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

Tuesday, March 16

Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities

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

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

• Arts incubator – Moore, NC
• Production quality is high and is not affected by economy
• Theatre incubator @Greenville Little Theatre (Studio 444 is in its 3rd year)
• Participation: there is a lot going on in the area
•  A lot of audiences for all
• High quality/talented young performers
• Collaboration between theatres and between other organizations; established organizations welcome new organizations
• Instead of competing, organizations are pooling resources
• Annual upstate competition for high schools (higher quality – better every year – forces higher education to look at quality and expand programs)
• Pickens County schools folk music – YAMS – Young Appalachian Musicians
• Drama classes are full; children advance and move on to other theatres
• (Greenwood) ACTS – integrated arts in middle school (moving to elementary school) in core subjects not just to produce artists but to improve learning; is filtering into community theatre, etc.
• Marketing through Internet – saves money and response is quicker; linking technology to new opportunities
• Peace Center helps make Greenville a top 10 destination.
  

What is one of the biggest challenges facing the arts?

• Funding
• Corporate world is budgeting for other things, not arts
• Foundation money is not there
• Schools are cutting back on conference attendance, other travel and field trips; district funding is down
• Teachers find it difficult to take time away from classroom
• Geography – Pickens is a large county
  (possible solution - target different parts of county)
• Greenville Little Theatre - attendance previously held at 80% capacity; is down to 78-79% capacity; significant drop occurred when economy dropped; has stayed at that lower level
• Technology health issues – “plugged in all of the time” How will technology affect creativity? Technology is expanding at expense of arts in education
• Not developing younger (future) audiences due to cut in arts education (theatre programs, e.g.)
• Costs have not gone down – everything/operations costs have gone up but have to keep ticket prices accessible
• Long range issue: competitiveness between nonprofit sectors is growing because organizations are fighting for money for basic needs
• Arts administrators making high salaries (not in S.C.)
• Draw diverse audiences – challenge is to reach out
• Some teachers were not exposed to arts and don’t see importance; challenge is to change that mind set
• Art is not counted in grade point average (GPA) in schools or in student testing. Makes it easy to cut funding

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

• Increase recognition of the value of the arts in schools through standards. Maximize efforts to link arts to national and state standards. More accountability/assessment (standardized testing) to have a real push/impact
• Data/stats model vs. creative model for accessing learning in the arts. Need to bring all factors together (data and creativity); new model should not be data centric. Artists evaluate learning differently
• Need a census of what the arts do in S.C.; promote what is working in S.C.
• Arts tours into other S.C. towns; group touring – theaters from big towns could tour in small towns
• Educate legislature about the economic impact of the arts by providing compelling information, statistics and data on arts impact. They need to know that the arts are not a frill. Legislators do not respond to invitations to participate in the arts; yet they make the decisions.
• Lander University – all education majors have to take arts integration. Get other colleges to do this as well; offer recertification credits
• Brick and mortar grants to convert facilities in rural area; take advantage of lower real estate prices.