Karl McCollester (00:05)
Welcome to Mighty Municipalities, the podcast about small municipalities and how they can punch above their weight. I'm your host, Karl McCollester and along with my co-host Mark Partin and our guests, we take you through the highs and lows of working in a small municipality. Whether it's the hardship and frustration that is holding you back or the progress and winds that are propelling you forward, we're here to share the lessons learned and give you strategies to help improve your community. Mark, how are you doing today?

Mark Partin (00:31)
Doing great. my wife and I had a good weekend away and we're back at it today and looking forward to what's going to come up this week. it is fall has finally arrived, yes.

Karl McCollester (00:40)
Yeah, and some beautiful weather this weekend too. yeah. Yeah. Yes,

Karl McCollester (00:44)
it's great to walk around and and potentially even see things like maybe some public art or something like that. Yeah.

Mark Partin (00:49)
That's right, yes. And

Mark Partin (00:51)
I did see some this weekend and thankfully the city I live in also has a a good assortment of public art so I was able to experience that on a daily basis here, yeah.

Karl McCollester (01:02)
Nice. public art is certainly something that can enhance and enrich a community both visually but also potentially economically and from a tourist perspective. What are some of the things you've seen, Mark?

Mark Partin (01:16)
well

Mark Partin (01:18)
I first became aware of the concept of public art probably thirty years ago.

Karl McCollester (01:23)
Wow.

Mark Partin (01:24)
here in Sumter there used to be an annual show that they called accessibility. And you you may remember that,

Karl McCollester (01:29)
Okay, yes. I do.

Mark Partin (01:32)
Karl, yes. And it was displays of art around town and in this particular program, it was they had to be outdoors. It was not, to be done indoors. So you'd have large

Karl McCollester (01:43)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (01:44)
displays

Mark Partin (01:44)
of art that people would come in and set up just for this event and in some cases the displays stayed but in others they were temporary and they they removed them but but what caught my attention at that time was the scale and the size of the pieces

Mark Partin (02:01)
some were sculptors, some were made out of fabric and just a wide variety of mediums. but then also not just the size of it, but the fact that it was just in random places around town that you wouldn't necessarily think of as being, gallery ish, but just random

Karl McCollester (02:17)
Sure. Yeah.

Mark Partin (02:18)
lots that art was displayed on. So that's that's when I first became aware of it. And then I've seen it in a lot of other locations around the state and

Mark Partin (02:28)
even the nation. And some of it is traditional. you think of sculptures of, founding fathers or university

Karl McCollester (02:34)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (02:34)
heroes and sports figures and things like that. But then you also

Karl McCollester (02:38)
Point. Yeah.

Mark Partin (02:39)
have other displays like you mentioned, tourism and and attracting people to the come to your town. So a lot of towns have displays of a theme that you can go around and find all of the different pieces and

Mark Partin (02:54)
when we get to the grants a little later today we're gonna see where some grants have been issued just recently, to facilitate some of those

Mark Partin (03:03)
placement of art. so that that's where I've really started seeing it and continue to see it. And and I say it it's there and a lot of times we don't think of it as public art because sometimes we define art as belonging in a museum or in a sculpture

Karl McCollester (03:16)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (03:17)
garden, not in random places around town.

Karl McCollester (03:21)
what are some of the impetuses when you have been involved in the city and people have talked about various art projects? What do you see as some of the things that help sway council that this is a a viable project that it should be invested in?

Mark Partin (03:40)
I'd say a couple of things there. One, usually it's going to engage local artists.

Mark Partin (03:46)
a few in a few cases you'll bring in some outsiders, but particularly for some of the smaller pieces, and I don't

Mark Partin (03:53)
mean that in a bad way, but just literally some of the physically smaller pieces. You

Karl McCollester (03:54)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

Mark Partin (03:57)
want to engage your local art community, maybe even your your school art classes. And there's something powerful about walking down the street or looking in a storefront and seeing either your piece or someone you know or your child or grandchild. So that that is very motivational and and it attracts people. But then also the second part of that would be not just is it from a local person but if it's

Mark Partin (04:22)
telling the story of

Karl McCollester (04:24)
Mm.

Mark Partin (04:24)
your area, your community, either thematically or just tied in with a festival or something. but yeah when you can see somebody you know has done the art and they're telling a story that is local and means something to you those are are two key components of things that have

Mark Partin (04:44)
high rates of approval not just from council but from the community at large

Mark Partin (04:48)
they they want to see their people telling their stories and it it's powerful, yeah.

Karl McCollester (04:53)
Yeah,

Karl McCollester (04:53)
that makes a lot of sense. So at least one version of what you've seen work with public art, just to paraphrase then, is where it is

Karl McCollester (05:02)
something that is centered around a community theme

Mark Partin (05:05)
Mm-hmm.

Karl McCollester (05:06)
and additionally or alternatively something that is created by local artists and or students that

Karl McCollester (05:15)
bring people out. And and I think I've seen that too where some of the more successful small town downtowns where they're trying to bring people downtown and get them to take a look.

Karl McCollester (05:25)
It may be something where it's, student art fronting a closed building that maybe still has the display area out front, a storefront window.

Mark Partin (05:34)
Right.

Karl McCollester (05:35)
they'll have the children, like you said, do a theme around maybe pride in the community or around a certain piece of history around the community, or or some s sort of moral theme, but it is

Karl McCollester (05:46)
so that the students locally, are participating in in displaying that because that does clearly, attract the parents to come down, their their kids want them to come down and see it.

Mark Partin (05:54)
Right.

Karl McCollester (05:55)
yeah, I I feel like that's some of the reason why the state fair does so much student art is

Mark Partin (05:59)
Yeah.

Karl McCollester (05:59)
it's one more incentive to get parents and their kids down there, right? Once you got

Mark Partin (06:03)
It draws people in. Yes. Yes.

Karl McCollester (06:06)
there,

Karl McCollester (06:07)
then your stores are doing what they can to then encourage them to to participate in the community and spend money at the businesses and things like that.

Mark Partin (06:15)
Yeah, and it's a great way to to use vacant space, to

Mark Partin (06:18)
to brighten up, that particular area or

Karl McCollester (06:20)
Right.

Mark Partin (06:21)
that particular storefront. And I know a lot of downtowns particularly use that strategy. if

Mark Partin (06:27)
they have vacant space, that's a good way to take advantage of it, and beautify the area. And I think that's another one of the maybe the motivating factors behind some public art is it it can beautify areas that

Mark Partin (06:42)
previously maybe will be

Karl McCollester (06:42)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (06:43)
untouched or unappreciated. and I think that's where murals come in in a lot of cases.

Karl McCollester (06:48)
Okay.

Mark Partin (06:49)
I know we have some, but also down south of us in Clarendon County,

Karl McCollester (06:54)
Mm.

Mark Partin (06:55)
they have the what they call the Swamp Fox murals trail. And

Karl McCollester (06:58)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (06:59)
Swamp Fox, for some of you that may not be from this area, refers to General Francis Marion from the Revolutionary War. And a lot of his campaigns were held

Mark Partin (07:09)
in the Low Country of South Carolina, the PD in the Low Country of South Carolina, and Clarendon is in that direction. And so they have a series of murals in each of their municipalities that tell the story of some of the battles that that were held in that area. So

Karl McCollester (07:27)
Okay.

Mark Partin (07:28)
that touches into beautification, but also it touches on the the local story like I mentioned and the legend

Karl McCollester (07:34)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (07:35)
of Francis Marion that

Mark Partin (07:37)
all local people know and so they can take pride in this is something that occurred in our area by one of our people and it's being told the story's been told right here in our particular town. And maybe if you're not familiar with Clarendon County, the four areas that the murals are located in are in Manning, Somerton, Turbyville and Paxville. so if you're interested in Revolutionary War history, particularly in the

Mark Partin (08:02)
250th anniversary year, I

Karl McCollester (08:05)
Yes.

Mark Partin (08:05)
encourage you to head to Clarendon County and take a look at those murals because they are they're quite impressive.

Karl McCollester (08:12)
Absolutely. Yeah.

Mark Partin (08:13)
Yeah, and then locally here in Sumter, just a few years ago we did a mural campaign and there were different themes and locations and but they were all local. So

Karl McCollester (08:26)
Mm.

Mark Partin (08:27)
one one of the themes downtown was around Swan Lake with the

Karl McCollester (08:30)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (08:30)
swans in themselves. The museum had, some history scenes painted on their

Karl McCollester (08:35)
Yeah.

Mark Partin (08:36)
mural. the South Sumter neighborhood had some local heroes from that neighborhood.

Mark Partin (08:42)
Chief Justice Finney, former Chief Justice Finney was the first African American Supreme Court Chief Justice in South Carolina. So there's a mural down there, showing him in his legal robes, and then some sports heroes are down there on Manning Avenue, Freddie Solomon being one of them. so murals are a great way to to tell your neighborhood and your community history and brighten things up because they're literally really bright and colorful.

Mark Partin (09:07)
So it catches your eye and draws you in and beautifies the area. And those are just two areas. There's many, many towns around South Carolina that that do this, that have this public art around to take pride in and people to enjoy when they're driving through town.

Karl McCollester (09:25)
Sure,

Karl McCollester (09:25)
yeah, it absolutely catches the eye as you're going through. And I I've often seen it paired with a vacant lot project where especially if that vacant lot is at maybe at the end of a block, where they've cleared a a building that was no longer fit for habitation on the corner of a downtown, they'll often pair a mural with a gazebo or something like that to

Karl McCollester (09:50)
reactivate the space as the term goes, right? To make the space usable and make it somewhere where s people want to go again and also not make it detract from the rest of the downtown. So I've certainly seen that in at least three or four towns around here in South Carolina where that sort of project helps, give a little bit of a facelift to a downtown, especially if it's replacing a building that's now demolished.

Karl McCollester (10:15)
And maybe have some green space.

Mark Partin (10:17)
Yes, and and this isn't the example of a

Mark Partin (10:21)
a spot that was abandoned but the the mural on Lady Street in downtown Columbia's, an example

Karl McCollester (10:26)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (10:27)
of frightening up a just a parking lot that otherwise would have been kinda boring. but

Karl McCollester (10:30)
Right. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Mark Partin (10:33)
I I don't know the artist of that piece, but very well done 'cause you could drive right into the wall and not know you were you you weren't on a train track yet.

Karl McCollester (10:41)
Right. Right. Yeah, exactly.

Karl McCollester (10:44)
yeah, that is

Karl McCollester (10:45)
Man, I it's at the tip of my tongue. it's called Tunnel Vision, I remember that.

Mark Partin (10:50)
Yes.

Karl McCollester (10:51)
and it is Blue Sky, Warren Edward Johnson.

Mark Partin (10:54)
That's right.

Karl McCollester (10:55)
yeah, so and so i I don't know if you and just looking that up quick, that's actually been around four fifty years now. yeah.

Mark Partin (11:01)
Really? Okay.

Karl McCollester (11:03)
Apparently seventy five is when they initially conceived that. And that one's interesting in that it so for those of you who who don't know it, he he painted a a very large wall, that's twenty five feet tall, probably by at least by, sixty feet wide, so that it looks like it is a blasted through tunnel and then he has a road with a sunset, and the sunset actually at least at

Karl McCollester (11:26)
for many, many years if it and I think it still is, is actually lit at the end of it. So it it's a it's a great, visual effect that and has probably one of the more famous at least pieces of art in South Carolina as far as street murals

Mark Partin (11:39)
Yes.

Karl McCollester (11:40)
So that's certainly something worth going and seeing over there in downtown Columbia. And certainly that took what

Karl McCollester (11:48)
which has a parking lot in front of it at this point. I don't know if it did when it first came about, but it certainly makes that area, which I believe is next to Baptist Hospital, significantly

Karl McCollester (11:59)
more interesting than just a a plain brick wall or a a whitewashed

Mark Partin (12:02)
Right.

Karl McCollester (12:03)
wall or something like that. So yeah, so okay, so we talked about murals in the f form of

Karl McCollester (12:10)
Presenting something historic, providing a facelift to downtown. and when you're talking with council or with other cities, have you seen any other reasons that people have decided to put a mural in a place?

Mark Partin (12:25)
murals in some cases they're used just to feature that artist.

Karl McCollester (12:31)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (12:32)
I d I was not I was a child when blue sky did the beach scene here in Sumter, so I I really don't know the conversation that was going on around it. But

Karl McCollester (12:42)
Mm.

Mark Partin (12:44)
We're in the middle of the state, so having a beach scene doesn't make sense in Sumter, but it

Karl McCollester (12:47)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (12:49)
was a way to feature

Mark Partin (12:52)
a renowned artist and put something on the wall to celebrate his work. so

Karl McCollester (12:58)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mark Partin (12:59)
in some cases I've seen that and heard of that where it really is just to give the artist a platform or or a canvas, if you will, to feature their work because, the area is proud of them and wants to celebrate them. so that that has been another strong motivating factor behind it.

Karl McCollester (13:16)
Yes. Yeah, there

Karl McCollester (13:18)
have been a couple of murals in Columbia. one of the famous folk artists around here calls himself the chicken man. and yeah, most

Mark Partin (13:24)
Yes, yes.

Karl McCollester (13:26)
mid state s houses have at least one of his iconic paintings on plywood that he does. And so I know he had a mural that I believe at that point it was maybe even the Optus Bank

Karl McCollester (13:38)
had commissioned. And of course the blue sky here in Columbia that you were just talking about was I think originally commissioned by Ag First. And then they commissioned a second one of a a wheat field that had been harvested for another building in the Ag First complex So yes certainly this is something that you can not only work within the community and could be public funding but some of these things could be

Karl McCollester (13:59)
public private partnerships where especially if you have a downtown business that maybe has a wall like that, you work with them to sponsor it where you're offsetting some of the costs but they're paying some of the costs instead again of them having to just whitewash a wall, to keep it maintained.

Mark Partin (14:12)
It is.

Karl McCollester (14:14)
it gives them something un interesting to have on their wall that potentially tr attracts more people to their business in that building, and also gives you something that's that's more interesting to look at.

Mark Partin (14:23)
Yeah,

Mark Partin (14:24)
and a store that recently opened here in Sumter, a shop that recently opened here in Sumter themselves chose to paint the outside of their store in the form of a mural, birds and flowers and so forth,

Karl McCollester (14:37)
Yeah.

Mark Partin (14:37)
and they did that on their own. That was not a public program so to speak. That was just how they chose to to decorate their building and it's beautiful and done by,

Karl McCollester (14:45)
That's great.

Mark Partin (14:46)
four or five local people who

Mark Partin (14:48)
did a great job with it. So so there are different ways of coming about it beyond just the public agency promoting it. Yeah.

Karl McCollester (14:55)
Right. Right.

Karl McCollester (14:57)
And and going back to your idea about celebrating famous artists, I think another motivation can sometimes be if the artist is famous enough for it to be a draw itself. there's a famous graffiti artist that has done things across Europe and there's a few cities now that have commissioned him to do these space invader mosaics,

Karl McCollester (15:17)
That are, if you remember the old eight-bit,

Karl McCollester (15:19)
thing. so he does ones out of tile across communities. and there's like hundreds of them in Paris, but now there's like I think two in DC and one in New York City or something like that. So people have certainly brought those over. And more locally, of course, I don't know if you've heard about the the Thomas Dambo troll sculpture, of course, and

Mark Partin (15:38)
Yes. Yes.

Karl McCollester (15:39)
and

Karl McCollester (15:40)
Cayce right? so that's been an interesting journey where they were thinking of doing that

Karl McCollester (15:47)
as a way to increase visitor count, explicitly in that this is a rare enough thing around the country and enough people go to see these things that it may not be a a guaranteed draw, but it is certainly an extent of a draw of, at least, some number of people from across the country who like to see these things.

Mark Partin (16:07)
Yeah, and if a couple famous artists that come to mind that created is claimed to be the largest outdoor sculpture garden in the United States is Brook Green Gardens down in Pawsley's Island area. And

Karl McCollester (16:20)
No, sure. Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (16:23)
that was created by Anna and

Mark Partin (16:26)
Archer Hyatt Huntington, I think I'm saying their name correctly, but Huntington is certainly the last name. And if

Karl McCollester (16:32)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (16:32)
you've never been there, that is just a fabulous collection of sculpture gardens. And it's located on between the Atlantic Ocean and the Walkamaw River, and

Karl McCollester (16:41)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (16:41)
it is located on a couple former rice plantations and some of the rice fields and the the locks and so forth have been preserved, but the sculpture is all around the ground.

Mark Partin (16:53)
there and it is just incredible to go there. So yeah that's a privately owned place but it's it's open to the public and it's just a gorgeous place to visit and see all kinds of art from small pieces to larger than life piece pieces

Mark Partin (17:09)
one of the other things that I've I've seen people do that I find interesting that you might not consider it public art, but it really is. The first place I noticed this was downtown Greenville and then, other communities have done different versions

Karl McCollester (17:21)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (17:22)
of it. and Greenville may not have been first, that's just the first I saw, but with their little squirrels around

Karl McCollester (17:27)
Yes, yeah.

Mark Partin (17:29)
town and they were little bronze cast squirrels located

Karl McCollester (17:31)
Yes. Yeah.

Mark Partin (17:33)
on the sidewalk or in planters and so forth.

Mark Partin (17:37)
And the idea was to find as many of them as you could as you were walking up and down Main Street.

Karl McCollester (17:43)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (17:43)
So it was a way to engage the public to move up and down Main Street, not just run in and out of one store, but to go up and down Main Street and and find these different pieces. And while you're there, stop in a store, stop in a restaurant, talk to a vendor, and those

Karl McCollester (17:58)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (17:59)
are good attractional devices or ways to use art.

Mark Partin (18:03)
to get people to move around in your area. And doesn't Columbia have a version of that now or

Karl McCollester (18:08)
Yes,

Karl McCollester (18:09)
Greenville has the the the mice I think. and then yeah, yeah.

Mark Partin (18:12)
My, see, yes, yes, mm-hmm.

Karl McCollester (18:13)
it apparently from what I I I've read through it's it was inspired by Good Night Moon and the Mouse and that, which I think is kind of cute.

Mark Partin (18:19)
Yeah.

Karl McCollester (18:19)
in Columbia it's a salamander. I think it's named Sally Salamander. and they have that as well. And I think that's a great way to involve

Karl McCollester (18:28)
kids in the public art. sometimes when we think about the the other kind of series projects, when we talk about, the Columbia had the doors, what did Sumter have? I remember some The Butterflies, right?

Mark Partin (18:39)
The butterfly project downtown is,

Karl McCollester (18:41)
and I know Greenville had something. And I think the th the original one was they had cows in Chicago, I think were the original ones where each artist and business sponsor and partner together to paint one.

Karl McCollester (18:51)
and those are interesting and can kids can enjoy looking at them, but they're not really meant for the kids, whereas the mice in Greenville and the salamanders in Columbia are really meant for them and since they're cast in bronze it's easy enough for them to touch and the parents don't have to worry about them

Mark Partin (19:05)
Yes.

Karl McCollester (19:06)
being damaged or anything like that.

Mark Partin (19:08)
Mm-hmm. So that's an example of how public art can be used to attract locals as well as tourists to come to a different area.

Mark Partin (19:16)
So and then another way that maybe is less obvious, but just exposing people to different cultural mediums

Karl McCollester (19:25)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (19:26)
beyond just what you get when you're in school or what you see on TV, but just

Karl McCollester (19:30)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (19:31)
exposing people to different types of art, whether it be sculptures or paintings or murals or

Karl McCollester (19:36)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (19:38)
textile arts or there's

Karl McCollester (19:39)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (19:40)
just so many different ways to expose people to art because I I really believe the more we experience different forms of art, whether it's music or visual arts, the the better we are

Mark Partin (19:56)
holistically in our thinking and experiences and we're just better off if we experience things even if we don't it's not necessarily our taste but still get exposure to it it just it makes us such more well-rounded people and

Karl McCollester (20:09)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (20:10)
a a quote that I put out earlier today fits into this pretty well I think it says be curious about things that are different

Mark Partin (20:20)
And that is by a lady named Maria Hona Honaosa. I may have pronounced that incorrectly. But be curious about things that are different. So maybe, sculpture is not your thing, but still go take a look at it because you can learn from it and get a new appreciation for it. Or maybe paintings aren't your thing, but still

Karl McCollester (20:40)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (20:40)
go take a look at it and and it's just amazing what it will expose you to. And I I've shared this story before

Mark Partin (20:49)
my family and I went up to DC a few years ago during the summer and D C is hot during the summer. And we were

Karl McCollester (20:55)
Yeah.

Mark Partin (20:56)
on the National Mall. We had done, the s some of the Smithsonian

Mark Partin (21:01)
history museums and air and space and the fun ones and

Karl McCollester (21:04)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mark Partin (21:05)
as we were walking around on the mall the temperature was just brutal and we happened to be in front of the National Gallery of Art. That's not somewhere I would have put on

Karl McCollester (21:14)
Okay, yeah.

Mark Partin (21:17)
my list intentionally. So we said well let's go in here. We stayed in there for hours and it wasn't because it was air conditioned. It was amazing. And

Karl McCollester (21:19)
Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm. Yeah.

Mark Partin (21:27)
so because originally it was

Mark Partin (21:29)
Because it was hot. But once I went in there, I was curious about this magnificent place and wow. the next trip I went back to DC, I intentionally went there to see more of it.

Karl McCollester (21:39)
That's great.

Mark Partin (21:40)
so so be curious and you can broaden your horizon and learn so much about the world around us. that's I guess that's enough for my speech for today. But but be curious, yeah.

Karl McCollester (21:51)
Well it it and it's a great

Karl McCollester (21:52)
it's a great point. art in the public space helps break people out of what they're currently thinking because they're they're used to going and looking and seeing buildings, they're used to seeing shops, they're used to seeing streetlights and intersections and other cars, and having that piece of public art can help your residents

Karl McCollester (22:17)
both when they see it, have a moment of thinking differently, but then also as a result, then be thinking about their community differently, I think one of the challenges, Mark, as one final thing to kind of address is if you're a small town with a limited budget, how do you go about investing in art in a way that

Karl McCollester (22:37)
Does not make some of your citizens feel like, why are they spending money on this of all things?

Mark Partin (22:45)
Well, I I think a couple easy approaches to that. One, partner with your local schools or if you have a small art museum or or history museum, partner

Karl McCollester (22:53)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (22:54)
with them because a lot of times you can you can get the benefit of it without having to put any funds into it. And as we were saying earlier about the the kids and art, displays downtown

Mark Partin (23:05)
The parents are going to encourage it because they want

Karl McCollester (23:07)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (23:08)
to see the kids, the kids want to have the experience, they want to have the the fun of there's my piece of art that I created. So that's one

Karl McCollester (23:14)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mark Partin (23:16)
way you can address it without really engaging a large amount of money, if if any money. maybe

Karl McCollester (23:20)
Mm hmm. Yeah. Right.

Mark Partin (23:23)
you have a contest where you give away, a gift card to somewhere that is minimal in cost. But

Karl McCollester (23:27)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

Mark Partin (23:29)
then if if there is a case where you do have to invest some money and maybe some.

Mark Partin (23:34)
some

Mark Partin (23:34)
taxpayers or

Karl McCollester (23:36)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (23:37)
employees of the the community city or town maybe don't understand it really is an investment in the quality of life and I'm not aware of any municipality that doesn't want quality of life to improve and

Karl McCollester (23:52)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (23:53)
this is one way to do that one simple way to do that that can have exponential benefits.

Karl McCollester (24:00)
And I think, hearkening back to when a lot of the public art we see was built, a lot of it was, sponsored by funds raised by the public, th and if you're talking about the the older statues, of course, through the daughters of the American Revolution, things like that, or through a civic organization or something like that. So certainly, if some of those things maybe have atrophied because

Karl McCollester (24:22)
your community hasn't relied on them and everybody's expecting, your your local government to do it all, but at the same time they're not wanting them to spend money on these kind of things. Maybe, reach

Karl McCollester (24:32)
back out to your local rotary or civitan or or your local churches and try to see if you can coalesce around a vision of something that the community can agree on, whether that's a the betterment of a park with a

Karl McCollester (24:47)
with a new mural or the betterment of an empty space to green it up. these are all things where the local government can be the catalyst to help bring the people together to to do those kind of things.

Mark Partin (25:01)
That's right. They can be the convener of the arts coalition. Yeah.

Karl McCollester (25:03)
Right. Yeah. Yeah. And

Karl McCollester (25:07)
to your point, Mark, take your elementary school art teacher and get them to, stencil the mural out, and get the hardware store to sponsor the paint and the kids paint paint by numbers into the mural, right? And it's by

Mark Partin (25:18)
That's right. Yeah.

Karl McCollester (25:19)
the

Karl McCollester (25:20)
main elementary school class of twenty twenty three art project and maybe that inspires the class of twenty twenty four to wanna do the same thing and you can then do that in a different mural or something like that.

Mark Partin (25:30)
Yeah, be creative. And this just popped into my head, but one way to be

Mark Partin (25:35)
good stewards is to to use recycle things.

Karl McCollester (25:38)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (25:38)
so if if you're trying to paint something creative and you don't have the funds for paint, maybe contact one of your local paint contractors and say, hey do you have any, scraps

Karl McCollester (25:47)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (25:49)
of paint that you need to get rid of? And there's a source for paint. Yeah. So so many different ways you can pull these these projects together

Karl McCollester (25:51)
Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Karl McCollester (25:58)
let's say you're a, a a clerk with two employees or a city manager with five. This doesn't all have to be on you. It could be more just having the conversations and giving the permission of people who want to do these kind of things within the community

Karl McCollester (26:15)
and 'cause people just don't realize that maybe that's something they could do if they're they're interested and and letting people know, hey, if you've got an idea of something to beautify, and you're willing to, want to put put together the help put in the effort to make this happen, let us know. We we're here to help facilitate that and put you in front of council and everything else. Right.

Mark Partin (26:33)
That's right. Yeah.

Karl McCollester (26:34)
So it doesn't all have to be on you. Yeah. So

Mark Partin (26:37)
Correct, yes.

Karl McCollester (26:38)
great. well, great discussion, Mark. with that, shall we do some grants?

Mark Partin (26:42)
I think so, yeah. and I think to start out with we want to celebrate some grants that were just announced by Duke Energy and of the

Mark Partin (26:52)
things we've been talking about is different downtown projects. And the Duke Energy grant that was given out for Main Street Vital revitalization projects and given to a number, I think twenty-five different communities around South Carolina, not just municipalities but also chambers of commerce and organizations such as that. But these are all grants say five or ten thousand dollars that different communities have been awarded and

Mark Partin (27:20)
They are all focused on revitalizing downtown. Some of them are park benches and planters for growing flowers and so forth. Some are public art projects. I know the one here in Sumter is to do something similar to the mice and the salamanders, but with swans, because Sumter is known for swans. And

Karl McCollester (27:41)
Absolutely.

Mark Partin (27:42)
that is one way we want to encourage people to come downtown.

Mark Partin (27:46)
But then there are just a number of different grants that have been awarded. So we'll put a link in the show notes and we do want to congratulate all of these different communities and because they're 25 I won't read all of them but congratulations and thank you to the folks at Duke Energy for investing in our communities.

Karl McCollester (28:03)
And I was tickled that in addition to Sumter there were a few other customers of GovPossible in there. So I was it was really great to see. So

Mark Partin (28:08)
Yes. Yes.

Karl McCollester (28:11)
I'm excited for all of them. yeah, so next, this is just a reminder. we've talked about these grants over the last two episodes, but they're coming due here at the end of the month. so you've got a few days left to get in the DOJ slash BGA, both the rural violent crime reduction initiative.

Karl McCollester (28:29)
and the stop school violence program. So both of these are things that, between stopping violence, that is basically, I don't know, the primary thing of of most police departments. So there that is a

Mark Partin (28:39)
Please.

Karl McCollester (28:40)
wide range of things that you can apply for under that. And the other thing that most most departments do now is, also help protect and keep schools safe. So between those two fantastic

Karl McCollester (28:52)
opportunities for you to go and apply. You just have a few days left, probably two to three days once we get this thing out. So go out there and apply and of course we'll have the link in the notes.

Mark Partin (29:01)
Yes, and the next one we have is for our listeners in North Carolina. And this is a grant from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. And that this has a deadline of November 2nd, so next Monday, a week from today, the date that we are recording this. And this is for lead service line replacement in municipal water systems. So if if your water system has lead pipes that are still delivering water to customers, this is a way to get low interest.

Mark Partin (29:30)
with possible forgiveness. I should say possible, not guaranteed. We don't know the exact amount or if any match is specified, but if you have a drinking water system in North Carolina with lead pipes, reach out to the folks at the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality to see if you qualify for some assistance in replacing those lines.

Karl McCollester (29:51)
And then next, moving over to the environmental side, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation is having their Atlantic Flyaway Short Bird Initiative, which is an award. it's a one-to-one matching grant, $75,000 to $200,000. you can use other non-federal grants to to make your match. So you can you can stack this with other things. the main thing here is if you're a coastal community and you

Karl McCollester (30:18)
then and you have some green space that you've been looking to help set aside to and have a place for shorter migration. Obviously with all of the coastal development, one of the big challenges for birds that, migrate along that path is, finding places to to rest and land, and

Karl McCollester (30:36)
then continue on their way. Candian Geese Notwithstanding, of course.

Mark Partin (30:39)
Yes.

Karl McCollester (30:41)
Which I'm sure are are are included too, all all kidding aside. But definitely

Mark Partin (30:43)
Yes. No.

Karl McCollester (30:45)
something if you're a coastal community to check out.

Mark Partin (30:49)
Yes, and the next grant has a November sixteenth deadline, so almost three weeks from the Federal Highway Administration, and this is the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program. don't have individual amounts specified for each individual grant, but there's eighty million dollars in the entire program. usually there is a twenty percent matching requirement here. but this is to f to address wildlife crossing areas in

Mark Partin (31:15)
on on roads that have hot spots where wildlife caused vehicle accidents and this can be used to study it to plan how to mitigate it or to actually correct the problem through building a

Mark Partin (31:31)
going to say a walk over but I guess it'd be a walk under usually they build a walk under the road

Karl McCollester (31:34)
Yeah. Right.

Mark Partin (31:36)
so that wildlife can go from one side to the other without causing any dangerous situations on the road itself. And many newly constructed roads factor this in when they're being built but of course we have a number that were built before this was even thought of but

Karl McCollester (31:53)
Absolutely.

Mark Partin (31:54)
instead of seeing a deer crossing sign they're they're saying let's do something about the deer crossing

Karl McCollester (31:59)
Right.

Mark Partin (31:59)
area to minimize car crashes.

Karl McCollester (32:02)
Yeah, absolutely.

Karl McCollester (32:03)
It's much safer to give them a place to cross and then have to deal with them on the road.

Mark Partin (32:08)
Yes.

Karl McCollester (32:08)
So it can certainly help. And then finally, the USDA National Resources Conservation Service is doing a match for wetlands easement, restoration, and stewardship. So just that if you especially in the in South Carolina, we have a lot of wetlands. so if there is a

Karl McCollester (32:24)
place where either you are trying to restore a wetland, especially, let's say that was channelized within your community years ago. And, by restoring that, they could actually help you with flood control and things like that. all the way to there's something existing and you're looking to better maintain it and potentially in a way that you can open up to recreation opportunities as well as then just assessing what is out there and maybe places you need to focus on.

Karl McCollester (32:50)
So those are anywhere from two hundred fifty thousand all the way up to five million with no mesh required. So certainly do appear in a couple of weeks and if you have that sort of situation in your community, you should look into it.

Mark Partin (33:02)
Yeah, absolutely, yes.

Karl McCollester (33:04)
Great. Well Mark, excellent conversation today on the various ways people can look at public art. we know we talked about it from a I think a community engagement standpoint when we're looking at involvement f with students and with your local artist. We talked about in means of beautification, and in blighted areas, and utilization of murals, as well as just general

Karl McCollester (33:28)
use of art to help engage our communities, minds and attitudes. So some great takeaways. Well

Mark Partin (33:34)
Right. Enjoy

Mark Partin (33:35)
talking about it and it not related to art but just in general. If you're listening and there's a topic that you're interested in that you'd like to learn more about, send it to us and we'll add it to our our queue and tee it up to talk about it in the future. So send us your ideas.

Karl McCollester (33:51)
Yeah,

Karl McCollester (33:52)
absolutely. Love to hear from you. As usual, please like, subscribe and share it with your friends. And we look forward to talking with you next time. Thanks, Mark.

Mark Partin (33:59)
All right, thank you, Karl.

Karl McCollester (34:00)
Bye bye.

Mark Partin (34:01)
Mm-hmm.