CAYCE — Mark Rapp has worn a lot of hats in his career — usually, it’s a fedora — but his latest hat has him researching how to clean up playground sites and figuring out which sinks are best for public bathrooms.
“It's cool, but also kind of funny that a jazz trumpeter and executive director of a jazz foundation is online researching sinks and vandal-proof mirrors and toilets and plumbing and outdoor fans,” the founder and executive director of scene-boosting nonprofit ColaJazz said. “It’s a riot.”
Rapp is researching improvements for H. Kelley Jones Park in Cayce, where he’ll lead a team of volunteers to clean up the space, including sprucing up the public bathrooms, before hosting a free jazz concert at the site on March 1.
It’s one of four projects ColaJazz is spearheading as part of their grant-funded Invigorate Cayce initiative, which aims to highlight underutilized sites in the small Midlands city with volunteer clean-up efforts and free concerts. ColaJazz was awarded a $30,000 grant for the project from the Central Carolina Community Foundation, and the city of Cayce added an additional $6,000.
“The fun, cool, foundational thing is creating economic development through art,” said Mayor Elise Partin, “and we have a history of doing that in the city of Cayce.”
Rapp, a Cayce resident, was having a conversation with Partin when the idea for Invigorate Cayce was born. Pulling on the same ethos as the annual spring street party Soiree on State, Rapp aims to drum up economic interest and bring amenities for existing residents with one idea.
‘Better lives, better weekends’
ColaJazz has already started. They helped out with the opening of 2-Story Studios on River Street, buying billboards, handling catering and bringing out a band to perform at the locally owned art studios’ unveiling. They also used grant funds to purchase solar-powered security lighting for the business, which is owned by the same family behind State of the Art Gallery across the street.
Three other sites will be cleaned up ahead of free community concerts, per the grant.
The next concert is slated for the historic William J. Grocery site and the end of State and Frink streets. A team of volunteers will clean up the undergrowth at the vacant property, which once belonged to the city’s namesake, before hosting a free concert on Feb. 22.
The most work is happening at H. Kelley Jones Park, where Rapp said they are “basically redoing” the bathrooms and cleaning up the playground area. Partin said the improvements will be a boon for the surrounding neighborhood, and she hopes residents come out to see the March 1 concert.
“Bringing music into the neighborhoods is really important, not expecting people to come to the music,” Partin said.
The park is adjacent to the Cayce Riverwalk, which extends more than 20 miles along the Congaree and is a major draw for the city. Partin hopes these concerts, like Soiree on State, help show potential small business owners the positives of doing business in Cayce.
“This, to me, is the right way to do economic development. You show people what's possible,” Partin said. “This collaboration is the kind of thing that helps people to see the vision.”
The final event will be at the Art Lot in the River Arts District, Rapp said, where ColaJazz is adding a new PA system to be purchased (in coordination with Sims Music) so people can host concerts and other events on the micro-lot. The improvements will be marked with a March 8 free concert, one week before Rapp said his grant report is due back to CCCF.
The grant program is the latest community-oriented project from ColaJazz, which performs at hospitals, schools and in collaboration with other arts organizations across the Midlands. The nonprofit is also hosting a new jazz and roots festival in Columbia’s recently reopened Finlay Park on May 15. It’s the latest iteration of the annual festival the group has hosted since 2018.
“We really exist to try to make our immediate surroundings, our communities, better. And that is a 360-degree, every possible angle that we can manage and handle and be a part of,” Rapp said. “We're going to do to try to make folks have better lives, better weekends.”
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