Word of Faitih and Art Fields in Lake City

COVID-nineteen, and the year of events and attractions we lost to it, puts a new emphasis on appreciating the things we've e'er been lucky to have.

For Columbians, one of those things is ArtFields, the world-class fine art competition that spends 9 days celebrating audacious Southern art in Lake City, a pretty lilliputian town about an hr and a half away from us.

The year of 2020 was a tough one for ArtFields, equally information technology initially tried to postpone its April festivities by a month before canceling all in-person activities, along with the awards and cash prizes that would normally be handed out at the conclusion of the contest. The fine art was still available to browse online, but it was inappreciably the aforementioned.

At present, ArtFields is i of many essential Southward Carolina bound events trying to give 2021 a become. It's moved events such equally the Makers Market place and artist talks outside, and each of the more than 40 galleries and businesses that show art during the effect have agreed that all staff volition exist masked at all times, with social distancing enforced and sanitizing measures provided to the public.

Free Times caught up with ArtFields director Jamison Kerr ahead of the event'south Apr 23 outset to talk about how the arrangement grappled with losing the 2020 event, and how it's bringing it dorsum for 2021. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Gratuitous Times: How large a blow was the 2020 cancellation?

Jamison Kerr: Apparently a very, very hard decision that nosotros hoped we never would accept to make. And even three months before nosotros did, never anything that I thought we would have to face. And so information technology was a huge blow, non merely to us, but to the artists who were set to participate, and to the boondocks, because ArtFields is such a huge economic driver for Lake City.

When we made the conclusion to officially abolish the upshot, nosotros kind of sat down and put our heads together and idea, 'OK, we clearly can't have a physical exhibition. We can't have people in town, only how tin can we laurels these artists?' So we really pushed our online gallery of artwork, and did our best to characteristic those artists and honor them.

Nosotros did a lot of virtual art activities to go along people engaged and to keep people excited about figuring out ways to gloat fine art on their own. ArtFields serves 2 different audiences. And i of those is the artists and art lovers, merely the other is our town and our businesses. So information technology just made it even more obvious that ArtFields can't exist without the physical issue.

How have y'all tried to help artists and fulfill your mission in the interim?

So much of what I think is special nearly ArtFields is the accessibility of the art to people that may or may not be art lovers, and kind of breaking down some of those walls of intimidation, because the artwork isn't just in fancy galleries or museums, it'south in shops. And so trying to continue to educate, offering means that you can support artists during the pandemic, or how you can support our organizations, or even other galleries and museums, and trying to use a platform that we do have on social media to educate every bit best nosotros can to be able to push people towards buying artwork from an artist or going to a gallery. Especially now, because it'southward so of import, because and then much of (artists') livelihoods take been canceled for a year.

Nosotros opened the galleries back up at the end of the summertime. And nosotros were able to put together a testify that featured artists who have lived in this area for a long fourth dimension and artists who have recently moved here, and kind of bridging that gap between them, because Lake City has inevitably get a infinite that artists have started to be interested in moving to.

Bridging those gaps and trying to create a picayune fleck of that community that ArtFields creates outside of the typical nine days of ArtFields has been very important.

ArtFields spans nine days of exhibitions and other events. Provided

How did yous adjust programming in response to COVID-nineteen this year?

We typically exercise a big mural project during ArtFields. And nosotros'll still have a smaller 1 this year. But instead of focusing all of our energy and resources on one or 2 larger projects, nosotros're doing v around town that are kind of spread out strategically to pull people through, so that no matter what direction you're wandering in, you lot'll be able to stumble upon something beautiful and be able to relish it outside or inside.

We practice artist talks in a way that I recall combines speed dating and artist talks. So the artists each become three minutes to discuss their piece of work. And we've done that as a lunchtime effect in the past. And this twelvemonth, we're going to practice information technology out on our green as a more like happy hr timeframe. So that more people can enjoy it and exist a function of it.

Nosotros also, for multiple reasons, are encouraging our businesses to plan the calendar week as though they have nine days of events, likewise, so that information technology can aid to continue to spread people out. If all of our restaurants and confined take entertainment and things happening, that means that there are a lot of places for people to go and keep spread out.

Given the out-of-the-manner location of Lake City, and the importance of discussion of mouth when it comes to drawing folks outside the art globe, how much does losing 2020 hurt every bit far every bit promoting this year? How practice yous combat that?

Nosotros're going into our ninth twelvemonth, not our second. Then I call up that that helps. Information technology may not open on the verbal same date every year, simply information technology's that last Friday in April. Just creating the consistency that we've been able to prior to COVID, I think volition aid people come dorsum. And that's certainly something that we accept had in listen is, 'Have people forgotten about u.s.a.?' Merely we've gotten a lot of people that have reached out and said how much — whether they are participating as a competition artist or as a visitor — they've missed that community so much.

And that's not but ArtFields. That's COVID. That'south what 2020 and the showtime of 2021 has been is that lack of community. That craving for that, and knowing that this is a place that y'all tin can observe it, I promise will continue (the event) at the forepart of people's minds.

How have submissions been this year?

It's been pretty on par, just almost, a little in a higher place our average. And we were actually pleased given the fact that there are so many people that just were unsure about what the earth would be like. We do submissions Sept. 1 through Nov. ane every year. And so they're really taking a risk that we'll be able to do information technology.

I would say this is probably one of my favorite groups of artwork, I think in that location's some really beautiful piece of work. In that location's a lot that captures some of the things that we've gone through in the last year. Only so there's a lot of simply kind of blithesome things, as well. And I think that that's really lovely that we can expect at this show the manner we tin can look at the last year — that there is a lot of a lot of hard things for everybody to grapple with, whether that exist COVID, or Black Lives Thing, or the election or annihilation else that has happened. But in that location'south also a lot of dazzler that tin be found in what we've gone through.

Those are some hot-push topics to respond to, and ArtFields has hosted work that has dealt with controversial subjects in the past. Are at that place instances when including such work causes friction with Lake City's pocket-sized-town sensibilities? How has that changed over time?

I recollect in the very beginning, a lot of people were similar, 'Yous are gonna exercise what? You lot are gonna bring what to Lake City? Fine art? Are you sure?'

Nosotros will e'er accept piece of work to do. There will e'er be people who maybe are more hesitant to attend or be a part of it, or don't like what they don't empathise. But nosotros have, through the volunteer program, and through, you know, this community only beingness correct smack dab in the middle of this issue, seen more and more acceptance over the years, and more and more than ownership, which I remember is so important. Information technology'southward hard for people who oasis't actually gotten to experience the art earth exterior of this to exist able to authorize it and say, like, 'Yep, this is just as expert equally shows in other parts of the world.'

I think that we had pieces, certainly, that have been controversial in the lead up to ArtFields. Office of that is nosotros're installing hundreds of pieces of artwork, and they pop up in different orders throughout boondocks. And sometimes people become a hold of one piece without really having any context and become concerned about what that means and what information technology is nosotros're trying to say with it. We do our best to be respectful of the artists, and know that censorship is not something we're interested in, but figuring out every year how to all-time see this town at its point of growth, and so push it a picayune chip.

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ArtFields

April 23-May ane. Lake Urban center. Various locations. artfieldssc.org.

Post and Courier Columbia/Free Times arts coverage is supported by a grant from the Knight Foundation Fund at Central Carolina Community Foundation.

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Source: https://www.postandcourier.com/free-times/arts/director-of-lake-city-s-artfields-competition-talks-losing-2020-making-2021-work/article_d3654324-a112-11eb-bbee-73fd0d523799.html