Carolina Arts Unleashed

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 called Charleston 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.

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Many people have the impression that people who are involved in the arts - any aspect of the arts - are unusual people - art lovers. They think we live and breathe the arts. Not so. As the Bard wrote - “If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh?” We have children, mortgages, flat tires, and some have interest in sports.

Myself, I love the arts. I like live theatre, classical music, modern dance, and the visual arts. And, I love football - not that kick the ball from one side of the field to the other kind of football - NFL football. I love my Carolina Panthers.

I’m from Michigan originally, but I divorced the Detroit Lions when Barry Sanders retired and adopted the Panthers as my new team.

It’s a good thing I’ve got the Panthers this year and it’s good that they are doing so well. The visual art community is not doing so well this year and it may be awhile before it is again, but for now, I’ll live through the Panthers.

The last couple of weeks have been great - while working on one of the smallest issues of Carolina Arts we have offered in some time, I got to watch the Panthers run over their division foes the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on a Monday Night Football game with the rest of the country (the football lovin’ country) and then again on Sunday evening the win against the # 2 offense in the NFL- the Denver Broncos.

This means the Panthers will be in the playoffs for sure - extending football season for me. Oh joy! Besides lower gas prices - there hasn’t been a lot of joy lately.

So I’ve got Carolina Arts and the Carolina Panthers to keep me going in 2009. And, although South Carolina seems to be the weak partner in the two states the Panthers are supposed to represent - I’m doing my part to be a loyal fan from South Carolina.

Most of the Wal-Marts is SC don’t even carry Panther T-shirts. What’s up with that? In SC it’s all about the Gamecocks and Tigers. The only thing Clemson’s football team was worth was ridding the world of Woody Hayes. It’s the Panthers ya’ll.

I don’t know what the future will bring for the Panthers, but in-between doing my work to bring readers news about the visual art community in the Carolinas - I’ll be yelling at my TV for Peppers to crush Eli Manning or at the latest unbelievable catch Steve Smith just made. Then I’ll go back to the arts.

Go Panthers! Good luck Sunday night in New Jersey - meadowlands - good hunting grounds for panthers.

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When asking someone once about why gas prices are so much lower in the Upstate of South Carolina compared to the Lowcountry - the answer was pipeline. I was told there is a gasoline pipeline going through the Upstate.

At first that made sense, but when I thought about it more - something doesn’t add up. If there is a pipeline, I’m sure it doesn’t go many places but to a central distribution hub. I don’t think every gas station in the Upstate has a spigot hooked up to their pumps from that pipeline.

The Lowcountry has several ports - Charleston, Georgetown and Port Royal - all hubs for gas arriving in tanker ships. Maybe it is more expensive to transport gas by ship than pipeline, but the pipeline has to come all the way from the Gulf Coast states or New Jersey - somewhere an oil refinery is.

On my recent delivery trip while the lowest gas prices for regular in the Lowcountry were in the $3.70 range. I was able to purchase gas in Rock Hill, SC, and Columbia, SC, for $3.50. In Spartanburg, SC, and Greer, SC, I could get it for $3.49 and $3.46. But the real surprise came in Clinton, SC, where gas was priced $3.41. That’s a big difference and I don’t think there is a pipeline in Clinton and I know they don’t have a port there.

Now some people say gas prices are high in the Lowcountry because of the tourists visiting. They say let the tourists pay higher prices - as if the people who live in the Lowcountry don’t have to pay the same price. I know I don’t get to pull into a gas station and show my local I.D. card for a discount. Besides I don’t know why it would ever be a good idea to charge tourists a higher price - especially now. This concept is just another one of those dumb logic things to justify higher prices.

In college I studied the concepts of supply and demand and the powers of competition. And, I would have to think that there is less competition in Clinton than in Charleston, by sheer volume of gas stations alone. But I must be missing something here because for the life of me I can’t see why people driving around Clinton are paying 30 cents a gallon less for gas than people in the Lowcountry. And, I’m talking about the lowest prices available - not those people who pay 20 cents higher at an Exxon station than the station two blocks away.

I know with as many miles as I drive each month for business and personal reasons - every penny counts and it all adds up at the end of the year. I never pass up a discounted gas price. Paying 30 cents a gallon less for gas is a big advantage in business and in an area’s cost of living.

Now, I also understand that some gas stations use cheap gas prices as a way to get people to come and spend more money in their convenience store, but shouldn’t gas stations in the Lowcountry use that same tactic to draw in more visitors with cheap gas prices? Maybe they can get subsidies from the businesses in the tourism industry.

And, there is no way to compare prices between North and South Carolina as NC has higher state gas taxes, but even then, sometimes I can find gas as cheap in NC as it is in the SC Lowcountry.

I guess I could always think about relocating to Clinton or Greer, but I don’t think I’m going to be able to do that.

Well, here it is almost time to hit the road again and gas prices in my area have finally caught up to prices from last month in the Upstate of SC. I can’t wait to see if the price is still 30 cents cheaper in the Upstate. I might even find an under $3 price.

That would be amazing, but unlike the late John Denver, I won’t be able to fill huge storage tanks full of cheap gas - to get a rocky mountain high.

P.S. Now a hurricane is headed into the Gulf of Mexico and speculators are driving the price of gas back up. Isn’t it nice to have people who make bets on the misery of others - before it happens - to make a profit.

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I was doing some surfing of blog directories and came across Carolina Blogger Directory, a site which is run by The State.com. It had a category for the arts and a registration form to be included.

I registered to be included with their art blogs and they put us there, but shortly - after a few days - they took us off. I figured it wouldn’t take long. Someone must have started reading it and noticed that The State and one of their staff members was being featured - on a regular basis.

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I’m sure you have noticed that we don’t seem to be offering many photo images of artworks mentioned in many of our postings. Believe me it’s not for not trying. We have been having some difficulty getting them to work in this new blog format. It’s different software than what we are used to and if you’re not a total computer wizard - sometimes it takes a while to figure things out.

Like when I first decided to use Wordpress as my blog format - their site said you can be started in just five minutes. It took us a month and a half to work out all our problems before we could launch into cyberspace. We had some issues with our server to say the least.

Well, we finally were successful in getting some images up on my review of the SC State Museum’s juried show. Photos supplied by the SC State Museum and one by Lynne Riding. This post is titled, A Layman’s View, posted on June 12, 2008. So now you can see some of the images - if you haven’t made the trip to see the exhibit yet. Don’t just accept my word on things go see this show. Oh and by the way, our July 2008 cover of Carolina Arts features works from that exhibition too.

Also, you may have noticed a lack of postings since the end of June and until now, a week into July. Well that’s going to be a regular pattern - it’s called delivery time. I’m on the road for four to five days straight, traveling in big circles around North and South Carolina. It’s a lot of driving and too little sleep and no time to blog - much less keep up with e-mail.

So hopefully new posts will be coming and photos will be included - when I remember to take my camera or when I’m able to take photos. And, maybe some other additions - who knows what we can learn - day to day. It’s still all so very new to me.

One more thing, for you readers who may not see our paper Carolina Arts or who haven’t been regular visitors to our website. Carolina Arts Unleashed, almost from the first week it was launched has become the most popular page on our website. That’s amazing. I had no idea how fast word could spread.

Thanks for your interest and time spent reading and reading and reading. But don’t forget about our paper and the website. There is a lot of information there.

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I am constantly amazed at technology - especially the Internet. We started posting parts of our paper (Carolina Arts) and extra articles which we didn’t have room for on a companion website in June 1999. Not long after we were posting pictures of each page of our paper - every month so everyone who visits our site could see the printed version of the paper. Now I’m writing my first blog. Not that blogs are a new thing, but I’m usually far behind the curve when it comes to taking advantage of new technology. It’s not easy for this old dog to learn new tricks. I thank my lucky stars that my better half (wife Linda) is able to pick up new technology fairly fast and then bring it down to my level - which takes months if not years in some cases.

Linda and I purchased our first computer in 1983 - an Apple IIe. It cost us a fortune back then, but it was well worth the cost and time spent learning how to take advantage of all the things it could do. Within years we had paid, what was at the time equal to a house payment to get an external hard drive with 30mbs of memory and another house payment for a 1/4mb of ram memory. Today, I can buy a laptop computer for the same price of those two items with 40 gigs of memory and 1 gig of ram - with CD/DVD players and burners, internal cameras, wireless internet connections and a host of other features - not even dreamed of back in 1983. Now, many versions of Apple computers later, we’re still trying to learn about all the things computers and the Internet can do to help us spread the word about the visual art community in North and South Carolina.

Although expressing my opinions about issues taking place in that art community is not a new thing - being able to do so without waiting for the latest issue of the paper to reach readers is - for me. It will now be possible to make comments on a weekly, daily or even hourly basis. That just blows my mind and concerns others who know me, but don’t worry, I’m pretty careful to make sure my opinions are based on solid ground. And, I have learned that those who talk when they are angry or emotional about issues - make mistakes and often end up saying things they didn’t mean to. Also, you are writing to a worldwide audience - you just can’t talk like your sitting in a local bar or in some friend’s living room. You have to bring your readers along with you on an issue - they need to know what you know and they need to know where that opinion is coming from, and that’s the beauty of a blog on the Internet - space is not a limitation - except for readers with a short attention span.

So, I hope you’ll join me on this journey and keep up with my postings. And, e-mail me your comments at (info@carolinaarts.com) - just make sure you put the word “blog” in the subject line.

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