COMMUNITY
Arts & Draughts is our largest partnership program.
Raising the Bar by Working Together
The CMA’s many partnerships with
organizations throughout Columbia and
the state play a vital role in allowing us to
offer such a large number of high-quality
adult programs each year. We work with
more than 100 partners throughout each
year to present an average of almost four
programs a week.
A partnership is defined as “a relationship
between individuals or groups that is
characterized by mutual cooperation and
responsibility, as for the achievement of a
specified goal.” Each partnership we have is
organic and different, but the goal is always
the same: a successful event.
Over the past 10 years, the CMA has
worked to build our community ties. We
believe that the arts community as a whole
has played a tremendous role in reshaping
our downtown Main Street neighborhood.
And when multiple organizations work
together for a common goal, we can greatly
increase both the quality of the events and
the audiences we reach.
We have worked with many groups to
produce programs such as concerts, harvest
dinners and craft weekends. Many of these
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partnership-based events help bring new
people to the CMA for the first time. For
example:
The Unchained Tour approached us
through the Richland Library, who was
also a partner on this program, to present a
night of storytelling and music. Among the
performers that night was Neil Gaiman,
world-renowned author of novels including
American Gods and Coraline. This was our
first time working with this national group
out of New York City, and the result was a
sold-out 400-person audience.
We partnered with All-In Productions, a
music promotion group, for the first time
this season for Henry Rollins: Capitalism.
The sold-out event had an audience of 440
people. Rollins’ status as a celebrity likely
brought some attendees who had never
before visited the CMA.
Without question, our largest event is Arts
& Draughts. This quarterly interactive
art party features live music, gallery tours,
D.I.Y. art projects, scavenger hunts, beer
tastings, films and more. It regularly
draws crowds that near 1000 people, and
shattered previous attendance records in
February of this year with just over 1500
people. Such a large-scale event with so
many simultaneous activities would not
be possible without partners. In fact, we
average five partners per Arts & Draughts.
Two of the partners who work with us
for Arts & Draughts are among the most
active we have. The Free Times is our
media sponsor, and they promote the event
year-round. In November they tie in their
annual Music Crawl to the weekend of
Arts & Draughts. Each November they
help with planning bands for the event.
Phill Blair and his team at The Whig play
a vital role in every Arts & Draughts event.
They help to plan and coordinate bands,
promote the event, plan the beer tasti ???[? ?[? H?\??8?'?H???Y\?][[????\? ] H ???[?? H?\??]?\?][?? ?B??[? ?\? ? ? ?]Y? ?\?x?&\????\??]?[?Z?H][??? [X?XH[??\???[\??Y\ ]H???[? 8?'H?Z\? ?ZY ??\?H\?H?\? ??YH^[\\?? B?X[?H ?[ XX?H \??\??\ ? H?PB?\??H ??[Z?H ? [???\? \??\????[ [?? \? ??X]H?] ?[?[??]?[? ?[???[ [?? ???? H\? ???[][?] H\?H ??H[??? [X?XK????