One of my first blog entries was about the meeting held at the Redux Contemporary Art Center in Charleston, SC, by artists looking for a solution of finding spaces for artists in Charleston. I just received the following notice about a second meeting – found below.
An open discussion will be held on July 1, 2008, from 6:30-8pm, at Theater 99, located at 280 Meeting Street, downtown Charleston, SC. The discussion entitled, Creative Spaces: Developing a unified Center for the Arts, will be a follow up to the Creative Spaces panel discussion hosted at Redux Contemporary Art Center in Charleston, SC, on April 24, 2008. All interested parties are invited to join the newly created Charleston Arts Coalition in this discussion.
The format for the follow-up meeting will be more of a roundtable discussion and continuation of the conversation that began in April. The panel will consist of at least Chris Price, of PrimeSouth Group, LLC, urban planner Tripp Muldrow, of Arnett Muldrow & Associates, Jonathan Brilliant, local artist and Gibbes Museum employee, and Fred Delk of Columbia Development Corp., with Buff Ross, serving as moderator. The panel is comprised of individuals that have worked on collaborative projects similar to the vision of The Peoples Arts Center. The goal is to create a roadmap of what action needs to be taken based on successful examples of Arts center development in other cities in the Southeast.
The panel discussion at Redux in April was a rare moment for Charleston artists, musicians, performers, writers, and patrons to discuss the rapidly diminishing real estate available to the arts in Charleston. Panel members and the more than 100 people in attendance discussed this issue.
From this panel discussion, the Charleston Arts Coalition was formed. It is a group of artists, arts professionals and members of the community who have joined together to work towards creating an all inclusive unified center for the arts, encompassing visual, performance, music and literary art. Their goal is to find and modify real estate through out the city of Charleston, to house production, presentation and education space for the creative arts. The ultimate project goal is the creation of the Peoples Art Center.
The purpose of the first panel discussion held at Redux was to open a dialogue about the lack of art space in Charleston. The focus of the follow-up on July 1 will be on how to effectively begin to solve this problem and foster collaborations between the arts and the real estate development community.
The arts are a vital part of Charleston, benefiting the economy, tourism, real estate and the general cultural capitol of the city. The arts in Charleston must be advanced through the development of a space that could provide the living artists of Charleston with support and a venue to interact effectively with the public. This would foster collaboration among artistic disciplines enhancing each other and the community through exciting cultural events throughout the year.
Visitors planning on attending the event on July 1 are encouraged to draft questions and e-mail them to (questions@peoplesartcenter.com) ahead of time as there will only be minimal time to answer questions the night of the event. Theatre 99 has graciously offered their space to host the discussion in a format that will accommodate a large audience comfortably. Theatre 99 is located at 280 Meeting Street, downtown Charleston, South Carolina, above the Bicycle Shoppe, with an entrance to the upstairs at the rear of the building. For info call 843/853-6687.
Visit (www.peoplesartcenter.com) for more information about the roundtable discussion and to see some of the ideas being discussed.