Here’s an e-mail Marvin Chernoff sent out giving his assessment of how his Columbia Festival of the Arts went:
Here’s my take on the festival.
It was a great success.
The two bookends, the gala at the beginning and the closing concert at
the end, were treasures. Ask anyone who was there (besides, Jeffrey Day), and they will
tell you that this town has never seen anything quite like them, and probably
won’t, for a long while.Artista Vista this year was a success with good attendance, especially on
Saturday, according to most of the gallery owners.There were a couple of mistakes that were made because this was the first
year. The biggest was the
timing. It probably should have
been held during the regular season for performance companies so they wouldn’t
have had to expend big dollars for an additional show and could have depended on
subscription attendees to build the audiences.Nonetheless, As
You Like It, at Theatre USC was an outstanding performance and general
admission sales, that is tickets sold to people outside the university, increased over normal by over 100%!
Opera USC’s Postcard from Morocco was wonderful,
however, attendance was normal.Palmetto Opera’s Marriage of
Figaro was an outstanding success, including attendance, considering that it
was a new venture without a large following.Attendance at Marionette Theatre was outstanding.
The three theatres, Trustus, Workshop and Town virtually
sold out during the festival. But more importantly, each of them told
us that there were lots of new attendees, people who were
unaware of the theatres and what they could perform. And all those new people were impressed
with the really fine performances of Nunsense Amen, Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Cats.USC Dance performed magnificently to a good house.
Attendance at the USC Symphony pops concert with Marvin Hamlisch was a
disappointment. Don’t ask me
why. Sol Hurok once said, “If
they’re not coming, you can’t hold them back.”The Philharmonic concert was wonderful and, considering that it was not a
subscription part of the season, sold to a good house of 1,400.Barry, from Mac’s on Main, told me it may have been the best
10 days he ever had.We’re proud that the Columbia Arts Hall of Fame is now on permanent
display at the Koger Center.Marina Lamozov, Joseph Rackers, The Capital City Chorale and Skipp
Pearson rocked the Brookland Baptist Church at their free concert. It was a real treat.First Thursday Jazz Concert at the Zoo
during the festival more than tripled its usual
attendance and the artists who showed their work, virtually, sold out. The
people at the Zoo were "blown
away."The Columbia City Jazz Dance Group and the Columbia City Ballet both did
amazing performances to moderate houses.Washington Street Methodist Church’s schedule of events was
outstanding for them, and they are delighted with the
attendance. So was the
Jewish Cultural Arts group who presented Tel Aviv Café to a good audience at the
Jewish Community Center.Then there was the Open Studio Tour. Every artist I’ve encountered in this town
has thanked me profusely for helping make the Open Studio Tour
happen. We think that the
artists had over 8,000 visits and that they sold between $35,000 and $40,000 in
art, much of it to people who came in from out of town to visit their
studios. And the people, who
attended, from all over the region, loved it.Our web site had over 15,000 visits. And we sold over 450 tickets to events
on line during the festival amounting to over $11,000 in sales. We think those are mostly sales to
people who would not have
otherwise gone to the individual box offices or sites to purchase their
tickets. Experts told
us that this was an excellent result for a first time
event.The bottom line…our goal was to make people in and around
Columbia more
aware and proud of the arts scene here.DOES ANYONE WHO WAS ALIVE AND BREATHING IN THIS TOWN OVER
THE PAST FEW WEEKS DOUBT THAT WAS ACCOMPLISHED?Marvin
Related Posts
“Attendance at the USC Symphony pops concert with Marvin Hamlisch was a disappointment. Don’t ask me why.”
Because most people aren’t into bulimia?
And thanks to the money dumped into this flop of a festival, the citizens of the City of Columbia’s property taxes will be going up again this upcoming year. You can thank Dumb and Dumber, otherwise known as Coble and Austin, for their approval to spend money like a drunken sailor. Ol’ Yes Bob had a special rubber stamp to speed up the approval process for anything that crosses his desk… and Austin says, “If Bob approves, I approve”.
I don’t get the ‘bulimia’ reference…who is Marvin Hamlisch? Not that I care really. These big art things are such huge boondoggles for the thirty or so people in greater Columbia who actually give a damn about snotty and condescending artistes that I agree with Bill B: What a tremendous misprioritization of public spending! Does anyone besides Bad Bob actually think this kind of thing will pull in touristas with money to burn when Atlanta and Charlotte are so near and so much better? People may come here to enjoy outdoors things like huntin and fishin, but somehow I never quite caught the vision of Columbia as an arts mecca. Ed
I find some of these critiques to be quite egocentric – if I don’t care for this then no one else would.
My wife is an artist (she’s hardly snobish) and I enjoy art. We appreciate having such opportunities available. Such festivals don’t have to exist solely for tourism and the dollar. Other local fairs, like in Forest Acres and Sparkleberry, enrich the community.
Some are more effective than others and some may be too costly. I don’t know the details for this event. My point is to challenge the notion that because an art festival is available in Charlotte, we shouldn’t offer one here in our community.
If this was really as great a success as Chernoff claims, then surely he will be able to do it without taxpayer money next time, right? Right?
This is a classic case of government helping the greedy, not the needy. I love the arts, and am a patron…but the well-to-do in Columbia have their hands outstretched like beggars in Calcutta…only the beggars deserve the help.
In a just world, Coble and Austin would be cell mates in an asylum for the terminally inept and chronically self-interested.
Not egocentric, pragmatic. If these things were widely enjoyed by a majority of people, they’d be self-supporting wouldn’t they? Answer: They’re almost NEVER self-supporting, because only a fraction of the population care anything about them. And yey we’re forced to pay for them through the tyranny of taxation. I think we’ve earned the right to be a little critical. Ed
yet
And it’s not like there aren’t more pressing things we could be spending tax money on. The bus system comes to mind almost immediately. Bad Bob and his hand-wringing leftists have pi$$ed and moaned about the bus system for a year, and finally had to institute a new tax to pay for it, on the backs of Richland County motorists as I recall. Many would say we ought to be able to do both…have a bus system AND support tha arts. But why? We ought to be spending tax money on things that government is supposed to be providing…and we ought to let patrons of the arts support art. If they don’t then so be it. Ed
The arts are never entirely self-supporting, in the same way that libraries and schools are also not. It’s always up to the society at every level, municipal, state, federal, to decide what importance it wishes to attach to the health and vibrancy of its cultural life. Debating what’s worth funding and what’s not has gone on since time immemorial and is perfectly healthy.
Chernoff definitely has a point with his final question. At the end of the day, regardless of whether the CFA was a success, or was not deserving of funding, or was not handled in the proper manner…the fact is that two weeks’ worth of nearly continuous events took place here in Columbia, featuring the efforts of many many visual artists, actors, musicians, etc, virtually all of whom live here or do much of their creative work here. That alone is testament to the size of the artistic community in this city.
“Arts mecca,” Ed, may be a bit too strong a phrase to use but there is no question that there has been a significant influx of residents involved in the arts in recent years. Whatever else it may or may not have accomplished, this festival has focused a lot of attention on that fact.
Phillip, it’s not just the silly bus system. I picked that out of the air because it occurred to me first. But there are other priorities that require public funding and which ought to be FULLY funded before things like this festival get a dime of public money. Things like homelessness (which The State has reported on extensively in recent weeks) and mental health for indigent people. Literally any number of legitimate programs get lip service by Bad Bob and his leftist flying monkeys, and yet we have public dollars being spent on things like this boondoggle and 3 rivers. It’s not right. I don’t care how you rationalize it, it’s not right. You’re correct, it IS up to society at every level to decide what importance it wishes to attach to cultural niceties. And I daresay that if it were really put to a vote, the people who pay the bills would say no to things like Chernoffs’ festival and 3 rivers. The people who run things somehow never let voters decide these things however…wonder why that is Phillip?
Actually, voters do decide “these things,” i.e., funding priorities. Not every budget item can be submitted to the electorate for their decision. We elect representatives to make these decisions on our behalf based on how they present their positions to us. If they allocate priorities in a manner to which we object, we vote them out of office. I see much hand-wringing here about Mayor Bob but I recall that he was recently re-elected handily.
I agree with you, Ed, that there are other items that perhaps should receive greater funding priority than they currently are. But the hospitality tax from which city funds were disbursed is specifically intended to be used for “tourism-related activities,” including advertising, which is what Chernoff used his money on. This money would not be going in any case to the other needs you mentioned.
Most opponents of arts funding take their positions along the lines of “I don’t use it, why should I pay for it?” Admirably, your endorsement of greater funding for the bus system and the homeless shows that you don’t follow this line of reasoning.
I too wish for increased support for these matters. But let me add two thoughts to this:
1) I believe the arts are not “extra” frills to a society; I believe art is essential to society.
2) The challenge of fully funding public education, protecting the environment, etc., should not preclude all investment spending by a community. And funding for the arts is, I believe, an investment in a community. For example on a federal scale, we certainly have enormous needs where perhaps money could be better allocated. But that does not serve as an argument against the National Endowment for the Arts, for example, whose impact on the budget is so tiny but whose impact on our culture is proportionally much larger. Abolishing the NEA and spending all its money on something more “urgent” like poverty would not have an impact on poverty to nearly the extent that it would have a devastating effect on the cultural life of the United States.
So, saying that we should wait until all our other problems are fully solved before allocating any resources to cultural funding is not a position I would share. It’s a false dichotomy, especially given the relatively small expenditures we are talking about, whether on a municipal, state, or federal level.
I agree, but only to the extent that we get the crappy government that we deserve. I may actually be wrong about whether voters want their tax money spent on this stuff, because clearly the voters have left Bob Coble in office and free to spend it thus.
So if I’m correct and most voters would prefer that government NOT spend money on these things, then in spite of that most voters are too lazy or apathetic to vote Bob and his ilk out, and we get crappy leadership anyway. I think it is a rape of the system and a miscarriage of justice, but there ya go. Ed
The other thing I resent as I read back over your last post Phillip, is that you sort of justify these cultural expenditures by saying that they’re relatively small. You know, this position is SO wrong. EVERY unnecessary and wrong-headed government expenditure, taken by itself, is “relatively small.” That’s exactly the problem with this kind of pretzel logic advocated by you and whoever else happens to like his little expenditure: You CANNOT take them individually. All these unnecessary and immoral expenditures of tax money must be taken together to fully appreciate the burden they represent to taxpayers, and the ridiculous bloating effect they have on government. Your idea of justification by ‘diminution’ is exactly how we get cucumber subsidies, arts subsidies and every other infernal thing we have today that taxpayers oughtn’t be paying for. Ed
When people try to do something truly good for the community at large they will make the community stand out as a symbol of pride for the region in many cases people complain. However, when people want to take down a symbol of ignorance that holds the community back the community rallies to fight for it.
Sure, there may have been a glitch or two and yes the tickets may have been a little high on occassion but you aren’t going to see the swinging medallions at the fountain at five points. The spoleto festival in Charleston has taken nearly three decades to become a world class arts festival that offers something for everyone at every price point and brings the arts from all over the world to South Carolina.
The team that brought this festival filled a void from when the 3 rivers music festival left. This festival if given the proper chance and support from the community will ultimately have the potential to do the same for the Midlands that Spoleto has done for Charleston.
So quit your bitching and next year by some tickets and go to the festival and support the arts. It will be good for both the community, your mind and your soul.
Thanks Marvin for your efforts and don’t give up the fight.
I pay taxes that go to partially fund this abomination and I’ll bitch if I please, whether you like it or not. If you want to buy tickets and attend these things go ahead. But don’t make excuses for them. Be a grownup. Be honest with yourself for once and admit that without a public tit, this piglet would starve. Ed
Congratulations to Marvin for a phenomenal job on the festival. Columbia has a vibrant local arts scene that too often gets overlooked, and through his work, Marvin has showcased some of our great talent for others to see and for us to appreciate. I hope Columbia will maintain its commitment to this festival, because it has great potential for educational, cultural, and economic impact.