After being housed in the Campus Life Center for years, Carolina Productions has officially moved to the third floor of Russell House.
“It was kind of a surprise to us when we heard we were getting [a new space]. We were comfortable in our last space. It worked really well,” said Ryan Harman, vice president of Carolina Productions. “Really, the main thing was that we were kind of blessed with a new space out of a need to kind of repurpose the old space for an expanding initiative.”
The new space marks a new independence for the organization, as it will have space of its own for the first time.
“These programming boards at other universities have their own space, but we’ve been sort of cooped in with other organizations like leadership, community service, Student Government,” said CP President Erik Telford. “We’ve never really had a space of our own.”
The new space allows room for Carolina Productions to have a place for everything they own, including a popcorn machine, tent and calendars.
“Now that we have our new space that has a new home for it to be, we have our own space for everyone to work diligently, and we have room to grow,” Telford said. “So those are kind of the main focuses that we kind of wanted to hit on when we got a new office.”
The new office also increases leadership potential within the organization, because with so much space, new members are spending more time in the office.
“Everyone’s in here doing their homework, gaining experience with what we’re doing kind of just by osmosis, by just seeing what the day-to-day operations of the organization are, and learning and becoming better leaders,” Harman said.
Carolina Productions has five committees that plan events, and the new studio gives more space for each committee than the previous space.
“They need to make sure they have a space for all of them to meet so that they know what their jobs are and what role they’re going to play,” Telford said. “This place is perfect for that. We have, like, millions of chairs. We have these giant desks. They can make sure these posters go out to all the academic buildings, and make sure that every show that they run reflects the professionalism that CP hopes to maintain.”
Although the office is complete architecturally, Carolina ProductionS is still adding personality to the space.
“The other cool thing about the office and its progress is that right now we’ve done all the architectural things. Right now, we’re moving forwards and kind of living in it and realizing, ‘How can we add our character to it?’” Harman said.
Telford and Harman started meeting over the summer with architects to outline the plans in early June. They took The Daily Gamecock on a tour Tuesday of the most important aspects of the new office.
Home base
The home base features four computers, two printers, two phones and five whiteboards that reflect the professional goals of Carolina Productions.
“This is where [our coordinators] check their email; this is where they do research on their events. They talk to agents and print out materials,” said Telford. “When committee members come in as well, this can serve as home base for them when it comes to supporting the organization.”
Workspace
A desk in the center of the office provides a personal workspace and a place to organize posters and keep track of handbills.
According to Harman, the desk epitomizes one of the most important aspects of the new space.
“It’s really centered towards group work, and that’s how we function as a unit, how we plan our programs, how we execute them,” Harman said. “So now our office really reflects working together, sharing the labor and accomplishing our events.”
Offices and Storage
The Carolina Productions office includes an office area for a faculty advisor, and workspaces for the graduate assistant, graphic designer and president.
Surrounding this space is storage for personal items, office supplies, archives, cameras and laptops.
Meeting Space
A large meeting table is one of the core spaces in the studio, especially for the leadership team.
“Our executive board meetings happen here, and we all sit here and go over what’s been going on and what we have for the future and how to better promote and advance ourselves within the university,” Telford said. “So this is where all the really deep and hard thinking happens. This is where the magic happens, basically.”