I made the suggestion back on Oct. 14, 2008, that if Surkamer retired that would save the SC Arts Commission some money in cutting their budget. I suggested that she had been there long enough and she has – way too long. Now if some of the other staff members would take the hint there could be real change at the Arts Commission.
The surprise for me is that back in October of last year I never expected that Surkamer would even consider the suggestion, but it’s not the same Arts Commission today and it will be even less in the coming months. The budget ax is falling in SC and with a Governor who thinks he just might be President one day – well anything can happen. Who knows what he’ll do to impress the right-wing conservative nut-cases of his party to get a nomination. Just hope he doesn’t have to do too much face time on Sunday talk shows before he takes some lessons in not looking like a deer frozen in the headlights when asked a question.
The other thing that has really thrown me a bit is in reading Surkamer’s bio I’ve realized that we are the same age and came to SC the same year. Talk about two different sides of a coin. It’s hard for me to believe that she is from the same generation I come from – Peace, Love and Rock & Roll. I tried talking with Surkamer once – many a year ago. I had a long agenda to go over and she blew me off early. I guess she was late for a Spoleto event. I guess I was supposed to be impressed that she gave me any face time at all. I wasn’t.
It’s also hard to realize how an in-residence dancer becomes head of the SC Arts Commission – even over a 35 year span. I hope the next fearless leader comes from an arts administration background – or better yet – a business background. It might make a difference – it might not. Frankly, I hope the board isn’t too quick to replace her – with the Arts Commission’s Ten Year Plan as a blueprint – the Commission should be able to sail on auto-pilot for some distance without a captain. They’ve been on auto-pilot for some time now.
Surkamer also stated in her farewell press release and comments made for The State newspaper that she is not going anywhere. Lucky you, Columbia (SC) art community. Maybe she’ll become a lobbyist for the arts. I see a board seat on 701 Center for Contemporary Arts in her future. Or she could start a new dance company which would receive instant funding from the Arts Commission, as we all know – it’s not what you do at the Arts Commission, it’s who you know most of the time.
Anyway, how much change will this mean for the arts community or artists in SC? Not much in my opinion. And, based on the lack of news generated by the head of a state agency retiring – most people might not even notice.
I’m sure Surkamer will be glad of one thing in leaving – getting back to traveling first class. I hear she was not fond of traveling the state mandated coach when traveling by airplane for the Arts Commission. That can be a real bummer traveling with the regular folks in coach.
All we can do is sit back and wait to see if this idea catches on at the Arts Commission. We sure could use some new vision in the visual arts department and…
