A Long Range Plan for the Arts in South Carolina,
2011-2020

Thursday, April 8

Chapman Cultural Center

Here's what we heard at the Spartanburg Canvas forum:

What is one thing that is working in the arts, either in your community, the state or elsewhere?

• Local arts councils support arts education and community arts activities

• S.C. Book Festival

• Hub City Writers Project – has broad spectrum of events and arts disciplines

• Spartanburg has a foundation in facilities for arts groups – access to space

• ABC (Arts in Basic Curriculum Project) Schools

• Performing arts programs in local colleges

• Arts activities offered by local colleges

• Collaboration

• Parents are still willing to invest in their children's education in the arts

• Increased arts-based grants at the Humanities Council

• High-quality performing arts activities

• Arts appreciation is good because citizens see arts education as a priority

• Lots of opportunities to participate in the arts, not only in Spartanburg, but across the Upstate

• Art walks and similar activities provide an opportunity for citizens to get involved in arts events and have a more intimate relationship with the artistic process

• Good diversity of arts media
  

What is one of the biggest challenges facing the arts?

• Money
• Funding is spread thin among arts organizations, presenters
• Need more sales for artists
• Artists need help selling their product
• Challenges for earned and unearned income
• Encourage collaboration among arts organizations and educational institutions
• Arts education needs to remain a priority to maintain appreciation of arts
• Independence among arts organizations
• Attracting new audiences
• Inclusion of segments of community who haven't been exposed or reached
• 256,000 people in Spartanburg Co. Huge number of this group is either too busy to participate or is uninformed about the arts.
• Breakdown of the newspaper industry. They are more ads and less content.
• What is the next media? - How to communicate
• Utilizing Web to stream and promote arts events – reach beyond traditional audience
• Embrace new technology and social networking. Prepare for the next line of technology and products.
• Gap between those who do and do not appreciate the arts
• How to bridge the gap through education
• Dealing with audiences who are not experienced with technology - need to reach and engage non-tech savvy audiences and maintain a balance
• Create bridge to outlying areas not currently being reached by current media (Arts Daily, ETV, etc.)
• Inclusion – Participation should represent community
• Need creative solutions to deal with overall problem of inclusion
• Need to embrace various cultures
• Relevance - expand audiences by making activities relevant to all
• Art that speaks to people is worthwhile to invest their time in
• Jazz orchestra example - How do small arts groups get promotional opportunities and "play time"? How to build participation? 
• Need performing arts events during the day for students.
• Want to see Spartanburg diversify board membership/get new members on boards and new perspectives and ages
• Lack of awareness; need help with marketing
• Consider allotting money for marketing consultants in the next 10 years to help increase audience sizes and types
• Boards – members need to take leadership roles; core groups do all of the work
• Board training and education – how to keep board members engaged?
• Many artists lack enthusiasm in their own art; need to try new techniques and step out of their comfort zone
• Don't need to rely on the same grant sources; nonprofits need to be able to make up deficit when funding is gone
• Nonprofit arts groups should follow more of a business model than nonprofit model; they need to retool and come out stronger.

What is a great opportunity for the arts in our state?

• Need funding to export artists out of state and attract more tourists to state

• Utilize public TV to spotlight arts organizations and arts events

• Collaborate with city council – need advocacy from the grass roots level all the way up to decision makers

• Challenge and opportunity – Boards working with other boards to strengthen one another; growing issue with smaller arts organizations

• Partnership among municipalities to reduce/share costs

• Communication/collaboration to maximize efficiency

• “Trails” example – it's a unified effort to bring in multiple audiences

• Difficult to get respect as an artist working in a non-traditional medium

• How to keep talent in Spartanburg

• SC does a lot to get corporations to come into the state: require corporations to support the arts

• Never forget "arts excellence"

• Need leadership and policy makers who value the arts

• Need to get good artists in the schools

• Leadership – need more leaders in the arts

• “Spartanburg has the foundation, but needs to package it.”