What’s In A Name?

GOOD NEIGHBORS: CULTURE VULTURES

What’s In A Name?

BY RICK ALLEN PHOTOS BY STEVE FLOETHE

Chances are, if you’re not in tune with the Marion County arts scene, you may not have heard of the Culture Vultures.

But look! There’s the name on the sponsor roll at the Reilly Arts Center. And there’s a bunch of them typically in attendance at any given show at the Ocala Civic Theatre, the Ocala Symphony Orchestra, the Orange Blossom Opry, or even the Hippodrome in Gainesville.

Based at Stone Creek, the Culture Vultures—CV for short—is a group of residents with a love of the arts and a desire to see them thrive locally. Most are from somewhere else, typically a large-population area with a thriving arts scene. And just as typically, they tend to be surprised by the depth of cultural activities they find here. But not all who retire to the upscale 55-plus community on Southwest 80th Avenue are aware of the arts world beyond.

“A lot of our residents don’t know what’s outside the gates,” says Paul Benoit, current president of the club. “Our job is to inform them of what’s out there.”

THE PRIME MISSION of the CV is twofold, Benoit explains. First is to promote these activities by attending cultural events ranging from architecture lectures and concerts at the Reilly to ballet and dinner theater at West Port High School. And second, to promote these activities by spreading the word to their neighbors and encouraging them to come along.

“They attend more live shows and exhibits than most, if not all, native Ocalans,” notes Dave Schlenker, the former entertainment editor for the Ocala Star-Banner. “They are everywhere.”

CV Vice President Bev Wiggins agrees. “There’s not a week goes by that we don’t go somewhere.”

Along the way CV members have raised nearly $50,000 to support the arts in Marion County. A few years back they purchased a new Yamaha concert grand piano, a Horse Fever horse, a reflection garden, and new stage lights for the performance center at Stone Creek.

Moreover, in their nearly ten years of existence, the Culture Vultures... Wait, let’s talk about that name. Vultures, really?

“We eat up culture,” Rita Singer, founder of the group, told the Star- Banner when asked the same question four years ago. The name is a tribute to a similarly named group in Pembroke Pines that she belonged to before moving here.

Wiggins says she was told “it’s the only thing that rhymes with ‘culture.’” Interestingly, New York Media, which publishes New York magazine, Intelligencer, and other Big Apple-oriented websites and publications, launched a website in 2007 dubbed “Vulture.”

Publishers call Vulture a “survey of America’s cultural landscape” and a “goto entertainment news site for the culturally obsessed” with a mission of “devouring culture one channel at a time.”

STILL, NOT EVERY ONE of the 100-plus member local group has an appetite for the “vulture” portion of the CV name. Club members may debate modifying the name later this year.

Well, they could be called “Aunt Jana’s Pajamas” or something equally absurd, but their mission would remain unaltered. And likely so would their reputation.

“Every community should be so fortunate to have a group like the Culture Vultures,” says Jaye Baillie, executive director of the Marion Cultural Alliance. “Since its inception in 2010, the Culture Vultures have raised, conservatively, $45,000 and supported the College of Central Florida Music Department jazz concerts, the Reilly Arts Center (they’re a founding member), sponsored the Kingdom of the Sun Band, the Ocala Civic Theatre, the Appleton Museum of Art, and Marion Ballet. Just to name a few.” Benoit confirms this.

“We raise money,” he admits, “to give it away.”

Last year, in fact, the Culture Vultures were finalists for the MCA’s Vision Award, which recognizes an exceptional individual or group for their dedicated volunteerism in the arts and contribution to the arts community as a whole. They were edged out by Fine Arts For Ocala, which annually presents Symphony Under the Stars and the three-day Ocala Arts Festival.

The CV doesn’t host anything quite as grandiose as these, but one of their biggest functions is an Arts Expo at Stone Creek each fall. This year’s is scheduled for October 18.

Benoit says this is where they bring in representatives of some two dozen cultural groups. Through this expo, not only can Stone Creek residents learn about what the area offers, the arts groups encounter a rich source of wouldbe new patrons for themselves. Benoit says one resident found himself cast in an OCT production, another joined one of the civic choirs.

MEMBERS CHRIS AND GAIL JOHNSON sort of “adopted” the College of Central Florida music program. They admit they found Stone Creek and the Culture Vultures—heck, Ocala itself—by accident.

Residents of Atlanta, they were driving south on I-75, but turned off at the Hwy. 27 exit to avoid a mishap snarling traffic up ahead. As they drove they realized, “Hey, we’re in horse and cattle country,” Chris recalls. “We didn’t expect that.”

At the time both were nearing retirement, and after 27 years in Atlanta they were seeking a place to resettle. They wanted someplace alive with opportunity, with maybe with a college and lots of cultural activities, and way less frenetic than Hot ‘Lanta.

“It’s not as easy in Atlanta, in a large metropolis,” Chris says. “We lived in a bedroom community and to get to cultural events we had to drive to downtown.”

So they found that often they just didn’t have the time after work to indulge Atlanta’s arts scene.

It was on the detour that day that the Johnsons discovered the “smaller city with a slower pace and less traffic,” he adds. Five years ago they moved into Stone Creek, and there to welcome them were the Culture Vultures.

Chris and Gail Johnson say they took in some productions at the civic theater, the symphony, and even stage productions at West Port, Marion County’s much-honored arts-oriented high school. But they say they were hooked at a jazz concert at the College of Central Florida.

“We kind of adopted CF after that,” Gail says.

Gloria Salvaggio came to Stone Creek from New York City about eight years ago expecting to find a cultural wasteland. She says she was pleasantly surprised.

So surprised, in fact, that she served a term as president of the Culture Vultures four years ago.

“And,” she says, “I still don’t miss the cultural scene in New York.”

The group’s founder Rita Singer has been sidelined some of late due to an auto accident and some health issues with her husband, Larry. But things are improving.

“I have distanced myself from taking an active role,” she writes in an email, “but my interest has not waned.” So has it all been worth it? “Absolutely,” she says. “I’m proud of the accomplishments of the club. It most certainly has been worth the effort.”

WANT TO KNOW MORE? Visit ourstonecreek.net, click “Clubs” and then “Culture Vultures” for all the details.