 So we are going to adopt the agenda, but I will be looking for a motion to amend the agenda from Councilman Herbert. All right, I'd like to make a motion to amend the agenda to add a presentation from Cola Jazz by Mr. Mark Raab, the Executive Director. And that would be item three. Great, properly motioned. I'll second that. You could call the roll, please, Ms. Hammond. Ms. Herbert. Aye. Yes. Fantastic. The agenda is set. We have a wonderful lineup of arts and culture discussion here today. The first item, Councilwoman Herbert, we have a presentation by Lisa Lane Frick and Mr. Scott Garrick on the Columbia Peace Pole Public Art Project, a long, long-standing project. And we're excited to hear about the latest version of it. So Mr. Scott, if you could go to the microphone. Thank you, Councilmembers. My name's Scott Garrick. I work in city administration for the city of Columbia. It is my pleasure today to introduce Ms. Elaine Frick, who is representing the Columbia Peace Pole Committee. Several years ago in 2022, there was a new peace pole sculpture that was unveiled by our then-new Mayor Reckonman of January of 2022, a very cold day, as Elaine has let me know. And a peace pole was unveiled and dedicated in the median. It is on Senate Street, pretty much right in front of the USC Alumni Center. Ms. Frick is here today to detail their plans that they have commissioned and contracted with the designs behind the peace pole and their ideas for some potential places where it can be installed once completed. Elaine. Good afternoon. Thank you for letting us present this and request that the next public art peace pole be approved for being on city property in Columbia. I will use this clicker to show you just a brief, few pictures from a PowerPoint that our committee has so far spoken to churches, rotary clubs, and other organizations to encourage people to plant their own peace poles around the city. And we want there are now about 34 in the city at 20-some locations. So we would like this is the next official public art peace pole that we'd like to do. I'll only show you a few of the slides, showing you just how other peace poles can look. They can either be in. This is in our sister city in Ocargana. It's the tallest peace pole in the world, actually, and a very unusual design at their engineering school. I saw this in Croatia visiting there, and it was after the Serbian and Croatian civil war. And it was in a park in a harbor. And they were saying all peace poles say may peace prevail on Earth. And this one said it in English and Japanese and Serbian and Croatian as a testament to the end of the war. A rotary club put this one in a number of elementary schools. They started in Japan. These are a few because it was a Japanese gentleman who began the theory. They can be made out of leftover fence post poles. They are wood. This one is at Whaley Street, United Methodist. It's a simple ordered PVC one, I think, has some Korean on it, I believe. This one is wood with plaques. It's at the Quaker Meeting House here in town. This is granite in Jasper, Georgia that a rotary club used, the local granite. This is at a Presbyterian church in McGregor, Presbyterian. I found this on a street off Garner's Ferry Road. And someone had knew about the one they were in Michigan and said I think I'll put one in my front yard. So that's all. And of course, this is the Vista Peace Pole, which you ought to go by and see on Senate Street. I went by today and rang the bell, which I do occasionally. And I touched especially the two languages of the eight, Hebrew and Arabic, saying may peace prevail on earth because of the news today that part of the world needs our prayers even more. This one is at the District 1 offices. And it has all the languages spoken in Richland District 1. This was at the Columbia Friends Meeting. Let's see. I won't. Shandong Presbyterian Church has one. Six-sided one. So we've started documenting where they are in town. Roosevelt Elementary School. I'll go through these quickly. This Grockman Elementary, a Montessori School, has four of them that they use to celebrate Peace Day every year and around Creighton. No, Kaufman-Rodd Elementary has 22. And our teacher had the students create their own over the end one year. So then this is probably another one. Can't see well, but it's where the Vista Peace Pole is. That's recent one, correct? Yes. Yes, so that's the Vista Peace Pole. Beautiful in the spring when the cherry blossoms that are on that part are. So we now have raised all the money we need for the next Peace Pole. Olga Yuknow and oh, I'm sorry. I didn't hand out some material for it. OK, thanks. There's one, three, and then there's some. I brought some recent. This has the Peace Pole that Olga Yuknow, a well-known local artist, ceramicist, and sculptor. The first thing is what we use to promote those Peace Poles and the Persimmon Peace Pole. And Olga has created a design that you have a full picture of it there in your packet. And she was inspired because our committee got seeds from second generation trees in Hiroshima that after the war, after the atomic bombing in Hiroshima, plants started growing again. And so they have started sharing the seeds of those survivor second generation trees. One of our members, Hotsam, started planting them, said, what do we do now? So we have a persimmon tree, second generation, and we have a ginko tree. The ginko is still growing at the botanical gardens here in town. They're taking care of it. But the persimmon tree is already on some city property, actually. I can tell you where. But the artist in her design needed a large space. And we have several city parks that we're considering and that the artist thinks would be great. We wanted it to be a place that has parking, that has a way to have events around it, to do education by schools and in churches about what this design says. And at a very public well park that's very well used, you all have a picture of the persimmon peace pole there, full picture of it. And then there are some just pictures of what Olga's latest ceramic flower designs have been. If you want any more explanation about the pole, I'll be glad to tell you. But that's fantastic. Scott, if you don't mind stepping up there. So because there is a public destination for it, that's why you're bringing it forward to us today. And I want to say, we love projects that get private and grant funding. Looks like you have raised 100% of the $12,000 estimated cost. Yes. Fantastic, fantastic. We're still taking more donations. And if you're listening, where can people go to donate? Yes, we are now. Our fiduciary agent is now Central Carolina Community Foundation. So folks can go to their site or mail checks to Central Carolina. It's always a great project. Scott, what are the next steps that you're looking for us to do in this committee? Well, Elaine and the committee have ideas about City of Columbia Parks, where they would like the peace pole to be installed when it is almost completed. And then once it has been installed, Oluyukno, the artist, will finish the project, finish it for a permanent display. One of the things that they have made Central to their fund raising and the money that they have stored away is that there will be a continuing maintenance fund for the peace pole going forward. So after it's installed, and it's going to be in the elements wherever it ends up, there will be a continuing fund or regular funds for it. There are several places that they have in mind. I have gone for a site visit out at the Saluda River Park. There's a site up at the top of the trailhead. But we've had discussions about several other places where they would like for it to be considered for placement. So it has Owens Field Park or any of the other city parks. Like that. That's district three. And remember that. So Mr. Simons, would you say that we just need a consensus to move it forward out of committee for staff to start working on a final destination for this piece of art? Yeah, we just need to evaluate you. If you all agree that you want to place it, we need to collect it. And so then the final placement will come back to full council for approval is the way I would see it moving forward. OK. Ms. Hammond, what formal steps do we need to take to move this forward to allow staff to start working with the committee? I think just give us that direction. All right. And will they come back to us with options or the final decision for approval? I guess to be determined, why don't we rely on staff's recommendation, whether it's one or an option? OK. So well, wonderful. Well, I would like to move this. Councilwoman Herbert, if you're good, move this out to put it in the staff's field to work with the committee. Absolutely. Explain to me what that means. That means Henry and his Parks and Rec team are going to work with you to find a wonderful destination for this beautiful piece of art. OK, so there's no further approval needed by the city. Once we decide on a destination, it does have to go back to full council. OK, got you. OK. All right, Elaine, thank you so much for your time. Thank you, Scott. Thank you for working with me so hard on this. The next item is a review of a 2003, look at me. I said 2013 was way before that, 2003 Arts Task Force Report. I came across this and found it very interesting, Ms. Herbert. I'm not sure if you've gotten a chance to look at some of the recommendations on here, some fantastic recommendations. And I asked one of the original committee members, Mr. John Whitehead, to come today to give us a summary of where we've come since then and kind of a rundown of what is still outstanding. I love the fact that there's some facilities, some wonderful options here that I would like for the city to consider pursuing. So Mr. Whitehead, thank you so much for coming today. You have provided us with a four-page kind of summary. And that's what we'll be following today. Exactly. Thank you for having me. I'm John Whitehead. I'm Executive Director of the Columbia Music Festival Association and was also on this 20-year-old Arts Task Force. The city had assigned to us Tina Saxon, who's with us now, to be with us on every meeting and lead us through to make sure we followed city guidelines and go on the trips that we took. It was a very diverse and an excellent group of people to study the Task Force. Where it came from, what it was built out of and born from, was the idea of an arts village on North Main Corridor. To redevelop that, and if you'll see, the central element of the Task Force was to study the feasibility of a project at the North Main Columbia Arts Village for an artist-driven revitalization of North Main. The proposal was well received, but unfortunately, in every neighborhood, wanted it in their neighborhood. And rather than it ever happening, it kind of just fell between the cracks. One of the major components of it was the theaters and auditoriums that were needed at the time. And unfortunately, are still needed. The need was for a 1500-seat municipal auditorium, a 400-seat black box, and a 500-seat smaller performing space. All of those spaces were recognized as being managed by the city of Columbia as municipal facilities and not private. While we had high school auditoriums, we had the university, we had township auditorium. Booking them was difficult. They were far too large for many of the community organizations and far, far too expensive. Township auditorium at the time was in partnership with the city of Columbia and Richland County. And there were plans to renovate that space into the 1500-seat auditorium. The city pulled out its support. The county went ahead with the renovation. And instead of giving the city a $25 million renovation, we got a $12.5 million adapted renovation, which did not cut the seats. Township is still 3,200 seats. And that is really a large audience for many community organizations to use. The other thing that was asked for in this task force or studied affordable visual art studios and open gallery space. Well, we do have, multiple art studios were not created, but there are plans right now afoot to create artist studios that will be affordable in the Owens Field District. This is not a city-driven activity, but it is private. And I know that Ron Hagel is directing this. And I'm sure he's been before you all to ask help in making it a reality. John, how do you determine the need, the demand for this type of artist studio space now? What we did was we had surveys. We went to every organization, arts organization that was around. We had an outreach to every artist individually. We went to civic clubs, we went to churches, we went to schools. We had a terrific response from the surveys in what the needs were. And the needs were the facilities and the facilities and the facilities. We found in our trips that we took to surrounding communities that the city of Columbia has a rich arts background, a rich arts history, and a rich arts environment. Stronger than any place else that we've been, stronger than Charlotte, stronger than Charleston, stronger, much stronger than Spartanburg-Grainville, but somehow whether their facilities were excellent and are excellent. We also found that in all of this, there was no infighting between the artists and the arts organizations. Everybody was unified in what the needs were. And when I was asked to make this presentation, I did some quick calls and just dusted off what was there and found that those needs are still there. The unification of the arts is still there in the needs. The distinction is money. Arts are always after the same dollars. One of the researches that the Arts Commission did with the university was found that in 2003, the arts support base was 2,500 that overlapped in everything that they did. That was the strong core base. It would be interesting to see what that base is. I'm sorry, could you just repeat that again? 2,500 people was the strong core base for arts support in 2003, and that was a research that the university did together with the South Carolina Arts Commission. Everything else, all the other arts groups and arts activities brought other people in, but essentially you could count on support from that many people in this community. And it was actually a decrease from the last time it had been done in 1991. So I'm convinced it's soared since then. So how would, if we were to update that outreach? I would work with, I would bring USC into it completely. They have every, The Arts Commission. And the Arts Commission as well. The Arts Commission has much more long range plans for the state, but I know that in working with the university in various reports and service that they do, they can do it quickly and they can get any information that we need. It's just cooperation from the different arts groups to make sure it happens. If you don't send in your information, it's not gonna be included. Great, thanks. As far as arts space also, Columbia Development put together Stormwater Gallery. So there are spaces there, art spaces came out of that. Print photography, ceramics, technology and spaces were not created, but right now, in fact, this week, I saw there's a new photography studio that just opened on Lady Street with gallery space and spaces for photographers. And that's a private venture. The other thing requested was office space for nonprofits. I don't think that's been created. A public gallery with Parks and Rec is in the downtown area for the ceramics and things that are made through Parks and Rec. So we do have that. So that's a plus. We did get a public gallery. We asked for the expansion of the study of what was the Renaissance center, the AME church on the corner of Taylor and Sumter. And while a lot of money was put into it, the realization of it as a healing arts center never happened. We went to Charlotte to see the Blumenthal Center. The Blumenthal Center is a converted church and it is like the one that we envisioned could become out of the old AME church. We studied the Earlwood Park expansion and realized that that would be a perfect place to have concerts, to have an amphitheater. The Earlwood Park would be a usable concert stage. We even met with Parks and Recreation at the time to talk about it and they brought in people to talk to them who were using the Finley Park stage about what the needs might be in developing an amphitheater that could be used for performances and concerts. What we see now, and this is exciting, is Finley Park is being renovated and upgrading its performance spaces. And what I personally would like to see is the input from people that use it, not only musicians, but the Shakespeare Company, which has been in the Finley Park forever. A black box theater was created at the CMFA Art Space. We were looking for 400 seats because of space limitations, we have 100. And that space is used now by over 34 different small arts organizations. And the way CMFA is structured, they use it for free because it is a community resource. Nickelodeon Theater did move to Main Street. Workshop Theater moved to Columbia College. Trustus Theater upgraded with the addition of a second performance space. Town Theater continues to upgrade and with a family focused as a community theater of historical background. The VISTA itself was officially designated by the state as a state cultural district. Rehearsal spaces available to the community were also created at the Art Space. The Main Street revitalization that was called for was spearheaded by the arts with the Columbia Museum of Art, upgraded Boyd Plaza and the institution of First Thursdays on May. And also many culturally and musically diverse festivals now select Main Street as their preferred venue. The recent and I really mean recent 2023 return of Main Street jazz to the 700 block could once again be originally significant signature partnership for the city of Columbia and cola jazz because the jazz history of the city goes all the way back to the early 30s when we had the Big Apple. The City of Columbia Council established the H tax and that's an outgrowth of what was called H tax advisory committee. And that's an outgrowth of what was called for as a community involvement committee to look at how applications are submitted for H tax and the H tax committee, the advisory committee has been working with the city on doing that. It's been an arts advocate and recognizes its responsibility to ensure that the original intent of the distribution of the tax has been maintained and that they study carefully and review carefully what they present to counsel for counsel decisions. The city has also created another master plan, amplify with one Columbia to establish and to amplify the arts in Columbia. And also under one Columbia, the city has established a poet laureate and a very strong public art project. So I think those are pluses that we can see. USC and the other institutions of higher learning have their own missions. In this original study, we had people from USC, we had the president of Columbia College, we had the director of district one and district five and they made it very clear that their auditoriums were to serve them first and then secondarily if available, community activities. So we'd like to see that reversed and have municipal auditoriums that serve the needs of the community itself and not have to be put on the second row or second track. Same thing with the library system. The library system is a great partner but we can't count on a library system to be our gallery for public art and community artists to use. Historic Columbia has been outstanding as called for in this task for it in exploring and projecting the rich and diverse history of Columbia. Just take it the redefinition of the Woodrow Wilson boy at home as a museum of reconstruction and our story now matters in the 1963 project. So while there were many things that were not accomplished, particularly in facilities, in 20 years, city councils have really taken to heart some of the things that we asked for as an overall community arts task force and I think as we look at it, we should be proud of what the city has accomplished and hope for the future that we can meet the needs that the facilities are asking for. If you have any questions, I did go through it and do a section by section review that I have for the committee. If it's in red, we didn't do it. If it's in black, we did. Fantastic. Councilwoman Herbert, do you have any questions for Mr. Whitehead? Just a couple, a 400 seat black box theater and your opinion is that still a need for us? I know some folks who are looking, finding a good venue is really, really hard or real, real expensive. More expensive. We have at CMFA, the 100 seat, it is used continually, constantly by organizations who are so small, they couldn't afford to pay anything. And because of the structure of CMFA, we don't rent space because that would affect our tax base and as a nonprofit, we just don't want to get into that. So if an organization call sets up a time and is able to use it, they use it for free and they can charge whatever they want to charge. They can walk away and make money. Many of them make contributions back, but many of them don't. Even that 100 seat, while it's so well used, 400 seat would be better. And a true black box does not have a proscenium type stage. You can configure it any way you want to, whether it's in the round or cabaret tables. A true black box needs to have at least 400 seats. What we have now with the 100 seats is similar to what you'd see in Soho in Manhattan. It's small, it's usable, it works, but now the next step would be the 400 seat. And to your knowledge, do we have a 400 seat black box studio in South Carolina? Yes, it's in the Governor's School for the Arts in Greenville. But again, that only meets the needs of the Governor's School. We have had people from Charleston come up and look at what we have developed on Pulaski Street in the Vista and an envious of the way the city is able to support rehearsal spaces, performance spaces. So... Well, I attended the Governor's School of Math and Science, I'm a supporter of that and just had to throw it out just to get it. Another question that I... Was that Greenville? Where's... Charleston. Now it's in Huntsville. Yeah, they're two different ones. Oh, I did this summer, not the... I refused to live away from my... The Governor's School was the brainchild of one person, Virginia Aldrich, who's since passed away. She had the ear of the legislature, she made it happen. They had choices of where to put it and Greenville made the best presentation and it wound up in Greenville, much to Argus May. All right, another question. The village, the arts village proposal, I know that you said every community wanted it in their community. Yes, ma'am. Was there a recommended community? The recommended community was the North Main Corridor. Anywhere on the North Main. It would have been a whole corridor. What was suggested was the DOT property. And I know that Councilman Davis talked to Congressman Clyburn about that use because the use at the time was so limited at what you couldn't do. But he was assured that if it did go there and if it did happen, they could make it work if it needed to. Also Caroline Whitson was on this committee and she was the president of Columbia College. Her idea was to take Cottingham Theater that's there, take that down and put the 1500th seat theater there because there's so much commercial property surrounding that area that cafes and bars and restaurants could grow up. That was the weakness of it going to many of the other communities. It wouldn't be an engine for economic development. And the stumbling block to it was the Township Auditorium property was not at that time owned by city or county. It was privately owned. And that's where the parking lot is going to be developed on the side of Township Auditorium. But everybody from anybody we talked to said that the performing arts over and above the visual arts bring economic development because people on a national average, 95% of people go out to eat even before, after or during an arts event, a performing arts event. Sometimes both. And rehearsal times everybody participating is hungry. John, let me ask you something. I'm intrigued by the arts village. What is the programming that we're talking about here? Is there a residential, live works? Yes. And give us an example that we can go. Cotton Town at the time was just on the way up. The Main Street corridor was just being developed. The neighborhoods in the Eau Claire area were still a little bit short of where they should be and what could be expected with property values. An arts village was, the concept was to find a space and the space of the time that was available was the stone manufacturing building, which is now peak drift. That was, look at it, 63,000 square feet, which could have had everything that we needed in it. And the artists spaces for the visual artists were small, a minimum of 250 square feet. So just talk to me in generality. So you got this, is it like a hub and spoke type, with the large actual 1,200 seat auditorium and maybe the 400 seat black box. And then what are the, what's that? Give me the visualization of the art parcels. If we look at the Greenville Main Street development. The Governor's School for the Arts is up by the Reedy River. The orchestra, hall and peace centers, middle of the Main Street, if you will. Then there's a plaza, then there are hotels, but all up and down there are restaurants, bars, things for people to do. Then out from that developed residences and an arts village would do the same thing because the village would have the different components. You could have your 400 seat theater in one place and then your 1500 seat theater and move on down. The idea then of houses becoming artist studios, storefronts becoming galleries, all of that would fall into place. It wouldn't happen overnight, but had we taken, for example, we being the city, had the city decided to put the 1500 seat auditorium in the Bull Street area, it would be used so much more than the baseball stadium. And I don't mean with touring companies coming in because we didn't see it at the time as a touring venue, but mostly as a community venue, but it could have served both needs. Other than Greenville, is there any samples? Charlotte? How about outside of the Carolinas? Oh, that's at Washington, DC, huge, the torpedo factory, and that's what it was, it was a torpedo factory, and it became an arts complex. Very interesting. But that's where we visited. Tina, do you remember? We went and looked at different places that were successful. But yeah. Thank you. We were on the right track. Was it a private? Any mechanisms in place as well? At that time. For the sample of DC that you're using and Charlotte and Greenville, I understand the infills. But it was, Blumenthal was one person, P-Santa, one person. I mean. It's a lot easier for the municipalities. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have any questions, any more questions? For clarity, I'm looking at the 2003 report that we'll add. And on page four, it says at the request of council, the arts task force also recommends the following use accountability plan for the allocation of public funding from hospitality, food tax, and any other blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So is this saying that city council asked you all to look into a structure for a committee? Yes. Council asked for it. And what we developed is what you all. Well, that's important, I think. And in the hospitality tax advisory committee when it was first set up, there was one position, a space, specifically for an arts representative. And I was that arts representative because CMFA is funded by line items, so we were not part of a competitive process in any way. And what I could share was my knowledge of what was going on in the community. That arts position was eliminated and it became then an at large for the business. And I don't remember when that happened. I need to correct that. Anything else, councilwoman? Yes, thank you, John. You're welcome. Mr. Brennan, I would like for us to at the appropriate time revisit how the arts position was removed and it may have been removed without knowledge of the history of why it was there. And history is very important. Yes, ma'am. And so I don't know the proper format, but if we could make sure that we revisit removing that position, it just kinda doesn't make sense to me. Well, I am absolutely delighted to be able to take a relook at what happened 20 years ago and see how much we've accomplished. Well, you've given us some goals for this arts village concept with the facilities needs that the tremendous need for art studio and arts incubator space. So really appreciate that. So I guess an action item that I'd like to throw back in your court is how do we get this core art support update for to bring that forward. It was 2,500 core art supporters in 2003. I would be happy to get with Xavier and see if we can't find somebody at the arts commission or at USC in the marketing and find out what we can do. That's having that good core is a good foundation to build off of. So that'd be fantastic. Anything else? John, thank you so much for that great update, sir. Appreciate it. All right, we are cruising nicely on time. Moving on to item number three, like to invite to the podium, Mr. Mark Rapp and the Cola Jazz team for a update on the exciting things going on with jazz and cola jazz. Thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Going off a busy weekend. Very busy week and a half. Very busy weekend, very busy couple of months. Yes, everything is happening all at the same time. We bought and sold a house. We had a jazz festival. My daughter's sick. We're, yeah, we're doing it all right now. There you go. Yeah, I'm here. Just keep falling forward. That's indeed. All right, slideshow open running. So good afternoon. Thank you all so very much for this opportunity. I am not just an advocate for jazz, but a passionate believer in the transformative power of arts and culture. Now our capital city is poised for exponential growth through the arts. I'm talking economic growth, growth and tourism and positive growth and reputation. Now our capital city can be seen by the outside world as the torchbearer and the absolute best, most sought after cultural experiences putting us ahead of cities like Charleston and Greenville and Charlotte and Atlanta. Now Columbia is very much ready to lead the way when it comes to the arts. Culinary arts, writing, painting, acting, music and dance. Now Columbia can be transformed into a fully realized 360 degree powerhouse of a capital city that is deeply exciting to us who call Columbia home and to those who will be enamored by its offerings. My name is Mark Rapp. I'm the founder and executive director of the 2021 Governor Ward winning nonprofit jazz organization called the Kola Jazz Foundation. I'm also a jazz musician who has had numerous recordings and I've performed at the prestigious Newport Jazz Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Fillmore Jazz Fest, the Blue Note New York City and other festivals and clubs around the world from Brazil, Croatia to California. Now Kola Jazz Foundation has had its beginnings in 2015 and after a mentorship and fiscal sponsorship with the CMFA I have to pause and reiterate just how vital of a resource CMFA is, Columbia Music Festival Arts Association. They're incredible, not just to us but to thousands. We became a 501C3 in 2019. Now our mission is to grow, support, promote jazz in the Midlands through events, education, recordings, resources, advocacy as today and to create a thriving culturally rich community. As you can see in some of our photos from the slideshow. We aim to be the driving beat in jazz education, performance, outreach, providing opportunities for all from the musician to the students, to the audience. And we strive to serve our community, create cultural enrichment and make our city a premier jazz destination in the Southeast. Now Kola Jazz has meticulously and authentically, very importantly, crafted an annual season of events with proven and growing success. For example, in partnership with the Koger Center for the Arts, we are again bringing the most celebrated of jazz artists alive today back to Columbia for a third time now in three years, the great Wynton Marcellus and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Again, Kola Jazz is intentionally redefining the city of Columbia as a culturally vibrant and socially hip city to visit. When I performed at the Jazz Education Network Conference last year, world renowned artists and educators from around the globe that I came across without prompting, they all came up to me commenting on how much they see the Kola Jazz Foundation doing and they can't believe all this jazz is happening in Columbia, South Carolina. How is South Carolina a hub for jazz? Since 2015, Kola Jazz has worked tirelessly to establish Columbia as a premier jazz destination. And it started simply with the compilation CD highlighting the accomplished jazz artists and educators we have living here and active in and around Columbia. From there, we created a website to further highlight and publicize our artists given the public a portal of information on events and opportunities. And we began crafting a series of weekly gigs to feature various band leaders as well as hosting community engagement forums to help synergize the community. Now, Kola Jazz Foundation is powered by three quotes and I'll mention them now because I hope they empower you and encourage you because I know you all face this every week. Eleanor Roosevelt said, do what you feel in your heart to be right for you will be criticized anyway. You will be damned if you do and you'll be damned if you don't. And Dr. Martin Luther King said, the ultimate measure of a man or an organization or a council is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. And finally, the one that I live by day in and day out today being one of them by the US armed forces. The difficult we do immediately. The impossible, that just takes a little bit longer. Now, when the pandemic hit within 24 hours, we were presenting online concerts and we continued that nearly every week for two years. The Kola Jazz Foundation stepped up big time when many others did not. Our live in the lobby series of the Koga Center for the Arts presents our local and regional musicians supporting world renowned guest artists from across the country and around the globe. Last year, we presented Take the A Train to Soda City and we featured New York City Jazz Artist. This season is called Nola to Kola and we're featuring artists from New Orleans. In our next concerts on November 21st, I cordially invite you to attend. And it features Don Vappy, who's a 2021 recipient of the Steve Martin banjo prize and inducted into the American Banjo Music Hall of Fame. He's a true legend of the Creole musical flame. And as I mentioned earlier, a little cherry on top November 28th, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Winton Marcellus is returning. Our last sessions is a monthly series of listening room concerts presented in an intimate historic event space on Main Street called The Pastor Study. And our next session is in November 6th. I'm gonna just invite you to get on your email list and you won't miss a beat. Kola Jazz partners with South Carolina ETV and South Carolina Public Radio and we produce a statewide radio program called Kola Jazz Presents. And it airs on South Carolina Public Radio, heard across the state and even in the Charlotte, North Carolina at our recent Jazz Fest, I had a couple of people from Charlotte come up to me. Oh, we love your show. We listen every Sunday night. So you get that in Charlotte. She goes, I find a way. And our third season started on October 1st and it runs till the year's end. So Sunday nights at eight. In 2022, Kola Jazz impacted thousands of students through diverse education programs both in school and after school and by expanding our middle, high school and adult summer jazz camps. Our jazz appreciation concerts in the schools and camps, they offer meaningful insights in the jazz social and historical relevance. To that point, jazz was integrated 10 years before baseball and the civil rights movement was very much spurred on by and a product of jazz's role in American society. I don't have time to go into that and come to one of our academies and we'll talk about it. Kola Jazz educational commitment extends to community outreach including performances at local hospitals and underserved schools. We have another model that says we leave no child behind. If you want jazz, if you wanna understand American history, we're there for you. With Richland Library, we created Jazz for Kids videos and for Christmas Children's Hospital, we created a holiday jazz video which was aired on the closed circuit television channels. Lewis Armstrong said about jazz music, what we play is life. Our annual Kola Jazz Fest started in 2017 and we shifted to a virtual offering during the pandemic. Again, the difficult we do immediately. We've always had our eyes on growing this festival into a marquee event for the city of Columbia and in many ways bringing back the highly regarded Main Street Jazz Fest. The Kola Jazz Fest is truly a living experience as a heartbeat. It's resonating with culture, with unity and the soul of our community. It brings us together, transcending boundaries and fostering a sense of belonging. When I was up on stage at the Fest's past weekend, I looked out in the audience and right now I'm about to cry just like I did on the stage. So white people, black people, male and female, everything in between, all ages. No one cared that you were white or black or that you were male or female. Everyone was together, eating food together, swinging together, grooving together. That's what jazz does. It's a powerful music. Now, the Kola Jazz Fest provides a platform for artists, musicians and enthusiasts to connect, share their passion and celebrate a truly shared cultural heritage. The Kola Jazz Fest helps educate the public about jazz music, its history, cultural significance and vital importance, especially in today's climate. The Kola Jazz Fest boosts our local economy, attracting tourists and generating revenue for businesses, events, staff and musicians. And let me quickly introduce to you my esteemed member of the Kola Jazz Board of Directors, Ms. Mary Kate Corbita. And she's gonna give you some select data points demonstrating a hard work to promote the city of Columbia and highlight the city of Columbia as an exciting hip city to visit. Hi, I'm Mary Kate Corbita. I'm a resident of Elmwood Park, I'm a marketer by day at Flock & Rally and a lifelong jazz enthusiast and lover. So the Kola Jazz Fest is becoming a part of our city's identity and positively impacting our arts and culture scene on a much broader scale. Take Greenville, for example. Just last year, their city got behind and launched a marquee jazz event and it was a huge, huge success. Charleston has hosted a jazz fest for decades that is a signature event for their city too. Even Hilton Head Island has an annual marquee jazz event and has featured the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, among many others. After years of blood sweat and many tears, Kola Jazz knows the ropes inside and out and we are ready to elevate our festival into an event that continues to catapult Columbia to the top of the ranks as the city in South Carolina to visit. There's a massive opportunity in the arts and culture sector with a specific opportunity for our city to host a marquee jazz festival that brings in the biggest names in jazz. We're talking Robert Glasper, John Batiste, Samara Joy, Diane Crawl, Harry Connick Jr., Preservation Hall Jazz Band, many others. Miles Davis said, don't play what's there, play what's not there. The obvious has been done year in and year out. We've been playing what's there, the soul, the gringer, the exponential growth lies beyond the status quo. It exists in what Miles Davis said as, play what's not already there. Our collective commitment to the Kola Jazz Fest is a testament to our belief in the power of culture, community and the living legacy and innovative jazz spirit. This year we amplified our marketing efforts taking advantage of Experience Columbia's co-op program to place billboards in Charleston, Greenville, Augusta and Charlotte. Our earned efforts with a press release and targeted media relations resulted in over 50 press mentions and six interviews across broadcast. We had an attendance from all over the state and we even had folks from Georgia to Germany. Let's let our city be a stage for innovation, creativity and the exploration and presentation of the best in the arts. Let's reimagine our capital city, let's reinvent our reputation, let's make Columbia the city for arts and culture. Thank you. Great, thanks so much. Mark, step back up, we have questions for you. I don't know anything about jazz. So let me ask you something. Why are, and I love the vision and the confidence of our jazz scene and what our draw to Columbia could be because of our jazz scene. What is, you say Marquis, Greenville, Jazz Fest. Tell me, what does that look like versus where you wanna take our Marquis Jazz Fest? Sure, well the big difference actually are not performed in the Greenville Jazz Festival this past year when they launched it. So they as well have a local jazz organization called the Greenville Jazz Collector's been operating in their area for quite a long time. Ironically though, we often get calls from schools in their area because they heard of us first, which is a good compliment to us. However, the city sees value in arts and culture. You think about Greenville, you think it's a foodie town. They've got the Euphoria Festival. They've got a lot of singer songwriter things happening. The jazz thing has been just constantly bubbling, bubbling. The city sees all the value that I just explained to you, the intangibles, which are really tangibles about how it brings diversity together, brings the community out, no matter if you live in that neighborhood or that neighborhood, it's not for the rich, it's not for the poor, it's for everybody, it brings everybody together. The city funded that, the city allowed that to happen. They made it a free and open to the public event, which is cool. I sort of stand by, you need a little skin in the game. For many reasons, being an artist myself, I want my art to be valued and even if it's five bucks, I want a little skin in the game. Room for discussion, obviously. The city got behind it big time. So the logistics of making it happen, all the red tape was easily handled. The city took care of it all. The streets were closed easily. The meter bags were bagged. The staging was pretty epic. It was big. How many stages do they have? Well, this year they only had the one stage. My understanding is that they plan, because the way their street is, sort of on an arch. So they plan on having this stage and then another stage over here and start alternating. Big stage, big scrims. So a lot of financial support. And it also allowed, which I think is pretty hip, just being free and open to the public. They had thousands out there. I mean, it was incredible. All kinds of food, we as well had 20 different vendors, six different food vendors and whatnot. Well, the artist still got paid for their performances, right? Absolutely, yeah, they got paid handsomely. So let me ask you, do you vision the future of Kola Jazz Festival as multi-stages on kind of spread out in maybe the city center core kind of like a throwback to the good old days of Three Rivers Music Fest to some level? Somewhat so, but there's a lot of lessons learned from the past festivals. And there's a lot of lessons we've learned since 2015 of grass-rooting and being out there doing it day in and day out, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. So yes, but within reason, I'm not trying to be bigger than the horse allows or the cart allows, you know? And the growth should be steady consistent, but I believe it's exponential. We should set a goal of Jazz Fest and Finlay Park in three years, you know? If we're gonna have a world-class park accessible from our hospitality districts. John, the other day, I saw that big sign of it finally being revitalized, I said, that's a perfect venue for a massive weekend Jazz Fest. But I also liked, you know, I've, as I mentioned, I've had experience of performing in and attending and playing the biggest festivals in the world from Newport to, you know, the Jazz and Heritage Fest in New Orleans. All those are ticketed events, but they also have a very well-guarded point points of entry, which was a little bit of challenge being out on Main Street this year to have that single point of entry. With the city behind it, I'm sure there's, there's ways to create that and have it multiple blocks down Main Street. That leads me to my next question. So what are the funding mechanisms for the shows that you put on, Kola Jazz, do you rely? I know the city and the county get behind you. Do you rely heavily on private sector contributions specifically for these events? I go through a Visa card about every month. You go. I know. Yeah, so the city and county have, we've earned y'all's attention over the years and finally getting some support, which has been fabulous. We have a wonderful donor and membership base. We also have great relationships with a lot of sponsors around town, from banks to the health sector, to law firms, Columbia SC 63. Amazing partner this year. I'm in love with that organization. They're a fantastic, great partnership for Jazz. But yeah, private sponsorship, corporate sponsorship and we're just constantly proving ourselves year after year. We do authentic, great work. That's real and vital and effective. That's fantastic. So I did have a question about Greenville. Did the city own the concert or did they fund the concert through a group? Yeah, I'm not sure the nuances of that. All I could tell you is what I've heard. I did not sit on any of those boards or committees. Just from the folks from the Greenville Jazz Collector told me that city reached out to them and used them to advise and I guess bring it from the artistic. I guess they were artistic counselors, so to speak, for the festival. We're artistic too. Thank you. Yes ma'am. Well, Mark, Mary Kate, Sherry, thanks so much for your time today and the exciting, let's stay tuned and let's keep working to grow this fantastic festival. Cool. Thank you all so very much. Thank you. No other business, Ms. Herbert, if you'd like to make a motion to adjourn. I move that we adjourn. Second that. Ms. Herbert. Aye. Yes. Thank you all so much for coming today. Appreciate it.