Posts Tagged ‘creative class’
2.0 Life
I am really into Twitter. Searching for interesting Charleston people to follow, I have come across the most creative, well written folks who have just incredible websites. One blog that just is real, honest and well written is Thatsathought. She’s a stay at home mom and photographer. Her writing is funny and insightful.
Found Slant Media whose site starts up in dynamic flash with the classic, Percy Faith, (There’s a) Summer Place from the movie of the same name. I remember this all from my early years. It takes me so far back…I think I’m back in the ’60s. My mom in her dress, with her hats and gloves on Sunday. Makes me think of the radio on in all the houses I went to as a child. Elevator music was not a bad thing in those days.
Then there’s the great stuff that I’ve seen from other creative, inventive and wonderful folks. I’m lovin’ this 2.o life.
Related Posts:
Posted in Uncategorized | 
Tags: Glamour and celebrity and aristocracy
The new aristocracy is composed of those who command both glamour and celebrity. In the United States we don’t have titled aristocracy. Early in the history of South Carolina, the Eight Lords Proprietors established a titled aristocracy based on land holdings. The titles were soon abandoned, but the power these individuals gained from large landholdings remained as South Carolina evolved. So, not including South Carolina, the United States was left as a country to develop our own system of ranking who’s at the top.
Throughout our history as a country, we in the States, have placed into pseudo-aristocracy those in power such as politicians or the very wealthy who could both buy or curry influence. Lots of people have written over the years of the fluidity with which those who were at the bottom could rise in status. To gain in status, someone could ally themselves to those in power or develop their own status by getting money or position.
These days it seems that money and political power are only two of the ways to obtain status. With the idolization of sports figures in the 20th century and the development of celebrity (movies, recording industry) as a mass cultural phenomenon, we now see that those who are at the top are the often the ones who capture their Warhol fifteen.
Enter the current state of glamor and celebrity. Reality TV such as The Real Housewives of NY conveys glamour and celebrity to people who are in my opinion, snobs. Today’s pseudo-aristocracy thrives on the twin currencies of rarity and exclusion. So do The Real Housewives. Have we left out work? Sometimes it seems that those at the top have done little to ‘earn’ their status. They are the product of public relations and marketing dollars.
Charleston, South Carolina was for many years a sedate town of people whose connections to the ancient landgraves and cassiques established them as powerful. Given the dearth of industry in this town it remained that in Charleston aristocracy continued to be conveyed by family ties.
Enter the creative class. What has been happening in Charleston since the days when I was the Executive Director of the Charleston Area Arts Council (it went defunct in 1998) is the rise of our city as a cultural magnet. Fed by the establishment of Spoleto USA and by Charleston’s own allure, creative types; artists, designers, composers, poets, chefs and now fashionistas have changed the categorization of who’s elite. They’ve done this by harnessing creativity and hard work with mass culture demands (food TV, poetry slams).
Not that these are the first of the cultural class to stamp their mark on Charleston. The Charleston renaissance of which DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, Elizabeth O’Neil Verner and Anna Heyward Taylor were only part, stimulated artistic endeavors in Charleston in a profound, lasting way. I would argue that they fed on the historic culture, the times and places of Charleston’s past as food for their poems, books, paintings, etchings, music and sculpture. This is not so with the new group. They seem to find Charleston and its surrounding natural beauty to be their muse but incorporate worldly views from ‘off’ (as we say here). In other words they look afar for their muse but use Charleston as their medium for growth.
Last week Charleston was home to the second Charleston Fashion Week. A group of highly talented men and women put on an event that put Charleston squarely on the status map. That they have done this in short order over two years is remarkable in all respects. My colleague Katie Kern is only one of the group, but she is the one that I know best. I am amazed that their vigor and their ability to make glamour and celebrity (derived from hard work) the new currency of influence in our town. Kudos Katie and all!
