Mary Edna Fraser fills Columbia’s McKissick Museum with large-scale silks of threatened landscapes

By Mary Edna | Published: August 12, 2010

Gulf Oil Spill, batik on silk, 55" x 35"

The Art of Environmental Awareness: Batiks by Mary Edna Fraser

August 14 – December 14, 2010

McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC

Opening Reception – Friday, November 12, 2010, 5:30-7:30

Free and open to the public

Please join us for a reception as Mary Edna speaks about her batiks.  Also speaking will be her long-time collaborative partner, Dr. Orrin Pilkey, Duke University Professor Emeritus of Geology, who will discuss his research in the field of global warming and climate change.

Fraser and Pilkey’s work together includes A Celebration of the World’s Barrier Islands (Columbia University Press) alongside numerous lectures and curated events.  Their current work-in-progress seeks to debate our scientific understanding of climate change, while paying homage to those landscapes left vulnerable.

Columbia’s Free Times gave a glimpse into Mary Edna’s career and the upcoming exhibition in the following article: Batik Artist Captures Aerial Views of Threatened Environments.

McKissick Museum is open 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Exhibition open Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays. Call 777-7251 for more information.

Check out University of South Carolina’s coverage of the show for details about location and parking: http://www.sc.edu/news/newsarticle.php?nid=1170&sms_ss=email.

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Charleston deserves reasonable standards on cruises – article by Laura D. Gates

By Mary Edna | Published: July 22, 2010
Charleston Red II

"Charleston Red II" - batik on silk by Mary Edna Fraser

Laura D. Gates is chair of the Coastal Conservation League and serves on the City of Charleston Tourism Commission and board of the Historic Charleston Foundation. She is a former vice president of the Field Museum of Natural History and Principal at McKinsey and Company, Inc.

This article was originally published in the Post & Courier on July 22, 2010.

Charleston deserves reasonable standards on cruises

We live in a remarkable city. Millions of tourists visit Charleston every year to experience its history, charm and unique quality of life. These defining qualities did not just happen. Generations of government and civic leaders have worked hard to ensure these qualities are preserved. Our preservation organizations are recognized as the most effective and visionary in the country. Our mayor, Joe Riley, accepted the National Medal of Arts with these words: “This award is a recognition of the city that I am privileged to serve and a recognition of the work of our community to build and maintain a beautiful and livable city that is a national treasure.”

We all work together to “build and maintain” this “beautiful and livable city” and protect the resources that bring people here. Tourism is an economic engine. We also realize that we must balance this important industry with other economic pressures and the quality of life of residents.

This is why we have regulations and why many citizens serve on regulatory boards such as the Tourism Commission and the Board of Architectural Review (BAR), and on the boards of preservation organizations. Citizens and businesses comply with strict standards because they protect our quality of life. In Charleston, people get it: Everyone seems to understand that standards benefit the residents and the economy.

Well, almost everyone.

Currently, a cruise ship brings about 3,000 people (passengers and crew) to Charleston. The passengers eat, sleep, swim, shower, shop and enjoy the ship’s amenities. Other establishments in our city offer these same services to people on vacation. They are called hotels, restaurants and shops. It may appear that the only difference between the ships and our local businesses is that the ships come and go.

Actually, that’s not the only difference. Local businesses are regulated with regard to the size and appearance of their establishments, waste disposal, traffic management and noise. Cruise ships are not. Local businesses pay local taxes. Cruise ships do not.

Anyone who has been downtown when a cruise ship is in port has felt the impact of this industry on Charleston’s quality of life. Yet anytime it is suggested that the cruise industry should agree in writing to specific standards, executives at the State Ports Authority act insulted. The SPA suggests that we should “trust” it and the cruise industry to protect our quality of life. But why should we forgo reasonable regulation when our long history tells us its value? We regulate ourselves, neighbors and local businesses; why should we make an exception for the SPA and the cruise industry?

In response to numerous requests for written commitments regarding the number and size of ships, the timing of cruise calls in relation to major events, and responsible environmental management, the SPA has demurred. Most recently, the SPA has given written assurance — assurance that they will do everything they can to maximize the cruise business. They explain that they are driven by their bottom line and think committing to limits is not in their interest. They think the market currently supports two ships per week, but if it will support more, they will consult the city about how to accommodate this increased demand. In response to concerns about ship size (height, scale and mass, not to mention vehicular and pedestrian traffic) they expect to welcome ships with up to 3,500 passengers — one and a half times the number on the Carnival Fantasy. As for coordinating with major community events that have taken many years to establish, they say they will publish their booking calendar and the city can work it out.

And with regard to concerns about protecting Charleston’s environment, they are silent. The implication is that concerns about the quality of our air and the health of our harbor do not deserve to be addressed.

This is unreasonable and unacceptable. Generations of Charlestonians and many current residents have worked to ensure the beauty and quality of life that residents and visitors value. We pay taxes and accept regulation. We go to the BAR before making a change. We consider our neighbors. Developers pay for thorough economic impact and traffic studies before they are allowed to build. The SPA is pleased to accept the results of all this — our remarkable city — as attracting cruise lines. They just don’t think the rules should apply to them. The SPA and, in particular, the cruise industry are what economists refer to as “free riders.” Those of us paying full freight once again request that the SPA and the cruise industry commit in writing to reasonable standards.

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Welcoming cruise industry, within reason – article by Dr. Teddy Gilbreth

By Mary Edna | Published: June 5, 2010

Mary Edna’s doctor is Teddy Gilbreth and this article is well written and insightful.

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/jun/03/welcoming-cruise-industry-within-reason/?print

Welcoming cruise industry, within reason
Thursday, June 3, 2010

When I started noticing the first cruise ships arriving in Charleston years ago, my initial impression was favorable. Instead of picturing tourists walking off the ships and adding burdensome congestion to our streets, I imagined wallets and pocketbooks strutting off the gangways in Disney-like animation belching forth reams of cash, while their otherwise human counterparts would spread the word about what a great destination Charleston had become.

Charleston is a port city, and the cruise business should be a welcome addition to the local economy. Why say “no” when there was opportunity to turn on the Southern charm, gratefully accept any and all financial reward and then be quickly done with the invasion as dictated by the timelines of the cruise schedule? It’s a win-win for everybody.

And I still feel that way, at least in the context of how things were several years ago. But seemingly overnight the number of scheduled berths has exploded, and so have justifiable concerns about the ramifications this may have for the future of our city.

When all these dire predictions of apocalyptic proportion started emerging about the cruise industry, I thought people were overreacting. As recently as a couple of weeks ago my family and I observed a massive cruise ship being eased away from her berth at sundown and marveled at this spectacular display of maritime engineering. The next day, while driving home from work across the James Island connector, I noted that there was already another ship in town, and for the first time took pause.

The battle to protect the delicate historical ambience of Charleston is never ending. When one brush fire is extinguished (or controlled), another (or more) will pop up in its place. There’s never any time for complacency, and people who fail to keep a vigilant eye will be blindsided by the changes in store for them.

Protecting history in Charleston has become such an ideological struggle that we may as well call it jihad. And yet this is a vibrant, living city, the success of which boils down to striking reasonable balance.

There’s nothing unreasonable about asking the South Carolina State Ports Authority and the cruise industry to come to written agreement with the city of Charleston over guidelines that would enhance the local economy while not destroying that which makes the city a popular destination to begin with. Nothing at all.

As former City Councilman Henry Fishburne and Dr. Jack Simmons pointed out in a recent op-ed piece, recommendations proposed in 2003 by the Cruise Ship Task Force for the city of Charleston when there were only 47 annual expected cruise ship arrivals have received scant attention. More than 100 berths are expected in 2011, and we’re having problems coming to written terms that would implement limiting (among other things) the total number of visits to 104, with no more than two per week. Really? Why?

I feel very strongly that this is a reasonable request, and agree with other suggested guidelines including coordinating ship calls with other major events to minimize auto and pedestrian congestion, a 12-mile shore limit for the discharge of certain pollutants, and the off-loading and recycling of garbage to help ensure no ocean disposal of waste.

In my opinion, the size of the ships is not so important as limiting the number of visits, but I do wonder about the trail of economic largesse. Who and what are the major beneficiaries (other than the Ports Authority), and how will this really impact you and me?

Are the 2,000-plus visitors that stream off these ships big spenders who will help the majority of us, or just the T-shirt vendors in the Market area? In other words, not to be totally crass, select people or entities will be making a lot of money off these arrangements. Where’s yours?

I welcome the cruise industry, within reason. I’d like to be able to drive over the James Island connector and marvel at the occasional cruise ship instead of having it morph in my mind’s eye into a sickening vulture picking away at Charleston’s historic flesh.

Because I’ve seen first hand what an overabundance of these ships can do. Anyone who has been to St. Thomas knows exactly what I’m talking about: multiple ships at port simultaneously laying waste to what must have been at one time a most charming harborside.

This cannot ever be allowed to happen to Charleston. All concerned parties need to sit down and come to agreements with the cruise industry that will ensure appropriate mutual benefit, not the unilateral damage that will surely occur if nothing is done.

Finishing on a note of levity, Ed Ball was going through some of his father’s old newspaper clippings and came across this one from The News & Courier, 1962:

“From a church in Georgia comes this story. There is Mr. Dick Tate who wants to run everything. Uncle Ro Tate wants to change everything. Aggie Tate and Erry Tate are twin sisters who stay in a stew. Then there is Hezzy Tate who objects to doing anything right now. Sister Emmy Tate wants to do everything just like someone else does it. Of course, cousin Devis Tate is rather ornery, and Uncle Poten Tate has delusions of grandeur.

“But there are some better members of the Tate family. There is brother Rehabilly Tate, who is always trying to help others. He has a daughter, Felissy Tate, who can always be counted on to work quietly and efficiently.”

Edward M. Gilbreth is a Charleston physician. Reach him at edwardgilbreth@comcast.net.

Dana Beach, executive director of the Coastal Conservation League, sent Mary Edna this article, along with the following USA Today article debating this issue: http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/post/2010/05/debate-are-cruise-ships-ruining-historic-charleston-/94662/1

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