What sets the most profitable businesses apart is their ability to connect with customers. And that starts with a persuasive brand story.

For 25 years, MotionMasters, an award-winning multimedia company based in Charleston, has been helping organizations and businesses around the world reach – and connect with – target audiences through compelling videos, DVDs, commercials, print collateral, websites and streaming video.

Stories have the power to galvanize an organization around defined business objectives, says MotionMasters CEO Diana Sole Walko. “They can spark action, transmit values and foster collaboration.

“If you look back through history, the best and most memorable leaders are the ones who can communicate through story. Unfortunately, businesses are often the worst at that,” she observes. “They want to bombard you with facts and statistics about why you should purchase their product or service. But people are justifiably suspicious of that type of approach.

“Instead, tell them a story,” she says, “by explaining what those facts and figures mean and why they should matter to the customer.”

The Charleston Area Alliance is a good channel for sharing your story with potential customers and fellow business owners, says Diana.

“Early in my career as a business owner, I felt very isolated. I had questions about so many things, and didn’t really have someone to bounce issues or ideas around with,” she says.

Membership and active participation in the Alliance gave her the chance to interact with others facing the same challenges. “All these years later, I still have questions — and so do they…. We learn from each other. And that’s made us, and our companies, stronger.”

The Alliance offers a wide range of programs and services that help businesses and our community succeed.

“Membership has very practical, present value, like the ability to send your employees, or yourself, to training seminars, attend Business After Hours to mine new business, participate in Art Walks, etc.,” says Diana, adding that “for me, however, the real value of my membership is its future value — the community we can build by acknowledging no man is an island.”

At the Alliance, we’re proud to provide a forum for businesses to share their story, and we’d love to hear yours.

Join us at upcoming event and help create “happily ever afters” for you, your business and our region.

To see how the Alliance tells its story through video (many produced with the help of MotionMasters), visit our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/CharlestonArea.

Today the City of Charleston announced that it will receive an Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), one of only 51 grants awarded nationwide. Charleston will receive a $50,000 to create public art policies, guidelines and promotional programs.

Our Town is the NEA’s latest investment in “creative placemaking,” through which partners from both public and private sectors come together to strategically shape the social, physical and economic character of a neighborhood, town, city or region around arts and cultural activities.

The Charleston Public Art Project will entail four key outcomes including development of policies and guidelines for public art, a complete inventory of current public art including any short term and long term maintenance needs, outreach and promotions to market public art and establishing a local government arts development initiative to oversee implementation of policies and guidelines, future public art projects and encourage new public art installations.
 
“Communities across our country are using smart design and leveraging the arts to enhance quality of life and promote their distinctive identities,” said NEA Chairman Rocco Landeman. “In this time of great economic upheaval, Our Town provides communities an opportunity to reignite their economies.”

“Over the past decade, Charleston has taken several important steps to create a more vibrant community for the arts and culture with the creation of FestivALL, monthly Art Walks, opening of the Clay Center, investments in several public art projects and greater promotion of art and artists in our city,” said Charleston Mayor Danny Jones.  “This grant – and the $100,000 partnership it creates – will help us get a deeper understanding of our current inventory of art and chart a course to build on our recent successes.

”The competitive grant application process was led by City Manager David Molgaard, City Purchasing Manager Shannon Milroy and Susie Salisbury, Vice President of community development for the Charleston Area Alliance. Matching funds and in-kind resources have been provided by Charleston Urban Renewal Authority, City of Charleston, Charleston Area Alliance and Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences West Virginia.

“Art is an essential element in creating a thriving community and can play a significant role in economic development,” said Alliance President/CEO Matt Ballard.   “We congratulate all who contributed to securing this major grant, which will advance the city’s strong commitment to the arts and strengthen it as an attractive and inviting place in which to live, work and play.  It’s a win-win for the arts community, citizens and business alike.”

“Public art not only makes a statement about the community, it enriches the lives of those within it.  This grant from NEA will provide needed funds to promote our public art to our community and visitors.  It will also serve as a catalyst to protect these wonderful community assets and to encourage installation of others,” stated Judy Wellington, President and CEO, Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences West Virginia.
 
“Everyone who has contributed or hopes to contribute to public art in Charleston is excited about this National Endowment for the Arts grant which will help to preserve and publicize our public art works. FestivALL joins many other organizations in thanking the NEA and congratulating Susie Salisbury and the Charleston Area Alliance for obtaining it,” said Larry Groce, executive director of FestivALL Charleston

“As the capital city of West Virginia, it is our responsibility to showcase and preserve the cultural hub of the state by establishing public art guidelines and sustainable maintenance plans. By setting this example, perhaps we can inspire other cities and communities to develop their own guidelines,” added Naomi Bays, chair of the Arts Council of Kanawha Valley.

The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $4 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector.

Every third Saturday of the month from April to October, GC volunteers will engage residents on that stretch to take an active role in “maintaining their piece of Charleston,” said Megan Tarbett, co-captain of the Community Outreach Team.

The next effort is scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 21.

The Adopt-A-Block program is modeled after the Adopt-A-Highway program. Generation Charleston is in charge of monthly maintenance, including trash pick-up, leaf removal and larger beautification projects. Volunteers also hope to interact with residents and welcome them to participate.

To volunteer, contact Tarbett at Megan.H.Tarbett@wv.gov.

More and more downtown businesses are joining the effort to revitalize and reawaken downtown. ArtWalk brings people downtown, and once they see what it has to offer, they keep coming back.

Before the May 19 ArtWalk, Charleston Catholic High School students will be creating sidewalk art in front of ArtWalk venues for viewing this evening.

ArtWalk is the epitome of why more and more people are going downtown – to be part of a rich culture. Charleston offers food, ideas, expressions, shops and customs not found anywhere else, and we identify with the charm.

Visit www.CharlestonArtWalk.com for more information. ArtWalk runs from 5 to 8 p.m.

ArtWalk Locations

Art Emporium
Stray Dog Antiques
Gallery Eleven
Annex Gallery Taylor Books      
Good News Mountaineer Garage
Chet Lowther Studio
The Purple Moon
Modern by Design
Romano & Associates Law Gallery
Visions Day Spa
Studio 1031
White Oak Photography & 
    KD Lett Photographic Productions

 
Art Walk Highlights

White Oak Photography
& K.D. Lett Photographic Productions

New work by K.D. Lett & Michelle Krompecher will be shown in the front gallery and the permanent exhibit will be on display in the back gallery. 
 

Art Emporium 

Art Emporium presents Traci Higginbotham’s “Visual Navigations,” original acrylic paintings on canvas. The exhibit runs through June 11. An artist reception is scheduled during ArtWalk.  
 

Modern by Design

Modern by Design will feature works from California artist Leo Possillico and Charleston artist Joe Bolyard.

Leo Possillico, a native of Long Island, New York, has been a successful, award-winning artist for more than 30 years. His work is known and praised nationally and internationally and is widely recognizable through his signature brush stroke characters. He works in series.

The “Gallery” series, from which the pieces showing at Modern by Design have been chosen, expresses the various art works that one can be exposed to while in the gallery, or museum and is both humorous and serious.

Joe Bolyard is a West Virginia artist who moved back to Charleston in 1998. Joe works in acrylics, mixed media, ink and also produces pieces with metals, such as pewter, brass and aluminum. Joe’s work varies from small gallery pieces to large commission pieces for peoples’ homes and offices. Joe’s work usually explores depths of colour and texture, with styles ranging from the abstract to ethereal and even spiritual.

Taylor Books

The Annex Gallery will present “Modus Operandi: New works on paper by Natalie Gibbs Burdette and Kristen Zammiello.” This show features dry point etchings, graphite drawings, linoleum block prints by two talented young women from the Marshall Graduate program.

Purple Moon

The Purple Moon is pleased to present new works by Sharon Lyn Stackpole in a show opening during ArtWalk.Born in 1969, Sharon is a native West Virginian who studied painting and art history at Fairmont State and West Virginia University. After art school, she worked for some time as a newspaper reporter and columnist in West Virginia, and still maintains a daily blog. She is a strong supporter of arts in education and lobbies for the restoration of art instruction at the primary grade levels in West Virginia.

Romano and Associates

Miranda Fields, a West Virginia-based artist who specializes in photography, will be the featured artist at Romano and Associates. She is teaching Beginning Photography at Marshall University, where she graduated with her Masters in Art in 2010. She has displayed images from her series Six in numerous local galleries, as well as the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art and, most recently, was chosen as one of ten international students to exhibit in the third annual Breaking Boundaries exhibition in Pingyao, China.

Gallery Eleven

Cross Lanes artist Gloria Jean Pennnington will be the featured artist for the May ArtWalk at Gallery Eleven, 1033 Quarrier Street, Charleston. Her eclectic style will be evident in this show which features an new genre of paintings and collages of fish, corral, sponges and anything “Under the Sea”. Also included are some fish made of clay, Pennington’s love of the ocean was renewed following a snorkeling trip to the Virgin Islands and several of the new works reflect a Caribbean theme.

Good News Mountaineer Garage

Good News is pleased to present “Works by Kate Long.”Kate Long likes to paint pictures that tell stories with titles such as “Giant squashes barricade Capitol. Legislators flee,” and “Outraged sunflower.” In her photographs, she finds ways to frame ordinary details of life – a butterfly’s tail, an ice puddle – in an extraordinary way.

“I try to take pictures that make me – and other people – see ordinary things in new ways’,” she says. Long, a Charleston resident, writes for The Charleston Gazette and produces for public radio. This is her first public showing of her paintings and photos.

The head of one of the nation’s largest financial holding companies will share his insights on the nation’s economic meltdown and what lies ahead at the Charleston Area Alliance Annual Celebration, to be held Wednesday, May 25, at the Clay Center for the Arts & Sciences. 

Jackson Kelly is the event’s Title Sponsor.

A keynote address on “After the Crisis” by BB&T Corporation Chairman and CEO Kelly King will highlight this annual tribute to the people, businesses and organizations that have helped build a more vibrant community and prosperous economy.     

The Annual Celebration will feature an engaging, fast-paced presentation, including remarks by King and a salute to the 2011 College Summit Scholarship recipients and Leadership Kanawha Valley graduates, in the Maier Performance Hall. The formal program will followed by a spectacular reception in the stunning lobby of the Clay Center.

A VIP invitation-only reception for event sponsors will kick off the evening’s festivities. 

VIP Sponsor Reception (invitation only):  
4:00-5:00 p.m.
Annual Celebration Formal Program: 
5:00-6:15 p.m.
Gala Reception: 
6:15-8:00 p.m. 

Tickets are $200 Alliance members/$250 future members.

Click here to register.

“The Annual Celebration, the Alliance’s largest fundraiser of the year, is your opportunity to share in the pride for the Kanawha Valley and sustain the Alliance’s vital work in creating jobs, enhancing our community and investing in people,” said Alliance President/CEO Matt Ballard.

“We invite you to join the more than 500 business and community leaders who will attend for this business event of the year. With your participation, we will truly have something to ‘celebrate’ on May 25 – and beyond,” Ballard said.

We are unable to invoice for groups with fewer than 10 or issue refunds for cancellations received less than 48 hours prior to the event. Thank you.