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October Issue 2004
Accessibility 2004 Takes Place Throughout Sumter, SC
Accessibility2004 - Space Questions - Art,
Nature and Culture in South Carolina,
Sumter, SC's sixth annual exhibition of installation and site-specific
art, and Sumter's NextWave Arts Festival will both feature
traditional and "cutting-edge" art and performance that
will be presented and staged throughout downtown Sumter's streets,
alleys, businesses, green-spaces and the historic Sumter Opera
House. The events will take place Oct. 1 - 31, 2004.
The main component of the 2004 event will again be the popular,
internationally recognized, annual Accessibility exhibition.
This unique exhibition will feature seven highly regarded artists
who will work and live in Sumter installing their site-specific
artwork. The Accessibility 2004 artists are: Brian Rust,
Augusta State University; Loren Schwerd, College of Charleston;
Shaun Cassidy, Winthrop University; Jennifer Pepper, Cazenovia
College, NY; Pearl Fryar, Accessibility 2004 Resident Artist;
Jiyoung Chae, Korea/New York; and Larry Merriman, Coker college.
The 2004 event is the sixth consecutive year
that Sumter has produced this highly acclaimed cutting-edge exhibition
that is recognized as the southeast's longest running exhibition
featuring "installation art". The success of the Accessibility
series has been attributed, in part, to the strong educational
component that has become an integral part of each exhibition.
The directors of education for the 2004 exhibition are Heidi Adler,
Art Instructor-Sumter High School and Grant Jackson, Co-Director
of Education, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC.
The education directors for the 2004 event will provide a comprehensive
program that will involve 'companion' visual art displays that
include the work of students and instructors from Sumter's public
and private schools as well as the faculty and selected students
from the College of Charleston, Coker College, USC Columbia and
Winthrop University. Guided site-tours, weekly public discussions
about contemporary art, pre-exhibition panel discussions and videos
about installation art and a month-long school residency featuring
an Accessibility 2004 artist all provide wonderful educational
opportunities that will help explain and de-mystify installation-art.
Area students and the general public are all invited to participate
in the Accessibility experience by volunteering to assist
the visiting artists in installing their artwork. This activity
will provide the volunteers with a unique opportunity to connect
with the visiting artist and to gain valuable insight into the
process of art.
The Accessibility project continues to receive local, state
and region-wide recognition and media coverage and is also gaining
a reputation on the international art scene. The directors of
Accessibility welcome the Columbia Museum of Art as a new
partner and collaborator for the 2004 exhibition. The Executive
Director for the Columbia Museum of Art, Karen Brosius, and her
staff will be participating in the Accessibility exhibition
through the education component as well as by installing the work
of Accessibility artists at CMA and by assisting with event
promotions.
The 2004 exhibition and NextWave festival will feature a full month of both avant-garde and traditional performances including dance, media arts, live theatre, music and spoken-word events. The festival's diverse schedule will range from bluegrass music to a concert by the Sumter Chamber Orchestra and classical opera to cutting-edge sound installations. There will also be a special Halloween street-fest and a media-arts festival featuring the work of emerging film and video artists from the USC Columbia Art department. All performances and exhibitions will take place throughout Sumter's newly revitalized downtown area and will include selected outdoor venues, empty store-fronts and the Sumter Opera House.
The kickoff of the annual Accessibility exhibitions have attained "legendary" status appealing to art enthusiast, the art-curious and those just looking for a good time and something different. The 2004 exhibit will again feature a dynamic range of activities featuring both wonderfully different, thought provoking performances and other activities and exhibitions that embrace more "traditional" styles and themes. The Oct. 1 event will feature site-specific performance- installations, performance-art, sound and video installations, dance and music. The entire event is free and open to the public.
The Sumter County Cultural Commission, major funding agency for the Accessibility exhibitions, is the 2004 recipient of South Carolina's highest award for the arts, The Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Award. This prestigious award was granted to the Cultural Commission for their efforts in supporting the process of the arts and by presenting projects and programs that feature new, cutting-edge concepts of "art" to the Sumter community. Sumter's Accessibility exhibitions were identified in the award statement as being one of the main reasons that the Sumter community received the award.
Accessibility 2004 is a community-based and supported project which is directed by an all-volunteer staff and is jointly funded by: Sumter County Cultural Commission, City of Sumter, EMS CHEMIE North America, and Downtown Sumter Revitalization.
For more info check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, contact Booth Chilcutt, Cultural Director, City of Sumter by calling 803/436-2616, e-mail at (bchilcutt@sumter-sc.com) or at (www.sumtersc.gov).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2004 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2004 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.