Tuning Up: Leo Twiggs doc set for Sunday premiere
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…
Tune in to SCETV this Sunday evening at 6 p.m. ET.
Arriving: Leo Twiggs and His Art is a 60-minute documentary about Dr. Leo Twiggs, the decorated artist and art educator from Orangeburg who is regarded as the most influential black artist in the southeast.
The documentary presents the batik artist’s personal history, his deep rooted connection to South Carolina, his powerful art creations, and his profound reflections and impacts on the evolving society over the decades. Using interviews with him, archival materials of his hometown, field production footage of his creative activities, as well as his 60 years of artworks, Arriving will depict how Twiggs explores human conditions with his art, how he visually confronts the symbols of hate, and how he calls for social changes through his creation, one painting at a time.
Twiggs is a two-time recipient of the S.C. Governor’s Award for the Arts (artist and lifetime achievement), was first South Carolina winner of the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art, and a recipient of the Order of the Palmetto. Three of his works are included in the State Art Collection curated and managed by the SCAC. In 2020, he was inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame. His works have been featured in art textbooks, television documentaries, and prestigious exhibitions, including a retrospective organized by the Georgia Museum of Art that toured the Southeast from 2004-2006. Today, Twiggs continues to create in his Orangeburg studio, where he serves as Distinguished Artist in Residence at Claflin University.
The documentary was executive produced by William Richardson, director of ETV Upstate with a long-standing career in broadcasting and production, who is producer of the annual South Carolina Arts Awards broadcast. Xiao Yu served as producer, director and editor of the documentary. Yu received her Master of Fine Arts in film production from Ohio University School of Film.
