Greater Columbus Arts Council

Tim Fulton 00:00Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Confluence Cast, presented by Columbus Underground. We are a weekly Columbus-centric podcast focusing on the civics, lifestyle, entertainment, and people of our city. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. This week, I spoke with Jami Goldstein, the Vice President of Marketing, Communications, and Events at the Greater Columbus Arts Council. We discussed the organization and how it's funded, the difference between being an art advocate and an artist advocate, their non-competitive grants program, their new office and gallery space, how the arts community has the opportunity to engage and uplift marginalized communities, and the importance of public art. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Also, the Confluence Cast is on Patreon. Find out how to support this podcast on our website, theconfluencecast.com, or at patreon.com/confluence. Funny enough, the Confluence Cast is sponsored this week by Art Makes Columbus, Columbus Makes Art, featuring stories about our city's incredible artists — stories full of inspiration, challenge, passion, and success. For videos, articles, an up-to-the-minute calendar of events, and an artist directory, visit columbusmakesart.com, the resource for all things arts and culture in the capital city. Enjoy the interview. Sitting down here virtually with Jami Goldstein, the Vice President of Marketing, Communications, and Events for the Greater Columbus Arts Council, better known as GCAC. Jami, how are you?

Jami Goldstein 02:03I'm well, Tim, it's nice to be here with you, virtually.

Tim Fulton 02:07Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for taking the time. For those that are not super familiar, can you give sort of the elevator speech on what GCAC is and does?

Jami Goldstein 02:18Absolutely. The Greater Columbus Arts Council is your local arts council. There are local arts councils all over the country. They do varying things, and not all of them do what we do, but I think what we do is pretty special. Primarily, we're a funder. We receive funding from the City of Columbus and Franklin County. From the City of Columbus, it's both the hotel-motel bed tax, which we share with Experience Columbus and the convention center and Human Services, and then the 5% admissions fee that we got passed in late 2018, which really hasn't been realized due to the pandemic, but is starting to come back. And really, that's going to be a game changer. That's really what will allow us to take Columbus arts and the nonprofit creative sectors to the next level.

Tim Fulton 03:09And just in the interest of — I don't know if this is full disclosure, but — how big of funding are we talking about that you guys manage?

Jami Goldstein 03:18So the bed tax, I believe, comes in — in 2019, which was its top year, 7.2 million in 2019 from the bed tax. And then the admissions tax, which really didn't get going, went into effect July of 2019, so we had a half a year of that, and that was about a million. And then the county provides us funding each year. And the majority of those funds go back out into the community, to nonprofit organizations and projects and events and festivals, and then to individual artists as well. And in 2020, part of that took the form of the Emergency Artist Relief Fund that we set up to help artists with basic needs at the height of the pandemic. So we don't normally fund rent and food and medical bills, but those monies, which were mostly privately supported, were really essential to artists when all the gigs were getting canceled, and everybody was just like, "What's going to happen next?" and reeling. We support about 90 organizations and projects each year, and part of that is operating support grants. So the large institutions you're familiar with, like the Columbus Museum of Art and COSI and Franklin Park Conservatory, those folks get funding from us. And then everything from the smaller galleries, like ROY G BIV, and festivals like Summer Jam West and the Southeast Asian theater festival — we really try and provide the community with as much support as possible to really engage the broadest possible audience.

Tim Fulton 05:02Yeah, and at a high level, you guys are a grant-making organization. You run the Columbus Arts Festival. And then you sort of have, for lack of a better term, lower-tier initiatives and things that you do.

Jami Goldstein 05:19Yeah, I call them ancillary resources, I guess, is a better way of putting it. Things like the Columbus Makes Art campaign, and the Passport program we're going to do this fall, which I know we'll talk about in a minute, and things like the community and street performer database, which we do matching funds with entities like Pearl Market and the airport and North Market, and pay buskers to perform in public and outdoor spaces. That's a pretty unique program in the country, actually.

Tim Fulton 05:51I do want to highlight here that you guys — if you are going to fund or be involved in a program, you're very explicit with the actual exhibiting institution or organization that's putting it on, you have to pay artists. You can't expect them to do this for free, or even say, "Well, they're busking, so they'll be getting money from people on the street." You guys have sort of drawn a line in the sand and said that's not okay. You don't get to offer exposure for work.

Jami Goldstein 06:26You are absolutely correct there. In fact, I still get calls, usually at least one a week, from people who want us to help connect them with artists. And my first question is, "What's your budget?" "Oh, they're gonna get great exposure." "Don, I'm sorry, I can't help you," because exposure does not put meals on the table or pay rent or any of those things. I like to say that we're not just arts advocates at GCAC, we're artist advocates. It's about changing the mindset about the value of creative contributions to our community. And artists are essential to our vitality, to our well-being, to our soul. I think this past year particularly has really brought that home for all of us. And when I talk to people about how much they missed live performance, how much they missed being able to walk into the museum, it really hits me that our work makes a difference, and that means the world to me. I'm getting all verklempt when I think about it. So, yeah, it's important, and we really want people to respect and understand that artists work their butts off. I mean, they were one of the hardest-hit sectors in the pandemic, as hard as travel and leisure. And then you have to pile on the fact that many of them are hustling to have two and three jobs, and a lot of times that's in the service industry of some kind, which also got slammed. And so we really want to be a support system for artists here in Columbus. And I regularly have artists say, "You know, one of the reasons I stay in Columbus is because GCAC supports artists." I think it might be around half of the local arts councils in the country support artists, but only a portion of those do it the way that we do it, which is a non-competitive grant. So when you come into the Support Professional Artists program, you're not competing — I mean, you're submitting your bio, and you're telling us what you want to use the money for, whether it's to market yourself better, for supplies, to enhance professional development — but you're not competing against the other applicants. Basically, if you complete the form and you meet the criteria, you'll get money. And I think that's a really important service to provide to the creative community.

Tim Fulton 08:45Yeah. And I think the other virtue of you guys — I've been to your, do you call them grant workshops? Yes. Been to the workshops where you guys just walk people through, "Here's how easy this is," and yes, there are sort of hoops, but if you qualify, there's no point where anybody's going to tell you no.

Jami Goldstein 09:09For artists, that is correct. So the organizational applications are a little bit tougher, but we do workshops for all of our programs. And, you know, thank God for YouTube and being able to make those available for everybody. But yeah, we really try every entry point that we can, and that includes down to the physical space. So in the height of the pandemic, in April of last year, we moved into a new office, which we had been searching for for many years. We are in a long-term lease at 182 East Long Street, and it's a historic building. It used to be the Windmill — formerly the Windmill Motor Company, it was like the only downtown auto dealership. And Brad DeHays and Connect Realty did a really nice job in basically gutting this place and making it a space that's not just for us, but a community space. So we have a gallery here that is focused on exhibitions by historically marginalized communities. It is called the Lo Ann Crane Gallery at the Greater Columbus Arts Council. She, as you know, has been a very longtime patron and supporter of the arts in Columbus. And we also have a space and a couple of computers for artists to come in and use. So these are secure computers, if they don't have access to something, to apply for a grant. We have that space for them during the work day.

Tim Fulton 10:30Gotcha. And are you guys open now and letting folks come in?

Jami Goldstein 10:36We are. We have gone back to requiring masks if you're visiting. And the gallery hours are posted at gcacgallery.org. We have a great exhibition up right now that was curated by Lyn Logan Grimes and the King Arts Complex, called Entangled Threads. And it's five fiber artists, and it's really great.

Tim Fulton 10:55Yeah. Can you talk a little bit more — you talked about the mission of the gallery and exhibiting folks who are from marginalized communities. Can you talk a little bit more about your additional DEI work?

Jami Goldstein 11:10Absolutely. You know, I think we, as historically white, privileged institutions, have had to accept and acknowledge that in the past year, and also then begin the work that needs to continue until it's as normal as breathing, or the term is obsolete, right? And I hope to see it in my lifetime. But this is about ensuring that we're providing opportunities for Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples, that women and LGBTQ and trans communities have equal treatment and opportunities, that all marginalized communities and individuals feel welcome, embraced, engaged by Columbus, by not just GCAC, but the arts community as a whole here. And so our work on that is completely across the agency. Whether it's the festival or the arts campaign, we're looking at making sure that the faces that we put out there and the work that we support matches the demographic of our community as much as possible. And I think that's really important, to let those folks know that they have a place here and that we support them. And that applies to our organizations too, and supporting them in doing this work and making sure that they have programs and are thinking and implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion work throughout their organization.

Tim Fulton 12:40And I was actually going to follow up just a little bit. You guys have your diversity and inclusivity statements on your website, and they are very forward. They say essentially what you just said, that we acknowledge that these institutions, and art in general, tend to come from a place of privilege, and especially the audiences and the folks that support it. I wonder, while you are supporting organizations in following along with those ideals and those goals and those affirmations, do you feel like you have a responsibility to hold them to account as well, in order to do that?

Jami Goldstein 13:19Part of this work includes, in our applications from organizations, that they have a place to tell us what they're working on, and so that we can track that progress. It's going to remain one of our top priorities, making sure that not just we, GCAC, but the rest of the arts community that we fund moves forward and makes progress on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Tim Fulton 13:47Absolutely, that's great. Do you want to talk about Art Unites Columbus and Deliver Black Dreams?

Jami Goldstein 13:54Yeah, I think that that's one aspect, a very public aspect, of this investment and this commitment. Art Unites Cbus was born out of the protests over the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and so many other Black people at the hands of law enforcement last year. And when the boards went up throughout downtown Columbus and the Short North, artists really just — we sponsored a program here at GCAC and at the Ohio Theatre, along with CAPA, where we paid artists. And then Huntington Company at the Huntington Center paid artists to come and paint. Lots of artists just went out to the streets and did it, to share messages in this time of turmoil, messages of love and hope, and "together we can get through this," and that it's going to take all of us to make a difference here. Black folks have been fighting this alone way, way, way too long. So as white allies, we have to do everything that we possibly can to not find ourselves in the state like — I look back at the civil rights protests of 50 years ago, and I feel like we haven't barely moved the needle in many cases. I mean, maybe the "whites only" signs have come down, but that is not enough, right? That is absolutely not enough. There's still far too much to be done. Now, I personally believe in reparations. I understand that's a really, really sticky thing to work out, but wow, we have so much work to do. We just gotta keep at it every day. And I think that those of us who are in the arts lane can use things like the Art Unites Cbus boards and all the murals that were put up last summer. When the Art Unites Cbus boards started to come down last year, we felt we could play a role in preserving them for a period of time and documenting them, and then, can we take these back out into the community and other places where they weren't seen? And so we did a series of exhibitions late last year and into early this year, and they're going back up in a few places, as we speak, that will then be up through November, mostly in sort of cube formations. And there's a couple outdoor spaces that are up right now, the plaza that's just southeast of the Wexner Center by Mershon, and the Columbus Library is going to have some inside. There's a couple other places — the Hale Cultural Center on OSU campus, Thompson Library, Fort Hayes will have some inside and outside this year. And then, did I say the library?

Tim Fulton 16:55Yeah, so we're naming all my old stomping grounds.

Jami Goldstein 16:59CCAD, I'm sorry, the Beeler Gallery is going to have a few of them inside too. And the messages, they still resonate. They will continue to resonate, I think, for all of us. So, great launching point, discussion point. And the Deliver Black Dreams initiative, which was the brainchild of Marshall Shorts and began sort of as a get-out-the-vote effort, really resonated with Councilwoman Jaiza Favor and with the mayor. The city has invested in that. And one point of intersection is a series of large-scale murals throughout the community. We've just completed the second one of those. The first one was done on Fifth Avenue just west of Cleveland Avenue last November, and then the one on Wilson Road, just south of Fisher, went up this past weekend, and they're both beautiful. And they're messages of, "This is — if Black lives matter, then we must deliver Black dreams." This is the aspirational step of that idea and that movement, the Black Lives Matter movement, that we have to deliver Black dreams. The murals have been done by Lisa McLymont, Marcus, William Billingsley, Shelbie Harris so far. And then Marshall Shorts is working on the next one, which is going to be on Frebis just west of Elm Creek. And that will be painted mid-September.

Tim Fulton 18:29And in addition to the message and the purpose of it, we're also creating more public art, which I think you would absolutely agree is sorely needed in the community.

Jami Goldstein 18:44Public — you know, it's funny. We're not a city that has major iconic pieces in lots of places like Chicago and New York, et cetera, but we do have some really great public art, and we have a lot more of it, I think, than people realize. In late 2019, we launched the public art database as part of columbusmakesart.com. And that actually is also a statewide database at artsinohio.com. But Columbus alone has more than 1,200 pieces of public art. There are some indoor collections that are part of that, like the Columbus Metropolitan Library and the Statehouse and the convention center, but the vast majority of them are outdoor pieces. We're really growing quickly on the mural side, and we've got some good sculpture stuff underway. I believe there's a project at Gay and High that's going to get going pretty soon. They just dedicated the Makers Monument by Mark Reigelman in the Short North, which is a major sculpture at High and —

Tim Fulton 19:49I have a picture of my daughter on it.

Jami Goldstein 19:52It's really cool. He did all of this laser cutting on this gigantic piece of steel. It reminds me of something out of, like, I think, Superman's Fortress of Solitude, that's what the shape looks like. But all of the shapes that are cut into the sculpture are things that Columbus has made throughout its history. So you'll see shoes in there, and buttons — all the tiny little shapes that are laser-cut out of that sculpture are things that have been made in Columbus at one point in our history.

Tim Fulton 20:22I had no idea. That's fantastic.

Jami Goldstein 20:26Yeah, it's pretty cool. So there are two levels that need to happen, right? We want to bring Columbus artists along in whatever way we can, in the skills and the experience to make more public art, and not just make public art here, but be able to make public art in other places. And when there is a major piece of public art that is being done by an artist from someplace else — the Short North did a great job of this with The Journey, which is on the side of the Graduate Hotel, which is based on a Somali woman who lives here in Columbus — of providing training opportunities for Columbus-based artists when those international artists are here. I mean, those guys work on murals all over the world, and for folks like Hakim Callwood and Adam Brouillette and all the artists that we know do really good work anyway, to have the opportunity to get a peek at what it takes to do something of that magnitude is really important for their learning and their opportunities in the future.

Tim Fulton 21:35Well, that's great, to make sure that not only are you funding public art, but you're, as you said, funding the artists as well, and making sure that those dollars are making a local impact beyond just, "This looks great." So, full disclosure — and I think I probably said it in the intro — we are funded by the Columbus Makes Art campaign. Can you talk about what that is? Also, I'm interested how that got started. And then I know it's extending into the Passport project in the fall.

Jami Goldstein 22:10So, one more thing about public art, though, before we move on, please. Which is, all of this is under columbusmakesart.com. The great thing about that program, which started in 2015, is any way that we can encourage engagement in the arts, it fits under this umbrella. Whether it's learning more about artists, finding events to go to, finding public art, it all fits under that umbrella. So the public art database, which we launched in 2019, we always had envisioned — it's mobile-responsive, but it's not an app. And apps are really useful in some instances. When everything sort of went crazy last year, there was a great opportunity that was brought to me by the Can't Stop Columbus folks, who did such amazing work in so many sectors, and they helped develop the first version of an app for the public art database and information. So that's called ArtWalks. And if you go to columbusmakesart.com and click on public art, you can see the links to whether you're on Apple or Google Play Store and download the app. And we're getting ready to launch a next version in the fall, which will include art, points of architecture, user profiles. You can find and save your own public art, the public art that you love in Columbus, share it on social, those kinds of things. So we're working to make it more robust. But right now, it's a great way to explore by neighborhood, find out what's around you. I would bet that there's lots of people out there who are probably 100 feet or less from a piece of public art, and they don't even know. So find what's in your hood.

Tim Fulton 23:51Absolutely. So, columbusmakesart.com.

Jami Goldstein 23:53Columbusmakesart.com is all of these things. It's sort of your one-stop shop to find arts events and public art. But it really began out of this desire for us to showcase the tremendous talent that's here in Columbus in all disciplines. And that happens by telling the stories of artists and helping people understand where they get their passion, where they get their inspiration, how they do their work, what it means to be a performer at Shadowbox, and how hard you work, right? And so I couldn't be more proud of the work and the — I'll use the word exposure, but they don't have to pay for it — the exposure that we've been able to provide to Columbus artists. And a number of them have said, "This meant the world to me. I've gotten jobs from this. People are recognizing me on the street." And I think it took a few years, but the first time that someone who had no connection with the arts — and it was someone I was just meeting, and I introduced myself, and they said, "Hey, are you with the Columbus Makes Art campaign? That's so cool." And I was like, "I love you. You validated my work." When people start to see — well, we know in marketing, repetition — we're in that campaign for the long haul, and we're gonna stick with it. Coming out of the pandemic too, it may end up looking a little different. We want to start to get into, "What are the artists doing now?" Try and find different ways to highlight their work and their continuing story. But we stand behind featuring these incredibly talented people, whether it's in music or writing or dance or visual arts. We really take a look at the artists that we're featuring, not just from the perspective of demographics, but also artistic disciplines and sub-disciplines, and trying to make sure that we're really showing the breadth and depth of the talent here in Columbus.

Tim Fulton 25:58Absolutely. And I think that you can see it even from the artists that you guys have recommended come on the Confluence Cast as well.

Jami Goldstein 26:07You do. Those have been some really great interviews.

Tim Fulton 26:11All credit to them. So the Arts Festival has been on hold for two years, correct?

Jami Goldstein 26:22We did a bit — we did a virtual version last year. But this year, many of the artists that we had juried into the 2020 show, who we featured online, some of them aren't making art anymore. Some of them, the pandemic, they had to go do other things. And so we really felt we needed to re-jury. And it's just been such a year of unknowns. We're sort of heading back into another period of unknowns. The application opens for Arts Festival exhibiting artists in mid-September, and closes in early December — that's for the 2022 festival, yes. We hold a jury in late January, and then we start placing artists. This year, we have a new challenge in front of us, because of the construction on the Scioto Peninsula. We lost a good portion of the Arts Festival space. That's the construction that's west of COSI. So we've been working with NRI, and we are going to be in the Arena District at least for the foreseeable future — McFerson Commons, and then Long and Spring Streets, and North Bank Park. If anybody remembers the Jazz & Rib Fest when it used to go along there, it'll be similar to that, probably without as many ribs.

Tim Fulton 27:49Well, and we don't see as many festivals in that area, but it certainly happened before.

Jami Goldstein 27:55Yeah, and it's really an interesting, it's such a drive-by space. We've been out and walked it a couple times. And when you walk it, one, it's big. That median there between Long and Spring is bigger than you think it is, just driving by. And it's a really beautiful park. There's historical markers. I think it's going to be a brand new experience for us and for the Arts Fest. From the Statehouse lawn to the riverfront, to the Discovery District, back to the riverfront, to the Arena District, it's just the next iteration in our life. And I think it's going to be a great new way and new neighborhood for people to come and explore when they come to the Arts Festival.

Tim Fulton 28:35Absolutely. And I do think that there have been a lot of conversations, at least among people who don't plan festivals or do anything, like, "Hey, why wasn't there Red, White & Boom? Why didn't ComFest happen? Why didn't that stuff happen?" And the super easy answer is, nobody had any time to plan. This stuff doesn't happen even in a month. It happens over the course of a year. And I think you saying, "You know, we're jurying artists starting next month for an event that's happening" — next, it's early June, right?

Jami Goldstein 29:12The 10th through the 12th in 2022.

Tim Fulton 29:14Yeah, that you need that much time.

Jami Goldstein 29:18We essentially start planning the next year's Arts Festival as this — I mean, we might take a few-week breather there at the end of June each year, but it starts up again in July. This is a festival that brings close to 500,000 people downtown. And that's the other reason we didn't feel in good conscience we could do it. We're just not there yet in terms of vaccine percentages, and our first and foremost priority is the safety of our patrons and our artists. And so we had to take that into account.

Tim Fulton 29:53Absolutely. I'm excited about this, because I get to ask artists a lot, "What is Columbus doing well, and what is Columbus doing not so well?" And as you know, you're not an elected official or anything, but you are funded by and a representative of a very public entity. And so I want to wrap up by saying, first of all, what do you believe Columbus is doing well?

Jami Goldstein 30:20I think we collaborate really well. I think a great example of that is the Passport program, Columbus Makes Art Passport, which you'll be able to find on the columbusmakesart.com site, slash passport. And that is 65-plus organizations who, basically in a six-week period of time, we've gotten all of these organizations to come together and say, "Yes, we'll do this thing," where we have a free passport — it's free for organizations to participate. We engaged artists by getting them to design the stickers that provide the validation for visits, and then people donating prizes. And really, this is like fun stuff you can win. The more stickers you collect over the course of September and October, the more, and the better, prizes you can win. We've got everything from a signed artist print to a hotel night at the LeVeque with drinks at The Keep, to a private screening at the Gateway Film Center for you and up to 20 of your friends, movie of your choice, depending on availability. So we have lots of really fun prizes. The stickers are amazing. We're all having, like, a ridiculously childish reaction to and being excited about stickers. But we collaborate well in Columbus, and I think that being able to pull together something like that in such a short period of time shows that the arts community enjoys working together, believes in these kinds of initiatives, and so we're super excited to do this this fall. We're a little bit building the plane as we're flying it, but it's been a lot of fun so far. And I feel like that about a lot of things, right? We do have a strategic plan, and we do move forward in a very thoughtful and dedicated way. But we also are constantly looking for opportunities to make our community better, stronger, more vital and vibrant, and support the creative sector. So, in terms of being able to encourage people to get out, be tourists again in our own community, and explore and support our arts organizations that are so vital to our soul, I think Columbus also does this well, in that people here really love the arts and are engaged in the arts.

Tim Fulton 32:45Yeah, well, and back to your "we are purposeful, but we also want to have these opportunities" — I think that's evident from things like how you pivoted in your grant funding, and how the Deliver Black Dreams project and the boards project, everybody kind of figured it out, and you did what you had to do in order to remain not only a sustained organization, but one that was frankly relevant to what was happening. And if folks are interested, all your annual reports are online, all your 990s are online, and you mentioned it, but your recently adopted strategic plan is also there as well. So not only are you doing all this stuff, but you're also very open about it.

Jami Goldstein 33:36I mean, if you're going to be a good steward of public money, which we strive to be, you have to be transparent. You have to be able to just lay it open for people so that they can see what you're working on. The benefit of being a private nonprofit with a small staff is that we stay nimble. We work hard, which keeps the days moving fast, but we stay nimble, and we can pivot — which was the word of 2020 pretty much, besides QR code — to really respond to the needs of the community and needs of our artists.

Tim Fulton 34:12Yeah. The follow-up to that is, what do you think Columbus is not doing so well?

Jami Goldstein 34:18I'd like to see us have a public art master plan for the city. We don't. Of the top 15 largest cities in the country, we're the only one that does not. And I think that in order to really take our public art efforts to the next level, that's going to be something that has to happen, so that we're not looking at it neighborhood by neighborhood, but there's a thought for the overall community and how each neighborhood can benefit. But also overlaying it with other sectors like travel and tourism. I mean, the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program is such a boon to their tourism economy. But it also provides opportunities for youth at risk. It also provides opportunities for our young college students. And that's the kind of thing that I'd love to see Columbus having, that really puts us on the public art map, as it were.

Tim Fulton 35:19As it were. Well, and I do like that that recommendation is actionable, too. So, Jami, thank you so much for your time today.

Jami Goldstein 35:28Absolutely, Tim, it's been fun.

Tim Fulton 35:40Thank you for listening to the Confluence Cast, presented by Columbus Underground. Again, you can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Please rate, subscribe, share this episode of the Confluence Cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your favorite artist. If you're interested in sponsoring the Confluence Cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info@theconfluencecast.com. Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson. Our producer is Philip Cogley. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. Have a great week.