Making Exact Change
How U.S. arts-based programs have made a significant and sustained impact on their communities
By William Cleveland

• Table of Contents
• Part One: Introduction
• Part Two: Case Studies
• Part Three: Findings
• Part Four: Recommendations

Part Two: Case Studies

Swamp Gravy

Bridley Wade and William Bullard are two of almost 100 volunteer cast members who participate in Swamp Gravy productions each October and March in Colquitt, Ga. Photo courtesy Swamp Gravy

Basic Facts

Snapshot

The first theater space was an elementary-school lunchroom, and the play performed there was little more than a revue with sketches and songs, all homemade. But it was a sell-out, prompting one local wag to comment, “People will always turn out to see their neighbors make fools of themselves.” People did turn out, but only because the performance was entertaining and touching and the stories local.

With the initial success of the play, the Swamp Gravy players were soon able to move into a 70-year-old cotton warehouse, which became a makeshift theater. The new theater had dirt floors, no heating or air conditioning, brick walls and lofted ceilings. The only sound system came from the lungs of the actors. Lighting was primitive and included washes made from the local football stadium field lights. To combat the sweltering South Georgia heat, members of the audience were given hand fans as they filed in. For many students of the theater, the cotton warehouse would hardly qualify as a proper venue for productions of any kind. Yet the actors and singers performed with gusto and the stage technicians became seriously devoted to their work, providing professional guidance on direction and lighting.

—Ed Lightsey, 2000[1]

Description

History

In the early ‘90s, town leaders in Colquitt, Georgia, felt the town needed something to re-energize the community’s pride and economy. Joy Jinks of the Colquitt/Miller Arts Council felt an historical pageant could provide an infusion of cultural energy, involve the county folks and attract visitors from elsewhere. In 1991, Jinks met Richard Owen Geer, then completing a doctorate in performance studies at Northwestern. Jinks related her idea and Geer got excited. Over many hours of discussion, they decided to work together to develop a play in Colquitt around the personal history of the town. They called it “Swamp Gravy.”

“Swamp Gravy” is a musical play that celebrates rural southwestern Georgia folk life. Original songs and choreography are combined with traditional music and dance in a grand-scale stage production with a cast and crew of 100. Professionally written (originally by Tennessee playwright Jo Carson), directed and designed, the play draws on folklore, tall tales and family stories for its content, culled from oral histories gathered by a team trained by Carson. It is performed in Cotton Hall, a 60-year-old warehouse in Colquitt. It has also played in Washington, D.C., at the Kennedy Center and throughout the South.

Now in its thirteenth year, “Swamp Gravy” is what its artistic creator, Richard Owen Geer, calls “an experiment in a form of community performance — oral-history-based, large-scale, professionally produced amateur theater” that celebrates the lives and stories of the residents, black and white, of Colquitt and Miller County.

The title, “Swamp Gravy,” refers to a local recipe for a stew, a kind of improvised soup made of “whatever is at hand.” Built from the oral histories of the people of Miller County, it sports the full-length stories of a handful of people and the sayings, phrases and diction of literally hundreds of people. It blends folk remedies, ghost stories, jokes, well-known scandals and deeply held secrets. It contains births, deaths, dressing up, dressing down, mother love, family violence and a secret wedding in the woods. It’s got folk tunes, sing-alongs and the blues.

—Linda Frye Burnham, “Swappin’ Lies in Miller County:
The Story of Swamp Gravy,” Art Papers, 1994

The show runs four weekends each spring and fall and is rewritten each year. Although the theme of the play changes — in 2004, it was “Brothers and Sisters”; this fall (2005), “Love and Marriage” — the basic design of weaving together stories into a theatrical tapestry remains the same.

Mission/Values[2]

Mission: To involve as many people in a theatrical experience that empowers individuals and bonds the community while strengthening the economy

Values:

• Community involvement: Swamp Gravy began in 1991 when the Colquitt/Miller Arts Council voted to sponsor the project. Since that time, over 1,000 citizens (16 percent of the county population) have been involved in some capacity. Their roles include: storyteller, story gatherer, actor, singer, seamstress, painter, carpenter, ticket seller, greeter, concession salesperson, souvenir salesperson, exhibitor, promoter, Swamp Gravy Institute consultant and more.
  
  
• Individual Empowerment: Swamp Gravy actors testify to the development of self-confidence in their lives. Youth cast members carry their stage presence over into the realm of classroom reporting. Two cast members have created a neighborhood after school tutoring program for at-risk children. Another has developed and applied her creativity and initiative to help establish a Museum of Southern Culture and its outreach program of training school teachers and students in storytelling techniques. Twenty-five cast members have been trained as Swamp Gravy Institute consultants and have shared their experience of arts-based community revitalization.
  
  
• Bonding the Community: Swamp Gravy has united Miller County across the boundaries of age, race, class and gender, according to “Swamp Gravy Artifacts.” The ages of cast members range from eight months to 87 years, with as many as 50 percent of the cast under the age of 18. Biracial participation has characterized the cast since the beginning of the project, and an increasingly diverse audience mix has been observed. Twenty-five percent of the stories have been collected from the black community, and as high as 14 percent of the cast has been African American. All socioeconomic boundaries have been crossed, and one third of the actors are male. Because many of the cast members encounter one another daily, the Swamp Gravy esprit de corps carries over into all facets of life and work in the community. Swamp Gravy is a way in which the arts create common ground on which diverse people can work and play together.
  
  
• Strengthening the Economy: Over the ten years 1994-2003, Swamp Gravy sold approximately 72,000 tickets. Seventy-five percent have been out-of-town guests, which mean new dollars coming into the community. Estimating $53 in purchases per guest ($18 ticket, $15 meal, $10 gasoline, $10 souvenirs), over $4,000,000 has been generated in the small community during this period, an average of $400,000 per year.

Success and Change

Goals

• Gathering and communicating community stories
• Producing a work of merit
• Community revitalization
• Improving community identity and cohesion
• Reconciling differences
• Improved student achievement
• Economic development

Defining Success

• Significant involvement of community members
• Black and white citizens working together
• Strong audience attendance
• Improved economy
• Increased tourism to city and county
• Positive reputation for community inside and out

Critical to Success

• Establishment of local arts council
• Building community involvement and ownership through oral history-based theater process
• Availability and effective use of conflict resolution, mediation resources and skills
• Financial and volunteer support of community
• Artistic and community organizing expertise from both outside and inside the community
• Effective management capable of adapting and learning on the run
• Publicity and exposure beyond the community via touring and media
• Local and outside funding
• Links to cultural tourism and economic development
• Entrepreneurial approach

The Swamp Gravy Institute, a training program designed to share the program’s successful strategies and values with other communities, describes the following as indicators of success:[3]

I. Organization

• A 501(c)(3) sponsoring organization
• A clear, focused mission statement
• By-laws broad enough to encompass many projects
• Networked with state and regional arts and cultural organizations
• Diversified financial support

II. Participation

• Script based on stories told by local residents
• Committed leadership core representative of the makeup of the community
• Broad community support from other organizations
• Participation of at least one percent of the community in the project
• A role is provided for everyone who auditions

III. Personnel

• Outside professional artistic director, playwright and designers
• 100 percent volunteer cast inclusive of age, gender and race
• Imported and/or locally created music
• A paid administrative staff person responsible to the board
• Respected local resident(s) acting as mediator/problem solver

IV. Facility: A performance facility controlled by the sponsoring organization

Outcomes

• Reconciliation of disparate sectors of the community
• An open and ongoing examination of community history
• Hundreds of performances by community members for an audience of over 150,000
• An economic influx of over $1.5 million: Cultural tourism is now the town’s largest employer and economic sector.
• Establishment of local Arts Council
• The Arts Council now owns four buildings and is developing a fifth. They are:
  
  • A 15,000-square-foot converted cotton warehouse containing the theater, Museum of Southern Cultures, and a community area for meetings and weddings
  • An arts-and-education building for adult education and seminars and classes offered by the alternative school and the community college
  • A Youth Program facility (for Grades 9-12) also used for the activities of the New Vision Coalition, a program for African-American children in Grades K through 8
  • A market building containing four low-income apartments and a crafts, folk art and antique mall
  • A fifth building, dubbed the New Life Learning Center, to be “designed as a training center for people on public assistance”
• The establishment of an arts-education component
• The creation of the Swamp Gravy Institute in 1997, which holds workshops on story gathering, community involvement and play-production planning and implementation for other communities interested in creating their own productions
• The Colquitt/Miller Arts Council’s ownership of the Tarrer Inn, an historic bed and breakfast

Nuts and Bolts

Environment

Colquitt, Georgia, is a small, rural farm town of nearly 2,000 located in the southwest corner of the state. The nearest large cities are Tallahassee, Florida, which is about 62 miles to the south, and Montgomery, Alabama, 155 miles northeast. Aside from the fame generated by Swamp Gravy the town is known for its Mayhaw (berry) Festival and mild winters. Summertime in southern Georgia can be very hot and humid. The median age of Colquitt residents is almost 39 years old. In 2000, the average household income was $27,000 and the average house sold for around $75,000. Racially, the town’s population is nearly evenly split between black and white. The 2000 census indicates that 70 percent of the adults in town have at least a high-school diploma,with about seven percent completing college. The unemployment rate for the area is about half the national average, while the crime rate is about the same as the U.S. average.

Leadership

In the early days of the program, Joy Jinks, a community activist and philanthropist, was strongly influenced by the community-engagement strategies promoted by the Institute of Cultural Affairs, of which former Organizational Director Bill Grow is a staff member. The Institute describes itself promoting “positive change in communities, organizations and individual lives in the U.S. and around the world by helping people find their own solutions to problems and the means to implement those solutions.”[4] Grow says that many of the ICA’s values and community-building strategies informed the work of Swamp Gravy’s collaborators. They include:

• Crediting others for accomplishments
• Not being concerned with compensation and/or advancement
• Constantly learning
• Never opening your mouth if you are not about to change history.
• Always working from the back of the room (including everyone in the ­conversation)
• Always working to support and build trust
• Focusing on work that is history-long and worldwide
• Acknowledging that you are never a leader alone

Resources

The current budget (2005) of the Colquitt/Miller Arts Council, with all of the Swamp Gravy-related projects is $900,000.

On top of this there is a separate capital fund that over the last ten years has supported a variety of renovation and building projects. These include the renovation of several downtown structures and that had a tremendous impact on the local economy. Over $700,000 has been spent on renovation of Cotton Hall, and the Museum of Southern Culture. Reconstruction of the Arts and Education Center, which houses the Arts Council and several public education programs, cost $489,000. An additional $200,000 enabled the conversion of another dilapidated building into the Children’s Theater. Another million dollars in renovations provided facilities for the Market Building. The Tarrer Inn was renovated in 1994 at a cost of $2 million and donated to the Arts Council. The majority of the construction money remains in the community as local contractors use all local carpenters and local venders as much as possible.

Early support came from individuals and organizations from the community. Bill Grow says that “one of the smart things that Joy Jinks did was to hold back support to allow capacity to grow in the community.” He says that people responded with yard sales, fish fries and the like. The Georgia Humanities Council’s early support provided funds to bring Richard Geer and Jo Carson to Colquitt to train people in story gathering. Also, as needs increased and more and more, people volunteered. After Karen Kimble became the organization’s first executive director, she became the principal fundraiser for the project. Eventually, Joy Jinks and others in the community provided some of the needed funding, as has the Georgia State Arts Council and some national funders.

Governance

The Swamp Gravy board of directors is also the board of the Colquitt/Miller Arts Council. The members come from the community. Early on it was seen as important to keep both together so that the one did not overpower the other.

Partnerships

The project began as a community partnership. One of the earliest organizational partners was the Colquitt Fire Department. Bill Grow says that early on “The fire department contributed more than any other organization in the community with space for rehearsal and bathroom. They saw themselves as guardians of the project.” Other important early partners included the Georgia Humanities Council and the Georgia Council for the Arts. This support manifested, in part, because Swamp Gravy was regarded by politicians as a community-development success. Many of the state’s legislators have come to know the benefits of cultural investment through their interaction with Swamp Gravy. As the program has expanded, partnerships have also been forged with local school districts and state and regional tourism agencies.

Training

As the program grew, the Swamp Gravy Institute was created to share Swamp Gravy practices with other communities. Locals have also benefited from involvement in various Swamp Gravy workshops and seminars and mentorships. Richard Geer, the project’s first artistic director, has continued to provide participants with professional quality training acting, directing and theater technology.

Constraints

Humanities scholars and artists, including theater director Geer and playwright Carson, trained citizens in techniques of oral-history interviewing and transcribing. Stories of local residents were integrated into the final play. These elements reflect the play’s authority and express its local knowledge. At times, Geer’s outsider aesthetics clashed with the community’s. He found he had to set aside his individual artistic preferences and become more sensitive to the signals of the actors. The intimate process of community members who do not usually interact with each other rehearsing and performing together in the safe environment created by the arts council contributed to dialogue in this small town. As a cumulative effect, Miller County’s pride has deepened. The project has now been replicated in other communities with projects presently underway in five states.[5] Annual “community performances” are being held in Freeport, Fla.; Winona, Miss.; Union, S.C.; Chicago, Ill. and Newport News, Va. Startups are underway in McKeesport, Pa., and Elkhorn City, Ky. While successful, these efforts also stretch the program’s capacity.

Advice to Funders

From Bill Grow: “We have a productive enterprise, we have partners, we have a plan, we have in-kind resources, so we would like you to apply to us to be considered as an investor. Criteria include: Minimum bureaucracy, no political strings, history of funding community-based, community-owned projects. In essence, I think the leadership in the field needs to turn the tables on funders by asserting their expertise.”

[Next: Case Study: Village of Arts and Humanities]  [Table of Contents]

Notes

1. Lightsey, Ed, "Of Swamps and Gravy" (Stage Directions, October 2000)
2. "Swamp Gravy Artifacts" (Colquitt Arts Council, Colquitt, Georgia, 2005)
3. "Indicators of a Successful Community Performance Project" (Swamp Gravy Institute, 2000)
4. From the ICA: http://www.ica-usa.org/org.html
5. "Swamp Gravy" (Animating Democracy, ADI Lab Project Profiles)