Shaping the Arts Scene in Asheville, NC

98 Pages·2016·9.95 MB·English

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Masters Theses Graduate School
8-2010
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Elizabeth Adair Ahrens
University of Tennessee - Knoxville, [email protected]
Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes
Part of the Human Geography Commons
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Ahrens, Elizabeth Adair, "Performance Space: Shaping the Arts Scene in Asheville, NC. " Master's Thesis,
University of Tennessee, 2010.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/682
This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and
Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE:
Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected].
To the Graduate Council:
I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Elizabeth Adair Ahrens entitled "Performance
Space: Shaping the Arts Scene in Asheville, NC." I have examined the final electronic copy of this
thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Master of Science, with a major in Geography.
Ronald A. Foresta, Major Professor
We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance:
Thomas L. Bell, Leslie C. Gay
Accepted for the Council:
Carolyn R. Hodges
Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School
(Original signatures are on file with official student records.)
To the Graduate Council:

I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Elizabeth Adair Ahrens entitled “Performance
Space: Shaping the Arts Scene in Asheville, NC.” I have examined the final electronic
copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, with a major in
Geography.

Ronald Foresta, Major Professor

We have read this thesis
and recommend its acceptance:

Thomas Bell

Leslie Gay

Accepted for the Council:

Carolyn R. Hodges
Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School

(Original Signatures are on file with official student records.)
Performance Space:
Shaping the Arts Scene in Asheville, NC

A Thesis Presented for
the Masters of Science Degree
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Elizabeth Adair Ahrens
August 2010
Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the city of Asheville for being such an interesting, artful place.
The musicians, artists, dancers, actors and creative people of Asheville made this thesis
possible, and made the research and writing process enjoyable. I am especially thankful for
the individuals who took time out of their day for an interview with me. My committee
members, Dr. Thomas Bell and Dr. Leslie Gay, taught me much, not just through this
research, but also through the classes they led. My advisor, Dr. Ronald Foresta, deserves
thanks for all his help. His insight and support for my project turned it into a focused,
interesting and relevant study. I need to thank Matthew Kookogey for making the maps of
Asheville for this project. I am grateful all the people I discussed my research with over the
past two years. The students in the Geography Department were always willing to discuss
an idea or suggest a reading. Finally, I want to thank Katie Ahrens, Justin DeVries, and
everyone who supported my move to the great state of Tennessee to pursue a master’s
degree.
ii
Abstract

While many factors influence an arts scene, performance space shapes the scene in
many discernible ways. Performance space is an integral part of the arts scene. Every artist,
musician, actor and dancer must perform in order to participate in the arts scene. The
spaces of these performances are often overlooked when considering how the arts scene
functions or how to best support the arts in a community. Through interviews with owners
and managers of performance spaces in Asheville, I determined how performance space
shapes the local arts scene. I defined the arts scene as the quantity, variety and quality of art
being displayed or performed publicly and the diversity and size of the artist and audience
base. Based on this definition, I discuss aspects of performance space that influences the
quantity, variety and quality of art and artists in Asheville, and the size and diversity of the
audience base. I found that performance space was connected to the arts scene in many
interesting ways. The availability of space influenced the number of performances and
displays. A variety of space led to a variety of art forms, likewise, high quality space
allowed high quality art to be performed. Each space impacts a part of the arts scene, and
all together performance spaces shape the entire scene.
iii
Table of Contents

Chapter I: Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1
Literature Review............................................................................................................... 4
Arts in the Community................................................................................................... 4
The Spatial Side of Art .................................................................................................. 8
Study Site: Asheville........................................................................................................ 13
Finding Spaces, Mapping and Interviews ........................................................................ 18
Chapter II: Description of Asheville’s Performance Spaces ............................................... 20
Location of Performance Spaces ..................................................................................... 20
Description of Performance Spaces ................................................................................. 23
Chapter III: Performance Space and the Arts Scene: Discussion ........................................ 29
Quantity of Art ................................................................................................................. 29
Variety of Art ................................................................................................................... 36
Quality of Art ................................................................................................................... 46
Diversity and Size of Audience Base ............................................................................... 49
Chapter IV: Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 61
References ............................................................................................................................ 68
Appendices ........................................................................................................................... 72
Appendix I. Figures and Tables ....................................................................................... 73
Appendix II. Interview Questions .................................................................................... 87
Appendix III. List of interviewees ................................................................................... 88
Vita ....................................................................................................................................... 89

iv
List of Figures

Figure 1. Asheville's performance spaces, 2009 .................................................................. 74
Figure 2. Asheville music venues, 2009 .............................................................................. 75
Figure 3. Asheville visual arts displays, 2009 ..................................................................... 76
Figure 4. Asheville performance art venues, 2009 .............................................................. 77

v
List of Tables

Table 1. Performance spaces divided by location in Asheville .......................................... 78
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Chapter I: Introduction
This study focuses on the space of performance in Asheville’s entire arts scene. As
such, it is necessary to define an arts scene. Unlike “art” or “music,” definitions for which
have long been debated, “arts scene” does not have a ready definition. How does one
define a scene? A city can have multiple scenes. For instance, there can be a punk music
scene and a country music scene in one city, with very little overlap between the scenes. A
music scene can also be a cultural space in which a range of musical practices coexist, and
the relationships between those different musical practices (Straw, 1991). It can be a social
group or a physical space.
Academics studying music use the term ‘music scene’ to describe several distinct
contexts. These can loosely be divided into three types: local scene, translocal scene and
virtual scene. The local music scene is music clustered around a specific geographic focus.
A translocal scene includes widely scattered local scenes that are brought together around a
distinctive form of music and its lifestyle. A virtual music scene has people scattered across
large physical spaces that create a sense of a scene through the internet (Bennett &
Peterson, 2004). The term is, therefore, confusing because “it suggests a bounded place but
has also been used to refer to more complex spatial flows of musical affiliation”
(Hesmondhalgh, 2005, p. 23).
I am interested in all types of art that make up the arts scene, including music,
visual arts, theater, dance and uncategorized performance art, like puppetry. I want to be as
inclusive as possible to minimize the risk of excluding a type of art based on my own
preferences. For the remainder of this study, when I use the term art or artists, I include
music and musicians, plays and actors, dance performances and dancers and any other kind
of self-expression people choose.
The arts scene is more than just art. It includes the artists themselves and it includes
performances and gallery shows. When someone says a city or neighborhood has a vibrant
arts scene, they do not mean simply that there is art in that place. It implies that there are
many artists, a lot of art happening publicly, many different kinds of art in the area, or the
quality of the art is high. Conversely, if a city does not have much of an arts scene, there is
not much art being performed or shown publicly. This does not mean there is not art
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