What happens if you mix business savvy and the performing arts?

Columbia is finding out.

7Sunday has partnered with the City of Columbia Office of Business Opportunities (OBO) to create BizArts, a program built to inspire and bring together small local businesses.

Deon Generette is the founder of 7Sunday, a local entertainment organization comprised of small businesses and creatives. 7Sunday and OBO share the same goal regarding small businesses.

“As a small business veteran owner, it means the world to us at 7Sunday,” Generette said. “Their completed mission is to help empower small businesses, woman-owned businesses and veteran-owned businesses.”

BizArts kicked off Sept. 21 at the Columbia Museum of Art, with the first of six monthly events. The evening was filled with talks and performances from local Columbia creatives and included a screening of a documentary entitled “Did You Know? Columbia’s Black Wall Street,” which spoke on the legacy of Columbia’s historic Black business district.

Generette, with the help of the city and USC alumni, produced the documentary in 2021. He said he had lived in Columbia for more than 20 years before hearing about the history of Black businesses in the city.

“I’m a stickler for underdogs and people who overcome things and find a way to win and shine,” Generette said. “Those stories incite and ignite something inside of people.”

Ayesha Driggers, director of OBO, has been working with 7Sunday since the documentary project started. She said that, in addition to screening the documentary, BizArts is a way to bring local creatives together.

“It’s a way to encourage creativity and commerce in the heart of Columbia,” she said.

Before the screening of the documentary, Generette led a panel with four guests, including Driggers, City Councilman Tyler D. Bailey, Richland County Councilwoman Gretchen D. Barron and Chris Leevy Johnson.

Johnson is a fourth-generation funeral director. He spoke about the history of funeral homes in America and referred to A.G. Gaston, who owned 27 funeral homes in Alabama in the 1960s.

“He single-handedly financed the Civil Rights Movement” in that area, Johnson said. “Black-owned businesses were very important then, and of course, they are still important now.”

Barron also had a direct message to small business owners.

“If you can find a problem and you can be the solution, you are what we need,” Barron said.

Small business owners afterward came to the stage to pitch their companies. By a vote from the crowd, two businesses were given access to OBO’s FastTrac, a 10-class business program designed to help kickstart their companies.

Ariana Franklin of Timeless Glamoligy was one of the two winners.

“We are the business,” Franklin said. “We have to get ourselves out there to let people know that we hear you, we see you, and that we are there for you.”

Between pitches, successful entrepreneurs spoke to rising business owners.

Jarret Jenkins, a local tattoo artist, said patience and love are two traits that business owners need to succeed.

“Having patience to know you can weather the storm and having that love to figure out what to do to keep the lights on and still keep business running,” Jenkins said.

Generette said the collaboration not only gives tools to up-and-coming businesses but also provides entertainment and music. The event capped off with a performance from Mark Rapp’s Cola Jazz Foundation, which has worked closely with 7Sunday.

“I think it was Bob Dylan that said, ‘The form of art is to inspire,’” Generette said. “That’s how we win. … We find out that even though we’re all different, we’re all the same, and once we come together, we are able to build beautiful things to make the world the way it is.”

BizArts will be back in the Columbia Museum of Art on Oct. 26. 7Sunday will sell the tickets.

The next event? A “Scooby-Doo Murder Mystery.”