Many city leaders agree on the important role that cultural offerings can play in improving the quality of life of their residents, and the perception that visitors have of their city. The municipalities around the state that decide to cultivate arts and culture programming take a variety of approaches — from standalone city departments to appointed boards.
Al Joseph, director of the Main Street Georgetown program, previously served two terms on Georgetown City Council, where he saw the need to create an umbrella organization for arts programs. While on council, he worked with the former city manager to establish the Georgetown Arts and Cultural Commission.
This nine-member appointed board, established by the city council, includes two commission members — the director of the Main Street program and the board chair of the Winyah Auditorium — who are placed on the board by ordinance, while the others are chosen by the same application process as other city boards and commissions.
“We're the third oldest city in South Carolina, so history is our No. 1. But we also had a thriving arts community. We had events that were going on in our city that were either tied to or had an artistic or cultural component, and we realized that was something we needed to build on,” Joseph said.
And it was something the community not only needed, but wanted. From the start, there were multiple people who wanted to become members of the commission, including artists and teachers.
The board’s biggest accomplishment so far, which took more than a year, was a successful application to the South Carolina Arts Commission to be designated as an official South Carolina Cultural District. These districts are geographic areas of municipalities that have a concentration of artistic assets, cultural facilities and creative businesses. Georgetown was designated in February 2024, the ninth city in the state to do so.
“Being a cultural arts district takes us up to another level,” Joseph said. “That designation opens us up for grant opportunities, and the networking and collaboration we have with other cultural arts districts just elevates us to a point where we're more noticeable and viable.”
The designation helps residents and visitors see and experience the full breadth of the city’s cultural assets. But a successful cultural organization takes a lot of time, work and commitment.
“It's not something [where] you can just stick X number of people onto a commission, whether it's run through a nonprofit or run through a municipality, like we are as a city board,” he said. “It's going to take dedicated people. We are a working board. It's not getting together and meeting once a month and talking. If that's what you're going to do, it's not worth your time to go through this.”
For example, Georgetown’s commission spearheaded a project that uses original, local art to wrap the electrical transformers throughout the historic business district. The first one was outside the Gullah Museum, using artwork from the museum’s founder. Another shows shrimp boats, a nod to the industry that was once thriving in the city.
On Hilton Head Island, the town’s Office of Cultural Affairs is less than a decade old, spurred into creation by a group of arts and cultural organizations that encouraged the council to provide more formal support of the arts community, said Natalie Harvey, the town’s director of cultural affairs.
“There are so many activities and things happening around Hilton Head in the arts and cultural world, there was a lot of overlapping and some perceived competition on dates,” Harvey said, adding that the office created an arts and cultural calendar to help keep track of offerings, which include everything from visual and performing arts to festivals and museum shows.
“We have a lot of small not-for-profits that are all volunteer, and then we have the larger professionally staffed ones,” Harvey said. “I think where this office has been really important in the community is helping to connect a lot of those organizations and make sure that we're highlighting Hilton Head Island's offerings to our visitors and to our residents.”
“So having one person whose job it is to say, ‘Oh, I heard this group is doing this. Have you talked to them?’ Just looking for those connections has been really helpful in building community amongst our organizations,” she said.
The Office of Cultural Affairs also acts as an umbrella over the Crescendo Celebration in the fall, with a lineup of more than 100 arts and cultural programs. There is also the hugely popular Hilton Head Island Lantern Parade, in November which brings hundreds to the beach and Lowcountry Celebration Park.
Harvey stressed the importance of having a broad definition of arts and culture — it’s not just a museum exhibit or symphony performance; it can be an outdoor festival or a walk along the poetry trail or a program highlighting the town’s history and environment.
Hilton Head Island is also starting the application process to be designated as a South Carolina Cultural District, with a committee formed to assemble the necessary research.
In Greer, the city’s Cultural Arts Division offers programming, festivals, art shows, classes and productions, while the separate, nonprofit Greer Cultural Arts Council is a city partner that provides programs such as the Greer Children’s Theater.
“The council and our mayor have always been really good about listening to the residents and our residents were asking for more cultural arts programs,” said Robin Byouk, the cultural arts supervisor for the City of Greer.
The city acquired the Edward R. Driggers Center for the Arts, a 1955 building that underwent a $2.5 million renovation before opening in 2019.
“We have a very large art gallery here, we have seven artist-in-residence spaces, we have a ceramics classroom and an arts classroom. And then on the performing arts side, we have a lobby, auditorium and stage and a green room,” she said.
Greer offers a wide variety of programming, including art exhibits, the Holiday Arts Fair, Day of the Dead Festival, a gingerbread house jamboree, an international festival and plenty of music.
Byouk said it’s important for city cultural arts leaders to talk with other municipalities and organizations to learn more about their structures.
“We took components from both the private sector and the public sector to make this work,” she said. “We visited other municipalities to see their cultural arts centers and museums. We went to private arts organizations and talked with them. And it's an ongoing process. Every year we go to different facilities, meet with people. We're always learning to try to better what we've got going on.”
Along with learning what other groups are doing, the Cultural Arts Division also talks to constituents and surveys what might be missing in the area.
“We looked around at what was in the Greenville area,” Byouk said. “There was a lot of art, there was a lot of theater, a lot of art classes, but not so much in the clay area. We invested in the equipment for our successful clay ceramics program, and we now have classes every day but Friday and Sunday.”
She added that it is important to have a relationship with the nonprofit Greer Cultural Arts Council that works with the city.
“The arts council has a wide range of volunteers that help the city, like at the Day of the Dead Festival, the volunteers will come in and help,” she said. “They do a lot behind the scenes at the International Festival. And then the city turns around and supports the arts council by providing space when needed. So it's a very nice working relationship between the two agencies.”