701 Center for Contemporary Art

Tabitha Hartgrove walks down Whaley Street heading towards Olympia Avenue; her destination is 701 Whaley Street, the Center for Contemporary Art. It is a calm, cool Tuesday evening, Tabitha and a friend plan to attend the World Symphonic Jazz Orchestra Concert being held there; she is going out of a requirement for a class. She knows her destination is 701 Whaley Street but she has never been there before, so she is looking for any indication of that address. She expects that the place will “have a more “contemporary” feel and look than what you would expect a traditional Art Center or Concert Hall to be like” Ms. Hartgrove explains. Tabitha explains “that she felt a little awkward walking down Whaley Street in the dark, not fully knowing where she was going, she would have been uncomfortable if she would have been walking alone.” As Tabitha walks down Whaley Street she finally comes to an intersection, and her friend believes the place to be the building right across the street, and Tabitha explains “We looked across the street and the building had in white 701 on the side of the building, so we assumed this was the building but the first thing we saw was a dark area through large glass windows that looked like an abandoned warehouse in some ways.” Finally, she was shown how to get upstairs, where the concert was to be held and where the Center’s Art Gallery was too, Tabitha explains “After going upstairs my perceptions of the place changed, I liked the upstairs; it had a “contemporary” theme to it.”

            701 CCA, as it is called by members and volunteers, is a non-profit organization in the Columbia Area that opened in October 2008. Two years after the opening and many students I have spoken too never heard of the place. As Wim Roefs, the Chairman of the Board of Directors and the Executive Director, explains “CCA is primarily a visual arts center, but we do offer other forms of the arts; performing arts [such as music and dance] and literary arts [writing and poetry]; all to help create a better understanding of contemporary art. We have concerts similar to the Jazz Symphony, we have art like the current wood art exhibit, and at times we have writers or poets come in and read works.” The Center has also been working to get with a local dance company to put on a performance at the center, but it’s hard to give a dance company the appropriate amount of space need to rehearse for a dance recital, and the space the 701 CCA is in is a rented space so they only have a limited amount of space to work with themselves. The room where the Jazz Concert was held, the one the Tabitha attended, is actually a space they have not rented but the owner of the property allows them to use that space for such events. The biggest shock about all of the space issues is that, according to Mr. Roefs, 701 Center for Contemporary Art is the largest space in the state of South Carolina that shows contemporary art all year round. 701CCA also has quite a few interactions with the University of South Carolina too. The concert that Ms. Hartgrove attended was a symphony where most of the performers were students at the university in the School of Music, also several faculty members are volunteers, and a little while back CCA had an artist in resident that was a Dutch photographer who also went in to several of the universities photography classes to offer advice and the sort. Mr. Roefs also adds that “701 has added to Columbia something that was missing, sure there is the Art Museum and the like in Columbia but there wasn’t anywhere that solely focused on contemporary art, and creating an understanding of that type of art. The center has added a place so that people who enjoy art can come from a decent distance away for a weekend trip in Columbia; spend time at the Columbia Museum of Art, spend time at 701 Center for Contemporary Art, and other types of features in the area, they eat at local restaurants, and it’s a boost for the local economy.”

            Tabitha explains of that Tuesday evening “The second floor was beautiful, it was just a small room, and all the performers dressed in predominantly black attire. It was a good concert.” After the concert the Center had the art gallery open which is currently featuring an exhibition of wood-based art by Mike Lavine, Associate Professor of Fine Arts at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C. Ms. Hartgrove explains it as “Her taste in art is different than theirs”, but that can be expected because most people aren’t really accustomed to contemporary art. Ms. Hartgrove says “It was a fun night and I would go there again for another concert or a different art exhibit.” Tabitha discovered a new place out of a course requirement, a place that she just may enjoy and go back to when it isn’t for a grade.

            To learn more about 701 Center for Contemporary Art visit the website, www.701cca.org, or take a visit to the gallery yourself and check out their current exhibit. 

 Below is a video of the Wood-based Art Exhibit; courtesy of 701 CCA, and the artist Mike Lavine for the art and video: