Recent News

---

Author: VLADIA JURCOVA-SPENCER, Public Relations Chair, Charleston Arts Coaltion
Publisher: CharlestonCurrents.com
08/27/2009

AUG. 27, 2009 -- The Charleston Arts Coalition, in partnership with the College of Charleston's Tate Center for Entrepreneurship, held a "Creative Town Hall" meeting on Tuesday titled "Nursing Creativity through the Economic Slump." An estimated 100 attendees of the town hall participated in what at times could be called a heated discussion about the needs of Charleston's creative community.

The town hall meeting, moderated by John Zinsser of Pacifica Human Communications, included special guests Katie Fox and Jeanette Guinn from the S.C. Arts Commission; Ellen Dressler Moryl, director of the Office of Cultural Affairs; Marty Besancon, cultural arts director of North Charleston Cultural Arts; Mark Sloan, curator at the College of Charleston's Halsey Institute; Karen Chandler, co-founder of Charleston Jazz Initiative and arts management professor at the College of Charleston School of the Arts; Sharon Gracie, artistic director and co-founder of Pure Theater; and Kyle Barnette from the Charleston Ballet Theater.

After the presentation of the coalition's survey titled "The Voice of the People," each special guest shared with the audience what keeps them up at night. Some interesting comments included:

Lack of public support for the arts from the business community.
Lack of compassionate and consistent advocacy for arts.
Lack of audiences/art patrons.
The need to provide access to the arts for our children.
A total of 277 creatives from at least 14 creative disciplines took the survey, with 60 percent of respondents representing performing arts; 59 percent, visual arts; and 38 percent, designers. Seventy-two percent of respondents believed that Charleston needs a group that would unite Charleston's creative community.

When the coalition asked what services would benefit local organizations/artists, 56 percent of respondents asked for a facility/venue, 52 percent wanted more promotions and 46 percent asked for a centralized Web site. Based on these findings, the Charleston Arts Coalition selected its first community project and created www.CharlestonCulture.com.The Web site will be a free tool for all Charleston creatives to present their work and their services to public. It will also offer a common place for Charleston artists to meet and share ideas. Anyone can create a free artist profile and post events.

"It is a mini Facebook for Charleston creatives," says Jessica Bluestein, president of the Coalition.

The coalition is in the process of adding to the Web site an online forum for discussion of local issues.

The Coalition's goal with the Creative Town Hall was to offer yet another platform to share and express ideas. "We believe that exchanging ideas and bringing awareness of the importance of creative business for a thriving and prosperous cultural city is essential to Charleston," says Bluestein.

In the last hour of the meeting, attendees discussed the need for a performance space for multidisciplinary events located in downtown Charleston that would also include affordable studio spaces for artists and artisans. These are some comments and suggestions that triggered a heated discussion in the room:

Creating a plan for a new Creative Arts Center to be proposed to local developers, business community and city officials.
Increasing awareness of Charleston's art world as accessible and hospitable to everyone and anyone with or without arts education.
Creating new, diversified audiences.
Cooperation among disciplines that brings more awareness and recognition to all.
Statistically, cities with one creative co-op facility have much stronger and thriving creative communities; however, there are facilities in Charleston that do offer services for creatives and public but are underutilized. For example, the City Gallery at Waterfront Park could use more proposals from local artists; the city of North Charleston has studios available for artists and artisans; the Gibbes Museum of Art would like to welcome more students and children; and the College of Charleston's School of the Arts performances are free to the college students yet are not well attended.

The meeting was closed with a survey comment that "Stronger creative economy = better city to live in." For more information about the survey, please visit www.charlestonartscoalition.com.