Reality Check Symposium To Explore Southern City of the Future
March 25, 2015
COLUMBIA, SC – How can artists and other members of the creative community help our region grow by choice and not by chance and shape the Southern city of the future?
Future Perfect: Shaping the Southern City of the Future will bring together the Urban Land Institute South Carolina and participants at Indie Grits to discuss how to leverage the creative community to celebrate and enhance our region’s primary economic drivers — the universities, the central business districts, the military and agriculture — as identified during ULI’s 2013 Midlands Reality Check.
The April 16 ULI Reality Check Symposium will take place at the Nickelodeon Theatre, the Richland Library and the Tapp’s Arts Center.
Future Perfect, the theme for this year’s Indie Grits festival, provides a provocative lens for exploring the economic impact of the arts and technology in building our cities and towns as the region grows to an anticipated 1.3 million people by the year 2040. Support for Indie Grits’ Future Perfect programming is provided by an Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Umberto “Bert” Crenca, co-founder and artistic director of AS220 in Providence, R.I., will keynote the symposium sharing how his organization contributed to the transformation of the arts community in Providence and catalyzed ongoing economic investments. Founded in 1985, AS220 maintains three buildings in downtown Providence with 68 artist live/work spaces, four exhibition spaces, a print shop, media lab, fabrication lab, stage, recording studio, black box theater, dance studio and a popular bar and restaurant.
Check-in for the symposium begins at 10:30 a.m. at the Nickelodeon Theatre with the program kicking off at 11 a.m. Following the morning session, participants will move to the Richland Library for lunch, a panel discussion on how interaction with the artistic and creative community can be leveraged to enhance our region’s economic drivers and a small group exercise on creative placemaking strategies through the lens of those economic drivers.
The symposium’s wrap-up and report out session from the group exercise will be held during a reception at the Tapp’s Arts Center starting at 4 p.m.
The symposium is open to the public. Please register at http: southcarolina.uli.org.
This is the second of three symposiums planned by the Midlands Action Collaborative around the Guiding Principles identified during the 2013 Reality Check visioning exercise. The first symposium on Infrastructure and Transportation was held in October. The third symposium, date to be announced later, will focus on Efficient Development and Green Space. The collaborative was formed to move the results of the Midlands Reality Check regional visioning exercise to action.
About Indie Grits
Now in its ninth year, Indie Grits is a showcase for the very best of the Southeast’s cinematic, artistic, culinary and musical talent. What started as a festival for a tight-knit and dedicated audience, Indie Grits has grown into a staple of Columbia’s cultural life, giving novice to advanced media makers a venue for sharing their interest in independent media making, while also giving thousands of visitors and locals access to a progressive cultural life unmatched in the Southeast.
About ULI
The Urban Land Institute provides leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide. ULI South Carolina was formed in 2005 to encourage dialogue on land use and planning throughout the state and within each of the three main regions. The nonprofit group, consisting of approximately 500 members, hosts more than 30 programs annually throughout the state.
For more information, contact Heather Foley, ULI South Carolina, 843-513-9331, [email protected]. Visit www.southcarolina.uli.org for more information.
