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More on the Governor’s Award name change

Further explanation for constituents


Official Statement from the S.C. Arts Commission

In policy and in practice, the South Carolina Arts Commission remains committed to setting a tone and fostering an atmosphere of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. In that spirit, much care and thoughtful consideration went into the decision, going forward, to call the state’s highest award in the arts the “South Carolina Governor’s Awards for the Arts.” We believe this change moves us further in that direction by providing us the opportunity to endow artists and arts organizations with the honor and prestige that all recipients deserve. “Going forward” was (and is) the underlying philosophy for this change. The arts are simultaneously diverse and inclusive. Because the Governor’s Awards for the Arts reflect the values and beliefs of our organization, we desire that the awards focus on recognizing and honoring the accomplishments and contributions of all South Carolinians rather than any differences which might exist. The use of the term “Governor’s Awards”—an office which belongs to all South Carolinians, as opposed to having the awards connected to any one individual—allows us to continue celebrating creativity and perspectives by artists, and direction by organizations, throughout the Palmetto State.

Jason Rapp

Race in America: How art, and a St. Helena champion, open world’s eyes to S.C.’s Gullah Culture

An interview with Mary Inabinett Mack


Mary Inabinett Mack is a newly-minted recipient of the Governor's Award for the Arts and a legend in her coastal community of St. Helena Island.

Late last week, she was the subject of a story chronicling her community impact through the arts (subscription may be required to read) by David Lauderdale of the Hilton Head Island Packet. Mack was, until recently, owner of Red Piano Too Art Gallery. Her influence in Lowcountry art, in particular Gullah-centric art, is what helped her to the state's highest award for the arts. From the story:

She would get a nursing degree in New York City, raise a family there, and move back home for good in 1977. She was deputy director of the Beaufort-Jasper-Hampton Comprehensive Health Services by day, and an art framer by night.

In New York, Mack’s husband took her to an outdoor art display in Greenwich Village, and her walls were never again bare.

“Art fulfills a need,” she said. “It’s like a passion. It lifts my spirit.”

As a student at Penn, Mack sat next to Sam Doyle Jr. They called him “Chubby.”The teacher asked them to bring in something from the community to reflect their lives. Chubby brought one of his daddy’s paintings.We can look back now and see how it changed the course of history.

Jason Rapp

Decorated #SCartists highlight new gallery exhibition

SCAC fellows, Governor's Award recipients featured

[caption id="attachment_45026" align="aligncenter" width="600"]Unnamed by Edward Rice Unnamed by Edward Rice. 2019-2020. Oil. 84x42.[/caption]

What's going on? What does it mean? What's next? What really matters?

These are questions asked by Hampton III Gallery at its new exhibition, In Times Like These, which runs July 9 through August 29, 2020. From the gallery:

As our world changes, artists continue to create and explore through visual language. In Times Like These is an exhibition that allows the viewer to enter into the personal space of 20 Hampton III Gallery artists.These artworks were created from March through June 2020. All are on display in the center gallery. Visitors are welcome to view the exhibition during regular hours. Social distancing will be observed and masks are required during this time. 

Featured among the 20 Southern artists in the exhibition are several from South Carolina represented by the gallery, including recipients of two of the South Carolina Arts Commission's highest honors: individual artist fellowships or the Governor's Arts Award.

SCAC Fellows

  • Alice Ballard
  • Dr. Philip Mullen
  • Edward Rice

Governor's Award recipients

  • Jeanet Dreskin
  • Dr. Philip Mullen
  • Edward Rice
  • Tom Stanley
  • Dr. Leo Twiggs
Hampton III Gallery is itself a 2019 recipient of the Governor's Arts Award.
Going? Hampton III Gallery is located outside Greenville in Taylors at 3110 Wade Hampton Blvd., Suite 10. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday from 1-5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and other times by appointment. Free.   

Jason Rapp

2020 S.C. Arts Awards to be presented online


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Postponed from their May 6 intended date because of the pandemic, the South Carolina Arts Awards will instead honor exceptional South Carolinians in a professionally produced streaming presentation planned for Monday, July 13, 2020 at 5:30 p.m.

The South Carolina Arts Commission (SCAC) and frequent partner McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina will honor the six recipients of the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Governor’s Awards for the Arts and five recipients of the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Awards in a special online presentation. The virtual ceremony will be presented live, at no cost to viewers, on the SCAC’s Vimeo page and YouTube Channel. SCAC Executive Director David Platts will be the lead host of the virtual ceremony and will be joined in a special location by a surprise co-host. UofSC McKissick Museum Executive Director Jane Przybysz will announce the Folk Heritage Award recipients, and Platts will announce the Verner Award recipients. Mini-films by South Carolina filmmakers Drew Baron, Patrick Hayes, Roni Henderson, Lee Ann Kornegay, and Ebony Wilson will be debuted to tell each recipient’s story. The filmmakers worked under the direction of producer Betsy Newman. Location shooting for the ceremony and production of the stream are being provided by Midlands-based iSite Multimedia and Fisher Films. The Verner Award recipients were announced in February. In the following categories, the recipients are:
  • LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT: Philip Mullen, Columbia
  • ARTIST: Glenis Redmond, Mauldin
  • INDIVIDUAL: Mary Inabinett Mack, St. Helena Island
  • ARTS IN EDUCATION: Cindy Riddle, Campobello
  • BUSINESS: United Community Bank, Greenville
  • ORGANIZATION: Charleston Gaillard Center, Charleston
The Folk Heritage Award recipients were announced in March. They are:
  • Kristin Scott Benson (Boiling Springs): Bluegrass Banjo
  • David Galloway (Seneca): Spiritual Gospel Singing
  • Voices of El Shaddai (Hilton Head Island/Bluffton area): Lowcountry Gospel Music
  • Judy Twitty (Gilbert): Quilting
  • Vennie Deas Moore (Georgetown): Folklore and Cultural Preservation

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.

About the University of South Carolina McKissick Museum

The University of South Carolina’s McKissick Museum tells the story of southern life: community, culture, and the environment. The Museum, located on the University of South Carolina’s historic Horseshoe, has more than 140,000 objects in its collection, including one of the most extensive natural science collections in the Southeast. For visitation information, online exhibits, and more, please visit sc.edu/mckissickmuseum.

Jason Rapp

S.C. Arts Awards postponed because of COVID-19 concerns

Official Statement from the S.C. Arts Commission

The South Carolina Arts Awards scheduled for May 5-6, 2020 are being POSTPONED until further notice. This postponement includes the May 5 McKissick Mixer with Folk Heritage Award recipients and the May 6 South Carolina Arts Awards luncheon and public ceremony. With the ongoing uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 and all the associated closings, leadership from the South Carolina Arts Commission and University of South Carolina McKissick Museum decided together that now is the time to postpone. Even in a best-case scenario regarding virus transmission, the work necessary to prepare for the awards festivities will be hampered by current schedule alterations and those that might still come. Further, absent a firm idea of when the festivities could realistically take place, the best thing to do is remove this uncertainty to focus instead on health and safety. The S.C. Arts Commission and UofSC McKissick Museum will work to find more suitable dates and times to honor and thank the recipients of the Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Governor's Award for the Arts and the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Awards for their achievements and contributions to arts and culture in South Carolina.

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.

About McKissick Museum

The University of South Carolina’s McKissick Museum tells the story of southern life: community, culture, and the environment. The Museum is located on the University of South Carolina’s historic Horseshoe with available parking in the garage at the corner of Pendleton and Bull streets. All exhibitions are free and open to the public. The Museum is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays. The Museum is closed Sundays and University holidays. For more information, please call at 803.777.7251 or visit sc.edu/mckissickmuseum.

Jason Rapp

Tuning Up: ICYMI Verner and weather cancellation

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...


Did you hear?


Announcing the six recipients of the 2020 Verner Award

Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Governor's Award for the Arts to be presented in May

     
For Immediate Release COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina’s highest award for achievement in the arts is to be presented to six uniquely qualified arts practitioners and supporters announced today by the South Carolina Arts Commission (SCAC). The SCAC Board of Directors approved panel recommendations for the following recipients from their respective categories to be recognized for outstanding achievement and contributions to the arts in South Carolina:
  • LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT: Dr. Philip Mullen, Columbia
  • ARTIST: Glenis Redmond, Mauldin
  • INDIVIDUAL: Mary Inabinett Mack, St. Helena Island
  • ARTS IN EDUCATION: Cindy Riddle, Campobello
  • BUSINESS: United Community Bank, Greenville
  • ORGANIZATION: Charleston Gaillard Center, Charleston
“This year’s recipients represent the best of South Carolina. They are talented, successful, dedicated to giving of themselves to ensure everyone who wants to can benefit from access to the arts,” S.C. Arts Commission Chairwoman Dee Crawford said. “By taking our arts community to new levels, they are elevating our state as well. With the Verner Award, we celebrate their achievements and thank them for enriching life and culture here in South Carolina.” A diverse committee, appointed by the S.C. Arts Commission Board of Directors and drawn from members of the South Carolina community at large, reviews all nominations and, after a rigorous process, makes recommendations to the board for final approval after a series of panel meetings produces a recommendation from each category.

The South Carolina Arts Awards

The Verner Awards will be presented with the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Awards at the 2020 South Carolina Arts Awards on Wednesday, May 6 in a luncheon and ceremony at the USC Alumni Center (900 Senate St., Columbia). Luncheon tickets are $50 per person and are to be available for purchase by mid-March.

About the Verner Award Recipients

Philip Mullen (Lifetime Achievement) has been a mainstay in the South Carolina arts scene since coming to Columbia to join the University of South Carolina faculty in 1969. Five of his works are included in the State Art Collection and others adorn the collections of Guggenheim Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Brooklyn Museum, Columbia Museum of Art, Greenville County Museum of Art, and McKissick Museum among others. He has had solo exhibitions in at least eight states and Washington since 1972. He is the only living South Carolina artist to have been featured, in 1975, in the prestigious Whitney Biennial by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, regarded as one of the world’s leading art shows. Poet and teaching artist Glenis Redmond has a love of words that’s taken her across the country and Atlantic Ocean to performances at the White House, Library of Congress and London. She is currently poet-in-residence at the Peace Center in Greenville and The State Theatre in New Jersey as well as a teaching artist for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. She is the founder of the Greenville Poetry Slam and co-founder of a youth poetry slam in Asheville, North Carolina. Her work with the Peace Center led to her founding in of Peace Voices, a poetry program dedicated to poetic outreach and engagement in the community, in 2011. As an ex-patriate South Carolinian in New York City, Mary Inabinett Mack became a registered nurse and psychiatric/mental health nursing instructor. She earned a certificate for psychoanalysis and psychotherapy and two National Institute for Mental health fellowships. Mack fed on the New York arts scene and came home to “her Gullah folk and the sweet, salty air of the Lowcountry” in 1977. The art retail business she started became Red Piano Too Art Gallery, a leading folk art gallery that launched the careers of many artists. The first female chair of the Penn Center’s board, she is a lifetime member of its advisory board and was inducted into its 1862 Circle for embodying the spirit of the center and advocating for the enduring history of the Lowcountry, civil rights, and reconstruction it celebrates. Cindy Riddle began teaching art in the Upstate in 1999. She worked at two schools before joining Spartanburg District One as a fine arts instructional coach for a year, then becoming the district’s coordinator for visual and performing arts, gifted and talented services. She is now an assistant superintendent in the same focus area. Riddle has national board certification in early and middle childhood art and is the current president of the South Carolina Education Association. She holds degrees from Anderson and Lander universities and Converse College and has been recognized six times with various awards for teaching. An artist and entrepreneur, she operates and creates and gives lessons from her Chicken Coop Art Company. Headquartered in Greenville and in operation for almost 70 years, United Community Bank has $12.9 billion in assets and operates 149 offices in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. They abide by the Golden Rule, according to Chairman and CEO Lynn Harton, and are committed to maintaining extraordinary culture, creating meaningful relationships and earning the trust of customers, all with the goal of improving lives. Nominators and supporters of United Community Bank pointed to lengthy and generous support of South Carolina arts institutions like Artisphere and South Carolina Children’s Theatre in Greenville and Chapman Cultural Center in Spartanburg. The support comes from not just funding, but also the investment of time and service by its associates. One of the Holy City’s most notable spaces, Charleston Gaillard Center provides the Lowcountry with a world-class performance hall, elegant venue space, and vibrant educational opportunities. A massive renovation project made possible by a $142 million public/private partnership created an iconic performance and event space appropriate for one of the world’s leading cities. In the last four years, Charleston Gaillard Center’s education and community program has provided arts-enhanced education programs to 130+ schools, covered the cost of transportation for 757 buses, and impacted more than 67,000 students in the tri-county region, all while remaining a 66% barrier-free program.

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.

Correction

The initial version of this news release said Ms. Mack was first female member of the Penn Center board of directors. She was its first female board chair. The copy has been updated. (6 Feb. 2020, 10:44 a.m.)

Jason Rapp

Rucker, Twiggs headed to S.C. Hall of Fame

Induction ceremony is Feb. 7

[caption id="attachment_43813" align="aligncenter" width="600"]Headshots of Darius Rucker, Dr. Leo Twiggs, and Evelyn Wright, the 2020 inductees of the South Carolina Hall of Fame. Photo courtesy of WPDE and the Official South Carolina Hall of Fame Board of Trustees.[/caption]
Two winners of the state's highest arts award will further live in infamy as members of South Carolina's Hall of Fame in Myrtle Beach. Darius Rucker (above, left) received the Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Governor's Award for the Arts with his Hootie & the Blowfish bandmates in 2016. Dr. Leo Twiggs (above, center) received it in 2017. Both awards were special awards for lifetime achievement. They will be enshrined with Evelyn Wright (above, right) on Feb. 7, 2020, at 10:30 a.m. in the ballroom of the Myrtle Beach Convention Center (2101 North Oak St.). The event is free and open to the public. Fittingly, the accomplishments of all three inductees are almost too numerous to list, and neither Rucker nor Twiggs need to be introduced to Hub readers (but we'll provide brief ones anyway):

Tuning Up: Arts and the economy + Midlands music lessons

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...


Who's ready for a long weekend? (Us, for starters, so don't judge us for jumping up and down emphatically.) We're certainly not here to represent the 209 and 102 as all arts and culture organizations, but it does dovetail nicely with the SCAC's own study from 2018 (using 2014 data) that there are 115,000 arts-related jobs in the state that drive a $9.7 billion impact on the South Carolina economy. Our thanks go out to all veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces for their service that keeps us free and safe.

Get those Verner Award nominations in soon

(Psst, click me)