Following the June 2015 shootings at Emanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston, people around the world responded by banding together and offering support. Some attended vigils for the slain, others held hands and sang and cried, and yet others gave to Emanuel AME Church and the families of the victims, donating money, placing flowers and creating memorials in front of the church on Calhoun Street.

CofC-Roses

Nine roses hang on the gates of Porters Lodge, honoring the nine lives lost during the Emanuel AME Church tragedy in Charleston in June 2015.

The outpouring of support was so great, in fact, that the largesse has posed a logistical problem: How do church and civic leaders best process so many gifts?

On Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2015, the College of Charleston will host “Keeping the Faith: Preservation and Documentation of Mother Emanuel,” a panel discussion focusing on the management-related issues involved in the responses to the Mother Emanuel AME tragedy. Topics to be discussed will include the administration and management of funds and memorabilia — how the physical gifts, artwork and other items left by visitors at the church are being preserved and archived, policies related to acquiring material donations, volunteer management, and managing the contributions that come into the City of Charleston’s Emanuel AME Fund.

The discussion will begin at 7 p.m. in the Recital Hall at the Simons Center for the Arts, 54 St. Philip St. The event will be hosted by Karen Chandler, director and associate professor in the College’s Arts Management Program.

“The event is important for us because our students study how arts and culture are managed and administered through an array of institutions, businesses, artists and other creative people. So in the context of the Mother Emanuel tragedy, a program such as ours would want to examine how the many responses to the Mother Emanuel tragedy on June 17 of donations, flowers, artwork and other expressions are preserved and for what purposes, how they may be shared and through what media forms, what donations will be used for, and other related questions,” says Chandler.
“At our event,” she continues, “these and other questions will be discussed with the very people who are making decisions and establishing policy in real time for the generous financial and physical gifts given to and on behalf of Mother Emanuel and the families of the nine beloved souls. And this work happens day after day and even in the midst of such profound sadness and grief.”
The panel discussion will then be moderated by Joy Vandervort-Cobb, associate professor of African American theatre.
The following College and community members are also confirmed as participants:
  • Elizabeth Alston – historian, Emanuel AME Church
  • Stephen Bedard – director of finance, City of Charleston, adjunct professor, arts management and MPA Program, College of Charleston
  • Georgette Mayo – processing archivist, Avery Research Center, College of Charleston
  • Virginia Ellison – archivist, South Carolina Historical Society
  • Celeste Wiley – visual material archivist, South Carolina Historical Society
  • Meg Moughan – records manager, City of Charleston

One of the arts management program’s recent graduates, Tyler Boone ’14 who wrote “Next Life,” a song dedicated to the victims & families of the AME church shooting and produced by Matt Zutell ’13 of Coast Records, will perform the single and other songs as part of the event.

View a flyer for the panel discussion.

Watch the The “No Violence – No Victims Candlelight Vigil” held at the College on Sept. 29, 2015, to honor the victims of the Emanuel AME Church attack.