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Tuning Up: Some Fri-yay notes

Good morning!  "Tuning Up" is a morning post series where The Hub delivers curated, 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...


It's Friday. Let's ease into things today.

Free grant writing workshop in Dillon

South Carolina Humanities, the Dillon County Theatre Association, and the city of Dillon Wellness Center will be the hosts of a FREE grants writing workshop. Staff and volunteers of South Carolina cultural organizations and nonprofit agencies are invited to attend. The workshop will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the City of Dillon Wellness Center (647 Commerce Dr., Dillon, SC 29536). Admission to the workshop is free, but pre-registration is REQUIRED. The workshop is especially targeting, but is not exclusive to, the Pee Dee counties of Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Marion, and Marlboro. More information about the workshop and the online registration form can be found here: https://schumanities.org/news/free-grants-writing-workshop-in-dillon/.

Finale of ‘Communal Pen’ writing workshop series set for Dillon

The S.C. Arts Commission and S.C. Humanities are excited to announce that the finale of Communal Pen, a creative writing workshop that helps participants write to celebrate and explore connections to place and community will occur in Dillon on Saturday, June 8. They have two questions:

  1. What are the memories, stories and traditions that make our community home?
  2. What landmarks, customs, sights and sounds connect us with family, friends and neighbors, while highlighting our unique experience and identity?
Sometimes, you’ve just got to write it down! Co-facilitators EBONI RAMM and MICHELLE ROSS will lead the workshop as you write to celebrate and explore connections to place and community. Often, it is in our written words that memory lives. The writing process can itself help us to awaken and preserve thoughts and traditions, offering insight, understanding and respect to present and future generations. This three-and-a-half-hour writing workshop runs from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Dillon County Library Main Branch (600 East Main St., Dillon). It draws inspiration from the Smithsonian exhibit Crossroads: Change in Rural America as a springboard for igniting our own stories, giving voice to our shared and individual experience of place. Space is limited; registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. Walk-in registration is welcome as long as space permits. Share it with your friends on Facebook! NOTE: marking yourself as "Going" on Facebook DOES NOT register you for Communal Pen. No previous experience necessary! We invite participants to view the exhibit before the workshop, and to pay special attention to those images and ideas that are most relatable you. On the day of the workshop, please bring a photo and/or object that has special meaning for you. This item will be used during a writing exercise.
The Communal Pen writing workshop is offered in conjunction with the traveling Smithsonian exhibition, Crossroads: Change in Rural America. Crossroads is presented through the Museum on Main Street (MoMS) program as part of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. MoMS provides access to the Smithsonian for small-town America through museum exhibitions, research, educational resources, and programming. Communal Pen is developed through the S.C. Arts Commission’s place-based initiative, Art of Community: Rural SC, a new framework for engagement, learning, and action in rural communities. The writing workshops are coordinated through the SCAC’s Folklife & Traditional Arts and Community Arts Development programs, with generous support from the S.C. Humanities Council. Enjoy Crossroads at Dillon County Theatre Associaion in Dillon from May 18 through June 29, 2019. The image at the top of this page is Old Sheldon by Varnville, S.C. artist Ment Nelson, who's no stranger to The Hub. Nelson celebrates his family, culture, and home community through his artwork. He is a Young Voice of the Art of Community-Rural SC initiative, and coordinator of the Creative Connectors, for the Create Rural SC project. On being an artist he says, “You never know who might be intrigued by your story.”
Deeply rooted in South Carolina, Communal Pen co-facilitator Eboni Ramm fell in love with the arts at a young age and was encouraged throughout her youth to express herself. Today, she is a gifted vocalist known for her special blend of timeless jazz classics with a pinch of poetry. Ramm resides in Columbia, where she conducts jazz poetry workshops in schools, libraries, and various learning centers. She serves her community as Richland Library's literary resident and as a teaching artist with ARTS ACCESS South Carolina and Youth Corps. She is a featured musician on SCETV’s education web portal, knowitall.org. Her publication Within His Star: The Story of Levi Pearson celebrates the ancestor who added strength to the unprecedented Brown vs. The Board of Education case. Learn more at www.EboniRamm.com. Communal Pen co-facilitator Michelle Ross is a folklorist and adjunct faculty in anthropology at the University of South Carolina Sumter. She holds a master's from the Folk Studies and Anthropology Department at Western Kentucky University. Ross embraces stories of all kinds. She helped establish the S.C. Center for Oral Narrative, through which she has co-created several writing workshops. Ross also works with the Mothers of Angels in telling and writing about grief from the death of a child, and has worked with veterans in telling and writing their stories. Her work has been published in The North Carolina Folklore Journal and an anthology of mother-in-law essays titled His Mother!; her poetry has appeared in Sandhill and The Petigru Review. For the past five years, she has been working on telling her Pontian Greek family’s refugee story, her most important project to date. Communal Pen coordinator Laura Marcus Green is Folklife & Traditional Arts Program Director at the South Carolina Arts Commission, where she manages several grant and award programs, and at the University of South Carolina’s McKissick Museum, where she develops programming in conjunction with folklife exhibitions. She holds a Ph.D. in Folklore from Indiana University and an M.A. in Folklore/Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin. Selected prior positions include Community Engagement Coordinator for the Museum of International Folk Art’s Gallery of Conscience, and work as a folklife fieldworker and researcher, writer, curator and consultant for the Louisiana Division of the Arts Folklife Program, the South Carolina Arts Commission, the Iowa Arts Council, New Mexico Arts, and the Idaho Commission on the Arts, among others.

Verner Award recipients promote arts education with grants

Hootie and the Blowfish with Gov.Haley If you don't have a "Cracked Rear View," you might recall that South Carolina band Hootie & The Blowfish received the Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Governor's Award for the Arts for lifetime achievement in 2016. The iconic quartet is still giving back to its home state. The Hootie & the Blowfish Foundation announced its second annual multi-year grant cycle donations, granting a total of $90,000 over three years to three South Carolina charities that benefit child welfare and youth arts programs within the state. The youth arts programs are:

  • Abbeville County School District: Putting Students First, One Beat at a Time. This program will assist the district’s schools with purchasing musical instruments for students who have an interest in band.
  • Dillon School District Four: Stayin’ the Chorus. This program will send choral students to regional performances and competitions and help purchase music classroom materials.
Epworth Children's Home in Columbia received the other grant. These projects join the inaugural projects from the 2017 Hootie & the Blowfish Foundation grant cycle, which are entering their second year of funding: Carolina Youth Development Center, Growing Home Southeast, and Long Bay Symphonic Society. Darius Rucker, Jim Sonefeld, Dean Felber, and Mark Bryan embraced their fortuitous career with the communities that support them. To this end, the band members created an endowment that ensures their foundation will last into perpetuity providing financial support to charitable initiatives throughout South Carolina and beyond. Since the endowment’s creation in 2000, the Hootie & the Blowfish Foundation has awarded more than $2.9 million in grants. These grants have impacted thousands of citizens by supporting the ongoing fight for an even playing field in educational funding and lending an encouraging hand to all those in need. Hootie & the Blowfish established their donor-advised fund at Central Carolina Community Foundation, the Midlands’ center for philanthropy, to strengthen the Hootie & the Blowfish Foundation’s philanthropic efforts.  The Community Foundation acts as a centralized point of contact for all grant requests and manages its grant administration, evaluation, outreach and distribution.

About Central Carolina Community Foundation

Central Carolina Community Foundation, the Midlands’ center for philanthropy, is a nonprofit organization serving 11 counties in the Midlands by distributing grants and scholarships and linking the resources of donors, nonprofits and area leaders to communities in need. Major initiatives include the Midlands Gives online giving challenge, Connected Communities grants, On the Table, Powered by Central Carolina Community Foundation, the One SC Fund, the Best of Philanthropy Awards, annual scholarships, and more. For more information about the Foundation, visit www.yourfoundation.org or call803.254.5601.
 

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

Downtown Florence seeks outdoor work of art

The Florence Downtown Development Corporation seeks to commission a free-standing or wall-mounted outdoor work of art to add to the beautification, redevelopment and regeneration of downtown Florence. The artwork chosen for 2013 will be the first piece in what will become the Florence Downtown Sculpture Garden/Courtyard. This opportunity is open to visual artists, ages 18 and older. Proposals from all geographic areas of the United States are welcome, however, preference will be given to artists who live, work or create in the Pee Dee (Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Lee, Marion, Marlboro and Williamsburg counties). Submissions must be postmarked by October 31, 2012, or hand-delivered by 5:30 p.m. to the Florence Downtown Development Offices at 218 West Evans, Florence, S.C. Applications will not be accepted by fax or email. All artists will be notified of the selection results by November 30, 2012. Selected work must be installed by April 30, 2013. Read the request for proposals for complete details and contact information: Outdoor Work of Art RFP-Florence 2012 (PDF) Note: The RFP refers to an Oct. 19 deadline for materials. Oct. 31 is the correct deadline. Via: Florence Downtown Development Corporation  

Milly

Florence Museum invites entries to Pee Dee Regional Art Competition

The 59th annual Pee Dee Regional is the oldest continuing art competition in South Carolina, according to the folks at the Florence Museum. Entries for the 2012 competition will be accepted Sept. 20-22, and the exhibition will be presented by the museum's board of trustees Oct. 5 through Dec. 16. Artists who are natives or residents of these counties are eligible to enter: Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Georgetown, Horry, Kershaw, Lee, Marion, Marlboro, Sumter and Williamsburg. This year's competition judge is artist Jane Allen Nodine, professor of art and director of the Curtis R. Harley Gallery at the University of South Carolina Upstate in Spartanburg. Visit the Florence Museum's website for more information and to download a prospectus and registration form. [caption id="attachment_682" align="aligncenter" width="545"]Interrogate 33 by Jim Boden Jim Boden's Interrogate 33 received top honors at the 2011 Pee Dee Regional Art Competition[/caption] via: Florence Museum

Milly