Downtown Charleston, SC, is where you’ll find a trail of broken promises and shattered hopes of generations of artists looking for a glimmer of hope and respect.
How many times do I have to go listen to a group of artists voicing their frustrations about the lack of a decent space for artists to create and show art – in the heart of historic Charleston? Too many.
This time it was, Creative Spaces: A panel discussion addressing the lack of artistic production and presentation space in Charleston, held Apr. 24, 2008, at the Redux Contemporary Art Center in Charleston. The powerhouse panel included: Jeanette Guinn, SC Arts Commission; John Paul Huguley, Founder of the American College of the Building Arts; Todd Smith, former director of the Gibbes Museum of Art; Seth Curcio, Director of Redux; Sharon Graci, Director of Pure Theater; Mark Sloan, Director of the Halsey Institute for Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston; Linda Fantuzzo, local visual artist; and Ellen Dressler Moryl, Director of the Office of Cultural Affairs, City of Charleston. The panel mediator was Marian Mazzone, Dept. Chair of Art History at College of Charleston, and President of the Redux Advisory Board.
This was a wonderful panel of people who have carved out their own niche in Charleston – except for one (Todd Smith, outgoing director of the Gibbes Museum of Art), but they were not the people who had much to offer in the way of solutions to the – Charleston space problem.
The conclusion of the meeting was that a task-force might be formed. Wait for it…
The Harsh Reality
Charleston is a small city with no throwaway spaces left for artists who want cheap rent. Those days faded after Hurricane Hugo came in 1989. The first half of the 1990’s was the opportunity to carve out a multipurpose home for Charleston’s art community, but the city leaders blew that chance. Now, here we are in the last years of the first decade of the 21st century and no one has figured out that they just are not making anymore downtown Charleston.
A few artists seem to want their cake and eat it too. They want to stay in downtown Charleston where they can create and show their art, but they want to do it for less than everyone else who pays to be in downtown Charleston. Some feel Charleston may owe them this – because they make the city the cultural wonder that it is. If they are forced to leave – the city will become just streets, buildings and sidewalks. I’ve heard that before if the community didn’t bail out the Charleston Symphony Orchestra when they get in financial trouble – which is often.
Funny thing about that view of Charleston, this opinion has probably been voiced for over 300 years, but the city just seems to keep on getting by with what it has. If you’re the new kid on the block you better be ready to fight the old guard for every inch you get. And, if you survive long enough – soon you’ll be the old guard fighting off the new kids.
Opportunity in this area can be found in North Charleston, SC – up at the old Navy Base, but many of the artists at this meeting couldn’t hold their noses long enough to wrap themselves around that concept. But, if they are the cultural engine that drives downtown Charleston – why can’t they move that culture to the Navy Base – then those seeking culture will follow. It’s not going to be that long before downtown Charleston will be extended all the way to the Navy Base anyway. The old worn out industrial “neck” area of Charleston will soon be a thing of the past. This will be the new Charleston and developers have already carved up the spoils between themselves. That’s another opportunity lost. So the Navy Base will soon be at the gateway to the emerald city.
Being Positive
It was suggested at the meeting and during following discussions about the meeting that venting old frustrations wouldn’t get the group anywhere – positive thinking was called for to solve this problem. So I’ll offer a positive solution based on my years of working with the local and state Sierra Club and other observations.
You can spend years lobbying leaders to protect the environment and you just might win a battle or two, but if you really want to protect the land – you better own it. Leaders change and so does policy. The Nature Conservancy has a better plan to protect land – own it or tie its future up in easements.
So if artists want a space to work, a space to show their work, a place to practice their music, dance steps, or theatre craft – you better own it. If someone else gives it to you – they can take it away.
Oh wait – a lot of these artists don’t have money or they say they don’t. So how are they going to own anything?
Where I live in Berkeley County, SC, it seems like you can’t throw a stone without hitting a church. People are building churches everywhere. People with not a lot of money themselves. If the arts are your religion – build yourself a house of worship.
You form a congregation, you find a spiritual leader, members of the congregation pledge money to the church on a yearly basis, that spiritual leader and some congregation leaders go to a bank and get a loan to build their church – a church of the arts. You pay your pledge and practice your religion.
That’s pretty much what commercial gallery owners have done in Charleston. They find their flock, pledge their financial future and practice their trade in art. Also, there are a lot of organizations with lodge facilities all over the area. Lodge members build these lodges – together.
Nobody hands you anything on a platter that’s worth having and without strings attached. That’s life.
So artists of Charleston – don’t look for anyone else to solve your problems. Help yourselves and forget about downtown Charleston – it’s sold out. The Charleston Symphony has wanted a new concert hall for over 20 years. They’re on the top of the list along with the African-American Museum. Have they broken ground for either of those projects lately? Don’t put yourselves on that list – you’re not that young.
A Change in Attitude Needed
I agree with comments made by John Stoerr writing about the arts forCharleston City Paper (5/7/08) about the undertones expressed by people at this meeting dealing with entitlement, victimization, and a preference for space in downtown Charleston or nothing. The artists with these feelings will have to come to terms with the reality that – they are the only people who are going to hold those feelings – especially in today’s economy.
Artists will get nowhere with the general public or business community expressing these attitudes or trying to convince them that the arts are necessary, economic generators, more popular than sports, or comparing Charleston to what’s been done in other cities. There is no other city that can be compared to the space situation in Charleston.
Most things they want are possible and possible with the help of the community – once the artists – like commercial gallery owners – are willing to put their own money and futures on the bottom line. Money makes the world go round and it’s the mother’s milk of the arts. Once artists stop waving around pumped up economic surveys about the impact of the arts in front of the community and adopt a healthy respect for other people’s money, they will find that many are willing to become partners with them on sound projects. Don’t continue to delude yourselves or insult the intelligence of the public. The call for this movement – if there will be a movement, should be – get real, get serious and you might just get what you want.
Carolina Arts will do its part – if presented with a sound proposal, but then we have to fight to survive everyday to keep what we have.