So, I spoke to a bunch of Governor's School students on Wednesday night. I was asked to speak to them by my good friend, Anne Tromsness, and to my delight, about 50 of them showed.Everyone ranging from visual to creative writing to drama to musical to dance were there. And, amazingly enough, they stayed awake! Imagine that. Even through my rambling about my "story" and my history with theatre and my job hopping from one agency to another and the forming of Greenville Forward. They stayed awake. So, hopefully, I wasn't too boring.
The thing I take away everytime I visit a school in Greenville is the immense talent that is housed under our noses. These kids are incredible. I mean, they are 17 on average, and they do what they do. They create life. They mold thier future. They develop the path that lays before them. Truly inspirational.
So, I asked who wanted to come back to Greenville. No hands went up. I asked them who wanted to come back to South Carolina. A couple of hands went up. Then, I asked why...
- "Nothing to do. I would stay if I had options...music...something."
- "It's not very cool. I mean, it's beautiful, but it lacks something that I want."
- "I want a big city. A city that supports artists. A city that supports arts, full fledged. Greenville has a good arts scene, but to make a living here..."
I've heard these comments before. I've said these comments before. So, I asked what we needed to do to make Greenville a place for them to come back...
- "More music. More accessible."
- "More people like me."
- "Diversity."
I especially hung on to the last comment. This is something that the younger generation looks for.
Baby Boomers looked for jobs that paid, and they didn't necessarily care about the city it was in. It was about the job. About the money. The Millenials (1982-2001) are looking for life first. 3 out of 4 young creatives under the age of 28 have said that a cool city is more important that a good job. What a change in dynamic since the 1970's and 80's.
These Govies (that's what they are called) are the future of Greenville. Or, at least, I certainly hope they are. What if they brought their talents back to our community? What if they came here to live, work and play? What if they challenged our way of thinking?
From 1990 - 2004 the United States experienced a decline of 8% in 25-35 year olds. Where did they go? The Greenville News stated, not long ago, that "baby boomers have been the fastest growing age group in Greeenville County since the dawn of the millennium, and adults age 25 to 39 were the slowest growing group."
Where are the young creatives going? It is projected that from 2008 - 2020 Greenville will lose over 7,000 25 - 34 year olds. This means that the current 25-34 years will get older and move into a different age bracket, but the younger people (high school and middle school) will graduate, move away, and not come back.That concerns me. How can we be the place these kids want to come back to? How can we be a Portland or Austin. D.C. or a Nashville?
All I know is that we are working on it. And, I feel strongly that, if even one of these kids at The Gov. School would come back...we will be much better for it.
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2 comments:
Brock
Evan started a similar discussion about Greenville's Message. That post got a few comments from a mix of people who've come to or left town.
- Evan: From New Jersey, went to Clemson, not sure why he came to Greenville, got a job, then started a business in Greenville, still here
- Josh: Clemson grad, came to Greenville, started a business, moved to Boulder for TechStars and VC funds, still in Boulder
- Lord: Raised and schooled in New England, came to Greenville last year with a friend who has a sister in town, he's still in Greenville
- Jim: NJ -> Clemson, graduated, didn't know much of anything about G'ville, stuck around for a girl, got a job. I continue to see long term "get in on the groundfloor" potential of Greenville, so I plan to stay.
Greenville has colleges, but it's not a college town. Some of the other cities that are "cool" have a large college presence. I don't see this presence coming to Greenville anytime soon.
I guess large cities are attractive because they offer large, diverse clusters where everyone can find enough of what they want. Medium cities Raleigh, Boulder, and Nashville are much more focused around an industry or idea.
I guess Greenville would need to get real focused (cut out the "noise"), like "we are the ______capital of the world", or continue to grow the smaller clusters that are popping up organically.
A single message isn't clear, so looking at opinions about the intended or actual clusters and messages seems a place to start.
For instance, I think we have "family town" pretty nailed down. Plus, ysou run into a lot of engineers in Greenville (GE, Michelin, BMW, Bosch). I see arts (West End + Gov School) and entrepreneurship trying to get some traction. On the young side, I get the feeling the McBee Station area is a potential cluster of younger folks.
Perhaps this has already been researched, but it would be interesting to independently ask our peers (or even college juniors and seniors) what they see emerging in town, without them first hearing other people's thoughts. Then, ask what they like or don't like and try to tie some patterns together.
Heck, if someone came up with precise questions you could probably create an online form with Google Docs and pass it around to friends and/or through various channels (Pulse, universities, etc) and get a significant sample.
I'll take a stab at this although I'm new to town and all i can offer is first impressions, thoughts from preliminary discussions, and a history of living in cities that these young kids would consider pretty cool.
My field of the arts is modern dance and some ballet, although i am not a professional and never intended to be. Still, i have always wanted to keep dance in my life - continue taking classes and perhaps performing with local amateur companies. I have been able to do this everywhere i've lived (four cities) but not here. I've talked to some folks and found that there is a lot of support for dance instruction for KIDS but not many opportunities for them here when they grow up and graduate. They HAVE to go somewhere like Raleigh-Durham, Asheville, Chicago, NYC, etc etc if they want to pursue dance professionally or even keep it as an artistic pursuit (not a career).
Meanwhile, we import our dancers and performers from NYC at the Peace Center (with some exceptions like the great ballet schools here - but even they might send their students off after graduation to find professional work, i don't know this field well). Is there enough support for local companies?
sarah
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