Rome/Floyd Cultural Plan

Initial assessment and key observations

August 2, 2010

What is cultural planning?

• We have embarked on a planning process to enhance the arts and cultural presence in our community

• Sharing goals and challenges is a crucial step in the process

• Working together to address these goals and challenges will allow for momentum going forward

Cultural Planning Can Include:

• Art audiences• Arts education• Arts facilities• Artists• Community development• Economic development• Festivals• Financial support for the

arts• Historic preservation

• Literature• Multiculturalism• Cultural accessibility• Performing arts• Public art• Revitalization• Special public events• Tourism• Visual arts• Zoning

Where are we in the planning process?

• Early!• Information gathering• Interviews• Initial analysis of information using

quantitative and qualitative measures• Information sharing

CASE STUDIES

• Looked at cultural development in several cities. – Columbus, Georgia– Maryville, Tennessee– Greenville, Tennessee

Columbus, Georgia• County seat of Muscogee County• Population of 190,000• Median household income: $34,000• Fort Benning south of the city in Chattahoochee County• Columbus Civic Center, a 10,000-seat multi-purpose arena that

opened in 1996 and is used for sports and for concert events in Columbus

• RiverCenter for the Performing Arts, a 2,000-seat modern performance theatre that first opened in 2002 and is operated by the Columbus not-for-profit organization RiverCenter Inc.

• Springer Opera House, a historic live performance theater located in Downtown that opened in early 1871.

Columbus, Georgia• Founded in 1953, the Columbus Museum contains much artifacts on

both American art and regional history, displayed in both its permanent collection as well as temporary exhibitions.

• Columbus is home to the National Civil War Naval Museum, a 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m2) facility that opened in 1962 .

• The Coca-Cola Space Science Center opened in 1996 for the purpose of public education in science, physics and astronomy . It includes seven flight simulators and a planetarium.

• The National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center opened in June 2009 and honors the service of Infantry forces in the US Army. The museum includes displays related to the history of the Infantry from the founding of the nation to the present. It also has its own IMAX theatre.

RiverCenter for the Performing Arts

• Located in the heart of historic uptown Columbus, RiverCenter for the Performing Arts is the centerpiece of the city’s new arts and entertainment district. Conceived as a vital cultural hub, the center was designed to artistically enrich the Chattahoochee Valley region.

• Its construction was funded in part by $86 million of the over $100 million that was raised by the Columbus Challenge, an unprecedented public-private fundraising effort that also revitalized key local cultural venues. The remainder of funding came from a $17-million state appropriation and a $20-million matching pledge from the Bradley-Turner Foundation.

Source: RiverCenter for the Performing Arts

RiverCenter for the Performing Arts

• RiverCenter’s state-of-the-art facilities include the 2,000-seat Bill Heard Theatre, the center’s main venue and home to the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. Featuring orchestra, mezzanine and balcony seating, the hall is designed to meet the complex technical needs of attractions such as Broadway shows, symphonic concerts, dance performances, pop concerts, lectures and conferences.

• After a year of programming in its two smaller halls, RiverCenter officially opened Bill Heard Theatre in April 2002.

Source: RiverCenter for the Performing Arts

RiverCenter for the Performing Arts

• The center’s second largest performance space, Legacy Hall, has 430 seats– Legacy Hall and the facility’s 150-seat, black-box

Studio Theater also provide rehearsal and performance space for the Columbus State University Schwob School of Music. The music school’s classrooms, studios, rehearsal rooms and practice rooms also are located at RiverCenter.

Source: RiverCenter for the Performing Arts

RiverCenter for the Performing Arts

• RiverCenter fulfills its mission of partnering with local performing organizations by serving as the home of the Youth Orchestra of Greater Columbus, the professional chorus Cantus Columbus and the Columbus Ballet.

• It addresses its outreach mission through its ArtReach program, offering area youth of all socio-economic levels unprecedented opportunities to experience and participate in the arts.

• Operating as a non-profit organization, the center also supplies theatrical, volunteer, security and maintenance services for its home organizations.

Source: RiverCenter for the Performing Arts

ArtsReach

• ArtsReach programs target creativity in education through matinee performances for students, professional development workshops for teachers, master classes, pre and post-performance discussions, student rush ticketing and many other opportunities for students and teachers to experience the arts.

• During the 2010–2011 season of events, ArtsReach programs will serve approximately 20,000 area students, teachers, and members of underserved populations.

Source: RiverCenter for the Performing Arts

Maryville, Tennessee

• Population 23,000• County seat of Blount County• 20 miles south of Knoxville• Maryville College• Median income for a household in the city

$40,000

Clayton Center for the Performing Arts

                                                                                           

Source: Amy McCrary, Knoxville News Sentinel

Clayton Center for the Performing Arts

• 136,000 square foot• $43 million • Opening more than a decade after talk of a civic center began. The

building is a place for arts performance and instruction , blending college, community and government in funding and function.

• Private, college and government funds built the complex. The city of Maryville gave $9.38 million; the city of Alcoa $3.75 million. Seven million dollars came from the federal government, and $2 million came from the state.

• Maryville College and a community campaign were charged with raising a total $25 million. The center name comes from $5 million donated by the Clayton Family Foundation and Clayton Homes Inc.

Source: Amy McCrary, Knoxville News Sentinel

Clayton Center for the Performing Arts

• Completed, the project is an instructional place for students, a showcase for regional artists and an attraction for national traveling shows and exhibits.

• Visitors enter the bigger, 114,000-square-foot Main Hall through a 78-foot-long foyer that can hold a sit-down dinner for 250. But this building's center is the 1,196-seat Ron and Lynda Nutt Theatre. Like other performance and practice areas, the theater has state-of-the art acoustics.

• The same building's Flex Theatre is much different. The 50-by-60-foot black-box space holds 200 people sitting on risers. The center's third stage is the 252-seat Harold and Jean Lambert Recital Hall, part of the smaller, 22,000-square-foot Recital Hall building.

Source: Amy McCrary, Knoxville News Sentinel

Clayton Center for the Performing Arts

• The center also has room for visual art. A gallery for traveling exhibits is in the larger building. Two galleries - one for Maryville College student art and a second for Blount and Appalachian artists - are on the Recital Hall's first floor.

• This performance venue is also an academic environment. The buildings house fine arts faculty offices, a music library, piano practice rooms, classrooms, and ceramic and photo studios. Backstage areas include not only eight dressing rooms but choral and band rehearsal space and rooms for college theater costume and scenery construction.

• The June 2010-May 2011 budget projects slightly more than $1 million in expenses and $806,300 in revenues. The college will cover the $220,000 deficit. Projections gradually drop the deficit; the goal is to have the center operate in the black within five years.

• The center will present 15 to 16 shows a season, but a big part of its income will come from renting its spaces for events from weddings or proms to business conferences or other artists' performances or recitals. Because of their capital contributions the municipalities of Maryville and Alcoa have free center use primarily for performances by their schools' arts groups.

Source: Amy McCrary, Knoxville News Sentinel

Greenville, South Carolina

• Metro area has population of 640,000• Cultural planning and awareness came through downtown

revitalization• Many venues

– Bi-Lo Center, a 16,000-seat arena in downtown Greenville which hosts major concerts and sporting events each year.

– Peace Center, a performing arts center that hosts touring Broadway shows, symphonies, concerts, and civic events.

– The Warehouse Theatre offers productions of live theatre. A cornerstone of Greenville's Historic Westend, it is the home of fifteen (sometimes more) productions a year.

– Centre Stage, Greenville's Professional Theater is a year-round theater hosting the annual New Play Festival.

Source: Metropolitan Arts Council

Metropolitan Arts Council

• The Metropolitan Arts Council (MAC) is the only organization in Greenville, South Carolina working daily to support every discipline of the arts.

• MAC provides support to area arts organizations and many individual artists through its grants program, through its cultural planning process, by advocating on behalf of all artists and arts groups, and by providing cooperative marketing opportunities promoting arts groups that might not have resources available to them.

Metropolitan Arts Council

• In 2008, MAC distributed more than $249,958 to area arts groups, artists, and schools touching almost 400,000 residents in and around Greenville County.

• During the 2007-2008 season, the arts and cultural industry in Greenville County accounted for more than $198.6 million in direct economic impact with an ancillary impact of $92 million.

Source: Metropolitan Arts Council

Metropolitan Arts Council

• Finally, MAC serves as an arts advocate through the South Carolina Arts Alliance and through direct contact with all governmental entities.

Source: Metropolitan Arts Council

FOCUS GROUPS AND INTERVIEWS

Focus groups

• A series of three Focus groups held May 6, 7, 11. All Cultural Roundtable members were invited.

• Interviews with additional community leaders, officials, artists, volunteers, held over the last two months

Initial Findings

• Perception of community about arts organizations may be an issue– Are organizations too competitive – Opportunities for collaboration– Embracing area culture

Initial Findings

• Cost for supporting Cultural Community enhancements and further developments– Corporate sponsors?– SPLOST– Private donors

• Fatigue• overlap

Initial Findings

• Communication – Between organizations– Between cultural organizations and community– Collaboration and sharing of resources among

cultural community and organizations

Outreach

• Outreach– Audience expansion– Delivering programming that draws in new

audiences– Grassroots messaging/public awareness and

interest in cultural issues– Diversity

Initial Findings

• Facility/space issues– Administrative– Performance– Rehearsal– Classroom– Exhibit– Existing facilities– Cost of facility maintenance– Cost of facility renovation– Cost of facility development

Initial Findings

• Economic impact – Tourism impact– Economic development impact

What’s next?

• Additional Information– Public response– Economic impact survey – due back on Sept. 1– Interviews: if you have not shared, please

schedule to do so!!!

Next steps

• Organize task forces for each key issue to generate and evaluate potential solutions

• Begin draft of plan• Circulate draft of plan• Negotiate final goals• Write final plan• Approve final plan• Publish and distribute the plan

Questions or Comments

Contact Ashley Ellington

706-766-5659ashleynellington@yahoo.com