"'Im OVER Greensboro! When I was a freshman music major at Florida State University (87/88), a Grad student STRONGLY advocated leaving Tallahassee (a pretty boring city) for Greensboro, North Carolina BECAUSE of the INFUSION of the ARTS. So - I transferred (my boyfriend at the time was in school in Charlotte, so that was the other reason for the move). Nonetheless - upon auditioning at UNCG, I was EMBRACED by Bill Carroll and Hilary Apfelstadt and John Locke and very quickly found myself activated into the UNCG, and City Arts and Public/Private Educational Arts Communities. Joan Matucci was RIGHT. The TRIAD was a VERY ACTIVE and lovely place to be a performing artist in the 80's and 90's. NO LONGER!!!! I've seen venues, theatre companies, arts opportunities, apathy and poverty SWARM over what used to be magnificent. People with big ideas get door slammed in their face. The downtown community couldn't support Bin 33 - so now there's HAm's (what does THAT tell you?!). The Lindley Park neighborhood couldn't keep the doors open at Sessions!!!! And the FlatIron - one of my favorite romper rooms - has shut its doors after decades of lively entertainment and fellowship! The Broach Theatre has been swallowed up by the Wizard of Oz factory, Open Space Theatre is GONE and Fly by Night Theatre has NO venue in Greensboro to mount their wonderful work with professional theatre actors. BUT our central decision makers are FUNNELING EVERYTHING into a PERFORMING ARTS CENTER that benefits WHO? DPAC works because of DUKE!! We don't have a DUKE in Greensboro. The awesome colleges we do have are largely ignored by the center city. The thousands of college students in this town have NOTHING TO DO! This city offers them NOTHING! What the hell is the point?? Apathy abounds."
Stephanie Lindley is a Collaborative Pianist at Guilford Park Presbyterian Church, Sales at Mosquito Squad of the Triad and Founder at Female Artist Collective.
Update: From the comments below:
Anonymous said... "Us creative types need to realize two things: 1) Developers use us as stalking horses for gentrification. After we've moved into an area with our street-level music venues and galleries, the developers show up with expensive restaurants and condos, and pretty soon we're either priced out of an area or driven out because we're too loud and disruptive (sound familiar?), and 2) You can't make money off of creativity in an area where everyone else is suffering economically. People spend money on art and music after they've obtained necessities such as food and shelter. If they're struggling to hold on to those, they're not going to go to shows or buy art."
Billy Jones said, "Anon, You are absolutely correct. Creative types also need to learn a 3rd lesson: If you ever want change you must be willing to soil your hands with politics. I know it's distasteful and creative people find it very hard to do and personally I hate doing it myself but it is a necessity. Otherwise we are simply overrun."
