The Arts & America's Bottom Line National Press Club January 23, 2018
The Colleton Museum, Farmers Market and Commercial Kitchen
The Colleton Museum, Farmers Market and Commercial Kitchen in Walterboro, South Carolina, is "an example of how seemingly disparate aspects of community life can be brought together in a powerful synthesis. It is a multipurpose facility that provides retail opportunities for local farmers; a meeting and event space available for functions, special exhibits, parties and local business training; and a dynamic museum celebrating the arts, culture and history of this South Carolina Lowcountry community. It "wonderfully blends a collection that highlights the agricultural history of the County with a tie to the area's agricultural present. The Market has become a center of community life, the Kitchen helps build skills and earnings among area residents, and the whole complex helps anchor pending revitalization of one of Walterboro's commercial districts," according to a national study funded by the Kresge Foundation on creative placemaking in 2015. https://www.imls.gov/sites/default/files/publications/documents/addendum2016mu seumslibrariescomprehensiveinitiatives.pdf The champion of this collaboration is Colleton County Administrator Kevin Griffin. His vision and progressive thinking, along with that of Colleton County Council and collaboration with the City of Walterboro, has added much to the success of the project. This organization has been a work in progress since 1985. With the addition of its commercial kitchen in June 2015, this South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control-approved facility, the operation began supporting foodbusiness entrepreneurs in the creation of farm-to-table food service business ventures, restaurant start-ups, and commercial food preparation, presentation, and production job opportunities. Participation in the kitchen as steadily increased from
5 registered users to 16 users today. Among these users, more than 50 new jobs have been created. The museum, farmers market and kitchen retail operation has become a local food outlet selling preserved food products made in its kitchen and locally sourced gifts including local books, local art and heritage crafts. The Commercial Kitchen is also the home base for the state-sponsored After-school and Summer Feeding Programs, which serve 3,000 meals five days a week for 10 weeks over the summer (total of 150,000 meals). Located in the heart of Walterboro's business district, the Colleton Museum, Farmers Market and Commercial Kitchen has a staff of eight and operates with an annual budget of about $800,000. The town itself has a population of just over 5,000 people. About 15% of the county's residents have an annual income of less than $10,000. The county has a median household income of $28,600. With nearly 20,000 visitors annually, this three-part facility has become a hub of social, economic, historic, and arts opportunities within the City of Walterboro and in the surrounding environs of Colleton County. Part of its appeal is that the entire operation remains true to the community's agricultural roots and traditions of place. A sample of recent events held at the facility includes heritage cooking and agricultural classes, heirloom Christmas crafts for the family, Native American crafts and traditions, performances and exhibits that celebrate the area's significant connection to African American history, an Old Time American Music festival, a Fiber Arts Fair, and a multitude of other arts and culture experiences. In 2015, the facility began to work more closely with the South Carolina Arts Commission and its community arts development initiative called The Art of Community: Rural SC. Early in that partnership, it hosted a national meeting on creative placemaking, drawing participants from around the country for the release of a study in which it was featured as a case study (https://www.imls.gov/publications/museums-libraries-and-comprehensiveinitiatives-first-look-emerging-experience—see p. 17). Following that initial meeting, its executive director became the "maven" for Walterboro and Colleton County in this ongoing initiative that serves six contiguous rural counties. In 2016, the organization was awarded inclusion in EPA's Local Foods, Local Places technical assistance program that looked at how to meaningfully engage residents in a plan to create walkable, healthy, economically vibrant neighborhoods through the development of local food systems. As community members joined the two-day gathering, the theme of "arts and culture" was dominant. Also, in 2016, the organization was named a Bundy Award winner by the governor of South Carolina at the Governor's Conference on Tourism and Travel. According to Gary Brightwell, who retired from her position as executive director in June 2017, "This project has given the citizens of our community a greatly improved sense of community, while also giving our local nonprofits such as the Colleton Arts Council and the SC Artisans Center opportunities to collaborate on multiple, joint-venture projects concerning the arts and culture in our area." Matt Mardell, former kitchen manager, was named executive director following Brightwell's departure.
Colleton County Statistics https://lmi.dew.sc.gov/lmi%20site/Documents/CommunityProfiles/04000029.pdf Walterboro Chamber of Commerce http://walterboro.org/ Film Art of Community: Colleton County, a 12-minute look at the cultural assets of Colleton County, a product of its participation in The Art of Community: Rural SC. Contacts Matt Mardell, Executive Director, mmardell@colletoncounty.org, 843-599-0934 Gary Brightwell, former Executive Director, ghbright@gmail.com, 843-908-1481
Gary Hagood Brightwell Retired director, Colleton Museum, Farmers Market & Commercial Kitchen Gary Brightwell is a native of Pickens, a small community in upstate South Carolina. She attended Columbia College and the University of South Carolina with a major in history. Most of her adult life has been spent in Walterboro, where she has been involved with the arts as board president of the Colleton County Arts Council and as interim director of the South Carolina Artisans Center. As a performer, Brightwell has sung with the Charleston Symphony Singers, VOX, and the Voices of Colleton; she currently sings with a women's a Capella ensemble, the Grace Notes. She served as Colleton County Library's reference librarian and as assistant director. She is "maven" for The Art of Community: Rural SC and has led a team of local residents to explore community assets for Colleton County and build a project that aids in how those assets are communicated. She was director of the Colleton Museum, Farmers Market & Colleton Commercial Kitchen for nine years until her retirement in 2017. Contact:
843-908-1481
ghbright@gmail.com