June Issue 2001
Commentary
by Tom Starland
Thanks!
A lot of you folks let us know you were pleased and impressed with our "new" format used for our May issue. Most of the credit for that issue goes to a team effort, including our advertisers, our printer and the team of people who worked on the paper at Tri-State Printing in North Charleston, SC, the people who sent us the articles and photos used, and my wife Linda and yours truly. But, the main difference in format was that the paper didn't have a fold last month, and it had 12 more pages than usual. Everything else was pretty much the same, but we're all happy people liked the results. Very soon, that format may be our normal format.
The new format may have caused some problems in breaking up our normal routine of delivery, display, and mailing the paper, but it opens up our future for growth. "Carolina Arts" has been steadily growing while coverage of the visual arts in other newspapers has been in a steady decline. As more people use us to promote their exhibitions, services or themselves - we grow. And when we grow, we can fit more of what you like in the paper. Thanks!
Vote Yes!
On June 5th, folks in Charlotte, NC, will be voting on Charlotte's cultural future and its sports future. Voters will be deciding to approve or not a financial package which will support major expansion of Charlotte's cultural community and build new facilities for Charlotte's basketball and baseball teams. The smaller part of the package including $342 million will go for expansion and moving the Mint Museum of Art to Uptown Charlotte, expand and renovate the Afro-American Cultural Center, expand the Discovery Center and an Uptown theater.
It boggles my mind to think that there are city leaders in the Carolinas who would even present such a package to voters, but I'm not surprised that it is happening in Charlotte.
Charlotte's government, business, and community leaders are determined to make Charlotte the cultural center of the South. It's already the financial center of the South and may become the financial center of the country. Business leaders are constantly trying to out-support their competitors in giving to the Charlotte arts community in any number of imaginative ways. A recent advertisement promotes an Uptown condo project which will be providing free lodging to Tryon Center for Visual Art "artists-in-residence".
I don't like taxes, but if I lived in Charlotte, I would be voting "yes" for a city willing to invest in not only its sports teams, but its art community too. How about your city?
Public Art Projects
This summer, two public art projects will take place in three cities in the Carolinas. Guess what? It's Charlotte again. Actually, Charlotte and Hickory, NC, will be presenting their own versions of Art on Parade with Chairs on Parade. Charlotte will present artists' renditions of larger-than-life rocking chairs, while Hickory will present larger-than-life dinner chairs.
Farther to the south in Beaufort, SC, the home of last year's Cows on Vacation, which saw 28 of Chicago's famous cows taking a break from the windy city for some fun in the sun - will this year play host to vacationing pigs. Three dozen swine from Cincinnati's Big Pig Gig will visit the Beaufort lowcountry for a summer vacation. They'll be hamming it up in the Palmetto State. Can ya'll say Bar-B-Sue?
We'll have more about these two events next month. And... comments about Spoleto visual arts in the Holy City of Charleston where the streets will be filled with "Tourists on Parade". Ya gotta love 'em. You really do.
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer
427, Bonneau, SC 29431
Telephone, Answering Machine and FAX: 843/825-3408
E-Mail: carolinart@aol.com
Subscriptions are available for $18 a year.
Carolina Arts
is published monthly by Shoestring
Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2001 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 2001 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.