An annual event sponsored by the Greater Augusta Arts Council (GAAC) highlighted the impact the arts community has on Augusta’s image and as a magnet for tourists.
The Arts Day Luncheon featured guest speaker, Susan Irish, National Association of Women Artists, South Carolina Board. Joining Irish was Bennish Brown, President and CEO of Destination Augusta, who stressed the importance of public arts.
The numbers tell the story. A 2022 study by Americans for the Arts, a Washington, D.D.-based nonprofit organization, reported a $24.6 million economic impact in Richmond County from the arts and culture sectors.
Statewide, the Georgia Council for the Arts (GCA) reported arts and culture delivered a $1.27 billion economic impact while supporting nearly 20,000 jobs. GCA is a division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development.
Locally, GAAC sponsors several large events each year in Richmond County, including Arts in the Heart of Augusta. Those attract visitors from across the southeast, making the arts and tourism a perfect marriage.
“Arts is, I think, an important part of the fabric of a community, first and foremost for people who live here to feel good about where they live,” Brown told ABD. “But then it is certainly that component that attracts people. There are communities that visit us because they either know about or have heard about our art scene. There is something about the arts that makes people visit a place or want to live there. So yes, it does contribute to the economy.”
The event also marked the first program under the leadership of newly appointed Executive Director, Denise Tucker. She assumed the duties following the retirement of longtime Executive Director Brenda Durant.
She hopes GAAC can make people realize Augusta is a multi-faceted arts destination city, offering not just visual arts.
“We have music and we have dance and we have visual arts. We have culinary arts,” she highlighted. “There are just so many things to learn about our city. We have to be a little bit more transparent with the community and reach out and touch them, because there are a lot of sectors of our community that just don’t get touched by artists only because we don’t think about them. We have to touch those who may actually become art lovers that we don’t typically see. So just reaching those communities is one of my visions and goals.”
Just days before the annual luncheon, GAAC released the list of arts nonprofit organizations that shared in its distribution of more than $70,000 in grants.
“I think that’s what people miss. They think of us as a government entity, but we are a regranting agency. We provide grants for individual artists, for arts nonprofits,” she explained. “And I just would like for people to kind of dig a little deeper, just to find out what we do and how they can engage with us to make our impact and our footprint a little bit larger.”
The grants ranged from $2,055 for the Augusta Concert Band, to $5,756 for several organizations, including the Jessye Norman School of the Arts and Augusta Symphony.