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Cane Bay Elementary puts SCAC grant to work

The Hub wants to let you in on a little secret: We get a tad giddy when we get to put together posts like this. Grants are one of the four ways we accomplish our mission at the South Carolina Arts Commission. Through the current fiscal year, this agency is proud to have sent a total of almost $77 million in grant money to South Carolina artists, arts organizations, and schools since 1967 to make life more enjoyable and rounded for everybody here. Everybody. So when a grantee is given the spotlight because of the way its grant is put to work, yes – we get happy. It's tangible. It shows, in plain view, the importance of public support for the arts. One such example is Cane Bay Elementary School in Summervillewhich received a $9,730 grant to become an Arts in Basic Curriculum Project site and make arts experiences more diverse and accessible to its students. Based on the story today in the Summerville Journal Scene, they've done just that:

By enhancing the hallways with display boards, collaborative art projects and sensory panels, students traveling from class to class can now interact with the arts in new ways.

Students, staff and parents have been invited to participate in a community rock garden project that will be installed in front of the school this summer.

Cane Bay Elementary has also started its own Creative Cobras Art Club for students in third and fourth grade and enhanced their choral program by utilizing props and lighting for the first time.

Read the full story here.

Tuning Up: State Library opens Gullah Geechee photo exhibit

Good morning! "Tuning Up" is a morning post series 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...


  • More than books: Starting today and running through March 30, visit the S.C. State Library (1500 Senate St., Columbia a/k/a two blocks from "Tuning Up") for a new photography exhibit, "Shadows of the Gullah Geechee." Photographer Pete Marovich explores the everyday lives of Gullah Geechee communities in coastal South Carolina and Georgia. Free. 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m, weekdays.
  • The Good Fight: GP McLeer (right), executive director of the S.C. Arts Alliance, talks Arts Advocacy Week and more in a new article at TownCarolina.com.
  • Why We Advocate: Talking of the Arts Alliance, we're still advocating over here. Through public support of the arts, the Arts Commission's Arts in Basic Curriculum (ABC) Project served 160,000 S.C. students in 440 schools in FY 2017. ABC is a shining star among the SCAC's programs, and you should read more about the great work of this partnership among the SCAC, S.C. Department of Education, and Winthrop University.
  • Last call: Arts Advocacy Day at the State House is coming Tuesday. Do you have luncheon tickets yet?

Tuning Up: Black History event in Anderson, call for short films, etc.

Good morning! "Tuning Up" is a morning post series 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...


  • Tonight at 6 p.m., the Anderson County Library begins the county's Black History Month celebration with an event highlighting our state's role in the civil rights movement. To wit: did you know Rosa Parks received training in Columbia? More information here. (The event is sponsored by the Arts Commission.)
  • Are you more Halloween than Valentine's Day? An Arts Commission AVI grantee has a "ghoul" project in the works that you'll be "goblin" up. (Okay, we'll stop.) Filmmakers and screenplay writers are invited to help Deathcat Entertainment with "Grave Intentions" – their pun, not ours. Go here for more information.
  • More on films: Indie Grits Festival Director Seth Gadsden chatted Indie Grits Labs on the National Endowment for the Arts' "Art Works" podcast!
  • Call for art! Visual Arts Exchange in Raleigh is calling for art from installation artists. Check out The Cube and The Lab for more. Deadline for both spaces appears to be Feb. 15.
  • And finally... why we advocate: because through public support of the arts, the S.C. Arts Commission was able to award 342 grants totaling $3.3 million in 42 counties in FY 2017. That's 73% of our state funding – more than the legislative mandate of 70%.
 

Tuning Up: $350,000 on its way out

Good morning! "Tuning Up" is a morning post series 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...


"Tuning Up" is getting in on our advocacy push this week as we lead up to S.C. Arts Advocacy Week and the State House rally and luncheon with legislators, presented by the S.C. Arts Alliance. Today's advocacy story hits right in the wallet - in a good way. See this? Successful S.C. House and Senate veto override votes allowed Arts Commission staff to begin processing $350,000 in additional funds to operating support grantees - and you're looking at them. The arts work being done as a result of arts funding - public support of the arts - from the mountains to the coast is phenomenal. Keep telling your stories, and keep helping our state move forward together.  

Young Voices Build Pride in Place

Next week, the S.C. Arts Alliance presents the annual S.C. Arts Advocacy Day – with a twist: in 2018, it becomes Arts Advocacy Week. The main events are Tuesday with a State House rally and luncheon to follow. (We hope to see you there.) Here on The Hub, we're taking this week to connect the dots between public support of the arts and the net effect on society. This week's focus is on why we advocate, why support matters, and what arts support looks like on the ground, in communities around the state.


Sometimes, those communities have deep, historic problems. Oftentimes, those problems persist when one-size-fits-all solutions ... just aren't. Enter the Art of Community: Rural S.C. to foster creative, grassroots efforts to address problems through arts, culture, and creative placemaking. This program addresses the unique needs of rural South Carolina by taking what makes a community unique and building pride around that through creative partnerships with people previously not engaged to address those issues. An eclectic mix of young minds are rethinking the ways their rural communities are perceived to create a new framework for action. Please take a few moments to hear them tell their stories in the video below, which shows how arts and culture merge to face challenges where other attempts have fallen short. This is what arts support looks like on the ground. This is why we advocate: YOUNG VOICES VIDEO 5 MINUTES from Cook Productions on Vimeo.
The Art of Community: Rural S.C. advances the S.C. Arts Commission’s commitment to rural development through arts, culture and creative placemaking, creating a way to support new leadership, generate energy, and motivate action in a rural region of South Carolina. It is supported by the S.C. Arts Commission and U.S. Department of Agriculture-Rural Development. Read more about it here.