Dogon Krigga carefully cut intricate designs out of paper to assemble an afrofuturist masterpiece in their studio. It's the same building where the Columbia artist eats and sleeps.
Krigga, who uses they/them pronouns, creates from their home because it's too expensive to rent studio space in Columbia.
In the past five years, the average rental price per square foot for smaller retail spaces has jumped nearly 30 percent, NAI Columbia real estate data show. This means a 250-square foot space that cost $4,500 a month in 2018 now costs $5,900.
The rising cost of real estate across the country has not just pushed owning a home out of reach for potential buyers, it’s also left studio and gallery space unattainable for artists. And in Columbia, the issue is exasperated by a lack of government support, Krigga said.
Dogon Krigga creates art using multiple mediums, including graphic design and collaging.
“We need an actual commitment toward putting a significant amount of money at the grassroots level, not just a 30-minute conversation where a politician hears you out,” they said. “We don’t even have the bare minimum. But we have money for a pickleball court we don’t really need."
(Krigga was referencing a private development slated for the Saluda Riverfront. City leadership has said they don't necessarily care for the project, but it's a commercial parcel.)
The city funds the arts through allocating hospitality tax revenue to individual organizations. Of the $13.4 million in revenue collected by the city this fiscal year, about $1.8 million was granted to arts organizations, including both visual and performing arts.
The City of Columbia didn’t make anyone available for an interview for this story, but it referenced the work of its Arts, Historic Preservation and Philanthropy Committee in an email. The public relations department also said the government works closely with the city-chartered nonprofit OneColumbia.
OneColumbia received $100,000 in hospitality tax this fiscal year. Another tentpole arts organization in the city, the Columbia Museum of Art, received the greatest allocation of the arts organizations, $850,000.
The arts in South Carolina account for $7.5 billion in annual economic output, according to the state’s arts commission, but many in the arts community don't feel the arts are taken as seriously as other private sectors, like business or retail.
Columbia’s Economic Development Director Ryan Coleman said he’s not familiar with the local arts community and their property woes.
Artwork by Heather Jeter hangs on the walls of Soul Haus, a new art gallery in the Vista in the former If Art and Mike Brown Contemporary space.
“I know artists are subject to rising costs but we are operating in a time where everyone is being impacted by inflation, so is this really an issue that’s generating a buzz within the arts community currently?” he wrote in an email. “And is it unique to us or indicative of the overall situation that’s creating challenges for everyone?”
Coleman has a point. Interest rates are high, real estate inventory is low and inflation has finally begun to slow. But what sets Columbia apart from other Southern cities with thriving arts scenes is its approach to arts funding and lack of a cultural plan.
Rather than solely allocating H-tax grants, Charleston’s culture and recreation department received funding from the budget’s general fund, hospitality tax and accommodations tax. Charlotte used its general fund and remaining American Rescue Plan Act dollars toward the arts sector in the current fiscal year.
New executive director of arts nonprofit OneColumbia Xavier Blake said city council is supportive of the arts, but he’s still in the learning process of advocating for more funding.
“In order to be a city where your community grows and tourism grows, arts cannot be treated as an add-on service,” Blake said. “It's as essential as roads or highways.”
Lee Snelgrove, arts and culture manager at Richland County Library and former executive director at OneColumbia, acknowledged the city’s funding of the sector through the hospitality tax, but said Columbia could benefit from a distinct cultural policy to outline its vision.
Columbia once had a plan that seemed to serve as a blueprint for the future of the city’s arts and culture plan, but efforts fizzled out.
Titled 'Amplify,' the 72-page document sponsored by OneColumbia, the City of Columbia and other organizations recommended the creation of public art policies and an office of cultural affairs. Its website hasn’t been updated since 2019.
“Their slowness/hesitation doesn't maybe warrant strong critique on city government per se, but it is important that there should always be pressure applied for the city to really invest and respond to the cultural community that is such a key driver of tourism and livability,” Snelgrove said, “Otherwise our cultural community is going to continue to fall behind cities like Charleston and Greenville that set up their structures years ago.”
The city, along with OneColumbia, has plans to host artists' work in vacant storefronts as a way to get eyes on locals' creations, but showtimes have yet to be announced.
Loss of Tapps was ‘devastating’
Dogon Krigga creates art using multiple mediums, including graphic design and collaging.
Neither the city nor its nonprofits have any available data about declining space for artists, but the pandemic-era closing of one studio served as a wakeup call for Columbia: Tapp’s Arts Center.
After reopening as Tapps Outpost for a bit during COVID-19, the collaborative studio and performance space dissolved as a nonprofit in 2022, sending shockwaves through the arts community. Krigga had their first solo exhibition at Tapps.
“Tapps was a cornerstone to local creators, especially creators who were in the early phases of their career,” Krigga said. “It’s pretty devastating, to be honest. It left a giant gaping hole that is yet to be filled.”
Another area that’s feeling the squeeze of rising rents and property values is the Vista, known for its galleries, performance venues and public art.
Artist Clark Ellefson, owner of Lewis and Clark Lamps, first rented an 8,000-square foot space in the Vista in 1980 for $500 a month.
Ellefson now owns a Huger Street property that has surged nearly $100,000 in value since he purchased it 20 years ago. He pays more than $13,000 in property tax.
“It’s tough. There used to be more galleries in the Vista,” Ellefson said, “You have to have a city plan that’s bringing artists together and keeping rents low. Or you have to build a co-op to afford the rent.”
Columbia's The Vista is a dining and nightlife hub adjacent to Main Street and the S.C. Statehouse.
State funding, new studios bring hope
As the Vista and Main Street price artists out, Ellefson said he sees the area between Huger Street and the Congaree River as “the new frontier” for artists looking for space to create.
Real estate data show if you keep going farther west, space becomes even more affordable. Average rental rates per square foot in Cayce and West Columbia are about $14, nearly $10 cheaper than Columbia’s overall average.
Stormwater Studios, a newish nonprofit on Pendleton Street, promotes equitable access to the arts and provides studio and gallery space for working artists. But it also faces space limitations.
Green Eyes, made by Clark Ellefson, owner of Lewis & Clark, sits between One Eared Cow Glass and Stormwater Studios in Columbia's Vista. Ellefson is creating a taller robot sculpture for Five Points.
“We're looking to expand and create more artists studios down there,” said Snelgrove, who also serves as treasurer of Stormwater's board. “There are a limited number of studios, and many of those artists are long-term users and tenants of those spaces. And so there's not a lot of turnover and not a lot of opportunity for new artists to come in.”
One agency helping to fill the gaps is the South Carolina Arts Commission. The state agency awarded $2.7 million across 111 grants in Richland County to individual artists and organizations in fiscal year 2023.
Though the fight for new studio space and more funding takes a toll, Columbia artists haven’t lost hope.
“I’m hopeful because I know that Columbia artists, if we’re anything, we’re resilient,” Krigga said.
