Is There Culture Beyond the Soaps on Wisteria Lane?

Art in the ’Burbs: What’s There, What’s Not, and Why You Should Care

Tuesday, October 14, 1:45 pm – 4:45 pm
Cobb Energy Centre for the Performing Arts
2 Galleria Parkway

Organized by Lisa Cremin, director, Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund. Presented by Carolyn Bye, author of A New Angle: Arts Development in the Suburbs; Flora Maria Garcia, CEO, Metro Atlanta Arts & Culture Coalition; Beth Schapiro, president, the Schapiro Group, Inc.; and Samuel S. Olens, chairman, Cobb County Board of Commissioners

Using the greater Atlanta region as the microcosm, this session will examine some of the myths and realities about cultural life in the suburbs and why many suburban areas are embracing the arts.

First there were cities, then there were suburbs; now are there regions? How and where do arts take place when 4+ million people live in a geographic area and the “city” is only 464,000 people? Using the new Cobb Energy Centre as the backdrop this session will explore ways that the arts are energizing suburban regions and at the same time helping arts organizations grow audiences and revenue. How have suburbs changed from the stereotypes we may still harbor about them? As funders make difficult choices about funding priorities, what is the rationale for supporting suburban arts organizations?