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May Issue 2005
SC Arts Commission Announces 2005 Recipients Of Elizabeth O'Neill Verner/Governor's Awards
The Board of Commissioners of
the SC Arts Commission in Columbia, SC, announced the 2005 recipients
of the Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Awards, the official Governor's
Awards for the Arts. These annual awards recognize outstanding
achievement and contributions in the arts in South Carolina, and
are the highest honor the state gives in the arts.
Since 1972, these awards have honored arts organizations, patrons,
artists, businesses, and public officials who have played significant
roles as innovators, supporters and advocates of the arts in the
Palmetto State. In 1980, the Verner Awards took on added significance
with their designation as official "Governor's Awards for
the Arts."
The 2005 Verner recipients are:
Organization: Florence Little Theatre - Florence, SC
Government: Richland County Public Library - Columbia, SC
Arts in Education: Deborah S. Hoffman Columbia, SC
Individual: Scott Shanklin-Peterson - Charleston, SC
Individual Artist: Jarvis Brothers Quintet - Orangeburg, SC
Business/Foundation: Time Warner Cable Columbia, SC
Lifetime Achievement: Carl R. Blair - Greenville, SC
The awards will be presented at the State House in a special noon ceremony during a joint legislative session on May 4, 2005. The ceremony is free and open to the public, and is followed by a reception, art sale and ticketed luncheon at the Columbia Marriott Hotel. The benefit luncheon and art sale are presented by the SC Arts Foundation and Carolina First.
Carl R. Blair, who is an artist
and instructor, received the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Blair has been a presence on the South Carolina arts scene since
1957. As an artist, he was with colleagues such as William Halsey,
Corrie McCallum, Merton Simpson, Arthur Rose and J. Bardin in
the vanguard of modern art in South Carolina. His prominence as
a painter and sculptor has steadily increased and is marked by
several museum retrospectives since 1995.
As an art teacher for four decades at Bob Jones University, Blair was instrumental in making that institution a hub for fine art production in the Upstate. He also taught at the Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, Fine Arts Center for Greenville County School District, and the Greenville County Museum of Art. As co-founder, part owner and president of Hampton III Gallery in Taylors, SC, Blair has helped provide an outlet for contemporary art, and helped establish new levels of recognition for contemporary South Carolina artists. He has served on many arts-related boards, commissions and organizations, including the South Carolina Arts Commission and the Guild of South Carolina Artists.
Blair was born in 1932 in Kansas. He received a BFA and MFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and School of Design. He and his wife, Margaret, moved to Greenville in 1957 where he joined the art faculty at Bob Jones. His list of noteworthy exhibitions, awards and publications expanded rapidly, including representation at the prestigious Bertha Schaefer Gallery in New York, inclusion in Prize Winning Art Book Six in 1966, France's Le Revue Modern in 1965 and 1968. One of his paintings was included in the 1984 group exhibition Portrait of the South at the Palazzo Venesia Museum in Rome, Italy. In 1994, Blair was invited to the SC State Museum's Centennial Celebration Exhibition. In 1999 his work was part of 100 Years/100 Artists. His work is in more than 2,500 private, corporate and public collections.
For more information on the Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Awards and celebration events, call the SC Arts Commission at 803/734-8696, or at (www.SouthCarolinaArts.com).
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