I just got back from attending the second edition of the Piedmont Council of the Arts' quarterly program called "Creative Conversations" – a forum for idea exchange and collaboration. The topic today was "Marketing Charlottesville as a Creative Community." PCA Executive Director Maggie Guggenheimer led the gathering of the 30+ attendees who represented a wide range of arts related organizations and individual artists from the central Virginia area (mainly Charlottesville).
This two hour round-table session covered questions such as 1) How do the arts and creativity shape our community; 2) What are the benefits of marketing Charlottesville as a creative community; 3) How can we maintain or grow arts audiences during the economic downturn; 4) How can we work together to support and promote the arts in Charlottesville; and 5) What marketing methods and strategies should we use?
I’m not generally into participating in group discussions like these. To me, they always seem to veer off track quickly and little gets done – although a lot gets said. For this, however, I bucked up and not only attended but participated (to a degree). And, as I expected, Maggie did a good job of keeping us all on point.
Early on, I spoke up and questioned whether Charlottesville is actually considered an arts and culture destination (if it's not an "arts town" then we can’t market it as one?). I truly believe the city wants to be, and its citizens think it is "artsie." But, from my experiences, when you mention Charlottesville, most outsiders first think of history, red brick, white columns and Thomas Jefferson. History and culture we have... but the arts? When Laura and I exhibit at various gallery fairs around the country, people look at our marquee and say, "Charlottesville? I didn’t know there was art in Charlottesville." 'Nuf said.
I do have to say that Charlottesville is definitely a place to be when it comes to music, food and drink. But does this make it artsie? Is this the place you would expect to see creative and beautiful contemporary visual arts? Is this where an artist wants to live and pursue his/her career?
Despite my opinion, the group decidedly pronounced Charlottesville the arts center of Virginia (note: comparable cities included Lynchburg, Roanoke, Staunton and Danville). So, off we went to the break out sessions and continued the round-table discussions.
The results: It was widely accepted that there needs to be a central, authoritative resource for the posting of events and maps to arts destinations. PCA seemed to be the logical choice to be that clearinghouse of information (although increased funding would help that actually happen).
Personally, I think a central listing is terrific, but I believe to advance and promote Charlottesville as an arts destination there needs to be a broader, deeper and more consistent discussion of the specific events, shows and exhibitions in town. Listing them on a calendar does little to promote Charlottesville as a creative town. Thoughtful and authoritative articles and reports will further enlighten people to not only what is going on, but the quality of what is going on. It's not enough to simply say "see Billy Bob play his trombone at the Performing Arts Center"; we need more information why we should see Billy Bob play (because he's the most innovative yet recluse trombone player in the world, and we are lucky to have him perform in Charlottesville – or something like that). I plan to continue my part in that as I look to review the local visual arts and comment on the arts in general.
All in all, Creative Conversations is an excellent program sponsored by the PCA. I was happy to participate and pleased to see that a large number of the heavy weights in this arts community attended. With more events and open discussions like this, Charlottesville may very well end up as a much larger dot on the arts map.
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