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April Issue 2004
Statewide Art Arrives on Our Doorstep in
Aiken, SC
by Douglas Rabold, reprinted with permission from Easy Street Magazine
of Aiken, SC
A prestigious arts event begs for an equally grand locale. The
Monterey Jazz Festival, the Sundance Film Festival and, closer
to home, the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, SC, all present
great artistry in a spectacular setting.
Prepare for Aiken, SC, to join the ranks.
This spring Aiken will host the 2004 South Carolina Watercolor Society Exhibition and Workshop, the society's largest annual event and one of the most sweeping visual arts affairs in South Carolina this year. Two institutional galleries and three commercial galleries in Aiken, joined by two museums in Augusta, GA, will showcase many of the finest watercolor artists in the state with an art market; a juried group exhibition; a variety of one-person, two-person, and group shows; and a guest lecture.
The key venue is Aiken Center for the Arts in downtown Aiken. The workshop is open to all artists, and the public is invited to all exhibits as well as a $22 luncheon at the City of Aiken Municipal Bldg., May 1, at 1pm (reservations required). The society's business events are open to paying members of the organization only.
For 27 years, the South Carolina Watercolor Society has been promoting
the artistic and professional interests of artists across the
state and providing visual arts programs to the general public.
Member artists must exhibit artwork produced in water-based media
such as watercolor, acrylic, gouache, and casein on natural or
synthetic paper. Collage is accepted under clearly outlined conditions.
Coordinating this year's event are Exhibition Chairman Judy Adamick of Ridge Spring, SC, and South Carolina Watercolor Society President Jill Stafford of Augusta. Adamick is a well-known fixture in the local arts community. Stafford, along with her husband, owns property in South Carolina (members must be South Carolina residents or property owners), and she has immersed herself in South Carolina's art scene. Stafford served as president of the society nine years ago, and she brings a wealth of renewed enthusiasm and creativity to her return engagement.
"This year I really want to make a difference by encouraging
some of the more reclusive artists in the state not just to submit
an entry, but to participate in our workshop, to listen to our
juror, and to interact with fellow artists," she said.
The society now boasts more than 500 watercolor artists statewide. Competition for the society's annual juried traveling exhibit is intense. This area has a remarkable number of artists who are "Members with Excellence" of the society - those who have been "juried" into at least three annual exhibitions.
Artists are juried through the following process: Member artists
statewide are invited to submit candidate entries for the competition
and juried exhibition. Stafford anticipates 250 entries for this
year's event. Entries will be collected and displayed at Aiken
Center for the Arts in a public event called Art Market (Apr.
16-22), where works are available for purchase unless they are
marked NFS, or "not for sale." (Purchased works may
not be collected until the conclusion of the exhibition.)
During the course of Art Market, a nationally known juror selected
and hired by the society will choose about 80 works to be included
in the official exhibition to be shown at Aiken Center for the
Arts from May 3 through June 27, 2004. The juror also will identify
30 works to be acknowledged with a series of special awards totaling
$10,000 and which will be included in the juried traveling exhibit
that will go on tour to about nine venues across the state.
This year's juror is Warren Taylor, a noted artist and visiting college instructor now living in Austin, TX. Warren is a signature member of the American Watercolor Society, the National Watercolor Society and Watercolor USA. He also will serve as the instructor at the society's workshop at the Odell Weeks Center in Aiken from Apr. 19 - 23, 2004.
In addition to the formal events hosted at Aiken Center for the Arts, a number of area galleries and museums have scheduled exhibitions featuring some of South Carolina's premier watercolor artists. The Etherredge Center at the University of South Carolina Aiken will host an exhibition of works by Barbara Cheetham of Aiken (from Apr. 8 - May 28, 2004) and Cecile Martin of Seneca, SC (Apr. 26 - May 22, 2004), both Members with Excellence. Cheetham, a longtime member of the society, designed the cover of this year's competition prospectus, or entry form, and a special award for the competition was named in her honor.
All three commercial galleries in downtown Aiken also will mount
exhibits featuring works by society members, most of whom are
Members with Excellence. The Arnold Gallery will show works by
Al Beyer, Sherie Koenig and Trish Arnold of Aiken; and Judy Adamick
and Barbara Yon of Ridge Spring (current secretary and treasurer
of the society, respectively), from Apr. 15 - May 15, 2004. The
Jackson Gallery will show works by Steve Garner of Greenville,
SC, Rose Metz of Sumter, SC, and Toni Elkins of Columbia, SC,
from Apr. 15 - June 18, 2004. Rabold Gallery will show works by
Harriet Marshall Goode of Rock Hill, SC, from Apr. 15 - May 29,
2004. Jill Stafford also is represented at the gallery.
In nearby Augusta, GA, the Gertrude Herbert Museum will host a
retrospective of work by nationally renowned South Carolina watercolor
artist Alex Powers, from Apr. 20 - May 28, 2004. Works by Elizabeth
Cain will also be on view. A lecture by Powers is scheduled for
the Morris Museum of Art, also in Augusta on Apr. 22, 2004.
Members of the local arts community expect that the abundance
of events and the quality of the exhibitions will promote arts-related
tourism to the city, further enhancing Aiken's reputation as an
arts destination.
For additional information about the events, call the Aiken
Center for the Arts at 803/641-9094. For info about the SCWS contact
Kim Richards at 678/721-2506 or e-mail at (scws@adelphia.net).
For info about Easy Street Magazine, call Casey Lewellyn, general
manager at 803/642-6412 or at (www.easystreetmagazine.com).
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.