By STU CLAMPITT
The Reporter met musically promiscuous electric violinist Cathy Morris this month at Pasto Italiano, 3150 E. State Road 32, Westfield, when she was entertaining diners with violin music from a variety of genres.
Morris spoke to The Reporter about her musical journey and about her non-profit organization, Arts with a Purpose, which works with marginalized communities.
“I call myself musically promiscuous because I will play any style with anybody, anytime, anywhere,” Morris said. “In a nutshell, I founded this organization that’s kind of like a booking agency. I match artists of all disciplines – music, dance, visual art – to communities that don’t necessarily have the arts available to them.”
Electric violinist Cathy Morris recently played in Westfield and spoke to The Reporter about her community outreach organization: Arts with a Purpose. (Reporter photo by Stu Clampitt)
Morris works with a group of artists that, while it varies in membership, sometimes has as many as 80 artists available.
“We do work with children and youth, we also work with adults and seniors,” Morris said. “We go to the independent adult care centers. They never had really great arts. They always had crafts, but never real art. Communities and neighborhoods. Displaced caregivers. We try to do stuff for nursing caregivers. Just people who can use the arts as an opportunity and maybe therapeutically as an opportunity to heal.”
Morris founded the organization as a non-for-profit in 2016. Early in the pandemic, Arts with a Purpose produced 35 outside concerts in courtyards for low-income senior housing.
“Before that I was back and forth – but mostly forth – for about a decade because I had grandkids out in California,” Morris said.
Morris has been involved in music since a very young age, and she learned in college that she wanted to learn music from musicians rather than from an institution.
“I came from a family where my dad was a bass player, music teacher and conducted out local symphony in Columbus, Ind.,” Morris told The Reporter. “In the 70s and 80s, that was quite the artistic Mecca. My mother was director of the arts council down there. I got to witness from a very young age how to produce different arts activities working with different disciplines.”
Morris attended Indiana University to study classical music, but said she found it all “too serious” for her tastes.
“So, I just jumped in there and started getting gigs and hiring people who were crazy better than me and learning from them,” Morris said. “There was everything from bluegrass and country to Cajun to Celtic to blues and jazz. I just really dived in. I just made it my job to be the Pied Piper of violin. I’m the violin lady!”
Morris told The Reporter she is happy to work with anybody who has an artist, an organization or a location that needs the arts.
Based in Indy and offering services throughout central Indiana, you can reach Morris to discuss Arts with a Purpose at Cathy@ArtsWithAPurpose.org.
To learn more about Morris and her music, visit CathyMorris.com.