Tammy Leach & Laurel Horton: 2026 S.C. Arts Awards Spotlight Series
Meet the Recipients
As the day nears for the 2026 South Carolina Arts Awards, The Hub is shining the spotlight on this year’s recipients, introducing them to you in greater detail.
This is the schedule:
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- Today: Tammy Leach and Laurel Horton
- May 1: Bill Harris and Beckee Garris
- May 5: ArtsNOW and Columbia Museum of Art
- May 7: Tiffany Reed Silverman and Dr. Richard O’Malley
- May 12: Ian Welch
Tammy Leach | Folk Heritage Award, Artist: Beadwork
- Neeses, South Carolina
Tammy Leach
Tammy Leach has served as the cultural preservationist for the Wassamasaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians for around 10 years. In this role, she is dedicated to safeguarding and sharing the tribe’s cultural traditions through education, community engagement, and hands-on instruction. Tammy regularly teaches community education classes and works with local school systems to introduce students to the history, traditions, and artistic practices of the Wassamasaw people.
In 2005, Tammy began studying traditional native beadwork under Dr. William Goins through the South Carolina Arts Commission’s apprenticeship program. This mentorship deepened her understanding of traditional techniques and the cultural meaning behind beadwork and strengthened her commitment to preserving and sharing these traditions with others.
Since completing the program, Tammy has continued the tradition by teaching beadwork and sharing cultural knowledge with community members, students, and audiences throughout South Carolina. Her work has been exhibited and interpreted through programs and exhibits at institutions including the University of South Carolina McKissick Museum, the Berkeley County Museum, Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site, and the Native American Studies Center at USC Lancaster.
In addition to exhibiting her work, Tammy has participated in lectures and public programs at cultural institutions across the state. She has presented at the Columbia Museum of Art and has participated in cultural education programs with community partners such as Old Santee Canal Park and the Goose Creek Recreation Center. She has also served as a demonstration artist for traditional beadwork during Native American Education Day programs, helping students and the public understand the cultural meaning, techniques, and history behind Native beadwork traditions.
For the past five years, Tammy has also taught free monthly native culture classes throughout Berkeley, Dorchester, and Charleston counties. Through these classes, she introduces participants of all ages to Wassamasaw history, traditional arts, and cultural practices, helping strengthen community understanding and appreciation of native heritage in the Lowcountry.
Through her work as both an educator and artist, Tammy remains committed to preserving and passing on the heritage of the Wassamasaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians. Her dedication to cultural preservation and community education ensures that the traditions of the Wassamasaw people continue to be shared with future generations.
Laurel M. Horton | Folk Heritage Award, Advocacy: Quilting
- Seneca, South Carolina
Laurel Horton
Laurel McKay Horton is a folklorist and an internationally recognized quilt researcher. A native of Kentucky, she earned a bachelor’s in English and a master’s in library science from the University of Kentucky and a master’s in folklore from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Her 1979 thesis, “Economic Influences on German and Scotch-Irish Quilts in Antebellum Rowan County, North Carolina,” was one of the earliest studies of regional variations in American quiltmaking traditions.
Her book, Mary Black’s Family Quilts: Memory and Meaning in Everyday Life (University of South Carolina Press, 2005) represents a new direction for the study of historic quilts as an aspect of a family’s “material behavior” (to use the term suggested by folklorist Michael Owen Jones, who contributed the book’s foreword). Horton skillfully weaves the story of the family’s lives, using information gleaned from oral interviews with descendants, family papers, historic documents, and the quilts themselves.
Between 1983 and 1985, Horton worked with the University of South Carolina McKissick Museum to conduct a survey of quilts owned in selected areas in the state. This project, one of the earliest of many documentation efforts across the country, resulted in a traveling exhibition and a catalog, Social Fabric: South Carolina’s Traditional Quilts. The information collected during this project has been used by other museums in the state to enhance the quality of their exhibition interpretation.
Laurel Horton has been an active member of the American Quilt Study Group (AQSG) since 1983. She served on the board of directors and edited “Uncoverings,” the group’s annual volume of research papers. She edited the book, Quiltmaking in America: Beyond the Myths, and has written numerous scholarly and popular articles and book reviews.
She also participated in the British Quilt Study Group, presenting papers published in Quilt Studies, including a co-authored article on early woven bedcovers.
In 2023, she presented the prestigious Archer Taylor Invited Lecture to the Western States Folklore Society. In 2024, she delivered the keynote address at the AQSG Seminar. In 2025, she was inducted into the Quilters Hall of Fame.
Laurel has also made quilts since 1975. She was an organizer and founding member of both the Quilters of South Carolina and the Lake and Mountain Quilters Guild. She has lectured and taught workshops across South Carolina and beyond.
Watch the 2026 South Carolina Arts Awards Sunday, May 17 at 7 p.m. EDT.
The SCAC is excited to present its streaming presentation of the awards, which include new short films documenting the recipients made by talented South Carolina filmmakers.
Viewers can access it via the SCAC YouTube Channel, and it will also be streamed through the SCAC Facebook page. Internet-connected smart TV’s or streaming devices with the YouTube app may be used for a more broadcast-style experience.