Recent controversy surrounding the Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival began not only with concerns about one group—Drum Circle Augusta—not being selected to perform this year, but with overarching concerns about how the event is managed, say some artists who have participated before.
“If you don’t want us there, you need to say why,” said Jewelle Couch-Covey, a member of Drum Circle Augusta, referring to alleged accusations, noted by the group’s organizer Ami Fry McKenzie, that the Circle had disobeyed rules while part of the festival last year. “But don’t say, ‘Oh, because they did this.’ No, that’s not the truth.”
Couch-Covey recalls one apparent reason the Drum Circle had not been invited back was because during the last day of the festival, last year, the group left earlier than its slot allotted for. She says, however, that the performers had only moved to avoid the rain.
“We didn’t close up; we didn’t leave,” said Couch-Covey, a Vietnam-era Navy veteran known affectionally among the group as “Grandmother Angel.” “But we did cover our tables, and we did move our instruments back, because we’re not going to allow the drums to get wet.”
Franklin Strausser Jr. is the proprietor of Props & Heroes, a local character performance company that specializes in crafting superhero costumes and props for appearances at birthday parties and other events. Strausser says that in 2022, Props & Heroes was commissioned to perform in Arts in the Heart, and did so well he had been invited to return the following year.
In 2023, however, personnel at the Greater Augusta Arts Council (GAAC) had changed, and Strausser, expecting the contract from the previous year to be renewed, was told he had to reapply as a performer. Ultimately, the GAAC did not select Props & Heroes for a slot to perform that year, citing time and budget constraints.
“We didn’t get picked again. No problem. That’s just business,” said Strausser. “But then there are these other companies that are coming out saying that they’re not even allowed to come because there’s no room when they’ve been in these sections for years.”
Strausser has reapplied for this year’s festival, but says he has not yet heard from the GAAC.
“I would like to think that it’s just some weird miscommunication, but we have yet to be contacted,” he said. “Our thoughts are, it’s very unprofessional to not even get back to a vendor, no matter what weird political things are going on or personal prejudice, you should probably get back to the people that applied for the position for a big event like this, especially since we were sponsored [in 2022].”
The GAAC’s official statement on the matter released Wednesday explicitly noted it will refrain from any public discussion about the violations of the festival’s rules last year. The Augusta arts non-profit has, however, emphasized the festival’s constraints, and the event’s overall support of local artists.
“It’s not necessarily designed that there will be the same artist every single year,” said Denise Tucker, public art and development manager with the GAAC. “If we have, let’s just say hypothetically, 200 local performing groups in Augusta, but we only have room for 100 on the stage, if it’s always the same 100, then the others don’t get the opportunity.”
Tucker also noted that independent jurors outside of the GAAC, rather than Arts Council staff, decide who is selected to perform on the stage, or who gets juried into the art show.
“A festival this size could never, ever happen without the support of local artists,” she said. “Without the local community, and residents, it just couldn’t happen.”
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
