0:00

Welcome to the Lake Murray Country

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podcast, your official source

0:04

for all fantastic things to do in

0:06

capital city Lake Murray country.

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This is where you'll find information on

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where to stay. What to do,

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places to eat and so much

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more. To plan your next trip.

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In each episode, we will explore

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the top southern destinations of

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Columbia, Lexington, Newbury

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and Saluda High School.

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Make like. I've

0:31

never felt. So that gets

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you off my mind.

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And still so much to see.

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You're bringing out.

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The best in me. Hey,

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don't make me come.

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There's still so much you

0:49

make.

0:55

Lake Murray Country is home to a wide

0:57

variety of arts, from colorful murals

0:59

and arts districts to national touring

1:02

musicians and unique festivals.

1:04

There is something for everyone. Newberry,

1:06

South Carolina has redefined itself

1:08

as an arts town, home to the South Carolina

1:11

Clay Conference. The Newberry Art Center

1:13

hosts prestigious cutters from all

1:15

over the world. My

1:18

name is Margaret Palmer. I

1:21

am the arts

1:23

Program coordinator for the City

1:25

of Newberry, which makes

1:27

me the director of Newberry Arts Center.

1:30

I run it. We have other staff.

1:32

We have another part time

1:35

and a full time person working here.

1:37

And we plan a lot of art activities

1:40

for the community, the area and the state.

1:43

So what kind of events

1:45

that you set up up there?

1:46

Our biggest mission,

1:48

our goal here, was to be able

1:50

to provide quality educational

1:53

art programming for the community.

1:55

The reason the art center started

1:57

in 2014 was just

2:00

to be able to get art

2:02

programming to anyone ages

2:05

4 to 100. Newberry

2:07

didn't have a lot of art

2:09

activities that were affordable,

2:12

visual arts kind of things.

2:14

The schools were doing, you

2:16

know, a good job. But

2:18

a lot of kids want to get involved in

2:20

more and more art. And so

2:23

that's what our mission was, to bring

2:25

different types of art programming here

2:27

that the community could become a part of.

2:30

We feel like the arts enrich lives,

2:32

and a lot of times adults

2:35

and kids feel kind of lost. It

2:37

gives them a part of a community

2:39

to be a part of and meet other

2:41

people.

2:41

So how many kids and adults

2:44

are involved in this? Is it? I mean,

2:46

a lot of people.

2:47

It is the way we do our

2:49

programming. We have summer camps

2:51

for kids and teenagers. During

2:54

the school year, we have

2:56

classes for adults. We have workshops.

2:59

We bring artists to and from outside

3:01

of Newberry to do weekend workshops,

3:04

or we'll have six week classes.

3:06

We also have afternoon art

3:08

for kids, and then

3:11

in the summer we realize

3:13

there's a lot of people who don't have transportation

3:15

to come to the art center. So we do art

3:17

programming in the community

3:20

parks around Newberry,

3:22

and those programs are free. We

3:25

started a nonprofit in 2020,

3:27

and the nonprofit works

3:29

with the city to make sure

3:31

we are making

3:33

viable programming that

3:36

people who cannot afford to come

3:38

can get a scholarship through the nonprofit.

3:41

And also we can offset

3:44

the cost of some of our classes. Sometimes

3:46

it's really expensive to bring certain

3:48

professional artists down sometimes,

3:51

so materials cost a lot of

3:53

money for different classes. So the

3:55

nonprofit pays for a good

3:57

bit of that to offset the costs to

3:59

make it more affordable for a rural community.

4:02

I'm going to flip over to the tourism

4:04

aspect of everything. So

4:06

do you see a lot of visitors

4:09

up there?

4:10

We see tons of

4:13

visitors. We sometimes feel

4:15

like the welcome center for Newberry.

4:18

It's interesting that we

4:20

are in one of the best retail spaces

4:22

in downtown Newberry. It's just a really

4:25

beautiful space. It's part

4:27

of the old Newberry Hotel that was

4:29

built in the 1800s, and it's

4:31

right on the corner. So a lot of times

4:33

people come in and they'll

4:36

say, you know, where's a great place to go

4:38

to lunch? And then I look around and realize

4:40

that at the front of the art center, we

4:43

sell local handmade

4:45

art. So we have that word

4:48

has gotten around and we have a lot of visitors.

4:50

We will frequently see the same people

4:53

who are traveling from Tennessee to

4:55

Charleston or from Florida

4:57

to the mountains, and they love stopping

5:00

in Newberry. We have some great restaurants

5:02

and it's just a cool place to shop. We're

5:04

always getting new work, so we

5:06

have started keeping. Lori, who

5:09

works here, has been doing

5:11

a great job keeping up with how many visitors

5:13

we see. And when you

5:15

talk about people just stopping

5:17

in to visit, not taking classes

5:20

or anything else. We see around

5:22

3000 annually.

5:23

There's a conference coming. So

5:26

explain to me why why Newberry

5:28

was chosen for this conference.

5:30

Well, the South Carolina conference

5:33

came about. We started the Arts Center

5:36

in 2014. We were

5:38

talking about having pottery workshops

5:40

in 2015. And

5:43

I'm a potter, and I have some good

5:45

friends who have been potters

5:47

for a long time. One is Mike Butler,

5:49

who is retired from

5:51

Clemson University, taught ceramics

5:53

there and another. Friend Sue Greer, who used

5:56

to live down in Gaston, and

5:58

she does a lot of pottery. And the three

6:00

of us got together to talk about what kind

6:02

of pottery workshops we wanted

6:05

to offer. And we decided that South

6:07

Carolina didn't have a clay

6:09

conference. North Carolina

6:11

has one. Alabama has one that

6:13

we should start one ourselves. And

6:16

so we started it as part of the

6:18

art center in 2015.

6:20

That's really neat. So where is

6:22

everybody going to be coming from and is

6:24

this going to be local or is it going to be

6:27

from all over the world.

6:28

And is all over? We have

6:31

brought people in from Henderson,

6:34

Nevada, and that's our presenters.

6:36

We've had presenters from North Carolina,

6:39

from Texas, from Tennessee,

6:41

from D.C., from Virginia.

6:44

We have had people from out

6:46

West as presenters. What we try

6:48

to do is get people to

6:50

come and present who are internationally

6:53

recognized for what they

6:55

do in clay or ceramics

6:58

and bring that here

7:00

so that people from South

7:02

Carolina and neighboring states

7:04

can come each year learn

7:07

and get to know each other. What

7:09

we find, any time you have a conference,

7:11

you learn a lot from the presenters, but you learn

7:14

a lot from the other participants. Kind

7:16

of a unique part of our conference

7:19

is we offer a space

7:21

for our presenters to sell

7:24

their work, but also our attendees

7:26

can bring a good bit of work to sell.

7:29

A lot of times the attendees,

7:31

they range from beginners

7:34

and clay to other professional

7:36

artists and we

7:38

offer a large space for them to

7:40

bring a good bit of work. We really

7:43

publicize this pottery sale

7:45

to the area, to the region for

7:47

people to come and shop, and some of

7:49

our attendees make back

7:52

in sales what they spend on

7:54

come to the conference.

7:55

That's really neat. Is this more of

7:58

just fun or do people

8:00

kind of rely on this for making

8:02

money as a living?

8:04

They're making money. This is professional development

8:06

for them. And so some

8:08

of the people are beginners,

8:10

but we also have some of the colleges

8:13

Erskine College, Newberry College,

8:16

Lander, the professors that teach

8:18

clay in those areas. They also

8:20

bring their students. We have had

8:22

people come from Winthrop, we've

8:25

had people from Clemson, we've

8:27

had a couple of folks from USC. So

8:30

this is the type

8:32

of education that functions

8:34

on many levels. Beginners

8:37

going to get different information than a

8:39

more advanced person is going to get.

8:41

But everybody's going to be learning and

8:43

everybody's going to be connecting. So

8:45

the point is to

8:48

help to educate those who are wanting

8:50

to make a living as clay artists

8:52

and to also enhance

8:55

what people who are self-taught,

8:58

who are doing this as a hobby, enhance

9:00

what they're doing and give them more

9:03

of a history of clay and the

9:05

importance of the material and

9:07

all the things that are possible so

9:10

that they in turn can

9:12

enhance what they're making.

9:14

That's really interesting. I didn't realize there was such

9:17

a pottery community. So

9:19

what are the the future plans

9:21

of all of this?

9:22

It's really fantastic.

9:24

When we started in 2014,

9:27

when it was a small group

9:29

of folks who felt like there

9:31

needed to be more arts in the community,

9:33

and we had tried to get

9:36

an art center going for years and years

9:38

here in Newberry and finally pitched the idea

9:40

to the city and everything just clicked.

9:43

But once it started, we

9:45

didn't realize how quickly it was going to grow.

9:48

People love coming and

9:50

doing things that they art center. We

9:52

have things as simple as glazing

9:55

a ceramic Christmas tree, which we start

9:57

doing those in August. So everybody has a turn

9:59

to get one done or a

10:01

one night class in clay

10:04

making a clay Angel or something

10:06

like that. Two six weeks

10:09

intensive classes

10:11

in watercolor or drawing.

10:14

We've had one day classes on how

10:16

to make sweetgrass baskets. So

10:19

all of this has grown

10:22

beyond where we are. We

10:24

don't even have the space right now to

10:26

do everything we want to do. The

10:28

city of Newberry has purchased a building

10:30

for us to be able

10:33

to expand the art center. They purchased

10:35

the old Newberry Observer

10:37

building, and right now we're working

10:39

on acquiring the funds

10:42

needed to renovate this building

10:44

so we can fulfill

10:46

what the community wants. Have

10:48

the clay conference there with hands

10:51

on experiences, have clay workshops.

10:54

But I also have really great

10:56

things for teenagers, possibly

10:59

film making and

11:01

mixing music, being able

11:03

to do music videos.

11:06

Ah, we have chains that just

11:08

want to learn to draw. I really want

11:11

the nuts and bolts of learning to draw

11:13

well and growing those

11:15

skills. And so those are the type

11:17

of things that we will offer at

11:20

the art Center will continue to

11:22

do everything we can here with

11:24

the space that we have and work

11:26

to get into that new building. The

11:29

biggest thing about the arts and

11:31

the arts in Newbury is that

11:34

when you have a strong art

11:37

community and a place

11:39

like Newbury, it attracts

11:41

other artists to come here. We have had

11:44

other businesses open because

11:46

there's a strong art community. We have

11:48

the Opera House, which was here way before

11:50

everything else, and they are our

11:52

house brings in visitors, and those

11:54

visitors come in the arts center and they

11:57

meet these artists. But what you find

11:59

is that the people that participate in

12:01

the arts do find a place

12:04

that they can really stress.

12:07

It is almost like

12:09

self-help. People

12:11

who are struggling with depression

12:13

or grief have come here and found

12:15

it to be a great place where

12:17

they can let go of that stuff and

12:20

be a part of other things going

12:22

on. I think it builds a healthier

12:24

community. Late

12:27

Murray Country is home to a wide variety

12:29

of arts, from colorful murals and arts

12:32

district and KC, South Carolina to

12:34

national touring musicians and unique

12:36

festivals. There is something for everyone.

12:39

Alice Parton, the mayor of the City

12:41

of Casey.

12:42

So, Mayor Parton, I want to ask you about

12:44

downtown Casey. Now, it

12:46

was not in the best shape at

12:48

one time. How did you use art

12:51

to revitalize that area?

12:53

So this actually a really fun story.

12:55

I was invited in 2015

12:58

to the Mayor's Institute for

13:00

City Design. That is a collaboration

13:02

of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National

13:04

Endowment for the Arts and the American

13:07

Institute for Architects. And

13:09

you have to bring an opportunity or

13:11

a challenge. They only take eight mayors

13:13

from across the nation at a time. Didn't

13:16

cost my city a dime. But I had

13:18

to bring something that we

13:20

were going to work on. And I brought

13:23

this area of our city, which is

13:25

the original heart of our city. It's what we

13:27

now call the KC River Arts District,

13:29

thanks to this work. But it wasn't

13:32

at the time there was nothing there. It was

13:34

a bunch of shuttered buildings

13:37

and we couldn't get anything to happen. We were trying

13:39

to revitalize. But

13:41

I learned a really cool term

13:43

that I hadn't heard before. When

13:45

I was there at the Mayor's Institute for

13:48

City Design is the term

13:50

is pre vitalization. Right.

13:53

I knew what revitalization was, is what we were trying

13:55

to make happen. And we had done a lot

13:57

to try to make that happen. We'd met with the building

13:59

owners, we'd got building owners

14:02

and artists together and said, Is

14:04

there any thing here is let's do something.

14:06

And still just nothing that

14:09

really came out of that energy

14:11

wise. But when I came back

14:14

from the Mayor's Institute for City Design, I

14:16

took this idea of revitalization and I

14:19

went to my staff and I said, Hey, we're going to throw a street

14:21

party. And we

14:23

did. And so it's the story

14:25

on State. We have held

14:27

that every spring since. Other than

14:30

COVID and just

14:32

this awesome, fun street party

14:34

you might look at and go, Well, that's just great. That's a

14:36

good time. There's great music, there's

14:39

great food, there's great, you

14:41

know, connection and community. But

14:43

what's underlying that

14:45

is this really cool economic

14:47

development engine that is centered

14:50

around the arts. So we went

14:52

to these building owners and

14:54

we said, if you will, just clean

14:57

out the inside of your building because

14:59

they were shuttered full

15:01

of stuff, just storage, underutilized.

15:04

We said just clean out the inside of your building

15:07

for this street party and we will

15:09

host artists inside. And

15:12

so they did and then we did. And

15:15

people came to the street party, had fun,

15:17

went into these buildings in addition

15:19

to being out on the street, looked at the art

15:21

while they were in there, but also they

15:23

went, Huh, I kind

15:25

of like this space. And before

15:27

we even held our second one, we

15:30

had a business open.

15:31

Now, that's really interesting. So what

15:33

kind of art are people bringing to

15:36

spruce up the town?

15:37

Yes, everything. And so we really have

15:39

this amazing group of artists

15:41

in the city of Casey. And

15:44

they have really grown and become

15:46

the Casey Arts Guild. And

15:48

so there's a lot of different mediums that they use.

15:50

So they would come and put up their easels

15:52

or, you know. Some sculptures

15:55

on pedestals and have that art

15:57

they are during the street party. But

15:59

now that that has started

16:02

since really 2017 to

16:05

revitalize that area, we

16:07

have gotten some great grants through

16:10

Central Carolina Community Foundation, and

16:12

we have put up several murals that

16:14

are absolutely stunning. In

16:17

fact, I just left one of them. The

16:19

artist is back doing another mural

16:22

on one of the buildings. And those

16:24

murals are connections

16:26

to a place there, placemaking. They

16:29

had that color, that vibrancy.

16:31

And we know that that makes a difference for

16:33

bringing in more great small businesses.

16:36

Now, how has the economy changed since all this

16:38

arts been introduced?

16:40

It's taken off, absolutely. So

16:42

we had one business open before we even

16:44

held the second story on stage. But

16:46

then we have had many more. So we have

16:49

Swatch Graphics, which

16:51

is a graphic art design company

16:53

and a sign company. They were

16:55

the first one to come in, but since

16:58

then we have had dial

17:00

bicycles, come in where you can get your bike

17:02

repaired or you can buy a bicycle, you

17:04

can rent a bicycle and go out on the Riverwalk.

17:07

There's State and Frank, which is a great

17:09

meeting space. There's strategies,

17:12

which is a PR firm. There's piece

17:14

wise coffee, which is this great local

17:16

coffee shop. And we

17:19

have more coming. So Salvage Sisters,

17:21

which is a really cool furniture restoration

17:23

company and training line,

17:25

which is just absolutely divine food. And

17:28

they joined the one thing that had

17:30

been there, which was Henry's of KC.

17:32

So they kind of anchored that corner.

17:35

And now we have so much more that's been added

17:37

to it. But the arts really

17:40

are the anchor, and it's great that it's

17:42

right here at a trailhead for the

17:44

KC Riverwalk.

17:46

How do you choose who displays their art

17:48

in Casey?

17:49

That's a great question and has been different

17:51

methods. So one of them,

17:53

when we got a grant, we

17:55

then put out a call for artists and we

17:57

had a committee of some of

17:59

our staff, some of our members from the Casey

18:02

Arts Guild, and they picked which

18:04

artists and worked from there. There's

18:06

one that I kind of sought out personally.

18:09

Isaiah Charles is

18:12

an artist and she has

18:14

a mural that's called Casey Wonders,

18:17

and it's absolutely stunning. But

18:19

I saw a similar version

18:21

of that painting that

18:24

she had done at the state

18:26

fair. And I just out

18:28

of the blue contacted her because I

18:30

was just so captivated

18:32

by that painting of this really

18:35

sweet face. And

18:37

just so we have to have that in

18:39

the city.

18:40

The art scene is relatively

18:42

new. So how is tourism increased

18:44

over the past few years?

18:46

Well, so because it is at

18:48

a trailhead that just

18:51

adds to it. It's you're coming down to

18:53

the Casey River Arts District, but you

18:55

can come get a coffee, a piece

18:57

wise coffee and go take the kids

18:59

down to the river walk. Or you can

19:02

go to Dale bicycles and rent

19:04

a bicycle and go down to the Riverwalk. There's so

19:06

much connection and synergy. Oh, my gosh.

19:08

I forgot one of the amazing businesses, State

19:10

of the Art Gallery and pottery studio.

19:13

So they can sign all local South

19:15

Carolina artists work, and

19:17

then in the back they have a pottery

19:20

studio. So you can go and take lessons. You

19:22

can go on a company field

19:24

trip where you all, you know, make a piece

19:26

of pottery together. You know, so

19:28

there's just great interactivity

19:30

in this whole district. But

19:33

it has grown and it continues

19:35

to grow. There are more small businesses coming

19:38

and there's room for more. But

19:40

the other thing that we've seen, that the

19:42

arts down here in this

19:44

district do is it's

19:46

also attracted people who want to live

19:48

here. You know, they want to live

19:51

in this neighborhood and come down and get a

19:53

coffee. They want to live in this. They want to go down

19:55

and take pottery lessons and

19:57

go walk by all the amazing murals.

20:00

That's an amazing draw. We've

20:02

also seen it spur other

20:04

art. So Martin Marietta is

20:07

the owner of the quarry that's in

20:09

the city. They're very big business.

20:11

And because of all the work that we've been

20:13

doing, they now are beautifying their

20:16

entrance because they want to help contribute

20:18

to adding to the

20:20

sophistication of the area,

20:23

the draw of the area, but also

20:25

to add more arts.

20:27

And what does the future hold for Casey?

20:29

We have some more grants coming.

20:31

We put in what we call an

20:33

art lock, and that added more parking

20:36

for the area. But there's also this

20:38

great shipping container in the back. So

20:40

it's a shipping stage that

20:42

people can just come and use. And it has been used

20:44

by musicians and small ballet

20:47

classes and things like that. There's

20:49

some some sculptures there, but the

20:51

grant that we have now is. Connecting

20:54

visually the car

20:56

lot to that entrance,

20:58

the trailhead to the Riverwalk. Because

21:01

not somebody might come from Atlanta

21:03

and not really know all of the great

21:06

connections to where they are. But

21:09

we want them to so we want them to be able

21:11

to come and park and get a coffee and buy art

21:13

and then go down to the river walk and, you

21:15

know, just enjoy the whole area.

21:20

From national touring Broadway musicals

21:22

at the Congress Center for the Arts to

21:24

the Village Square Community Theater,

21:26

where young thespians are learning valuable

21:28

life skills. Theatrical arts

21:31

abound in Lake Murray Country.

21:33

My name is Maddie. This is my ninth year doing

21:35

theater at the square. I'm super

21:38

involved in community theater, and

21:40

my brother and I have done a lot of shows together.

21:42

What exactly does the theater mean

21:44

to you?

21:45

For me, theater has definitely

21:47

helped me open up more people. I

21:49

feel a lot more confident in myself ever

21:51

since I've started theater. And when I'm more active

21:53

in theater, it helps call me. It's

21:56

a stress reliever for me, and it

21:58

helps me to be able to

22:00

practice leadership skills and

22:02

get more involved in my community.

22:04

All right. So you're going from community

22:06

theater to the big stage, you know, say,

22:08

at the Koger Center. What role

22:11

does the theater play in the

22:13

community there?

22:13

I feel like for community theater, it's

22:16

not only a way to introduce younger generations

22:18

or even older people into theater, but it's also

22:20

a way to build the fundamental skills that

22:22

you need to perform so that you'll

22:24

be more prepared to, like, perform at

22:27

places like the Kroger Center. And it's also a way for

22:29

our community members to try

22:31

seeing a bunch of different shows to see what kind

22:33

of theater they like to witness and what kind of things

22:35

they like to see. So they know, like

22:37

for future reference, what kind of shows they want to see done

22:40

by professional actors and actresses in a

22:42

more professional setting.

22:43

Do you kind of see a tourism

22:45

aspect of all of this, like people

22:47

coming to see some theater from,

22:49

you know, miles around surrounding communities

22:52

and things like that?

22:53

Definitely. So for my brother

22:55

and I and a lot of our friends, we have people who come

22:57

from all over to see us in shows. And

23:00

I feel like theater is a way for you to like, reconnect with

23:02

your family and they can come see you and see

23:04

the work you put into something. And

23:06

definitely a lot of people I know have family who come

23:08

from all over the country to come see them

23:10

and theater. I'm Hudson and

23:13

this is my seventh year doing theater

23:15

and I love it. It's

23:17

been great.

23:18

That's excellent. So what do you see

23:21

the future in this for you? Is this going to be

23:23

something lifelong or is it going to be

23:25

a hobby or, you know, just

23:27

a local fun theater to do?

23:29

I think it could end up being

23:31

what I want to do with my life

23:34

and not just a short time

23:36

thing. And it has become a great

23:38

hobby for my sister and I.

23:40

What does the theater do for you? Does it has

23:42

it help you prepare for other things in

23:44

your life?

23:45

It definitely has helped me prepare for

23:48

other things, like some

23:50

big things that I have done, and

23:53

it has helped me prepare to parties

23:55

and definitely

23:58

builds confidence in social settings as

24:00

well. I've definitely felt like I'm

24:02

more eager to try out for different things

24:05

that I maybe wouldn't have tried out for before

24:07

because of the confidence I've built from and

24:09

the skills I built for from auditioning

24:11

for different shows and my life.

24:13

What's the next big show that you have

24:15

planned that you're going to be in?

24:17

We do, actually. We just finished

24:19

performing A Christmas Story at Town Theatre, and

24:21

while we were performing there, we auditioned for

24:24

Matilda Junior at Village Square, and that's our next show

24:26

for us. I'm Lavender, Spruce

24:28

and Cast. Thank you for listening to

24:31

the Lake Murray Country podcast,

24:33

your official source for all the fantastic

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Murray Country. For more information

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else you need to plan your next trip,

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visit Lake Murray country

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dot com.

24:54

Say you make common.

24:58

I've never felt so free. I get

25:00

to love my.

25:02

And still so much.

25:05

You're bringing out.

25:06

The best in me. Hey,

25:11

you make you can.

25:14

Is still so much. You

25:16

make me cry.