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LINC in South Carolina

Artist Convening
The first S.C. Artists LINC convening took place in August 2007. Thanks to everyone — artists, LINC staff and artists, facilitators, recorders, other Arts Commission staff, listeners, Richland School District One, S.C. Arts Alliance, and all — for making it a great success!  It was an exciting day and a great start to a long term effort to improve conditions for artists here in South Carolina.

Top Concerns of Artists:

• Coordinating among Ourselves — 29 votes
• Making a Living with My Art — 29 votes
• Professional Development — 14 votes
• Space — 21 votes

Coordinating among Ourselves

• Arts Commission should help artists work together by developing a web site for artists (along the lines of Facebook)
• Develop a S.C. Artists Association (all disciplines)
• More face-to-face discussions
• Develop leadership to build collective political force and find our voice
• Explore why we are artists in the first place and how we participate in our communities

Making a Living with My Art

• Business skills
  
  • Accounting/tax

  • Marketing/advertising/promotion

  • Planning/organization
    
  • Creating a business plan
  • Technology/IT
  • Networking
  • Soliciting advice/best practices

  • Planning for retirement

  • Communication
  • Generating capital (donors, etc.)
  • Legal knowledge
  • Insurance (health and liability)
  • Lobbying
  • Effective bartering/trade
  • Knowledge of loans/financing

• Opportunities to sell, show and teach
• Statewide network--online and convenings
  
  • Artists connecting

  • Marketing

  • Sharing knowledge.resources
    
  • Master lists of guilds, artist directory (all disciplines), organizations
    

• Climate that supports artists
  

  • Political climate

  • Laws, taxes, public art, etc.

  • Advocacy

• Use statewide organization for necessary benefits
  
  • Health

  • Retirement

Professional Development/Business Plan Development

• How do we overcome isolation and build on existing frameworks to help each other grow as individual artist and as a community of artists?
• How do we access opportunities beyond state borders?
• How do we improve national/international connections?
• How do we build discipline/business/life planning and technical skills to accomplish that while living in South Carolina?
  

Space

• Needs for space for performance/exhibition, preparation, and creation (generative) intersect in a variety of ways with the needs of individuals, groups, and the statewide community of artists
• Need lots of space
  
  • Statewide retreat

  • Local venues

  • Municipal
  • Institution
  • Private
  • Shared/non-shared
  • "Green" space
  • Live
  • Live/work
  • Rehearsal
  • Studio
  • Preparatory
  • Educational
  • Temporary

• Source of the issue
  
  • Cultural
  • Artist orientation

• Strategies
  
  • Make a case that "sponsors" (elected officials, developers, landowners, people of power) can understand
  • Research (what exists, what's needed, what are costs); case studies; numbers

• Artspace as agent for positive social, cultural, economic change
  
  • Creative partnerships
  • Creative space
  • Increase availability/accessibility of public art (canvases/spaces)

• Buses
• Doors
• Walls
• Buildings
• Billboards
• Places for poor/rural people to experience art

 

S.C. artists may express their thoughts on any of these topics, or on other topics, by visiting:

 

S.C. Artists LINC Blog