Arts in the Heart’s denial of group’s participation comes under fire

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Discussion over the annual Arts in the Heart of Augusta festival got contentious at Tuesday’s meeting of the Augusta Commission, with a community member asking city leaders to look into the festival.

Brad Owens said the issue was brought to his doorstep by Drum Circle Augusta, which the Greater Augusta Arts Council refused to let participate in this year’s festival.

The Greater Augusta Arts Council board president said he would open to a discussion on the matter.

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Owens said the group got conflicting answers on why it couldn’t participate in the event from Sept. 20-22, ranging from lack of space to breaking the rules last year.

The allegedly broken rules:

• The group got there late on Friday.
• The group left early on Saturday.
• The group didn’t show up on Sunday

Owens also slammed the admission fee for visitors to the festival. The fee is now $15 to attend a festival that’s held on public streets that have been blocked off.

Organizers claim the event attracts more than 100,000 attendees each year. So if each one of those people pays $15, that would mean admission alone rakes in $1.5 million. Vendors are also charged fees.

Owens said it’s cheaper to take his family to Myrtle Beach for the weekend than to go to Arts in the Heart. He said the festival should be free, like countless other similar festivals across the U.S. – and even just across the Savannah River like North Augusta’s Jack-O-Lantern Jubilee.

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“Working folks can’t pay,” he said.

Kigwana Cherry, president of the board of the Arts Council, claimed the $15 is quite affordable, offering admission for three days.

Cherry claimed festivals in the other Georgia cities of Savannah and Columbus are more expensive, although News 12 couldn’t verify which festivals Cherry was referring to or whether they are comparable in scale or cost.

Cherry also claimed 88% of the artists in the event are local.

Owens, who was joined at the meeting by some Drum Circle members, said he worked with the Arts Council on a compromise to make space for the group. Yet Cherry said everything Owens said was hearsay and that the council has been in “constant contact with Drum Circle,” including three meetings.

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Cherry turned to the Drum Circle members and said: “If you would like to have a conversation, I would gladly entertain that. But what I will not entertain is social media bashing.”

Augusta Commission member Sean Frantom was disappointed in the bickering.

“We owe it to the Drum Circle to have another conversation and bring it back to the table,” he said, adding: “We need to clean this up. The organizers of the event vs. community members doesn’t look good.

“We’re better than this. Have some humble pie to make sure we are looking out for the best interest of the community. Let’s have a conversation, not on social media.”