Let's keep our arts healthy

In 1978, I left pottery class early to attend a concert at what was then the Sumter High School auditorium and is now Patriot Hall. On stage that night was the great Dizzy Gillespie with his band -- and his daughter (what ever happened to her?).

The entire concert was phenomenal, especially "A Night in Tunisia," which Gillespie had written in the '40s. He changed jazz with that tune, melding African and Latin beats. And he had already pioneered the bebop genre with musicians like Charlie Parker and Thelonius Monk.

That night 30 years ago was truly a seminal performance -- and it was here in Sumter.

I was spellbound, as was the rest of the audience. A night with Gillespie (a S.C. native, by the way) stands out among my memories of outstanding performances sponsored by the Sumter-Shaw Community Concert Association.

Reading my New Yorker magazine last night, I noted that Freddy Cole -- who's performed twice in Sumter to rave reviews and enthusiastic audiences -- is playing one of New York's hot venues this week.

Gillespie and Cole are just two of the memorable artists among hundreds the SSCCA has brought to Sumter in the past more than 60 years. We've seen Shirley Jones, Burl Ives, Lily Pons (!), Rise Stevens, Arthur Fiedler, George Shearing, Count Basie, Anna Maria Alberghetti, ensembles from every branch of the military -- the list goes on.

The Sumter-Shaw Community Concert Association has just started its membership campaign for the 2009-2010 season. They've got a great schedule with 8 concerts lined up, and let's face it, with the demise of the Sumter Fine Arts Association a few years ago, the SSCCA is the only entity that brings us a full season of outstanding entertainment -- and culture.

It's the arts that are getting blasted hardest by the economy, considered by many to be nonessential. Libraries and community theaters are suffering, too. SSCCA has survived because its board works hard to remain within its budget. With grant money cut, the members have still managed a full season -- all for us, to enhance our quality of life.

It's not a problem unique to Sumter. The Miami Herald editors recently addressed the situation like this:

As communities struggle to keep going, culture is getting kicked to the curb, last on lists of nonessential items like parks, libraries, and humanity for the homeless. ... There were conservative howls when $50 million in arts funding was salvaged in the $787 billion federal stimulus package (for Florida), presumably because the jobs of musicians or dancers or actors are just frivolous time-wasters and not worth saving. Perhaps politicians think artists should go work at a foreclosure call center at one of the banks that shoveled adjustable rate mortgages down our throats.

Meanwhile, corporate arts funding has fallen victim to belt-tightening and shareholder rage over any expense that doesn't boost the bottom line. Corporate giving is one of the very few ways that companies give back to their community, albeit motivated primarily by the marketing boost of having their logo on the program. Such contributions might not have an immediate effect on the company's profitability. But they do help make those communities better places to live, which ultimately benefits everybody.

Let's hope Sumter's businesses and corporations continue to be faithful to the SSCCA. And let's buy memberships, too. Call Betsy Ridgeway (803) 469-2114 or Bob Rearden (803) 469-0508to find out more.