As Jasper Magazine approaches its 10th anniversary, the Jasper Project has already started making celebration plans for the big day in September 2021. For almost 10 years now we have been steadfast in protecting, preserving, and promoting the Midlands arts scene which, for us, represents the very heart of Columbia, SC.
While COVID-19 threw a wrench in business-as-usual for Jasper, as it did for all of us, we have also remained dedicated to protecting the health and safety of the arts community by not planning hard-to-resist events that might endanger the members of this community who we value so much. But we stayed busy in 2020.
We published a multidisciplinary art book called Sheltered that provided witness to the ways many of our visual and literary artists were processing the pandemic.
We ramped up our Tiny Gallery series featuring a new visual artist every month, creating a successful way of safely getting small art on the walls of patrons and some cash in the pockets of our hardworking artists.
We made sure the walls of Jasper’s Galleries were filled with fresh art at Motor Supply Bistro, the Meridian Streetside Gallery, and Harbison Theatre.
We tended our blog religiously, publishing more than 70 original pieces of literary art most of which celebrated the work of other artists in our community.
We published poetry, shared videos, fantasized about projects, and we planned so many upcoming ways to realize our labor of love and continue the mission of Jasper.
We set up housekeeping as members of the 1013 Co-op, serving the community of North Columbia and beyond.
Most importantly, we answered our culture’s call for better representation of artists of all colors by creating what we have temporarily titled a Black Artists Matter Council consisting of a dozen leaders of color in the arts community who are already helping Jasper be better by serving as liaisons to the artists of color who we should be promoting, supporting, and writing about but who we were sadly unaware were out there. We continue working to be better.
And now, we invite you to join us in our ongoing journey of serving the SC Midlands area arts community by becoming a member of the Jasper Project Guild. Remember, the Jasper Project is a labor of love with no paid employees on our staff or board of directors. Our operating expenses come almost entirely from you.