← View All Articles

GSSM names visual arts studio after program founder

The South Carolina Governor's School for Arts & Humanities is no stranger to The Hub.

But the Governor's School for Science + Mathematics is also arts-forward, and today we have a story to prove it. During its 32nd graduation ceremony on May 22,  SCGSSM announced that it will rename its visual arts studio the Patz Fowle Visual Arts Studio. Fowle (right) is a visual arts coordinator, art instructor, and professional artist and the founder of SCGSSM’s visual arts program. Fowle began her service to GSSM in 1999 when she started teaching Art in the Interim. In 2013, she joined the Student Development Division as the Governor’s School’s Visual Arts Coordinator. She converted an empty former foreign languages lab to an “Open Art Studio,” accessible to all students and developed to support their artistic prowess and encourage their artistic promise. Because of Fowle’s commitment to wellness and student expression, the space she created continues to contribute to the overall well-being of the school community. She partners regularly with colleagues across disciplines to provide interdisciplinary opportunities. Through her passion and leadership, GSSM students are recognized throughout the state not only for their academic and athletic achievements, but also their art accolades. During the 2018/2019 academic year, GSSM made the wise decision to make visual arts and music courses a part of the regular academic curriculum. Fowle has been teaching four art courses through the humanities department since 2019, while maintaining the non-academic art offerings, setting up exhibits featuring student artwork, and managing the studio. Her efforts have shown the public that the GSSM student is not one dimensional, but multi-talented and multi-faceted. This has broadened the public’s perspective of the school for prospective students and their families. Our art program’s accomplishments can also be celebrated in the promotion of the school to all constituencies. “Announcing the naming of the Patz Fowle Visual Arts Studio is a great honor,” said Interim President Danny Dorsel. “Patz is dedicated to providing opportunities for students to explore and express their creative side.  Her students make our hallways come alive with their artwork. We are very grateful that Patz is part of the GSSM community and the transformational journey our students experience.”

About GSSM

One of the few specialized public residential high schools of its kind, the South Carolina Governor’s School for Science + Mathematics (GSSM) exists to push motivated young learners beyond their perceived levels of academic ability. Founded in 1988 under the leadership of the late Governor Carroll Campbell, GSSM has consistently raised the bar for STEM education in the Palmetto State. GSSM’s two-year residential high school program—as well as its virtual high school program, summer camps, and outreach programs—all invite young people to explore the subjects they love in a diverse, inclusive, and uncommonly supportive academic environment. Here, challenge is viewed as a gateway to opportunity. GSSM students embrace the school’s rigorous approach to education and in so doing begin to realize their full potential. Learn more by visiting www.scgssm.org.

Jason Rapp

GSSM student art brings STEAMy weather to Hartsville

(Ed. note: The Hub frequently brings you news and opportunities from SCGSAH—South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts & Humanities. Today will be no different, as you'll see later, but this morning we have arts news from another Governor's School... the one for science and math. We're no meteorologist, but it looks like a STEAMy Monday on The Hub...)


The South Carolina Governor's School for Science & Mathematics (GSSM) student artwork will be on exhibition at the Hartsville Museum, March 2-31 in conjunction with National Youth Art Month. Works in the GSSM Student Art Exhibition were created through multiple modes of learning including traditional visual arts courses and innovative, student-choice opportunities in GSSM’s on-campus art studio. Various media represented in the student exhibit include graphite, charcoal, Conté, pen & ink, colored pencils, acrylic on canvas, watercolor, carved wood, altered books, printmaking, stained indigenous terracotta, glazed stoneware and sculptures created in non-traditional media. Students engaged with professional artist Patz Fowle to deepen their understanding of visual art while developing skills, techniques, and processes to create meaningful 2-D and 3-D works. In addition to the courses Fowle teaches, she also offers residential students innovative, student-choice opportunities. Such opportunities include access GSSM’s art studio to work independently, invitations to attend various creative workshops, and the opportunity for students to lead their own workshops. Students are also invited to participate in public art exhibitions and collaborate on significant endeavors like the Mother Earth Project; Frederic Douglass portrait, or other works created with traditional and non-traditional media. “Art is a strong unifying element within a community,” says Fowle, visual arts coordinator at GSSM. “Creative collaboration between the Hartsville Museum and the South Carolina Governor’s School for Science & Mathematics is a beneficial bridge connecting Hartsville’s history to Hartsville’s future, through art, education, and culture.” Exhibiting student artists include:
  • Abigail Benson
  • Anna Tankersley
  • Austin Millwood
  • Bailey Holder
  • Blaire Carson
  • Camryn Brown
  • Claire Willems
  • Dhruvi Patel
  • Emily Tindal
  • Emma Kat McConnell
  • Emma Keiser
  • Ethan Mills
  • Freddy Segura
  • Gracie Floyd
  • Ha Ho
  • Haleigh Gartner
  • Jamie Fetzer
  • Jared Peters
  • Krishna Patel
  • Madelyne LeVassiur
  • Megan Parham
  • Maggie Wensink
  • Naje Virgil-Green
  • Omika Merchant
  • Paul Cobb
  • Savannah Cade
  • Shelby Moore
  • Shelby Vanderhoof
  • Slane Davis
  • Spring Fang
  • Victoria Bingham
The public is invited to an art reception at the Hartsville Museum on Thursday, March 5 from 4:30-6:30 p.m. The museum is located at 222 N. 5th street in Hartsville. For more information please contact Museum Manager Andrea Steen, info@hartsvillemuseum.org or at 843.383.3005.

Submitted material

2020 S.C. Arts Commission fellowships announced

Four honored for achievement in visual art, craft, and music


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina artists in Darlington, Pickens, and Richland counties representing four arts disciplines received individual artist fellowships for fiscal year 2020 after approval by the S.C. Arts Commission board of directors. Individual artists residing in South Carolina full-time whose work covers visual arts, craft, music composition and music performance were invited to apply for fiscal year 2020 awards. Applications were up 25% over last year. Out-of-state panelists from each discipline review the applications and, based solely on their blind review of anonymous work samples, recommend recipients of each $5,000 fellowship. At its June meeting, the S.C. Arts Commission board of directors approved the following recommendations:
  • Adrian Rhodes of Darlington County for visual art,
  • Valerie Zimany of Pickens County for craft,
  • Fang Man of Richland County for music composition, and
  • Craig Butterfield of Richland County for music performance.
Fellowships recognize and reward the artistic achievements of exceptional South Carolina individual artists. Recognition from fellowship awards lends artistic prestige and often opens doors to other resources and employment opportunities. “These awards can be transformative; they lift artists’ spirits and self-perception while allowing them to focus on their art. Past fellows talk about how it can be a life-changing event,” S.C. Arts Commission Executive Director Ken May said. “South Carolina’s artists are at the core of our creative economy and serve as indispensable contributors to quality of life in our communities. Our agency is proud to deliver these tokens of gratitude on behalf of those most affected by the work being honored: the people of South Carolina.” The diverse panelists (above) who judged each discipline’s nominees work in those disciplines. Reviewing the visual art and craft applicants were Wendy Earle, curator of contemporary art at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Bruce Pepich, executive director and curator of collections of the Racine Art Museum and Wustum Museum of Fine Arts in Racine, Michigan; and Marilyn Zapf, the assistant director and curator at the Center for Craft, a national arts nonprofit headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina. Brent Milam, instructor of music theory and composition at Georgia State University; and Dr. Robert Tanner, associate professor of music at Morehouse College, reviewed the music composition applicants. Verena Lucía Anders, a conductor, pianist, vocalist, composer, music educator, and winner of multiple Grammy Awards; and Tami Lee Hughes, a concert violinist, recording artist, and music educator reviewed applicants in music performance. Four fellowships per year are awarded to artists working in rotating disciplines. One artist from each of these fields: prose, poetry, dance choreography and dance performance, will be honored in fiscal year 2021. To be eligible, artists must be at least 18 years old and a legal U.S. resident with permanent residence in the state for two years prior to the application date and throughout the fellowship period. Applications will be accepted later this summer following announcement by the S.C. Arts Commission. For more on discipline rotation, eligibility requirements, and the application process, please visit https://www.southcarolinaarts.com/grant/fel/

About the FY20 S.C. Arts Commission Fellows

VISUAL ART | ADRIAN RHODES | Darlington County Adrian Rhodes, a Hartsville, South Carolina native, received her Master of Fine Arts in painting and printmaking from Winthrop University in 2011. Printmaking forms the core of her mixed media practice, resulting in installation, paintings, editioned prints, collage, and sculptural paper pieces. Her work has shown throughout the Carolinas, including select solo exhibitions at the UNC Charlotte, City Art in Columbia, the Dalton Gallery at the Center for the Arts in Rock Hill, and the Rebecca Randall Bryan gallery at Coastal Carolina University. Her work has frequently received awards in juried competitions, including taking the top prize at VAE Raleigh’s Contemporary South 2017 and Best of Show at the York County Juried Exhibition in 2013. Her work was recently featured in the Paper Worlds exhibition at the Spartanburg Art Museum. She currently teaches printmaking at the University of South Carolina. Her work can be seen at www.adrianrhodes.com, and you can follow her studio practice on Instagram: @adrian_rhodes. CRAFT | VALERIE ZIMANY | Pickens County Extensive time in Japan fostered Valerie Zimany’s examinations of complex relationships, to include East and West. She spent several years there after earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia—first as a Fulbright Fellow, then completing a Master of Fine Arts at Kanazawa College of Art as a Japanese Government Scholar, and three more years in residency at the Utatsuyama Craft Workshop in Kanazawa. Her work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions and competitions in Japan; Korea; Billings, Montana; Philadelphia and Pittsburgh; Columbia; and more and it appears in multiple public and private collections. She was named an American Craft Council Searchlight Artist for 2007, a Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist for 2008, and was a finalist for the Niche Award (2011) and the Society for Contemporary Craft’s Founder’s Prize 2013).  She is department chair and associate professor of art (ceramics) at Clemson University. MUSIC: COMPOSITION | FANG MAN | Richland County Hailed as “inventive and breathtaking” by the New York Times, Fang Man’s original concert music has been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra New Music Group under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen, American Composers Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, National Orchestre de Lorraine (France), Minnesota Orchestra, Music from China, and others. She is the recipient of Guggenheim and other fellowships and grants and the National Endowment for the Arts, Music from China, and Toru Takemitsu (Japan) awards. She has received commissions from around the world and has multiple recordings. Fang served as a resident composer in Italy, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. and has degrees from Cornell (MFA, DMA) and Beijing Central Conservatory of Music. She is currently an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina. MUSIC: PERFORMANCE | CRAIG BUTTERFIELD | Richland County Craig Butterfield is professor of double bass and jazz studies at the University of South Carolina, where he directs one of the largest double bass programs in the Southeast. He has composed, performed, and recorded in genres as diverse as classical, jazz, American folk, and World music. Notable collaborations include touring and recording with jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson, three albums of original music with multi-instrumentalist Jesse Jones as the Jones/Butterfield duo, three albums with classical guitarist Matthew Slotkin as Dez Cordas, a collaboration with classical pianist Charles Fugo, and a current recording project of original folk-inspired music with Boomtown Trio. Butterfield’s YouTube channel featuring original performances in multiple genres has more than a quarter of a million views.

About the South Carolina Arts Commission

With a commitment to excellence across the spectrum of our state’s cultures and forms of expression, the South Carolina Arts Commission pursues its public charge to develop a thriving arts environment, which is essential to quality of life, education, and economic vitality for all South Carolinians. Created by the South Carolina General Assembly in 1967, the Arts Commission works to increase public participation in the arts by providing grants, direct programs, staff assistance and partnerships in three key areas:
  • arts education,
  • community arts development,
  • and artist development.
Headquartered in Columbia, S.C., the Arts Commission is funded by the state of South Carolina, by the federal government through the National Endowment for the Arts and other sources. For more information, visit SouthCarolinaArts.com or call 803.734.8696.

S.C. Arts Awards: S.C. African American Heritage Commission

2019 Recipient Feature Series

As the day nears for the 2019 South Carolina Arts Awards, The Hub is taking 15 days to focus on this year's recipients: nine receiving the Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Governor's Awards for the Arts and five receiving the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award, which are managed jointly by the South Carolina Arts Commission and McKissick Museum at UofSC. In between the two groups, we'll run a special feature on S.C. Arts Awards sponsor Colonial Life.

South Carolina African American Heritage Commission

Arts in Education Category | Organization The S.C. African American Heritage Commission (SCAAHC) identifies and promotes the preservation of historic sites, structures, buildings, and culture of the African American experience in South Carolina, and assists and enhances the efforts of the S.C. Department of Archives and History. A joint resolution of the General Assembly in 1993 established the South Carolina African American Heritage Council, re-established as a commission in 2001. The 15-member commission includes representatives from all regions of the state. The commission’s goals are to: increase the social, political, and economic value of African American heritage; encourage and demonstrate respect for all heritage; encourage the documentation of African American heritage; institutionalize African American heritage as an ongoing goal of preservation; and explore every area of South Carolina for African American contributions. The SCAAHC is known across the state for publishing A Teacher’s Guide to African American Historic Places in South Carolina. The guide was originally published in 2008, revised in 2012, then updated in 2015. But in 2016, they published the first arts-integrated supplement. The work was the product of a team of dedicated teachers and college students from across South Carolina representing grades K-12. That supplement was updated in 2018 to incorporate 2017 South Carolina College-and Career-Ready Standards for Visual and Performing Arts Proficiency. The current version added 18 lesson plans to the 22-plan 2016 supplement, giving teachers 30 potential lessons that merge arts learning with learning about African American history and achievements. Other notable arts-related accomplishments include publishing The Business of Rural Heritage, Culture and Art: An Introductory Resource Guide for Entrepreneurs; presenting FREED, African American female Civil War reenactors in 2018; featuring award-winning speaker, storyteller and artist Natalie Daise in her production “Becoming Harriet Tubman” in 2012; and presenting Opera Noire in Columbia and Hartsville in 2010. In 2017, the SCAAHC received acclaim for launching “Green Book of South Carolina,” an online travel guide to S.C.  African American historic and cultural sites. For more, visit their website.
South Carolina Arts Awards Day is Wednesday, May 1, 2019. The festivities begin at 10 a.m. with a reception that leads up to the awards ceremony at the UofSC Alumni Center (900 Senate St., Columbia). The event is free and open to the public. Following the ceremony, the South Carolina Arts Foundation honors the recipients and the arts community at the S.C. Arts Awards Luncheon and Art Sale. Tickets are $50. Please go here for more information and reservations.

Darlington Co. students win “Art in Business” prizes

Four honored at arts showcase

From the Hartsville Messenger/SCNow.com
The Darlington County School District has announced the four grand-prize winners of its annual Art in Business program.
The event also featured 18 other school winners and an enormous art showcase.
Art in Business creates partnerships with local businesses and organizations to celebrate the school district’s best visual artists. The 18 school winners will hang in sponsoring businesses for the next year before returning to the district, while the four grand-prize winners will hang permanently in the district’s administrative offices. Go check out the full story on SCNow.com to find out who the students and their arts teachers are.

South Arts awards $27,000 among seven S.C. arts groups

South Arts, a nonprofit regional arts organization, has awarded 68 grants totaling $276,949 to arts organization throughout the South. South ArtsThese funds, made possible through partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, support the presentation of touring performing and literary artists in public performances and readings along with educational activities throughout Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

“These funds represent a major step for our organization in pursuit of our newly revised mission statement and strategic plan,” said executive director Susie Surkamer (former executive director of the S.C. Arts Commission. - Ed.) “We have refocused our grantmaking guidelines to primarily support Southern artists on tour throughout our communities. The talent and artistry created within our nine states is immense, and deserves to be shared.”

Organizations applied for consideration, making cases for the artistic merit of the proposed artists and the ability to develop audiences. An external panel of arts professionals reviewed each application for funding consideration. The grants must be matched at least dollar for dollar by the recipient organization. These grants represent multiple initiatives by South Arts. Performing Arts Touring grants support engagements of guest Southern artists (theatre, music, opera, musical theatre, and dance) from outside of the presenter’s state. Literary Arts Touring grants support engagements of guest Southern writers (fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry) from outside the presenter’s state. Launchpad grants are part of a year-long professional development program for presenters new to the field, and include the opportunity to present artists from an adjudicated roster. Dance Touring Initiative funds are part of an ongoing capacity-building program developing audiences for modern dance and contemporary ballet throughout the region. “We are so proud to support tours of diverse, talented artists representing the breadth of our region,” continued Surkamer. “Some of the highlights this year include Ranky Tanky, based in coastal South Carolina, blending their Gullah heritage with influences of jazz and funk. Rosie Herrera Dance Theater of Miami is one of the nation’s leading contemporary ballet companies, effortlessly working across genres including hip hop, dance theater, and cabaret. Poet Jericho Brown, an associate professor Emory University in Atlanta, is a leading voice with verses exploring race, masculinity, and community.” Applications for South Arts touring grants for nonprofit and governmental organizations in the nine-state region open in the fall each year with deadlines in March and May. Additional information and a full listing of grant recipients is available at www.southarts.org.

About South Arts

South Arts advances Southern vitality through the arts. The nonprofit regional arts organization was founded in 1975 to build on the South’s unique heritage and enhance the public value of the arts. South Arts’ work responds to the arts environment and cultural trends with a regional perspective. South Arts offers an annual portfolio of activities designed to support the success of artists and arts providers in the South, address the needs of Southern communities through impactful arts-based programs, and celebrate the excellence, innovation, value and power of the arts of the South. For more information, visit www.southarts.org.

South Carolina's recipients

  • City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs (Charleston) received a $5,800 grant as part of the Dance Touring Initiative.
  • City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs (Charleston) received a $2,354 Literary Arts Touring grant to present P. Scott Cunningham in October 2018.
  • Midlands Technical College (Columbia) received a $5,800 grant as part of the Dance Touring Initiative.
  • Southern Guitar Festival and Competition (Columbia) received a $878 Performing Arts Touring grant to present Jay Kacherski in June 2019.
  • Coker College (Hartsville) received a $5,800 grant as part of the Dance Touring Initiative.
  • Arts Center of Coastal Carolina (Hilton Head) received a $5,569 Performing Arts Touring grant to present Ballet Memphis in January 2019.
  • Wits End Poetry (Greenville) received a $890 Literary Arts Touring grant to present Asia Samson & Daryl Funn in September 2018.

Submitted material

Time to make hay

The first weekend in June is just days away, and that means it’s time for another arts festival in South Carolina. More low-key than its larger brethren, the Ag + Art Tour (Ag and Art Tour) continues to grow and in 2018 is spread throughout 12 counties. Ag + Art Tour is a free, self-guided tour of designated farms in South Carolina featuring local artisans and farmer's markets.  During this tour you will have the opportunity to see first-hand where your food comes from, watch artists in action and purchase their works, dance to the melodies of bluegrass and folksongs, and learn more about rural life. It’s the largest free farm and art tour in the nation with more 30,000 visitors participating since it began in 2012. And it’s ready to, ahem, make hay for the next four weekends in the counties of:

  1. Chesterfield County (June 2-3)
  2. Darlington County
  3. Florence County
  4. Horry County
  5. Kershaw County
  6. Chester County (June 9-10)
  7. Lancaster County
  8. York County
  9. Fairfield County (June 16-17)
  10. Newberry County (June 23-24)
  11. Union County
  12. Spartanburg County
2018 Tour Times
  • Saturdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Sundays 1-5 p.m.
Once again, yes, admission is free, but there will likely be a charge to purchase food, beverages and a farmer’s and/or artisan’s products. Some activities may also have a cost. Head to the Ag + Art Tour website to begin plotting the course that works for you. (And do them a solid: don’t forget to use the hashtag #agandarttour in your social media posts.)

Tuning Up: the SCAC at National Press Club, more

Good morning! "Tuning Up" is a new, morning series of posts where The Hub delivers quick-hit arts stories of interest to readers. Sometimes there will be one story, sometimes there will be several. Get in tune now, and have a masterpiece of a day. And now, in no particular order...

(Image credit: South Carolina Philharmonic/Michael Dantzler)

Young violinists! Apply for Florence Symphony Orchestra’s Concerto Competition

Talented violinists enrolled in grades 9-12 who love performing are encouraged to enter the third annual Florence Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Concerto Competition. The competition is open to young violinists with home addresses in Darlington, Dillion, Florence, Lee, Marion or Marlboro counties. Applications, along with a performance CD, must be received by January 3, 2014. Finalists will be notified immediately and assigned a time to perform before a panel of judges on January 25, 2014, at the Francis Marion University Performing Arts Center. Prizewinners will be invited to perform their audition composition accompanied by the Florence Symphony Orchestra at the March 31, 2014, concert. Find more information and apply online. Via: Florence Symphony Orchestra

Cecelia Coker Bell Gallery accepting entries for solo exhibitions

Coker College’s Cecelia Coker Bell Gallery in Hartsville, S.C., is welcoming entries for its annual review for solo exhibitions. The review committee seeks art in all media that is both visually and intellectually compelling. Regional, national and international entries are accepted. The review committee will choose five artists for solo exhibitions for the 2014/2015-season. There are no fees for entry, and some compensation will be provided for shipping, plus an honorarium for gallery talks. Entry deadline is October 25. The complete prospectus is online at www.ceceliacokerbellgallery.com. Jin Man Jo The Cecelia Coker Bell Gallery has been exhibiting visiting artists, student, and faculty shows since 1983 and is located in Gladys C. Fort Art Building, on the Coker College Campus, at 300 East College Ave., in Hartsville, S.C. Images: work by Laura Carpenter Truitt, top, and Jin Man Jo, above. Via: Cecelia Coker Bell Gallery