Congrats to Columbia's Koger Center for the Arts - A Grantee of the Levitt Music Series!

Huge Congrats to the Koger Center for the Arts for being a Levitt Music Series Grantee! The Jasper Project is proud to be among the SC organizations that partner with the Koger Center to make it more than just a performance venue, but a true center for the arts. Every Third Thursday patrons can join Jasper on the center’s second tier at our Nook Gallery space where we feature the work of a Midlands-area visual artist as part of The Vista’s regularly scheduled Third Thursday programming. The intimate space offers patrons the opportunity to meet and chat with our featured artists, share a snack, and often hear our artists speak about their work. This is always a free event and we typically go from 5:30 - 7 pm, but it’s always a good idea to check the Koger Center calendar to be sure a performance doesn’t result in a change in time.

While the Koger Center has been offering a program of free events in the lobby and on the outdoor stage for a while now, director Nate Terracio says this is the first time the organization has been awarded a Levitt Music Series Grant. “The grant provides 3 years of support for free outdoor concerts in 2026, 2027 and 2028,” Terracio says, explaining that, “We have hosted both local talent such as: Longtooth, Prettier than Matt, The Ramblers, CammWess, David Rodriguez, and members of the Black Nerd Mafia,” as well as regional and national acts including Claudette King, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, J Roddy Walston, John Hollier, She Returns From War, and Indianola.

“The Koger Center for the Arts is beyond excited that Columbia has been chosen as the first city in South Carolina to be recognized and funded by a Levitt Music Series Grant and we are thankful to the community and individuals that supported our efforts and took the time to vote for us,” he continues. “We look forward to expanding our free outdoor concert series through this grant to include spring and fall concerts.  As Columbia’s center for the arts, we want everyone to feel welcome and hope to bring the whole community together through music both inside and outside.”

For more about the grant please refer to the press release issued by the Levitt Foundation: “The Levitt Foundation, a national social impact funder supporting the largest free outdoor concert series in America, today announced the largest number of Levitt Music Series grant recipients in its history—providing 66 communities with multi-year grants, up to $120K each.

Levitt Music Series Grants are an exciting, multi-year matching grant program bringing the joy of free, live music to towns and cities across the country. Each Levitt Music Series location presents 7-10 free outdoor concerts per year, injecting new life into underused public spaces and creating joyous, inclusive community destinations. Reflecting the Foundation’s commitment that all Levitt projects be community-driven, the top 50 finalists were selected through public voting in September 2025 (via online and text to vote). The Levitt Foundation then conducted a comprehensive review process of all finalists to determine the Levitt Music Series grant recipients.

The Levitt Foundation will be awarding over $7 million dollars over three years to the nonprofits presenting Levitt Music Series, supporting 34 new grantees and 32 returning grantees to bring free outdoor music to their communities in 2026, 2027, and 2028. Also new this grant cycle are funding partnerships with state agencies—in Tennessee and Mississippi—to bring even more free outdoor concerts to their communities.

“The Levitt Foundation is thrilled to announce the communities across the country receiving Levitt Music Series grants, and we congratulate all the new and returning Levitt grantees. We know from decades of supporting free concerts in public spaces how the power of free, live music brings friends, families, and neighbors of all ages and backgrounds together, strengthening the social fabric and economic vitality of communities,” said Sharon Yazowski, President & CEO of the Levitt Foundation. “We are also excited that our partnerships with Tennessee and Mississippi are supporting additional communities in those states—a model we hope will inspire other states throughout our nation for future collaborations to bring free, outdoor concerts to their towns and cities.”

ESSAY: The Free Times 2024 Power List, A Response by Cindi Boiter

The yearly designation of the Midlands’ most powerful people, provided by our friends at the Post and Courier’s Free Times, always creates ambivalent feelings for me, as well as others, I’ve been told. This year, I was happy to play a small part of the nomination process and see recognition given to many of the folks I nominated. But, as always, I was perplexed by the concept of the project and what its purpose is.

The Free Times Power List 2024, published December 18th, seeks to recognize 30 of the Midlands’ most influential arts, food, and cultural leaders. The criteria for acknowledgement are growth, innovative programming, and bringing national attention to the area, like Lula Drake’s Tim Gardner whose rightful place on the list was established when he won Columbia’s first ever James Beard award and the Kiki and Tyrone Cyrus team at Kiki’s Chicken and Waffles, who also received acclaim in the James Beard competition. Robbie Robinson of City Limits Barbeque was recognized, as well.

Clearly, restaurant owners who frequently put their own financial livelihoods on the line are deserving of praise, especially those like Kristian Niemi who is committed not just to his patrons but also to the local farmers who provide the food for his restaurants. Restaurants are essentially small businesses but they can have a large impact on their communities by providing gathering spaces where we all feed both our appetites and our culture. The team at Transmission Arcade is a great example of a group seeing a city need and addressing it head-on with fun and innovative programming. But missing from this year’s list are the owners of coffee houses, like Greg Slattery and Sandra Moscato of Curiosity Coffee Bar, who provide places where patrons gather to scheme and collaborate on projects that make us better. Slattery and Moscato are absolute warriors for the health and care of their corner of Columbia. Jasper honors them.

Some of the most deserving recipients of this year’s honors were organization leaders like Nate Terracio (Koger Center for the Arts) and Kristin Cobb (Harbison Theatre) who have used their pivoting power to open their stages to local artists and arts organizations and they have done so without slapping their names on the logos of the organizations they represent. Of  late, we’ve seen free concerts and performances on Koger’s new stages and in their lobby. Harbison Theatre has welcomed many local artists and arts groups onto their stage. And both theatres are the homes to Jasper Gallery sites where we are privileged to present the work of exclusively Midlands area artists.

Kudos to Free Times for shining a light on the work and generous spirits of a nice handful of local artists like Ija Monet, Terrance Henderson, Michaela Pilar Brown, Sean Rayford, and the unofficial mayor of the Congaree Vista, Clark Ellefson. The list of powerful artists could have included dozens of names, but I am thankful for what we got and honor those recipients with pride and admiration.

It was also encouraging to read that Dr. Bobby Donaldson was included in this year’s list as perhaps the most deserving recipient of the honor. Donaldson’s accomplishments represent the best example of an individual working for the greater good without asking for anything in return. I’d love to see more folks like Donaldson recognized for their visions for a better Columbia and a better South Carolina.

But how does one separate and compare the work of rectifying history, like Donaldson does,  with that of making menus and making art? Food, arts, and culture, the three areas where Free Times looked for leaders, are overlapping zones in the Venn diagram of community life with food and art being among the most meaningful contributors to culture.

I have other questions.

Does a Power Person have to be well-paid or even paid at all for their work? Where does volunteerism come into play? I ask this because, and I’m only a little tongue-in-cheek here, I personally know an entire board of directors who work the equivalent of part-time jobs and more to support their organizations and the people they serve. I bet you do, too, and I bet you’re not even thinking of the same organization I am. (Yes, I’m unapologetically thinking of the Jasper Project team and how much I love to sing their praises for the tireless efforts they make to nurture the arts.)

Does the Power Person have to do the work themselves or does the work of the minions below them count as their contribution, too? I mean there’s a lot of dollar signs represented by some of this year’s power people. A lot of fur coats, fancy cars, and trips to Mexico, too. Can a Power Person do the exact same job year after year after year and still be recognized? Does it matter if the organization a Power Person represents is a frequent advertiser with the Post and Courier? I hope not, but I’ve heard that rumor, too. And while we’re at it, should a Power Person be recognized for essentially doing the job they are paid to do? How much money do some of these 501c3 Power People make anyway and how much of their salaries comes from the pockets of Soda Citizens?

Finally, what exactly is the point of the Power List? It harkens me back to school days when popularity was weirdly the goal for so many people. I know few people who didn’t suffer at least a little angst about whether they would be accepted or rejected by their peers. I’d like to think most of us have grown out of that by now. Singling out individuals who, if you followed the rules of the popularity pecking order, were even better than their peers via projects like “senior superlatives,” which I see as the seed of projects like the Power List, was an even more stark way of separating the bad from the good and the good from the better. That said, I married a “Most Likely to Succeed” high school senior superlative recipient and, what can I say? He was and is, so what do I know?

To those who deservingly found themselves on this ostensibly elite list of individuals, congratulations and keep it going. We are genuinely proud of and happy for you. To those who found themselves there whether they deserved to be or not, this means we’re watching you and what you do with your power even more. And to those who were completely overlooked, go forward with the knowledge that  your work matters if it matters to you. Arbitrary lists and accolades are less important than the people you affect with your talents, generosity of spirit, and good work.

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Merry Christmas from all of us at the Jasper Project. We love what we do, and we’re trying to grow better without growing bigger so we can stay true to our mission to be public servants of the arts in the greater SC Midlands Community. Thank you for your support and thank you for reading Jasper Magazine and Jasper Online!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

(Full Disclosure: Kristin Cobb, executive director of Harbison Theatre at MTC is a board member of the Jasper Project Board of Directors. There is no financial exchange related to the profits made for artists or Jasper between any of Jasper’s Gallery sites and the businesses that host them. Also, this column was offered to Free Times as an installment in this writer’s regular column, Further Consideration, but was pleasantly and respectably passed on)