End of The Year – Looking Back & Fowards

Well it’s happened again – one year is ending and another will soon begin. Frankly, I’m ready for 2008 to be good and gone and 2009 to begin – bringing hopefully a new era in the visual art community of the Carolinas.

Looking back it has been a rough year – $4 a gallon gas, the stock market tumble, the collapse of the financial market, recession finally acknowledged, a long drawn-out election, and dwindling advertising support for Carolina Arts. It was the trickle down theory in reverse. And, although gas prices have tumbled and may continue to lower – it is but one bright spot in a bad year – other than Carolina Arts Unleashed.

We started my blog in May and it was an instant hit and has continued to attract new viewers to the blog and our website. We are now seeing 150,000 new hits a month compared to the average hits we got on a monthly basis before the blog, with the totals for Nov. 2008 coming in at 370,774 hits.

The blog came at just the right time as space in our paper was shrinking and issues needed to be addressed – more than just once a month. People have always told us that the first thing they read when our paper arrives each month is my commentary – now they have a new spot where they can find commentary on a regular basis.

The blog also provided unlimited space and offered the opportunity to add images, as well as an opportunity to expand the subject matter. I even added a few reviews or previews of exhibits.

The blog had not turned out to be a good development for the South Carolina Arts Commission – a frequent subject of my commentaries, but has turned out to be a useful tool in helping bring light to some situations like the fundraising effort to save the North Carolina Pottery Center. In this instance, I could inform and update readers about ongoing events on a regular basis – much better than we could have ever done in the printed paper.

I’ve also met some good people out there in the world of blogging. And, found some old friends. Reading a list of blogs has also become a near-daily routine.

On the negative side – the blog is not what some people had hoped for – an open forum. I just don’t have the time to deal with all that – maybe sometime in the future. People can and do e-mail me with comments which have the same impact as online comments. They make suggestions and complaints and I react to those comments. It also takes a lot of time to work on the entries and they have to be edited. Believe me – you don’t want to see my writing – unedited. Thanks to my wife Linda, you don’t see the real unleashed side of me.

So what about the future?

Well, this may not be blog related but I hope to soon add podcast to our website. These would be short, perhaps 30 minute programs on a variety of subjects – a visit to a gallery, a visit to an artist’s studio, a verbal description of a visual art related event or even a discussion between a few folks on a visual art related subject. I also hope to back up the podcast with images which can be viewed on our website. I have to learn some new technology so don’t expect podcasts starting Jan. 1, 2009 – I don’t learn that fast.

I would also like to redo our website. It’s a little dated and like our paper is simple and clean, but I think some big improvements can be made and the look and navigation can be improved. It’s a project that’s in the idea stage.

Now, when it comes to the printed paper – this is a bigger challenge. We’re in a struggle to survive. We’ve had color covers since Mar. 2006. They are big, beautiful and very popular, but we could lose that color cover this year if we can’t find people willing to support it with color advertising – on a regular basis. Because the economy is in the crapper, many of our advertisers have had to make cutbacks – which we understand and thank them for their support in the past, but it is getting harder and harder to fill those pages. We’re doing all we can, but considering the economy there are not many in a position to help out.

From the beginning – back when we did an arts newspaper calledCharleston Arts – started in 1987, we have always stressed inclusion over exclusion or what they call in the publishing biz – you pay, you play. This means that you are featured in the paper only if you are an advertiser. Many publications like this format as well as advertisers, because it makes everything simple. The people included are there because they are paying to be there.

We’ve survived for over 20 years by being as inclusive as we can – trying to balance the commercial sector with the non-profit and including as many – non-advertisers as possible. We don’t ignore our supporters, but we also don’t ignore those who don’t or have never supported us with a nickels worth of advertising.

Now we never have room for everything we receive each month by deadline. That’s why we started the website in June 1999 and we have archived all the articles about exhibitions we have received since that month. It’s a valuable resource for those interested in what is and has been exhibited in the Carolinas over the last eight years. And, we don’t ask a penny to access or print any of it, unlike others in the publishing business. Everyone from everywhere in the Carolinas who sends us the proper info by our deadlines are included on our website version of the paper. I don’t know how we could be any more inclusive than that.

If things continue the way they are, we may have to make changes to that policy of inclusion in the paper – we already have had to cut a lot of galleries in cities we don’t distribute our paper to and galleries that do not distribute our paper (some their choice – some our choice) in cities where we do distribute the paper. I hate making cuts like that, but it’s been necessary with shrinking advertising revenue. Less revenue = less pages in the paper.

We have always made it possible for any gallery or art space to be included in our paper by advertising – even if they are the only gallery included in their city. Like the Artist’s Coop in Laurens, SC, or Fountainside Gallery in Wilmington, NC. They both serve as lighthouses in their respective art communities. Your gallery could be a lighthouse for the visual arts in your city for as little as $42 a month. Check out our info on How the Paper Works.

As I said before, I hope 2009 is going to be a year of change for the good. And, I hope you’ll all be there with us and bring some friends along too. We’re going to try and keep bringing you all the news we know about what is going on in the Carolina visual art community and perhaps a little more.