GuestPost: Parking for Dollars
Click to enlarge. Photo for thegazz.com by Mark Wolfe
The Clay Center seems to be employing another tactic to make money by turning the huge open area out front into a high-brow car sales lot. BMW, Mercedes, Cadillac and other luxury vehicles are parked out front. Maybe not such a good idea when so many people see this as yet another "elitist" example by the black tie crowd there.
This is a great space and people from all stations in life will enjoy the various things to do inside, so don't let the "ritzy" image spoil you from having a good time down town!
~ Guest Post by Mark Wolfe
3 Comments:
Word cannot express how incredibly TACKY that is. Selling cars in front of the state's supposedly premier art venue? Man, I am almost embarrassed to tell folks I'm from Charleston.
What's next? Selling Nascar hats on poles in front of the place too? (rolling eyes). GEEZ!
The Clay Center is just going back to its roots. If you recall, that land was once a car dealership.
As this sad display shows so well the Clay Center is the white elephant of the city. Built more to further inflate the egos of the eletist blue bloods involved in its creation the Clay Center has done nothing but to further isolate the arts.
The Clay Center will continue to be a blight on Charleston and an expensive one at that. It is nothing but a money pit and the need for funds will drive everything the Center does. Art will always take a back seat to the dollar.
With that in mind, using the front of the building for car sales makes perfect sense. Here are some other money making suggestions:
Open the building up for use as a flea market on Saturday mornings. For $5 a week both space rental people can sell junk, Confederate flags, beany babies and even goats and chickens.
Let Girl's Gone Wild come back to Charleston and park the bus out front of the Clay Center. Broadcast the live filming in the bus directly to the planatarium screen. Admission to planetarium -$15, optional trenchcoat rental - $5.
On the incredibly ugly Washington Street side of the building (which is a huge expanse of bricks) install a those little bumps and hang some ropes for wall climbing. Place some ramps on the sidewalk for the skateboarders too. Climbing = $12/hour. Let the skateboarders use the ramps for free and make the money from the band-aid concession.
Or maybe the best bet is for The Clay Center to threaten to close and have Oshel Craigo talk CAMC into buying it.
I tell you, I feel lucky that a city our size has something like the Clay Center. I take my kids there often (we are members) and although it is rarely crowded, there are lots of others with us.
That doesn't mean they can't improve the place, starting with the ugly stretch of dead lawn in the front and the super-cheesy statue. But don't kid yourself -- if the Clay Center never existed, that money would not have gone into the arts at all.
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