2018, when Spy Hop Productions was poised to announce the largest capital fundraising campaign in its history to build its permanent home in the Central Ninth neighborhood of Salt Lake City, The Utah Review met with executive director Kasandra VerBrugghen to discuss a background feature. But, it was VerBrugghen who suggested that rather than hear from her or the staff at Spy Hop, it might be more illuminating and impactful to hear from individuals in the community expressing their perspectives about Spy Hop’s place in the community.
One Salt Lake County employee talked about Spy Hop’s presence as a leader in the county’s contracted provider network, especially in helping organizations stretch the value of their limited resources. In 2017, for example, Spy Hop instructors worked with the UNI Girls Transition group, ARTEC Day Treatment, the Gemstone Program, the Transition To Adult Living Program and the summer program with Salt Lake County Boys & Girls Group Home. The youth, ages 12 to 18, created numerous multimedia projects, including video poems, shadow puppet media and original music along with podcasts.
“People say Spy Hop is outside of the box, but what they do isn’t really outside of the box, it’s common sense. It’s relevant,” Jeff Smart of Salt Lake County Prevention Services, told The Utah Review at the time. “That’s probably the most innovative thing about what Spy Hop does. They promote healthy choices and life skills in a structure that is truly relevant to the population they serve.”
In Spy Hop’s 26-year history, there have only been two executive directors. Rick Wray, one of the founding members, served in that post for 11 years and then handed the reins to VerBrugghen in 2010, two years after she joined. At the time, Wray said, ““I think they made the perfect choice. I’m one hundred percent behind Kasandra [VerBrugghen] as my successor. Kasandra had deep leadership experience before coming to Utah and Spy Hop, and she has spent the last two years running the day‐to‐day operations of the organization. I’m confident that Spy Hop will continue to flourish under her direction.”
As VerBrugghen prepares to step down after 15 years at the helm, her tenure has eminently fulfilled those wishes. Daela Taeoalii-Higgs, chair of Spy Hop’s board of directors, said, in an interview with The Utah Review, that while the search for a new executive director [with an announcement expected in the immediate future] is an extraordinary event, the culture of leadership that has been cemented at Spy Hop is an asset to sustain the organization’s flourishing in its next and perhaps the most challenging generation in its history.
VerBrugghen’s tenure at Spy Hop coincided with a rapid expansion and transformation of opportunities in the media arts for young people. In the last 17 years, Spy Hop has expanded from two program lines to 18, now serving more than 10,000 young people not only in Salt Lake City but across the entire state, including 80 schools. Its professional arm. Phase 2 Productions is a full-service video production company, handling everything from PSAs to impact videos, and commercials to podcasts. Its clients have included Ballet West Academy, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, the Natural History Museum of Utah, Utah Historical Society, AltaBank and NBC Universal, among others.
After temporary homes in several downtown Salt Lake City locations, it has a permanent building in the Kahlert Youth Media Arts Center, which has been part of a remarkable Central Ninth neighborhood growth of local enterprise. Designed by Atlas Architects and built by Okland Construction, the project received financial support from the State of Utah and the Kahlert Foundation. Significant donations were also received from The Katherine W. Dumke and Ezekiel R. Dumke Jr. Foundation and the Larry H. Miller and Gail Miller Family Foundation, as well as many other generous contributions from community members.
Spy Hop also has extended its national reputation during VerBrugghen’s tenure. In 2015, then First Lady Michelle Obama presented the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, the nation’s highest honor for out-of-school-time programs, to a contingent of Spy Hop staff and students at the White House. In its early years, Spy Hop was known for its excellent film production programs (including PitchNic and Reel-to-Reel Stories) but now it has expanded to programs in music, design, and radio and audio platforms. Spy Hop programming continues to evolve as media technologies have mushroomed into new pathways for unprecedented accessibility to tools for creative expression in all forms of media arts.
Spy Hop’s success in its capital fundraising campaign has been augmented by other news that have ensured a long-term legacy foundation for the organization. The largest gift in its history came in 2021, from a one-time unrestricted gift of $3 million from MacKenzie Scott, who announced her gift to 286 organizations in a blog post on Medium.
In addition to a regular stream of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Spy Hop has garnered major grants, including six years of awards totaling $1,652,000 more from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, for programs that have bridged the digital divide between urban and rural communities in the state. Its Voices of the West program, which was launched with the first grant of $240,000 from the MacArthur Foundation in 2018, has reached students in Utah’s most remote and rural areas, with a focus on giving youth from the Ute Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation and the Navajo Nation.
Last year, Spy Hop received a $325,000 grant from the NBA Foundation to strengthen Spy Hop’s Amplify Black Youth Voice Initiative. The initiative serves Black youth and young adult engagement with Spy Hop’s free media arts mentorships in film, music, audio and design and leverages Phase 2 Productions, to feature Black-owned businesses and community partnerships.
VerBrugghen’s presence at Spy Hop has ensured its long-term viability. Taeoalii-Higgs said, “Spy Hop is at its most stable, because every penny that comes into the organization is directed toward the students, staff and the equipment and resources of programs.” While the budget has more than doubled to $3 million during VerBrugghen’s tenure and there are now 30 full-time and four part-time staff, Spy Hop’s operating budget is characterized as lean and mean.
VerBrugghen has always preferred to redirect the spotlight to others. Likewise, Spy Hop thrives on partnerships that encompass the entire state, a strategy that she has emphasized throughout the years. ”The field for opportunities has grown tremendously over the years and it has been the utmost priority for us to ensure that young people have a voice and to make sure they have their own agency to tell their stories as they see them,” VerBrugghen said. “We are really blessed with the support that we have received not just across the nation but here in Utah as well.” She cited the public’s ongoing support, as evidenced in last fall’s renewal of the Zoos, Arts and Parks (ZAP) levy for Salt Lake County, along with the state-supported Professional Outreach Programs in Schools (POPS), which is one of the nation’s broadest and deepest statewide initiatives for arts and culture engagement.
VerBrugghen’s emphasis on networking and collaboration proved critical during the COVID-19 pandemic. “It was a really hard time,” she recalled. “Everyone knew that there would have to be a lot of care, love and understanding and it was still a very messy time because of the feelings of uncertainty. We were not above the turnover that happened in many organizations. And, in the last five years, we have had more people come on board than at any other time in our history. And, then when we moved into our new building [in 2022], we experienced one of the biggest growth spurts in our programs.”
The pandemic was one of the best examples of Spy Hop “putting kids first,” Taeoalii-Higgs said. Within a few weeks of the shutdowns in March 2020, Spy Hop launched its Rewired offering of free online workshops for students, ages 10 to 19. Each weekly workshop was conducted live, and connected students, Spy Hop mentors, and professional artists in film, design or music. The courses were accessible through any device with virtual or remote capabilities. In instances where software was required, participants downloaded the required elements for free. Each weeklong workshop combined live class time with links to tutorial videos that participants watched at their convenience and used as a guide to create the project. At the end of each workshop, participants presented their projects in a live session.
Reflecting back to that time. VerBrugghen said she was proud of how it rebuffed the stereotype that some critics targeted against Gen Xers. “The staff had the best down-to-earth, get-it-done mentality,” she added. “We faced it upfront while understanding that at the time we couldn’t be everything to everyone at the same time. It definitely was not easy but we also knew that we had to be there for the young people as best as we possibly could manage at the time.”
Both Taeoalii-Higgs and VerBrugghen acknowledge that whomever will be at Spy Hop’s helm, the challenges looming with a new generation of media technologies unprecedented in their autonomous capabilities are essentially the same as they have always been. Human purpose and meaning remain central. “The mission doesn’t change in the human-centered perspective,” VerBrugghen explained. “The technology will shift and change but the pedagogy and the Spy Hop way will not change. Educators and mentors evaluate these new tech tools by putting the lens on equity, anti-racism and the collective community impact.”
Ken Verdoia, a veteran filmmaker and public television producer who served on Spy Hop’s advisory board after he retired in 2017, once commissioned Spy Hop students to make short films featuring personal stories about civil liberties and rights that were part of Navigating Freedom, the Public Broadcasting System’s (PBS) national documentary outreach on the topic. The quartet of Spy Hop short documentaries earned a Regional Emmy.
“Never have I been so optimistic about our next generation of young leaders learning so skillfully the advantages of the democratization of media devices and techniques,” Verdoia said in a 2018 interview with The Utah Review. “Spy Hop does not operate like a technical or trade school. It is the model school of engagement.”
And, Taeoalii-Higgs noted that the search process for the next executive director involved getting input from not only staff but also students. VerBrugghen added, “The students have never been afraid to do something that seems hard. What has kept me going is realizing that when students show up for us, then we should always be ready to show up for them.”