Lexington 4 seeking OK for arts center, renovations at Swansea High

    From The State Article by Tim Flach; photos by Tim Dominick

    Residents in the Gaston-Swansea area go to the polls next year to decide whether to approve a $25.4 million package of school improvements. The plan approved by Lexington 4 School Board members this week includes a new performing arts center and renovations to sports and vocational education facilities, all at Swansea High. It will mean a property tax hike of an as-yet undetermined amount, officials said. The cafeteria doubles at an auditorium for drama productions at Swansea High School. Here the art class works on a project. The cafeteria doubles at an auditorium for drama productions at Swansea High School. Here the art class works on a project. The owner of a home valued at $100,000 currently pays nothing. Lexington 4’s share of revenue from a countywide sales tax for education cancels out what would be a bill of $1,511, according to estimates by the county auditor’s office. An advisory panel of teachers, parents of students and community leaders says the current facilities are outdated. Growing interest in music, theater and art led to the push for a 1,200-seat center along with upgrades, primarily in baseball and softball fields, and other renovations that will increase space for vocational instruction, Superintendent Linda Lavender said. The arts center would provide more space and allow larger audiences for events now held in the high school cafeteria, officials said. It also will be available for community use. Two-thirds of the $25.4 million price tag is for the arts center and classroom renovations,with the remainder for athletics upgrades, officials said. The November 2016 vote will be the first attempt to obtain voter approval for school improvements in Lexington 4 since voters OK’d a $19.8 million plan in 2007 that built an early childhood education center. Lexington 4 is spread across small towns, scattered rural neighborhoods and farms in the southern edge of the county. It has limited commerce and industry. The plan could be joined on the ballot by a countywide penny sales tax increase for roads that County Council is considering. “People can decide what they want,” Councilman Jim Kinard of Swansea said. “Roads and education need improvement.”

    “The Nutcracker” Takes South Carolina Stages This Holiday Season

    "The Nutcracker" ballet is a holiday tradition for many families around the world. South Carolina arts groups are producing opportunities for experiencing this classic story in all parts of the state. Ballet Spartanburg, December 11-13 at Converse College in Spartanburg Carolina Ballet Theatre, December 4-6 at the Peace Center for the Performing Arts in Greenville Charleston Ballet Theatre Center for Dance Education, December 11-13 at the Sottile Theatre in Charleston Coastal Youth Ballet Theatre, December 12-13 & 19-20 at Coastal Carolina University in Conway Columbia City Ballet, December 12-13 & 19-20 at the Koger Center for the Arts in Columbia Columbia Classical Ballet, December 4-6 at the Koger Center for the Arts in Columbia Foothills Conservatory for the Performing Arts, December 12-13 at the Brooks Center for the Performing Arts in Clemson Greenville Ballet, December 19 at Furman University in Greenville International Ballet, December 12-13 at the Peace Center for the Performing Arts in Greenville Orangeburg Civic Ballet, December 12-13 at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg York County Ballet, December 17-20 at Winthrop University in Rock Hill

    Job Openings at the National Endowment for the Arts

    The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in Washington, DC is seeking a new Director of Media Arts and a new Director of Theater and Musical Theater. Apply between February 6 & March 7.  These positions provide national leadership, authority, and direction concerning agency programming and funding assessment in the field. Qualifications include national or regional experience serving as an executive or senior manager with supervisory and budgetary authority in a discipline-specific nonprofit arts organization. Some overnight travel required. About the National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), an independent Federal agency and the official arts organization for the United States government, supports the advancement of artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation. More information at arts.gov.

    Studies: Students exposed to cultural field trips and live theatre gain educational benefits

    Jay Greene, endowed chair of the Department of Education at the University of Arkansas, has released two studies on the educational benefits of engagement with the arts. One study is the first large-scale examination of field trips to understand the impact of cultural enrichment through the arts on students’ learning outcomes. The second study assessed a group of students’ knowledge about theater—and interest in watching or participating in theater—after attending a live performance. (Image: dress rehearsal for Guys and Dolls Jr. at Columbia Children's Theatre)

    From The Daily Signal:
    New research into humanities education suggests student learning outcomes increase with exposure to the arts. Few empirical studies have been conducted on the benefits of arts education for students. Jay Greene, endowed chair of the Department of Education at the University of Arkansas, and his team have released two studies on the educational benefits of engagement with the arts. Last year, Greene, along with researchers Brian Kisida and Daniel Bowen, conducted the first large-scale study of field trips to understand the impact of cultural enrichment through the arts on students’ learning outcomes. In “The Educational Value of Field Trips,” Greene and his team applied “gold standard” methodology to measure the educational value associated with students who toured an art museum during a field trip. They found that students who attended the tour could recall historical and sociological information about particular works of art at higher rates than students who did not visit the museum. For example, 88 percent of the students who saw civil-war era painter Eastman Johnson’s work, At the Camp— Spinning Yarns and Whittling, remembered the cultural context of the painting as depicting “abolitionists making maple syrup to undermine the sugar industry, which relied on slave labor.” According to the report, the students’ high rate of recall compared to that of students who did not attend a museum suggests that art could be used to increase the learning capacity of students for traditional classroom content. They also found students who attended the field trip experienced a large gain in critical-thinking skills, which was observed in their essays regarding particular works of art. Students who attended the museum also showed higher measures of historical empathy, tolerance and a desire to visit more art museums than students who did not tour the museum. Their findings underscore the value of cultural field trips, which have a long history in American education (although they have been on the decline in recent years, or replaced with non-cultural field trips, such as outings to amusement parks): Schools gladly endured the expense and disruption of providing field trips because they saw these experiences as central to their educational mission: chools exist not only to provide economically useful skills in numeracy and literacy, but also to produce civilized young men and women who would appreciate the arts and culture. More-advantaged families may take their children to these cultural institutions outside of school hours, but less-advantaged students are less likely to have these experiences if schools do not provide them. With field trips, public schools viewed themselves as the great equalizer in terms of access to our cultural heritage. Students from rural or high-poverty areas had the largest gains in historical recall of information and critical thinking and reported higher levels of empathy, tolerance and desire to return to the museum. Greene found similar results in his newest study, “Learning from Live Theater.” Using the same research design, Greene, with coauthors Collin Hitt, Anne Kraybill and Cari Bogulski, assessed a group of students’ knowledge about theater—and interest in watching or participating in theater—after attending a live performance. The researchers used a sample of students who applied for, and won, tickets to either A Christmas Carol or Hamlet, compared to a control group who lost the lottery. The study showed students who saw live theater significantly improved their knowledge of the plot and vocabulary related to the play by 63 percent of a standard deviation. The students also showed significantly higher degrees of tolerance and empathy through the “Reading the Mind through the Eyes” test than the control group. The researchers used the RMET measure because it tracks feelings of empathy, and prior research has found that reading literature or engaging in theater enhances one’s ability to read emotions. Both studies suggest that culturally enriching experiences produce important educational benefits, which in turn could contribute to overall student achievement. Greene’s findings come at a time of concentrated focus on STEM—Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics—education. In 2009, the Obama administration published its “Educate to Innovate” campaign, which included $260 million in partnerships involving the federal government and industry to prepare more than 100,000 new STEM teachers over the next decade But at the 2014 Aspen Ideas Festival, The Atlantic asked thought leaders in academia (Harvard, Yale, and Cal-Berkley) and the private sector, what letter— if any— should be added to STEM education. They all agreed that they would add the letter “A” for the arts and humanities. “To me, mathematics, computer science and the arts are insanely related,” said Sebastian Thrun, CEO of Udacity and Founder of GoogleX. “They’re all creative expressions.” “ seem to me such an important dimension of educating students about what science, technology, engineering and math are for,” said Harvard President Drew Gilpin. Greene’s studies and advocates of STEAM both suggest the arts could enhance learning in reading, math and the hard sciences. Student engagement of the arts, through field trips and live performances, also provides positive reinforcement for cultural institutions within communities to contribute to students’ overall education. As the authors concluded, “Schools produce important educational outcomes other than those captured by math and reading test scores, and it is possible for researchers to collect measures of those other outcomes. If what’s measured is what matters, then we need to measure more outcomes to expand the definition of what matters in education.”

    Kidney transplant connects theatre alums for a lifetime

    Monica and Erin at fundraiser Monica Wyche, left, and Erin Wilson at a fundraiser held in their honor Two South Carolina actors, Erin Wilson and Monica Wyche, already connected through the arts, are now bonded in a life-altering way. Wyche recently donated a kidney to Wilson, who was diagnosed with acute kidney failure in 2013. The transplant operation took place in early November, and both women are doing well. This blog post, written by Sheryl McAlister and reprinted on Jasper Magazine's website, is a synopsis of their story, their connections through the arts, and the arts community that embraces all of us.  

    Part 1, Erin’s Story: “Let’s get this Show on the Road” The first time I saw Erin Thigpen Wilson was March, 2014, in Charleston, SC. She was playing a sadistic human trafficker in PURE Theatre’s production of Russian Transport. She was the matriarch of a group of equally sadistic family members. She scared the shit out of me. “Art…,” Edgar Degas said, after all “… is not what you see, but what you make others see.” Meeting her, mercifully, was altogether different. She’s groovy in an old school, hippy sort of way. Laid back with a been-there, done-that attitude. Funny. Quick wit. Seemingly carefree. She grew up in community theatre in Columbia, SC, the child of a father who was a community theatre actor and high school drama teacher and a mother who ran the box office of the local theatre out of her living room. She performed in too many plays to count, starting at the age of 5 as “Rabbit #3” in Workshop Theatre’s production of Winnie the Pooh. Long ago, she learned how to play make believe. Seemingly…. carefree. Early in the summer of 2013, she nearly died. Her kidneys were destroyed. Doctors still don’t know why. “I was having trouble breathing, but that’s normal for me,” Wilson, an asthma sufferer, said. “The first doctor told me I had bronchitis and gave me an antibiotic. But a week later, I had this incredible body pain. My bones hurt. I didn’t sleep for days.” A second opinion led to tests that revealed elevated creatinine levels. As the doctor ran yet another set of tests to verify her assumptions, she told Wilson to decide which hospital she wanted to go to in the meantime. And she told her to decide quickly. Wilson’s husband Laurens had met her at the doctor’s office. “We just looked at each other and were like ‘WHAT?’ The doctor told us we could go by ambulance or drive ourselves but if we decided to drive ourselves, we had to drive straight there. No stops.” They called her parents – Sally Boyd & Les Wilson and Jim & Kay Thigpen. And her in-laws, Hank & Sue Wilson. She spent two days in the ICU and was diagnosed with acute kidney failure. Her only option was dialysis. And just like that… Life, as she knew it, had changed forever. Read the rest of the post on Jasper Magazine's site.

    Laurel & Milly

    Add your event to Arts Daily!

    The South Carolina Arts Commission's arts calendar, Arts Daily, has joined forces with The Hub. Now you can visit one place to view or submit arts news AND events! Long-time Arts Daily users will notice that the revamped event submission process is simpler. You can also add your arts venue (if you haven't already) to The Hub's venue list through the Arts Daily submission process. Online readers of Arts Daily can search and sort events to find activities based on location, art form or type of event. Is your event or opportunity right for Arts Daily? If it's arts-related, open to the public, and of interest to people in South Carolina, then yes! Event types include auditions, calls for entries & contests, classes, conferences, exhibitions, fellowships & residencies, openings, book signings, performances, screenings and more. You'll choose the type when you submit your event or opportunity. To submit arts events to Arts Daily, use the Submit Events button. (Be sure to submit your event at least one month in advance.) If your event has an interesting news element, you can also send it to The Hub through the Submit Story button. Arts events submitted at least one month in advance will appear on the Arts Daily website, and some will be recorded for radio.

    How to decide what to submit where

    Submit Event to Arts Daily: Arts Daily listings and radio announcements are limited to the key details and a brief description of your event and will direct readers to your website or organization for a lengthier description. Arts events submitted at least one month before the event will be posted to the online Arts Daily calendar. Not all events are recorded for the radio. The earlier you submit, the longer it will appear on the Arts Daily site for readers to find and the better chance the event will be recorded for radio. You can even submit an entire season at once! Submit Story to The Hub: If your event has a news component, you can also submit a lengthier article or news release through The Hub's Submit Story button. Story submissions, if accepted, appear as articles on The Hub's main page and "roll off" the page as other articles are posted -- the lifespan of a Hub article is much shorter than an Arts Daily entry. Hub articles will direct readers to your website or organization for more information. What makes an event newsworthy? A few questions to ask: Does the event relate to a larger purpose (e.g., an artist's studio or gallery opening is a result of the arts reviving a downtown, a celebrity S.C. artist is participating to raise awareness and/or funds, a student exhibition illustrates the benefit of arts education, etc.)? Is this a first time for the event, or a milestone anniversary? Did the project break an attendance or fundraising record? Sometimes the news element occurs after an event when you're ready to share results and photos. Bottom line: Submit ALL arts events to Arts Daily, at least one month in advance. Submit more info about your event to The Hub ONLY if there is an extra news element. Remember, you may also use the Submit Story button to send your feature articles, blog posts, stories, etc. about arts topics other than events.

    Writing your Arts Daily Event Description

    Arts Daily web listings and radio announcements are designed to provide the most vital pieces of information about your event or opportunity and refer users to ArtsDaily.org and/or to your website or organization for details. We encourage you to use your Event Description space to provide a self-contained, factual summary of your event or opportunity. ONLY the text in the Event Description field will be used in your radio announcement, should your submission be chosen for broadcast. What to include in the Event Description:
    • The name of the event or opportunity and a brief description of it
    • Who is responsible for it (hosting or presenting organization)
    • Where (venue and city)
    • When (date and time)
    • Cost to participate
    • Deadline for the public to participate (e.g., registration, submission), if applicable. (Note: This is not a deadline for posting on Arts Daily.)
    What not to include in the Event Description:
    • Contact information. Radio announcements will direct listeners to the Arts Daily website where you have entered this information.
    • Superlatives (such as “the best,” “beautiful,” “a great achievement,” etc.) will be excluded from the final listing.
    Want a template? Try this: (Name of the presenting or host organization) presents (name of the event), (event date) at (event time), at (event venue) in (city, and state if not South Carolina). (Provide a description of the event, so that Arts Daily users will understand what it is and whether or not they would like to attend.) Tickets are (cost). (Provide registration and/or submission requirements and/or deadline, if applicable.) Questions? We're happy to help. Contact us here. About Arts Daily Arts Daily is a partnership between the South Carolina Arts Commission, South Carolina Public Radio, and the College of Charleston.

    How Music Could Make You a Rocket Scientist

    boy at piano Researchers at Michigan State University have evidence that exposure (or lack of exposure) to the arts as a child has a direct correlation to the likelihood of an adult's successful contributions in science and technology. Sustained participation in the arts from childhood into adulthood connects with innovative work, and there are specific correlations between individual artistic disciplines and achievement in non-arts careers. Visit abcnews.go.com to read more about this study of scientists and their history of artistic involvement. Via: ABC News Image: Getty Images, via abcnews.go.com

    Creative Capital’s 10 fundraising tips for artists

    Thanks to our friends at ARTSblog for sharing this post full of fundraising resources for artists.
    This is a repost from Creative Capital’s Blog, The Lab, featuring tips straight from their Professional Development Program’s Artist’s Tools Handbook, a 200+ page resource, written by PDP Core Leaders Jackie Battenfield and Aaron Landsman. The book covers everything from writing to budgeting, websites to fundraising, elevator pitches to work samples.  Creative Capital supports innovative and adventurous artists across the country through funding, counseling, and career development services. Getting Started: Almost all of your fundraising will be done through partnerships: with venues and presenters, advisory boards, and directly with funders and donors. Creative Capital advocates thorough and clear communications about money between funders, venues and artists. The better you articulate what you want, what you do and how much it costs, the better off the entire field will be. Thinking of your funders and donors as partners will help you find more opportunities and will make you easier to work with. You will be ready when a venue says, “We found a commission to apply for your project. We need 250 words and a few images. TODAY!” Conversely, if you find a funding source your partners haven’t reached out to yet, you’ll know how to help them through the necessary steps to bring more funding to your project. Partners will want to work with you again and again because you help them help you. Sources of Support: Your methods for supporting your work will change as your career evolves, as your rate of production changes, and as your needs and priorities change. It may be that each project has several income streams, including sales, teaching, grants, and donations of goods and services. As with investments in the stock market, diversity is good: it helps build a strong portfolio. Take a look at the ten descriptions below; see if there are any new sources that you might consider using now, or as new projects arise.
    1. Support from Individuals: In your quest for grants and fellowships, don’t ignore individual donors. In fact, they may be your greatest source of support. Individuals contribute eighty percent of all philanthropic dollars, and this number rises to eighty-seven percent if you include family foundations. Although these numbers may be skewed a bit differently for arts organizations as opposed to religious or human service organizations, the share of arts funding that comes from individuals is significant. The great thing about fundraising this way is that you can apply funds from individuals at your discretion, rather than adhering to an institutional funder’s guidelines. And if treated well, individual donors tend to be loyal. Even if you’re only raising a small amount of money, you’re likely to get repeat contributors.
    2. Self-Subsidy: Self-subsidy is support from an individual, but the individual just happens to be you. As an artist, you are often your own biggest financial supporter. This is common among artists at every level. Self-subsidy comes in different forms; some artists have a commercial outlet for their work, like a graphic design or video-editing studio that supplements their income from films or paintings. Others teach full-time and write during their off months, while others invest in real estate that later pays for a child’s college education. Your method for self-subsidizing will depend on your personal combination of circumstances, abilities and interests.
    3. Fellowships and Awards: Fellowships and Merit Awards use either a nomination or application process to award financial support. Fellowships offer support and recognition for an artist’s work as a whole rather than for a specific project. These programs support artists at varying stages of their careers. The applications generally require less written material than project grant applications, however the work sample often plays a more significant role. Artists use fellowships to take time off to work on their art, to travel or conduct research, or even to contribute to their 401K or pay for child care so they can focus on their work. Examples of fellowship programs include: Guggenheim Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, Kresge Fellowships, the Joan Mitchell Foundation and Pew Fellowships in the Arts.
    4. Project Grants: Project grants are awarded toward the completion of a specific work, a series of works or other projects. They are often made through a sponsoring organization: a fiscal conduit, service organization or venue such as a gallery or performance space. In a way, a project grant is a contract with a funder to complete a specific work or series. The quality of the work and its alignment with a funder’s guidelines are primary considerations. Examples of organizations offering project grants include: Creative Capital, the Jerome Foundation, the MAP Fund, the Arts Writers Grant Program, as well as commissions from organizations like the National Performance Network.
    5. Government Agencies: This category includes all funds apportioned from public tax dollars toward the arts, including local and state arts councils, the National Endowment for the Arts (while they no longer fund artists directly, they do help organizations to commission artists), the National Endowment for the Humanities, your local Mayor’s Office and unexpected places like the Chamber of Commerce. Many of these funds are project based. Government grants can include project grants, commissions and general operating support to organizations. Government funding priorities include access and accountability, meaning: Will taxpayers have easy access to this work and will they be able to justify supporting your project to their governing bodies?
    6. Service Organizations and Residencies: This broad category includes organizations that offer non-monetary support to artists, such as colonies and residencies, advocacy groups and organizations that help with tour booking, bookkeeping, professional workshops and other services. Examples include: The MacDowell Colony, The Field, Fractured Atlas, Virginia Center for the Arts and the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts.  (Link to South Carolina Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts.)
    7. Corporate Support: Corporate support is another broad category, encompassing many things, from the local hardware store advertising in your event program to an airline underwriting a major tour by a dance company. The important message to communicate when appealing to a business is what tangible benefit they will get from the arrangement: visibility, access to a demographic, goodwill or hip caché.
    8. In-Kind Goods and Services: This refers to the donation of goods and services instead of financial support. As with financial support, in-kind goods and services are tax-deductible, which is an added incentive for the donor. Goods include equipment or space rental; services include accounting or legal services. Examples include a local scaffolding company donating scaffolding for your installation or a community center that lets you use their space to mount your photo documentary project about the local club scene.
    9. Earned Income for Services: This is when you get paid for performing a service. Be sure you’re asking for enough from each lecture, teaching job or critique that you are invited to give. Examples include an artist lecturing on their work, topic of interest or expertise; a university residency where an artist critiques student art and works in their studio living space; or a fee received to perform at a gallery.
    10. Earned Income for Goods: This includes selling artwork or tickets to a show, as well as income from publishing or film distribution. Because the market and methods of distribution are changing in every medium, we recommend finding an MBA candidate to help you research ways you might maximize your earned income. These students are often eager to explore new fields and know ways of generating revenue that may be new to you.
    Read this original post on The Lab and learn more about Creative Capital’s services for artists.
    Via: ARTSblog, Creative Capital

    The arts: the private sector’s secret weapon

    In a recent Huffington Post blog post, Americans for the Arts CEO Robert Lynch weighed in on why companies seeking new ways to build their competitive advantage are increasingly finding that the arts are the key to driving true innovation and ultimately reaching business goals.

    The Conference Board recently released their 2013 CEO Challenge Report, which outlined the top five global challenges for CEOs:
      1. Human Capital
      2. Operational Excellence
      3. Innovation
      4. Customer Relationships, and
      5. Global Political Economic Risk.
    As a CEO, these challenges obviously resonated with me. But they also struck a chord with the arts advocate in me. I know that the arts industry can feel very foreign to the business community. But as companies seek new ways to build their competitive advantage, they are increasingly finding that the arts are the key to driving true innovation, ultimately reaching their business goals. So in fact, the arts can play a tremendously important role in helping CEOs address each of the challenges outlined in the CEO Challenge Report. Human Capital The way we do business is rapidly changing every day. With the advent of new technologies and younger generations' tendency to be more on the move in their professional lives, the squeeze is on from all sides to actively engage and retain top talent. Here, the arts can be a secret weapon. In my conversations with business executives across the country they have told me that the arts are an effective tool. Further, the arts play a significant role in attracting and retaining a skilled and educated workforce by ensuring that employees have a vibrant life outside the office. In fact, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas recently conceded that Dallas lost its bid for relocation of the Boeing Headquarters to Chicago because it could not compete culturally--a high priority for Boeing in attracting executives and their families. At the end of the day, if we want the best employees, we have to provide them with the best opportunities to become artistically and culturally involved in and out of the office. Operational Excellence The ability to work across boundaries is an enormously significant skill that will allow organizations and businesses to better operate in an increasingly interconnected world. By embracing the arts, businesses can produce exciting new methods of achieving goals institutionally and affect the output of work in a positive, growth-oriented manner. According to Americans for the Arts' BCA National Survey of Business Support for the Arts, business leaders believe that the arts promote team-building and better collaboration across departments and disciplines, teach different ways of seeing the same issue, and allow for new kinds of strategies to be embraced. Innovation Innovation and creativity are among the top five applied skills sought by business leaders according to Americans for the Arts' and The Conference Board's "Ready to Innovate" report. Likewise, IBM's Global Leadership Survey also says that creativity is the number one quality of successful leaders. So how can we best develop creativity in our workforce? According to "Ready to Innovate," study of the arts is at the top of the list for both business leaders and school superintendents. Innovation, creativity, business--all require a level of fearlessness and a desire to push beyond the walls. And the arts can be a powerful tool for acquiring the confidence, skills, and mindset to transform seemingly impossible ideas into reality. Customer Relationships Engaged, creative employees who are encouraged to think in new, innovative ways are likely to be both productive and actively improve both the company and their own business skills. Business leaders have told me they have seen the arts help facilitate their employee's engagement and fuel their creative juices. It is not just an indirect result, either: the arts build empathy, observation, and problem-identification and problem-solving skills, which translates to better customer service and a deeper understanding of the constituency. Global Political Economic Risk Cultural diplomacy is increasingly being used as a strategy to promote mutual understanding across cultures. On a practical level, arts exchanges build markets and strengthen economic relationships between cultures through sharing of artistic goods--something that is beneficial both financially and culturally. The arts also help us to grasp cultural realities in places where language, religion, politics--and, perhaps more apropos, business practices--may be completely unfamiliar. Many companies have already recognized the value the arts can bring to their bottom line and started strategic partnerships with the arts. And according to Americans for the Arts' BCA Survey, more are cluing in to the valuable contribution a strong arts partnership brings to their sector. Still, there is a strong need to make the case for how partnering with the arts can benefit the business sector. The survey shows that 73 percent of companies that actually support the arts consider them to be a moderate to low priority. To ensure more businesses understand the value of partnering with the arts, Americans for the Arts launched the pARTnership Movement in January 2012. The arts are connectors. They help us connect to our own potential by igniting a creative, bold, and innovative mindset. They help us connect to others by encouraging engagement, empathy, and the understanding that there are many ways of seeing the same thing. The arts connect people to the communities in which they live, the businesses at which they work, and the people with whom they interact. Without the arts, these five issues are challenges, indeed. But with the arts, I believe we can make a difference in our businesses and in our lives.
    Via: The Huffington Post

    Artists: a reminder about opportunities from the S.C. Arts Commission

    A fellowship, a grant and a writing competition for South Carolina artists: 1) Individual Artist Fellowships - artists working in prose, poetry, acting and playwriting may apply for an Individual Artist Fellowship. Up to four fellowships of $5,000 will be awarded.

    • Application deadline: Nov. 1, 2013
    • More info (acting & playwriting): Joy Young, (803) 734-8203
    • More info (prose & poetry): Sara June Goldstein, (803) 734-8694
    2) Artists' Ventures Initiative Grants - Artists (individuals and collaboratives) may apply for up to $5,000 in order to launch a new venture or significantly alter an existing venture.
    • Letters of intent due Dec. 13, 2013
    • More info: Joy Young, (803) 734-8203
    3) First Novel Prize - a biennial competition open to writers who have never published a novel. The winner will receive a book contract with Hub City Press of Spartanburg and a $1,000 advance against royalties. Hub City will publish 1,500 copies of the book and distribute it nationally.

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