Venues - The Word with
Heather René Dunaway
October 2023
With the announcement of the management changes at 600 Broad Street where 4P Studios has been hosting monthly local art exhibitions and events, the call to support local arts is more important than ever.
If you live in the Augusta area, you know the limited spaces artists of all genres have to showcase their work. Not a ton of stages for bands to play on, or theatre groups to perform on, not many local art galleries to host shows in. The struggle is real.
Part of keeping Augusta an arts destination is keeping these venues alive. Which, in an ever changing market, can be tricky to say the least. The Arts Council supports these venues in many ways. We share their events in our Community News and on Social Media. We highlight them in our two monthly newsletters. Post their open calls and auditions in our Calls and Careers page.
Their flyers go up in our local orgs and events rack in our office. We host grant opportunities for local arts non-profits each year through the City Arts Grants program. We run two locals only galleries (Augusta & Co. Gallery and the City Gallery). Most recently, our summer intern, Galadra, created our new Venue Directory (still growing) that showcases these local venues that support the arts. It really takes a village, though. For venues like this to stay open, grow and encourage others to create more arts opportunities in Augusta requires us showing up to their events, participating in their shows, sharing their open calls, etc.
First Friday is an excellent time to come together to do this, but it is most certainly not the only time. The Arts are growing in Augusta’s River Region. There seems to be an event every weekend. But, this First Friday especially has a lot going on. Chase Lanier is having an artist talk at Westobou, Artzilla is hosting their reception at ANBU, CANDL is hosting the opening reception for Jay Jacobs show: Detritus, Le Chat is doing eXtreme Theatre Games along with the 7th Annual October Spooktacular show being open for viewing, Little Shop of Horrors is at the Imperial Theatre, and it’s also 600 Broad Galleries last show (at least for a while) More Than Skin.
Plan your evening with a local arts event at one (or three) local arts venues.
That’s the word.
-Heather