Date, time set for 2025 South Carolina Arts Awards
Streaming online at YouTube and Facebook
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The South Carolina Arts Commission is announcing that it will recognize six distinct and deserving recipients of the 2025 South Carolina Arts Awards during a special streaming presentation Sunday, May 18 at 7 p.m. EDT.
Executive Director David Platts will introduce viewers to six arts practitioners, advocates and organizations who come from locations across the state via the Arts Commission’s YouTube Channel and its Facebook page.
Platts will present five recipients of the South Carolina Governor’s Award for the Arts—the state’s highest honor for outstanding achievement and contributions to the arts in South Carolina. They are:
- Wade Sellers, Columbia (Artist category).
- Gail V. Barnes, Columbia (Individual category).
- Engaging Creative Minds, Charleston (Arts in Education category).
- Koger Center for the Arts, Columbia (Government category).
- Sumter County Gallery of Art, Sumter (Organization category).
There is one recipient of the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award: Mary “Caroleen” Sanders in the artist category for Catawba pottery. The award is presented posthumously; Sanders passed away in February just after learning she would receive the honor. She was a member of the Catawba Nation and lived on the Catawba Indian Reservation in Rock Hill.
Helping to tell the stories of the award recipients are South Carolina filmmakers Rick Fitts, Yulian Martínez-Escobar, Gavin McIntyre, Johnathan Rabon, and Shae Winston, who produced short films to document the recipients’ contributions.
The 2025 South Carolina Arts Awards streaming presentation is an in-house production by the SCAC communications department.
About the South Carolina Arts Commission
The mission of the South Carolina Arts Commission is to promote access to the arts and support the cultivation of creativity in South Carolina. We envision a South Carolina where the arts are valued and all people benefit from a variety of creative experiences.
A state agency created by the South Carolina General Assembly in 1967, the SCAC works to increase public participation in the arts through grants, direct programs, staff assistance and partnerships in artist development, arts industry, arts learning, creative placemaking, and folklife and traditional arts. Headquartered in Columbia, S.C., the SCAC is funded by the state of South Carolina, by the federal government through the National Endowment for the Arts, and other sources. Visit SouthCarolinaArts.com or call 803.734.8696, and follow @SCArtsComm on Facebook, Instagram, and X for #Arts4SC and #SCArtists content.
