0:12

For Delaware State of the Arts . My name is Terrence

0:15

Van and I am joined

0:17

today by a Womington staple

0:19

, an incredible artist and

0:22

her own right an organizer

0:24

, and has brought some of

0:26

the biggest names to our

0:28

city . I have Ms Tina

0:30

Betz , who is also the

0:33

Director of Cultural Affairs in Wilmington

0:35

. Good morning , I have

0:37

you nice and early here today . It's

0:40

an absolute blessing to be speaking with you

0:42

. Can you give our listeners a little

0:44

bit of a backstory ? I know you

0:46

have it's so rich , but you know

0:48

, if you could just paint a little tapestry

0:51

for our listeners about

0:53

you know what you do , what you have

0:55

done , just to kind of get us started with

0:58

a little intro .

1:00

Well , thank you , terrence . First of all , thank you so much

1:02

for inviting me to be on

1:04

with you this morning , and I use

1:07

the word staple , it's like . Does that mean

1:09

bold ?

1:10

I don't know but I know it is

1:12

. That means that means timeless .

1:16

Okay , thank you . Thank you , that's a . That's a . That's a

1:19

spin that I would prefer to go with . Yeah

1:21

, I've been bouncing around , you know

1:23

, advocating for the arts and having my fingers

1:26

and the the the creative

1:28

sector pot for more than

1:31

three decades , mostly in

1:33

government and with nonprofits

1:35

, and it have been involved with the Clifford

1:38

Brown Jazz Festival since

1:40

the inception , since before it was

1:42

the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival , it

1:44

was , we called it Jazz and on the Square

1:46

it was just a multi-day downtown

1:48

Musico event that is now , you

1:51

know , grown to be one of the most respected

1:54

jazz festivals in the world

1:56

. Quite honestly , you know , as

1:58

part of co-founding

2:01

theater and after there had not

2:03

been a theater , a movie

2:05

house , a downtown movie tent again for decades

2:08

of better , sir Superman and I

2:10

co-founded theater and

2:12

a few years ago a partner

2:14

and I , rich Newman , who now lives

2:16

in Colorado , fringe woman

2:19

10 to to the city , which I would

2:21

love to do again , by the way . It was just

2:23

, yeah , an

2:25

incredibly unique event that brought

2:28

people from all over the region

2:30

into woman 10 . Would

2:33

love to do that again and you

2:35

know just many , many things . So women's and children's

2:37

course was a , was a baby of

2:40

mine and David Christopher , you

2:42

know a little bit more than 20 years ago

2:44

now and of course that is an

2:46

organization that is out on its own

2:49

. You know founded slays and

2:51

it's just doing incredible things around

2:53

the city with you know , more than 500

2:55

young people around the city in their neighborhood

2:58

fires , going from the you know

3:00

the hilltop over to the northeast

3:02

area and just reaching out to kids

3:04

and giving them the highest level

3:06

of musical education that's

3:08

available free

3:12

to children and of course that you

3:14

know that organization has helped at

3:16

least feel a little bit of the whole that

3:18

is left by the arts being removed

3:21

, you know , from public schools in large

3:23

parts . So you know I just have my fingers

3:25

in the pot . You know , whenever there's

3:27

something , you know that look

3:29

and there is , seems to be a blank

3:32

canvas , you know I try to . You

3:34

know , form partnerships

3:36

that help , you know , make

3:38

that canvas come to come , to come alive

3:40

. So that's what I like to do oh

3:43

, that is .

3:44

That is wonderful . That's wonderful to hear

3:46

, and I am one of those youth

3:48

that have been affected by . You know all

3:51

these , you know amazing programs in the

3:53

city and you

3:55

know it's awesome to be able to talk to you and dive

3:57

deeper on this because you

3:59

know I can speak from personal

4:01

. You know experience , you know going to cab

4:03

Callaway and you know

4:05

I got the privilege to

4:08

play in the Clifford Brown Jazz

4:10

Festival and it was a life-changing experience

4:12

. So there there are so many lives

4:14

that have been changed by your work and your impact

4:16

. You're also an artist yourself

4:19

. You know , as a classically trained singer

4:21

, you've performed in so many different

4:23

venues and how do

4:25

you feel ? You know being

4:27

in both spaces and you

4:29

know having an artist perspective and bringing

4:31

it into government work yeah , a

4:34

lot of my colleagues have that .

4:35

you know have had their lives

4:38

on both sides of that fence and it is

4:40

. It's a valuable experience to

4:42

be a part of . You know , when you're on , when

4:44

you're doing sort of the coordinating

4:46

and that side

4:48

not , you know , not practicing

4:51

at the art , it makes a difference

4:53

when you have been on the other side and you

4:55

appreciate the type of

4:57

environment that

4:59

is conducive to artists

5:01

bringing the best you know that they

5:03

have to the table . It is

5:06

really important when you're looking at it not

5:08

through the creative lens , and I

5:10

think that when you're an artist you

5:13

bring your creative lens to everything

5:15

that you do , to everything that you do . You

5:17

know , even when I'm doing I'm

5:20

looking at budgets , for example . This

5:22

may seem a little bit , you know out

5:24

in that field , but you know one of the things

5:26

I look at is how much of that money is

5:29

going toward administrative and all of those

5:31

sort of things or how much of it

5:33

is really supporting the art

5:35

and the artist . I mean that you

5:37

notice those sorts of things . I mean I've

5:39

sat on a couple of wars where I've made that

5:41

observation . You know , gosh , that looks

5:43

really heavy on the administrative

5:46

side . I mean so and I think that

5:48

, you know , being an artist helps

5:50

. You see that you

5:53

know , as I said , there are a lot of our colleagues who

5:55

bring that same skill

5:57

set to the table , and

6:00

that's , you know , that's a good thing .

6:02

Absolutely and I agree 100%

6:04

. I think I

6:06

wish everyone could take almost like a creativity

6:09

course , you know , because even if you're not an artist

6:11

, having that extra lens

6:13

of perspective goes a long way and

6:16

I think everyone benefits from it , especially

6:18

in spaces where creativity isn't which

6:21

, you know , government isn't is notoriously

6:23

not the most creative place , fortunately

6:26

, when you have good leadership , you

6:28

know we and we have enjoyed that for a while

6:30

, I mean with our current mayor , mike

6:32

Pazicchi .

6:33

I mean , I worked 13 years for Jim Baker and

6:36

you know both of these , both of those experiences

6:39

my 13 years with Mayor Baker

6:41

and , you know , been back and working

6:43

with Mayor Pazicchi since 2017

6:45

, both of those experiences have been really supportive

6:48

of what it is that you know I

6:50

try to do . I mean , I don't have to do

6:52

a lot of battling and a lot of explaining and

6:55

I think that comes from trust , but

6:57

I also think it comes from an understanding

6:59

of , you know , the value of the , of the

7:01

arts . I mean , I was just

7:03

over at our newest project

7:05

, which I hope we have a chance to talk about a

7:07

lot today , the Urban Artists

7:09

Exchange , where we've converted

7:12

stables into artists studios

7:14

and art making studios and art

7:16

teaching studios and a new outdoor

7:19

amphitheater . I was just over

7:21

there on the east side of Wilmington

7:23

with Mayor Pazicchi yesterday and

7:25

he is so excited and so supportive

7:27

and I want it to be the best you

7:30

know that it can be . So , you

7:32

know , and that's really very

7:34

special . I mean , I have peers around

7:37

the country who don't have that

7:39

luxury . You know they have the battle

7:41

for you know , to make the case and

7:44

that can be exhausting . That can be

7:46

exhausting , yes , yeah

7:48

. So you know , I feel really fortunate that

7:51

you know , even though I work in

7:53

government , that I

7:56

have been able , that I have enjoyed the

7:58

support . You know the leaders that I've

8:00

worked with and worked for .

8:01

I want to take a minute to remind our listeners that

8:03

you are tuned into News Radio , 1450

8:06

WILM and 1410

8:09

WDOV for Delaware State

8:12

of the Arts . In this most recent project

8:14

, how did it come about ? You mentioned

8:16

you wanted to dive a little bit deeper . Let's

8:20

kind of let's talk about what is the project

8:22

, when is it now ? Where do you see it in the

8:24

future ? The impact that

8:26

it can make , I feel like it's a tremendous

8:29

. It's a tremendous blessing for the community

8:31

.

8:31

It is . It's a huge asset and I

8:34

like to give a big nod

8:36

to Dolores and Barbara

8:38

Washam , who for

8:41

years operated the

8:43

Urban Environmental Center on

8:45

that same site . I mean , there were stewards of that

8:47

site for almost I think almost two

8:49

decades . Had it not been for

8:51

their commitment to that one

8:53

acre piece of land , lord

8:56

knows what it would have been . Applaud

9:00

to Barbara and and Mr Dolores

9:03

Washam , the Washam sisters , and

9:06

the project has gone

9:08

from the Washam sisters

9:10

primarily operating one

9:12

building , the building . The building now

9:15

is currently occupied by the Urban Bike

9:17

Project and they're great partners

9:19

on the site and

9:21

there were a bank of stables and

9:24

back . I would say in maybe

9:26

about 2010 or

9:28

so , I had a conversation with

9:30

the Washam sisters and talked about

9:32

what their vision had been for

9:35

the entire sites and they also they always

9:37

had a vision to convert to stables and

9:40

to do mostly environmental

9:42

projects on that one acre piece of

9:44

land . So when they decided

9:46

that they wanted to hang up their spurs and

9:49

move on to do other things , the

9:51

site was returned back to the city of Wellington

9:53

. So I started working

9:55

with other partners within city

9:58

government at the time as I said about 2010

10:00

, to come up with an idea

10:02

of converting the

10:05

stables into artist studios . We

10:08

did a design of all

10:10

of those components and then

10:13

I left the city . When Mayor Williams

10:15

came into , his

10:17

administration came into being . I

10:19

left the city , the Urban Bike Project

10:21

needed a home and approached Mayor

10:23

Williams about coming into that space

10:26

where we had a vision to Black Box

10:28

Theater . And so Mayor Williams

10:30

and the Urban Bike Project struck a deal and

10:32

the Urban Bike Project is there and , as I said , they are

10:34

great partners . They are really good to have

10:36

on the site . They added just another dimension

10:38

to what it is that we're

10:40

doing . So then Mayor

10:42

Williams , after his administration , mayor Pesicchi

10:45

came in and this idea of

10:48

converting the stables into artist studios

10:50

and amphitheater and all that stuff was still

10:52

hanging in the back of my mind . And

10:54

when I was fortunate enough to have

10:56

Mayor Pesicchi ask me to come

10:58

back on board , I approached him

11:01

, chief of Staff Tanya Washington

11:03

, who works for the Baker administration . I

11:05

said remember this idea , you know this

11:07

, you know , do you think this would be great ? It's

11:09

a little bit of convincing because , you know

11:11

, when you saw the stables they were just

11:13

in such total disrepair and

11:16

the site was overgrown and it was just . I mean

11:18

, it was just a big , you know , a

11:21

huge undertaking . It really was

11:23

. But you know , I showed

11:25

up the designs that we had and , you know

11:27

, revised the vision a little

11:29

bit , because now we had an Urban Bike Project , we

11:31

didn't have that building for Black Box Theater

11:33

and then we were just off and running

11:35

Terrence . So since 2017

11:39

, the city has invested

11:41

heavily in both human power

11:43

and capital into

11:45

this project . The welfare foundation

11:47

came on board , the Longwood Foundation

11:50

, the Delaware Community Foundation

11:52

, the state of Delaware , so

11:54

you know all of these partners . So

11:57

the stables are done almost , except

11:59

we want to age back them now . So

12:03

so we're asking , you know people for

12:05

funding to help us do that so

12:07

we can do year on programming

12:09

the amphitheater platform

12:12

or performance space . That is totally done

12:14

and has this really nice green room

12:16

. It's huge . So I

12:18

can even accommodate artists

12:20

like the Delaware Symphony Orchestra

12:22

, for example . You know , globally accommodate

12:25

that . And then we can also go down to

12:27

smaller ensembles , you know . So

12:29

you know that's done . And

12:32

this morning I just got photos of

12:34

trees being delivered for

12:37

the to make it an urban green space . And

12:40

then we were also very fortunate to be

12:43

able to work with the city's public works department

12:45

because they had a very

12:47

high interest in mitigating the

12:49

impact of border runoff

12:52

into the brand new one and flooding in that area

12:54

of town . So , in addition to everything

12:56

that you see , that people will see

12:58

, obviously above ground there

13:01

is a lot of infrastructure underground

13:03

of stormwater management that will

13:05

have an impact of ripple effect for

13:07

a few miles out

13:10

from the site to help , to help

13:12

, you know , lessen the impact

13:14

of flooding in that area , so we

13:16

have stormwater management , biloswells

13:19

, little rain gardens

13:21

and now a big amphitheater and

13:23

the stables trees being delivered

13:26

. This project

13:28

is such a huge , will be

13:30

such a huge asset for the entire city

13:32

of Wilmington , but especially for

13:34

the east side of Wilmington which is , you know

13:36

, an historic neighborhood in

13:38

the city of Wilmington and it's with the

13:40

walking distance of , you

13:42

know , east side residents to northeast

13:44

area , you know just a lot of communities

13:47

will be able to come enjoy what it is

13:49

that we present there , which we plan

13:51

to be robust . It's not we don't want to

13:53

just build it and go well , isn't that pretty . You

13:56

know . We build it because we want to make

13:58

sure that it is activated

14:00

as much as possible in where there's

14:02

just programming happening all of the time

14:05

for the community and I want

14:07

to mention the vision is for

14:09

it to be free to the community . We

14:11

will not , we do not want to do ticketed

14:14

events . So whatever

14:16

we do , we will go out , we'll beat

14:18

the bushes to raise money so that

14:20

there is zero barriers

14:23

to accessibility to what it is

14:25

that we're doing and everything that we do also

14:27

will be high quality

14:29

artistically . So I know that

14:31

was a lot , but it's a lot to . You know

14:34

, I'm just so excited about what

14:36

it is that you know that we're doing there

14:38

, in all of the possibilities that

14:40

it brings .

14:41

Oh , it sounds so exciting . I mean it sounds

14:44

fully transformational and

14:46

180 degrees of

14:48

of just change . I've driven by that

14:50

area many times so I know exactly

14:53

where you're talking about and

14:55

I know that that just elevates

14:58

. You know everything in that area and

15:00

it's also great for the listeners to hear how much

15:02

goes into a project

15:04

like this . I think folks they'll be

15:06

there enjoying it but they might not ever

15:08

see all of that . You know

15:10

just organization that went

15:13

into . I mean just hearing about the , the store

15:15

and drain and just all that

15:17

had to happen to collaborate and

15:19

make that possible . It's remarkable

15:21

and I think the city , the

15:24

city is going to appreciate that for many years

15:26

. And now , moving into Clifford Brown coming

15:29

into next month and I'm

15:32

sure that's kind of a massive

15:35

, you know undertaking in its own right

15:38

every year , annual you

15:40

know annual just huge

15:42

party for the city and you know

15:44

some of the best musicians in the world are

15:47

right in Wilmington for three nights

15:49

. Is is or is it four nights .

15:51

Four nights , wednesday through Saturday

15:53

. Yeah , and for those

15:55

with the stamina , we do late night

15:57

jams from 10 o'clock at night after

15:59

the festival ends in Rodney Swarff , until one o'clock

16:02

in the morning .

16:03

Those are , those are turning into

16:05

. I had the honor to sit in one when

16:07

I was . I used to play trombone and

16:10

you may know my friend Vernon

16:12

James . Oh , sure , yeah

16:14

. So we grew up together

16:17

and let me tell you , for people listening

16:19

, these are , these are you

16:21

can't miss . These are these are events

16:23

. I mean you get , you get to be right

16:25

there with the musicians . It's jamming

16:27

in there .

16:28

I mean it is jamming and every now and

16:30

then and you never know when this

16:32

may happen you have an artist who

16:34

just played that evening at

16:37

the festival . I mean it's just you know

16:39

, that's happened , where they just you know , drop in

16:41

because they're staying at the , at the hotel

16:43

Dupont or another hotel nearby

16:45

, and they'll every now and then just stop

16:47

in . So that's always

16:49

a possible surprise . But

16:52

, yeah , they're great .

16:53

Yes , and I mean the

16:56

acts . I've got to see

16:58

Chick Korea I've

17:00

got to shake the hands of I

17:03

don't think he was able to play , but Freddie Hubbard was

17:05

there and I got to shake

17:07

his hand . I mean so the Clifford Brown Jazz

17:09

Fest . It's almost

17:12

indescribable what it means to Warmington

17:14

, and so you've been there from the

17:16

beginning . Like you said before , it was even

17:18

Clifford Brown . So now

17:20

, at this point , 36

17:23

years , how does that feel ?

17:25

Feels great , first of all

17:27

seeing how much the community appreciates

17:29

it . And when I talk about our local

17:31

community and also the

17:33

broader community , I mean we've

17:35

had people who can their vacation , who

17:38

live in other countries who

17:40

can ? their vacation around coming

17:42

to Warmington for

17:44

the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival . So

17:48

that's just . This festival puts

17:51

Warmington on the map and

17:54

it gives us an opportunity to

17:57

showcase our city , which

17:59

is just getting better and better and better all

18:02

the time . It's a sense of pride

18:04

. I took the opportunity again to

18:06

go onto the Clifford Brown Jazz

18:08

Festival Wikipedia page to

18:11

look at all of the artists , the past

18:13

artists who have attended , and it

18:15

is amazing . I

18:17

mean , it's such a powerful experience

18:20

to read down all the names , and

18:22

one of the things that I find

18:24

very satisfying is that you have

18:26

local artists like the Faustina Dixon

18:29

on the same night that

18:31

you may have a Chick Korea , for

18:34

example , or Ray Jones , avery , or

18:39

some of our local artists . A

18:41

part of the mission of the festival

18:43

is to bring the Chick Koreas

18:46

and Freddie Hubbard's and the Stanley

18:48

Clarks and the Marcus Millers and

18:50

all of those people to the stage , but also

18:52

to shine the spotlight on

18:54

our local and regional artists . It's really

18:57

an important component of the festival .

18:59

The inspiration that happens every night

19:01

on that stage is

19:03

just it's remarkable . I that's

19:05

what I'm saying , I can't even describe

19:07

it fully . And , miss Faustina , I play

19:10

with the Warmington Youth Jazz Band and

19:12

that changed my life . So

19:15

like to hear that how interconnected all

19:17

these things are . It's just remarkable

19:19

. And I think the last Clifford Brown

19:21

someone said they come from Hawaii

19:23

. I remember they were calling

19:26

out different places and that's

19:29

just huge . That's absolutely huge

19:31

for Warmington .

19:32

And then look at it from the point of view of jazz

19:34

and how jazz is always evolving

19:37

. I mean , it's jazz , it's simply

19:39

not a static form of art . Every

19:43

now and then over the years , I'm hearing it last and last

19:45

night , goodness . But every now and then , somebody will say Clifford

19:48

Brown would never have played . That it's like oh , we don't

19:50

know . Clifford Brown

19:52

was 25 years old when he

19:54

tragically and unexpectedly

19:56

left us , and I would think

19:58

that he would

20:01

have been the type of artist who would have

20:03

continued to evolve and

20:05

explore , test the limits

20:08

of his arts . I mean , when you

20:10

look at artists , for example , like Amal's

20:12

Davis , you listen to

20:14

an early Amal's Davis and then

20:16

listen to Amal's Davis later in the spirit

20:18

, and I mean the evolution is just

20:20

astounding . So we try

20:23

to take that concept

20:25

and program the jazz festival in

20:27

that way . People understand the

20:29

diversity of this music

20:31

. It is not in a box , thank

20:33

goodness , because if it were

20:36

it would die . I

20:38

mean , how many times have you had that discussion ? Is

20:40

jazz dead ? Well , no

20:43

, first of all , and that's

20:45

because it hasn't been smothered in

20:47

a box . It's allowed

20:50

to breathe and to continue to grow

20:52

and to diversify and

20:54

to explore . So that's what we try

20:56

to do when we're

20:58

deciding which artists

21:01

to bring to the festival . And I think

21:03

when folks take a look at this year's

21:05

lineup , I think we've been very successful

21:08

at underscoring and underscoring that

21:10

Music

21:30

playing , music

21:46

playing .