by Jess Abbott | Jun 27, 2024 | News
June 28th, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information:
Jess Abbott, CEO
Greenville Center for Creative Arts
jess@artcentergreenville.org
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a Best of South Carolina® Regional Winner
The votes have been counted and the results are in! The Carrie Burns Brown Art School at Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a 2024 Best of South Carolina® Regional winner in Guide to South Carolina’s annual readers’ poll.
Guide to South Carolina readers and editors have weighed in on the best of everything in South Carolina, honoring thousands of businesses and organizations in more than 25 broad business and community sectors.
The process starts with a nomination on the Guide to South Carolina website. Voting remains open throughout the year, with tens of thousands of votes ultimately received. The process culminates with the publishing of the Best of South Carolina Keepsake Annual along with a statewide publicity campaign.
Best of South Carolina winners and nominees are chosen by a combination of readers’ votes and editors’ input, and are vetted through several ranking sites, Better Business Bureau complaint reports, and voting pattern analysis reports. “We are incredibly honored to have the Carrie Burns Brown Art School recognized as a 2024 Best of South Carolina® Regional winner,” said Jess Abbott, CEO at Greenville Center for Creative Arts. “This award reflects the dedication and passion of our entire team, as well as the vibrant community that supports us. We are grateful to the readers and editors of Guide to South Carolina for this prestigious acknowledgment and look forward to continuing our mission of fostering creativity and artistic growth in South Carolina.”
Winners are named in hundreds of individual categories, providing Guide to South Carolina readers with a go-to-guide for the best of everything in South Carolina. Guide to South Carolina recognizes three levels of winners: The Best of South Carolina, Best of South Carolina Regional Winners and Honorable Mentions. Within each category, there are multiple honorees named in each tier, depending on the size of the market sector.
For more information about the Carrie Burns Brown Art School at GCCA, please visit www.artcentergreenville.org.
The Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) is a nonprofit community art center dedicated to inspiring, engaging, and enriching the community through the arts. Located in the heart of Greenville, GCCA offers a wide range of classes, workshops, exhibitions, and events for artists of all ages and skill levels.
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by Erick Arbe | Mar 5, 2024 | News
Centre Stage and the Metropolitan Arts Council present “Western Light: Earth, Sky, Water” featuring American landscapes by GCCA’s studio artist, Steve Courchaine. The opening reception will be held at Centre Stage Gallery (501 River Street, Greenville, SC 29601) on Friday, March 8, from 6-8 PM. The show will be available to view until April 26, 2024 during Centre Stage Gallery’s business hours, Tuesday-Friday, 2-5 PM.
For over 25 years, artist Steve Courchaine has traveled throughout the American West, collecting reference material with photography and practicing plein air painting. Inspired by the vast western landscape, he observed the clarity of sunlight in the west increases the color saturation found in nature there versus what you might see in the east. This exhibit represents those experiences.
by Jess Abbott | Jan 31, 2024 | News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Greenville Center for Creative Arts Announces Five New Members on the Board of Directors
GREENVILLE, SC – Jan. 31, 2024
The Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) is thrilled to welcome five distinguished individuals to its Board of Directors, each bringing a wealth of experience and a shared passion for advancing the arts in the Greenville community. The new members include Bill Stephenson, Mark Colby, Kacee Lominack, Mary Church Cornette, and Dan Helwing.
Bill Stephenson, a 1982 graduate of the University of North Carolina in Business Administration, joins GCCA after a remarkable 36-year banking career, with 30 years dedicated to BB&T. Bill’s extensive civic engagement includes his current role as Chair for the YMCA’s Foundation Board (Endowment) and various positions with Caine Halter Y over the last two decades. He has also served on the boards of Greenville Theatre, Friends of the Reedy River, and the Metropolitan Arts Council, demonstrating his commitment to the local arts scene.
Mark Colby, the Director of Digital Transformation – Purchasing Americas at Michelin North America, Inc., adds a unique perspective to the board. With a decade-long career at Michelin and a background in the US Marine Corps, Mark’s leadership and experience in digital initiatives will contribute significantly to GCCA’s growth. Beyond his corporate responsibilities, Mark is the CEO of the Michelin Charity Golf Tournament, showcasing his dedication to community service.
Kacee Lominack, Marketing Manager at Peacock Marketing and a graduate of Presbyterian College, brings nearly two decades of experience in the non-profit sector. Her expertise in database management, fundraising campaigns, and event planning, combined with a genuine passion for the arts, aligns seamlessly with GCCA’s mission. Kacee’s commitment to the community extends to her volunteer work with Mill Village Farms and involvement in Greenville County Schools.
Mary Church Cornette, CEO and Head of Creative at FUEL, is a seasoned creative professional with over 20 years of experience working with major brands. Her entrepreneurial spirit and approachable mentor leadership style have transformed FUEL into a purpose-driven brand-building agency. Mary’s dedication to serving nonprofits in the Greenville community is evident through initiatives like the FUEL for Good Grant, which provides marketing support to local nonprofits.
Dan Helwing, a Partner at Ernst & Young, brings a wealth of financial expertise to the board. As a leader in the Technical Accounting Advisory Group, Dan focuses on SEC Reporting, Corporate Governance, and business combinations. His extensive background in accounting and finance, coupled with his commitment to effective reporting and corporate governance practices, will enhance GCCA’s financial stewardship.
Jess Burgess, CEO of GCCA, expresses her enthusiasm for the new additions, stating, “We are thrilled to welcome Bill, Mark, Kacee, Mary, and Dan to our Board of Directors. Their diverse backgrounds and passion for the arts will bring renewed energy to our organization. We look forward to the exciting work ahead of us as we continue to support and uplift artists in the Greenville community.”
With these esteemed individuals joining the Board of Directors, GCCA is poised to embark on a new chapter of growth and community impact. The collective expertise and dedication of the new members will undoubtedly contribute to the continued success of the Greenville Center for Creative Arts.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Jess Burgess, CEO
Greenville Center for Creative Arts
jess@artcentergreenville.org
864-274-0351
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by Ben Tarcson | Nov 28, 2023 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) is excited to announce the opening of their Main Gallery exhibition, Pent Up Pink by Fleming Markel. GCCA will hold the opening reception on Friday, December 1st from 6-9 PM and continues on display until Wednesday, January 24th, 2024. During the opening reception CEO, Jess Burgess, will give opening remarks for the exhibition. GCCA’s Main Gallery exhibition Pent Up Pink is generously supported by media sponsor TOWN.
“Pent Up Pink” features a solo exhibition showcasing the artwork of local Greenville artist, Fleming Markel. Markel’s sculptures question and defy consumerism, along with the methods and myths it perpetuates about womanhood and femininity. The exhibition consists of 12 life-sized, freestanding sculptures made from everyday feminine materials arranged in a maze-like exhibition space. This layout creates alcoves, enabling individual observation and interaction with each sculpture.
In American culture, beliefs and behaviors are influenced by institutional traditions, including governance, religion, society, and family. Many of these traditional beliefs are, indeed, myths. Fueled by consumerism, these myths wield substantial influence over our daily lives, particularly shaping the self-perception and worldview of and about women. Markel challenges these prescriptive myths by composing her sculptures with everyday consumer products marketed toward women. The approach is lighthearted, embracing the absurd, and paying homage to the Feminist Art movement of the 1970s. Markel’s sculptures are personal and autobiographical, symbolizing an ongoing effort to debunk these controlling myths one step at a time as part of a feminist life journey.
Fleming Markel
Fleming Markel currently lives and works in Greenville, SC. She is the Director of Greenville Technical College’s Benson Campus Galleries. She holds a BA from Winthrop University, a MEd from the University of South Carolina, and an MFA from Clemson University.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. GCCA’s galleries are open Tuesdays-Fridays from 9am – 5pm & Saturdays from 11am-3pm. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Ben Tarcson | Oct 26, 2023 | News
Greenville, SC – GCCA will open a new Community Gallery exhibition, “Mono No Aware”, on First Friday, November 3rd from 6-9pm. ‘Mono No Aware,’ is a Japanese term meaning “beauty tinged with sadness.” More specifically, the term alludes to the bittersweet awareness that all things inevitably change form or come to an end. Both a deep ache and a deep appreciation accompany this awareness.
In “Mono No Aware,” exhibiting artist Leigh Mitchell presents over 30 black & white photographs inspired by the ephemeral nature of things and relating to ideas of impermanence, reverence, beauty, and loss. Included in the exhibition are images that allude to feelings of vulnerability and loneliness as well as to the feelings of awe one can experience while marveling at nature’s various manifestations. Underneath Mitchell’s personal associations and experiences is a deep concern for the damaging impact we are having on our environment. Mitchell’s work speaks to the tangled mess humanity and the earth are in and conveys an eerie sense of foreboding for what may lie ahead.
Mono No Aware will be on display from November 3rd – December 20th, 2023 and admission is free during open business hours.
Leigh Mitchell
Leigh Mitchell is a photographic artist and educator. She obtained a master’s degree in Studio Art from Western Carolina University, and she was a college instructor for twelve years, teaching Film Photography I and II, Digital Photography I and II, and Photography Appreciation. Her work has been exhibited in a variety of locations, including The Center for Fine Art Photography (Fort Collins, CO), The Asheville Area Arts Council (Asheville, NC), The SE Center for Photography (Greenville, SC), Rochester Contemporary Art Center (Rochester, NY), and The Asheville Art Museum. She was the juror for Knoxville Photo at the Emporium Center in 2018 in Knoxville, TN, was a Regional Scholastic Art Judge through the Asheville Art Museum in 2011, 2013, and 2018, and juried the Diverse Works exhibit at the YMI Cultural Center in Asheville, NC in 2015. Her sensibility is toward images that have a lyrical quality while, at the same time, are able to capture the tension and reality of life.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Jess Abbott | Sep 18, 2023 | News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jess Burgess, CEO
864-274-0351
jess@artcentergreenville.org
Tickets on sale for The Color Gala at Greenville Center for Creative Arts
GCCA’s first signature fundraising event, The Color Gala, will be held on Thursday, November 2, from 7-9:30pm at 101 Abney Street. The event will feature delicious food and beverages by ChefanieB and Mingle Masters, music from the Fine Arts Center Jazz All Stars, live artmaking, a silent auction, and more.
“We are thrilled to host this special evening to benefit GCCA’s artist community,” said Jess Burgess, CEO of GCCA. “The Color Gala will be a wonderful opportunity to recognize and promote the impact of the visual arts in Greenville.”
Proceeds from the event will support GCCA’s core programming, including free public exhibitions, professional development and resources for emerging and working artists, and youth outreach, bringing essential arts engagement to everyone in our community.
Single tickets are on sale—$50 for GCCA Members and $65 for non-Members. Sponsorship packages with recognition and other special benefits are also available starting at $500. Visit artcentergreenville.org/colorgala for tickets and additional information.
Event Details:
When: November 2, 2023
Where: Greenville Center for Creative Arts
101 Abney St. Greenville, SC 29611
Tickets: www.artcentergreenville.org/colorgala
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. GCCA’s galleries are open Tuesdays-Fridays from 9am – 5pm & Saturdays from 11am-3pm. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
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by Ben Tarcson | Sep 1, 2023 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) is excited to announce the opening of their Main Gallery exhibition, Parting Lines. The exhibition features the artwork of acclaimed artists TeaYoun Kim-Kassor, Mayuko Ono Gray, and Sabre Esler. GCCA will hold the opening reception on Friday, October 6th from 6-9 PM and continues on display until Wednesday, November 22nd, 2023. During the opening reception CEO, Jess Burgess, will give opening remarks for the exhibition. GCCA’s Main Gallery exhibition Parting Lines is generously supported by media sponsor Vive.
In Parting Lines, artists TeaYoun Kim-Kassor, Mayuko Ono Gray, and Sabre Esler explore common threads of human existence, memory, and identity through varying representations of lines, whether explicit or implied. Featuring over 30 intricate drawings, paintings, and silk works, Parting Lines invites us to consider the power of diverse perspectives converging on a shared exploration of what it means to be human.
TeaYoun Kim-Kassor’s installation series, “Modulation,” delves into the concept of identity and questions the interplay between personal history and migration. Her work speaks to the universal human experience of grappling with questions like “Who am I?” and “Where am I?” as we navigate life’s complexities. Sabre Esler’s art takes a markedly scientific approach, probing the invisible constructs of thoughts. Esler uses color theory to represent abstract ideas. Her “what if” hypotheses serve as a bridge between art and science, resonating with the exhibition’s theme of exploring uncharted territories of the human condition. Mayuko Ono Gray’s graphite drawings offer a unique blend of cultural influences, seamlessly merging traditional Japanese calligraphy with Western drawing practices. Ono Gray’s works capture everyday life experiences and incorporate matching Japanese proverbs, intricately woven into a single, continuous line of hiragana and kanji characters. The calligraphic line symbolizes the journey of life, from birth to death, echoing the overarching theme of the exhibition.
Mayuko Ono Gray
Mayuko Ono Gray is an artist based in Houston, TX whose primary medium is graphite drawing. Born in Gifu, Japan, she was trained in traditional Japanese calligraphy in her youth and later studied classical Western drawing. Ono Gray moved to the United States following high school and went on to receive an MFA in painting from the University of Houston in 2007. Her work has been exhibited extensively in the United States and abroad, including exhibitions in Japan, Mexico, Germany, Italy, UK, and Greece. Ono Gray is the former Gallery Director and adjunct faculty at College of the Mainland, Texas City, TX. Gray served as an Instructor at the Glassell School of Art in Houston, TX in 2022. Her works are represented by Hooks-Epstein galleries in Houston, TX and Galeria 910 in Oaxaca, Mexico.
TeaYoun Kim-Kassor
TeaYoun Kim-Kassor is originally from South Korea, where she received her B.F.A. in Fine Arts at Sungshin Women’s University in Seoul. She continued her research in Art Education as the Japanese equivalent of a Fulbright Scholar at Saitama University in Japan, where she earned a Master of Art Education (MAAE). In America, Kim-Kassor continued her exploration of arts in the Terminal Degree in visual arts, M.F.A. program at the University of Tennessee, focusing on Spatial Practice. Currently, she is a Professor and Department Chair of the Foundation Program at Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.
TeaYoun has been a very active artist having numerous exhibitions, including at the Korean Cultural Center – Embassy of the Republic of Korea, Washington DC, University of South Carolina Beaufort, SC, Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MoCA), GA, The Alabama Contemporary Art Center, Mobile, AL, Venice Printmaking Studio in Murano Italy, La Macina di San Cresci in Florence, Italy, Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn, NY, Montana State University Gallery in Bozeman, MT, Maryville College Gallery in Maryville, TN, Black-box Theatre in Milledgeville, GA, Folklore Museum in Sendai, Japan and many more. Her artwork has been supported by the Folklore Museum in Sendai, Japan, the National Performance Network (supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, and the Nathan Cummings Foundation), CESTA in Tabor, Czech Republic, and Can Serrat in Barcelona, Spain.
Sabre Esler
Sabre Esler (b. Cleveland, OH) lives and works in Atlanta Georgia. She received her MFA from SCAD, Atlanta and she received her BFA from Miami University, Oxford OH where she studied graphic design, illustration and biology. Esler has exhibited in New York, Charleston, Knoxville, Boston, Connecticut, Atlanta, Nashville and Miami, and museums such as Miami University, SCAD Museum of Art, Alexandria Museum, Valdosta State Museum, Oglethorpe University, Agnes Scott College, and Georgia State University as well as Chastain Art Center, and Glynn Visual Arts Center and SCOPE and Aqua during Art Miami. She is currently a studio artist at Atlanta Contemporary. Esler has taught at Georgia State University, Perimeter College and SCAD. She is represented by Jennifer Balcos Gallery, Atlanta GA. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of Tufts University, Miami University, Georgia State University Perimeter College, The Federal Reserve Bank, Fulton County Arts Council, City of Atlanta, and corporate collections of Acoustic, AdvantEdge Executive Offices, Atlantic Capital Bank, Boston Consulting Group, Boardwalk Inn at Wild Dunes, Cognia, Crowell & Moring, Fieldpoint Private Bank & Trust, Georgian Bank, Hilton Hotels, Hyatt Hotels, Oglethorpe Bank, Preferred Office, Reaction 35, Ritz Carlton, SunTrust Bank, The Lofts at Capitol Quarters, Trammel Crow to name a few. Collectors throughout the United States and internationally have been collecting her work since 1995.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. GCCA’s galleries are open Tuesdays-Fridays from 9am – 5pm & Saturdays from 11am-3pm. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Ben Tarcson | Aug 1, 2023 | News
Join us at GCCA on First Friday, September 1st from 6-9pm for the opening of our newest Community Gallery exhibition, Rural Carolina Revisited. This exhibition showcases over 30 watercolor paintings of Pat Konicki and looks at conjunctions of beauty and antiquity of rural life in the Carolinas. Changing the perceptions of overlooked subjects is at the core of Konicki’s work. Subjects such as dilapidated barns or broken down cars hold intrinsic beauty and Konicki explores that idea by enhancing color and light. Konicki’s work provokes an emotional response to a place or thing, thus highlighting the value in protecting or restoring the environment around us in the Carolinas. The challenge is to see beyond the surface of the decay and capture its splendor and history.
Rural Carolina revisited will be on display from September 1st – October 25th, 2023 and admission is free during open business hours. Konicki’s work will be for sale throughout the duration of the exhibition. Purchase inquiries can be sent to Gallery Director, Ben Tarcson at ben@artcentergreenville.org.
About the Artist
Pat Konicki graduated from American Academy of Art and began her career as a graphic designer and illustrator in Chicago. After relocating to Miami, Pat opened a graphic design and advertising firm focused on clients in the fashion, retail, healthcare and manufacturing industries.
Pat now resides in the Carolinas, where she derives much of her inspiration of often forgotten treasures. She is an award winning, contributing member of the Southern Watercolor Society, North Carolina Watercolor Society, South Carolina Watermedia Society, Catawba River Visual Artists Guild, Rutherford County’s Visual Arts Center and Tryon Painters and Sculptors. Galleries and studios throughout North and South Carolina have exhibited her work.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Jess Abbott | Jul 31, 2023 | News
The Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) is delighted to announce the appointment of Javy Pagan as the new Program Director. With an impressive background in program creation, implementation, community engagement, and fundraising, Javy’s expertise is set to propel GCCA’s programming initiatives to new heights.
Before joining GCCA, Javy Pagan served as the Director of Museum Experience at the Children’s Museum of the Upstate. His remarkable accomplishments and dedication in the cultural sector have earned him a reputation as an influential leader with a passion for promoting creativity and the arts in the community. Javy is also a highly engaged and active member of the local Greenville theatre community.
In response to the appointment, Jess Burgess, CEO of Greenville Center for Creative Arts, commented, “We are thrilled to welcome Javy Pagan to our GCCA family as the new Program Director. With his wealth of experience and visionary approach to program development, we are excited to witness our initiatives flourish and make an even greater impact on the artistic landscape of the upstate region.”
Javy Pagan expressed his enthusiasm about his new role, stating, “I am excited to bring my experience in program creation, implementation, community engagement, and fundraising to the role of Programs Director at GCCA. I am humbled to be joining a team of incredible arts administrators, and I am committed to working with them for the betterment of the upstate community.”
As the Program Director, Javy Pagan will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of GCCA’s arts programs, fostering creativity, and expanding outreach efforts to ensure the organization continues to thrive as a leading hub for artistic expression in Greenville and beyond.
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About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Ben Tarcson | Jul 1, 2023 | News
July 1, 2023: Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) will hold its eighth Annual Showcase on Friday, August 4th, from 6 – 9 pm at 101 Abney St. in the Village of West Greenville. Presented by First Citizens Bank, the Annual Showcase is GCCA’s premiere event for artists and art lovers of all ages, featuring a new Main Gallery exhibition with works from more than 120 local artists & current Brandon Fellows, a special exhibition of youth artwork created during GCCA’s Summer Art Camps, live artist demos promoting classes for the Fall Art School, visits with 25 in-house studio artists, and much more.
Located in the Main Gallery, the Annual Showcase exhibition highlights over 100 GCCA members each year whose work embodies the talent and diversity of GCCA’s vibrant visual arts community. From contemporary paintings to functional ceramics and everything in between, there is something for everyone at the Annual Showcase exhibition. The 2022-2023 Brandon Fellowship exhibition will also be on display showcasing work by emerging artists Orlando Corona, Faith Hudgens, and RaAmen Stallings. In addition, after a competitive selection process, GCCA will announce three new Brandon Fellows for the upcoming 2023-2024 program year.
This summer GCCA’s art camps introduced a variety of visual art mediums to over 150 campers. To culminate all the hard work completed by instructors and campers, the Summer Art Camp Showcase presents a collection of various artworks from campers ages 5-12 years old.
Visitors can also enjoy a free ReCraft family activity supported by AFL Global, new Loft Gallery exhibition by studio artist Tania Ro, and the Greenville County Schools Winners Show will still be on display in the Community Gallery. During the event you can also meet our newest team member, Program Director, Javy Pagan. After First Friday, the Annual Showcase exhibition in the Main Gallery will be open to visitors through Sept. 28 on Tuesdays through Fridays from 9 am – 5 pm and Saturdays 11 am – 3 pm. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, call GCCA at 864-735-3948 or visit www.artcentergreenville.org.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Ben Tarcson | Jun 1, 2023 | News
June 1, 2023: Join Us for the Opening of the GCS Award Winners Show in the Community Gallery. GCCA will host the second annual Greenville County Schools Award Winners Show, opening First Friday, July 7, 2023 from 6 – 9 PM. The award winning artwork from students of GCS elementary, middle, and high schools represents the best of the best from over 90 schools throughout the district. These students worked hard to create the amazing art exhibited in the GCS Winners Show, and the Greenville County School District is pleased to share the artistic accomplishments of the GCS student artists with the community.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Ben Tarcson | May 1, 2023 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) announced the opening of their latest Main Gallery exhibition, Invisible Planet. The exhibition features the artwork of local Greenville artists Virginia Russo & Joseph Smolin. This exhibition opens on Friday, June 2nd, 2023 from 6-9pm. Admission is free and open to the public. Invisible Planet will be on display in the Main Gallery until Wednesday, July 26th, 2023.
On Tuesday, July 11th, join Russo and Smolin in GCCA’s Main Gallery at 6 PM for an artist talk event in the Main Gallery.
Invisible Planet is an imaginary world that represents untouched beauty and the raw wonder of creation. Russo created “The Planet” which aims to be a refuge for neuro-divergent people who suffer from sensory issues and overstimulation. This world in her work is a mysterious and ethereal land filled with mountains, cliffs, mushrooms, and an ever-present orange sun. Smolin’s experience growing up half-Jewish in the Deep South—Birmingham, AL—is reflected in his symbology and exploration of identity issues. His flamboyant and androgynous characters, as visitors on “The Planet“, challenge gender norms and societal expectations. Smolin’s work delivers condensed psycho-symbolic imagery that deals with themes of identity, religion, oppression, and conformity.
Virginia Russo
Kara Virginia Russo is a visual, performance, and multimedia artist based in Greenville, SC. Upon her adulthood diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, she embraced her inner imaginative world and the elements and symbolism that compose it. Endlessly combining circles, torn paper, and warm colors to create fantastical planet-scapes, she works similarly to a jazz musician, repeating, deconstructing, rearranging, and piecing back together a theme. She has collaborated on musical projects, contributing visual art as well as live performance art, and her work has been shown in galleries in Charleston, Columbia, and Greenville.
Joseph Smolin
Joseph Smolin, born and raised in Birmingham, AL, is a Jewish painter and multimedia artist. In 2020, he co-founded Rattlesnake Art Magazine, a journal highlighting underground art in the Carolinas. His contributions, both 2-D and 3-D, were an integral part of the immersive group exhibition Candy Machine. He has also shown work at Modal, Inchoate, Eighth State, and Carolina Bauernhaus. Smolin marries playfully grotesque characterization with bright, candy-colored aesthetics and a dry sense of humor. Joseph has lived in Greenville, SC since 2018.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. GCCA’s galleries are open Tuesdays-Fridays from 9am – 5pm & Saturdays from 11am-3pm. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Apr 21, 2023 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) opens their newest Community Gallery exhibition, Messages from the Past, featuring Caroline Hughes & Deborah Puretz Grove. The exhibition opens on Friday, May 5th, 2023 from 6 – 9 pm. Messages from the Past will continue on display through Wednesday, June 28th, 2023.
In Messages from the Past, Caroline E. Hughes and Deborah Puretz Grove test the processes that connect us to each other and our past. Through textures and patterning, we see how textiles, prints, and technologies can be a connecting force to bring understanding and advance towards the future. Caroline E. Hughes investigates personal experiences with place and community through large scale textile works. Aspects of rural living are present in her work. Hughes places an emphasis on her history in those settings as a catalyst for connections and shared experience. Deborah Puretz Grove uses semiconductor plates as metaphors for extending personal memories and connecting people all the time everywhere. In her many series of work, deeds, titles, letters, and family photos, from 1890 – 1950 are juxtaposed by references of semiconductor prototypes of the 1990s to further elaborate on the idea of memory extension.
Caroline E. Hughes
Caroline E. Hughes is a Textile Artist, Educator, and Historian living and working in Upstate South Carolina. She bases her themes of work, tacit knowledge, and craftsmanship in the fading histories of her hometown in rural South Greenville County. That fading, and the changes that affect it, are the basis of the ideas explored by Caroline in her textile work. Her work seeks to bring attention to the importance of a way of life and thought, largely passed over in our modern day-to-day existence. The study of the past is to inform the future. With this belief as a mainspring, her works are created using traditional craft methods and tell an inherent multi-faceted story of craft, community, and belonging.
Deborah Puretz Grove
Deborah Puretz Grove received an MBA from the American Graduate School of International Management in Glendale, Arizona and a BA from UCLA and Lund University, Sweden. Deborah completed an MA in TESOL at California State University, and hundreds of hours in post graduate art history courses. Grove has traveled to over 40 countries and speaks four languages. Since 1977, Deborah has work within the IT industry in Hong Kong and Redwood City, CA. She has exhibited at the San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA; Stanford University; Krannert Art Museum at University of Illinois; Napa Valley Museum & the Berkeley Art Museum in California among many other.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Ben Tarcson | Mar 23, 2023 | News
Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) is excited to announce the opening of their Main Gallery exhibition, Past/Present. The exhibition features the artwork of acclaimed artists Lee Malerich & Dwain Skinner. This exhibition opens on Friday, April 7th, 2023 from 6-9 PM. There will be opening remarks for the exhibition made by GCCA’s CEO, Jess Burgess at 6:30 PM. Admission is free and open to the public.
On Tuesday, May 9th, join Past/Present exhibiting artist, Lee Malerich, in GCCA’s Main Gallery at 6 PM for our ARTalk event discussing her artwork. Past/Present will be on display in the Main Gallery until Wednesday, May 24th, 2023.
In Past/Present, artists Lee Malerich and Dwain Skinner use patterns and myriads of cultural imagery to explore how personal history’s impact us. Through lived experiences, journeys are chronicled and work confronts the past to reconcile the present. Lee Malerich repurposes old furniture, toys, or tools into large wooden sculptures that suggest ways of having lived. Malerich’s history in textiles provide insight into her use of patterning to unify the complex compositions in each sculpture. Beginning in 2019, after years away from art-making, Dwain Skinner created over 100 pieces in what would be his last year of life. This proliferation of mixed media, collage, and found objects largely embodies a deconstruction of nostalgia surrounding ideals of Americana.
Lee Malerich
Lee Malerich is a sculpture and textile artist from South Carolina. Malerich received her BFA in 1979 & MA in 1981 in Studio Art-Textiles from Northern Illinois University. She is a retired teacher and has taught at Coker College, Orangeburg Calhoun Technical College, & Columbia College. Malerich is the recipient of many major grants and fellowships including the South Carolina Arts Commission Fellowship in Crafts and the National Endowment of the Arts Regional Fellowship. Her work can be found in the South Carolina Arts Commission State Art Collection as well as in the collections of the City of Charleston and the SC State Museum, among many others. Being originally trained in textiles, Malerich has over the past decade transitioned to sculpture and woodworking. “I started patterning using colored pencils on the surfaces of the sculptures and then I began to play with value in the same way I did in my textiles. I construct reclaimed wood in layers, shadowing the actual construction of my [history in] textiles.”
Dwain Skinner
Dwain Skinner was born in Greer, SC in 1969. He attended the Fine Arts Center, as well as the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. He received his B.S. in graphic design from Winthrop University. After completing his degree, Dwain worked as an illustrator and graphic designer until the beginning of 2019, when he and his wife, Meredith, left the corporate world to pursue their mutual dream of opening an art gallery and working as full time artists. As a full-time artist, Dwain constantly explored and refined his personal style. He developed an impassioned interest in mixed media, and would often journey to flea markets and rummage sales to collect small objects for his unique collages. He prepared well over 100 pieces for the opening of Woodbine Studio & Gallery in November 2019. That same year, his illustrations were published in a children’s book, he won the cover of Greenville’s Visitors Guide, and participated in Open Studios for the first time. His experiences provided the impetus for Dwain to continue to move forward as an artist. Tragically, Dwain passed away on November 20, 2019, just ten days after showing his work for the first time.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. GCCA’s galleries are open Tuesdays-Fridays from 9am – 5pm & Saturdays from 11am-3pm. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Ben Tarcson | Feb 1, 2023 | News
February 1, 2023: GCCA announced the opening of the spring Community Gallery exhibition, Works by Elizabeth Kinney, on First Friday, March 3, 2023, from 6 – 9 PM. Join us for the evening with welcoming remarks from our CEO, Jess Burgess, at 6:30 PM and the opportunity to meet Elizabeth and discuss her exhibition.
Elizabeth Kinney’s solo exhibition showcases large-scale paintings and charcoal drawings. Elizabeth, a muralist, captures strange, beautiful, and comforting moments through the use of intense colors and finds inspiration from the community around her. She has been working in mixed media since 1994, with a focus on portraits, murals, and paintings. She currently has work on display at Hotel Domestique, and Restaurant 17. You might see some of her murals around Greenville and Travelers Rest if you ever bike the trail, wander the neighborhoods, or listen to Music in the Park.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Jan 1, 2023 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) is excited to announce the opening of their Main Gallery exhibition, It’s all around us. The exhibition features the artwork of acclaimed artists Heather Brand, Alan Shuptrine, & Dawn Stetzel. The exhibition opens with a First Friday reception from 6:00 – 9:00 pm on Friday, February 3rd, 2023. There will be opening remarks from GCCA Chief Executive Officer, Jess Burgess, at 6:30 PM. This exhibition continues until Wednesday, March 29th, 2023.
It’s all around us is a group exhibition featuring artists Heather Brand, Alan Shuptrine, and Dawn Stetzel with works examining natural & synthetic elements of our surroundings. Through photography, sculptures, and paintings, the artists explore the delicate manner in how man-made materials and structures can affect our relationship with the natural world. Objects, structures, and places which are not found naturally but are created and synonymous with humanity’s connection with nature question the desire of an ideal natural world versus balancing ways to respond to and maintain our environment.
Heather Brand
Heather Brand is a visual artist living and working in Meadville Pennsylvania. She has an MFA in Visual Studies from the University of Buffalo and is an Assistant Professor of Art at Allegheny College. Her work depicts scenes of humans’ mediated relationship with nature via deceptions of built environments concerning the collection, cultivation, and recreation of the natural world. Brand’s work has been shown internationally in London UK, Rome, Italy, Sao Luis, Portugal, and Madrid, Spain. Nationally her work has recently been exhibited at the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art in Altoona, Pennsylvania, the Midwest Center Center for Photography in Wichita, Kansas, and the Community Arts Center of Oneonta in Oneonta, New York.
Alan Shuptrine
A painter known for his realistic watercolors, oils, gold leafing, and handmade frames, Alan Shuptrine’s works can be found in the permanent collections of several American museums and hundreds of corporate and private collections nationwide. A multi-faceted artist, Shuptrine is a leading practitioner in the centuries-old art of handcrafting and water gilding, fine art frames and mirrors, wood carving, and sgraffito etching. Born the son of recognized painter, Hubert Shuptrine (1936-2006), Alan also has continued the legacy of watercolor realism that both Andrew Wyeth and his father Hubert established and has cemented himself as a nationally renowned watercolor artist.
Dawn Stetzel
Dawn Stetzel is an artist from the United States currently living on the Long Beach Peninsula on the southern coast of Washington on the unceded land of the Chinook and Lower Chinook. Her performative sculptures interact with environments in the margins, where humans and nature rub together leaving a sometimes-messy residue. An intensely strong work ethic was formed through growing up in Iowa and this physicality and fortitude shows up in her sculptural works. She is innovative in her field of sculpture and has contributed through her work over the past twenty years. In 2000 she was awarded her first solo exhibition and a Durham Arts Council Emerging Artist Grant in North Carolina. She has a Master of Fine Arts from the College of Visual and Performing Arts at The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. She has exhibited widely in the United States through multiple solo exhibitions, public art commissions and group exhibitions including Grounds for Sculpture, Disjecta and the Portland Biennial. Her work is included in permanent public collections at The City of Seattle Office of Arts & Culture and the Shiwan Ceramic Museum in the Guangdong Province of China. Her work is printed in multiple publications, she has shown internationally and has lectured in the United States, China and Brazil.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. GCCA’s galleries are open Tuesdays-Fridays from 9 AM – 5 PM & Saturdays from 11 AM – 3 PM. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Dec 1, 2022 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) is excited to announce the opening of a new Community Gallery exhibition, No Detail Too Small, featuring KC Christmas & Jordan Winiski. The exhibition opens on Friday, January 6th, 2023 from 6 – 9 pm. No Detail Too Small will continue on display through Wednesday, February 22nd, 2023.
In No Detail Too Small, Jordan Winiski and KC Christmas explore the intricacies of life. Jordan Winiski transforms overlooked flora into intricate ceramic dioramas to magnify the dichotomy between what is valued or destroyed. KC Christmas’s flora collages serve as a reminder to pause and reflect. By capturing florals in their bloom, the progress of time is paused in order to observe a moment before it is gone.
KC Christmas
KC Christmas is a contemporary painter and collage artist living and working in South Carolina. Known for her unique interpretations of florals, she takes inspiration from the Old Masters of art history and combines them with current, relevant topics. Her work ranges from themes of deep, personal struggles to local scenes to work infused with a bit of snarky humor. Many of KC’s works have been exhibited across the United States and around the world, including Egypt and Scotland. She has won multiple awards with her works and earned a residency with the South Carolina State Parks in 2022. Currently, she works from her home studio as both an artist and illustrator.
Jordan Winiski
Jordan Winiski is a current ceramic artist and Post-Baccalaureate student at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Jordan teaches at two art centers in Illinois and emphasizes environmental consciousness in her studio work and curriculum. In 2021, she graduated from Furman University, studying Studio Art and Sustainability Science. She received the Howerton Award for high standard of craftsmanship in Three-Dimensional Arts as well as the Excellence in Service Award from the Art Department. In addition, Jordan was the Earth and Environmental Sciences Scholar Award Recipient and completed a year-long senior thesis on the role of sustainability in art education. Jordan has completed residencies in Georgia and Massachusetts, was named a 2022 South Carolina Emerging Artist, and was a 2022 NCECA Multicultural fellow.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Dec 1, 2022 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) has named Alicia Mizuno as its next Operations Manager. As the newest member of the GCCA team, Alicia brings extensive experience in facilities and operational management to the organization.
Originally from the Dallas, Texas area, Alicia holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design from the University of North Texas. She was awarded the True Blue Award for Collaboration in 2019 by her previous employer, Allied Solutions, based in Plano, Texas.
“We are extremely excited to have Alicia join our team. Her operational experience and knowledge of facilities management for a large company, coupled with her passion for the arts, makes her a tremendous asset,” explains Jess Burgess, GCCA’s CEO. “GCCA works tirelessly to bring high-quality accessible arts experiences and education to the community of Greenville. Alicia’s expertise will help the organization streamline operations for the artists that call GCCA home and help us continue to make a lasting impact for Upstate South Carolina.”
Alicia comments: “I recently moved to South Carolina after living in Texas my whole life and everyone has been so nice and welcoming since I arrived. I’m very thankful to have been given this opportunity to work with such amazing artists in the Greenville area. I’m looking forward to continuing to grow with GCCA and our community!”
Please consider joining us for our First Friday Opening Reception on Friday, December 2, 2022, from 6-9 PM and greet Alicia to welcome her to our team.
by Greg | Nov 1, 2022 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) is excited to announce the opening of their Main Gallery exhibition, Strangely Familiar. The exhibition features the artwork of acclaimed artists Heather Deyling, Joseph Kameen, and Mark Brosseau. The exhibition continues on display until Wednesday, January 25th, 2023. GCCA’s galleries are open Tuesdays-Fridays from 9 AM – 5 PM & Saturdays from 11 AM – 3 PM. GCCA will be closed to the public from December 23rd, 2022 – January 2nd, 2023 for the holidays.
In Strangely Familiar, artists Joseph Kameen, Mark Brosseau and Heather Deyling confront relationships to the world around them. Familiar yet sometimes indiscernible objects and scenery call into question the connection we have with the world around us. Mark Brosseau and Joseph Kameen’s paintings find figures and objects coming to terms with their surroundings; while, Heather Deyling’s fiber and mixed media installation of amalgamated flora and fauna defy identification and question the ways in which they emerged.
Heather Deyling
Heather Deyling is the Professor of Foundation Studies at SCAD Atlanta. Deyling earned an MFA in painting from Tyler School of Art, Temple University and a BFA from Kent State University. Recent exhibitions include a solo show at the Peninsula Museum of Art in Burlingame, CA and group exhibitions at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, San Jose, CA, the Hudgens Center for Art and Learning, Duluth, GA and the Wiregrass Museum of Art, Dothan, AL.
Joseph Kameen
Joseph Kameen is the Assistant Professor of Art at the University of South Carolina Aiken teaching painting and drawing. Kameen received his BFA in painting and sculpture from Boston University, and an MFA in painting from Indiana University Bloomington. Kameen has exhibited his artwork nationally and internationally at venues such as The Painting Center, Site: Brooklyn, and Torstraße 111.
Mark Brosseau
Mark Brosseau lives in Greer with his wife and two dogs. He received his BA from Dartmouth College and his MFA from the University of Pennsylvania. He has had fourteen solo exhibitions, has been in a number of group shows, has had his work reviewed by ArtForum, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and has been featured in Town magazine. He is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to Iceland (2001) and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship (2019). He is the Art Teacher at Lakeview Middle School in Greenville.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Oct 31, 2022 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) has promoted Ben Tarcson to the position of Gallery Director. As one of the longest-serving staff members at GCCA, Tarcson has played an important role in the strategic development of GCCA’s exhibition program, facilitating the committee review process and serving as a liaison to exhibiting artists.
In his new role as Gallery Director, Tarcson will become the lead advisor to the Brandon Fellowship program, as well as continuing his exhibition management duties. Tarcson has coordinated and installed over 50 art exhibitions across the Main, Community, and Studio Artist Loft galleries during his five years with GCCA. Some notable exhibitions include The South Carolina State Art Collection’s Contemporary Conversations and Narratives Ending in Separation by Linda McCune, amongst many others.
Tarcson is a graduate of Allegheny College with a bachelor’s degree in studio art, a concentration in painting, and a minor in history. While at Allegheny College, he worked as a Gallery Assistant for the college’s Bowman-Penelac-Megahan art gallery, where he assisted exhibiting artists and the Director & Curator with exhibition installation and other art-related events.
CEO Jess Burgess comments, “Ben’s promotion is a direct result of his exemplary work and dedication throughout his time at GCCA, and we’re thrilled to support his continued growth as a leader for the organization.”
Join GCCA for its next exhibition opening on Friday, November 4, from 6-9 p.m., to see the newly installed Square Roots by Sarkis Chorbadjian in the GCCA Community Gallery.
by Greg | Oct 1, 2022 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) is excited to announce the opening of a new Community Gallery solo exhibition, Square Roots, featuring Sarkis Chorbadjian. The exhibition will open on Friday, November 4th from 6 – 9 pm. Square Roots will continue on display through Wednesday, December 21st, 2022.
In Square Roots, Sarkis Chorbadjian showcases square-formatted paintings that explore the application and removal of oil & cold wax layers. For Sarkis, scratching large, square painting surfaces to their roots reveals an emotional significance that is a product of the process in which he works. His abstract landscape paintings are personal responses to places he has visited or imagined. The viewer is invited to travel with the artist, to feel and sense the memories, and to discover new ones.
Sarkis Chorbadjian
Originally from the island of Cyprus, Sarkis has lived in Greenville South Carolina since 1978. Formerly of the decorative arts, interiors, and gilding world, Sarkis’ background in color and design informs his current abstract expressionist painting style. Experiences from travel and memories of the ancient world play a major role in his artwork. His abstract landscape paintings are personal responses to places he has visited or imagined. The viewer is invited to travel with the artist, to feel and sense the memories, and to discover new ones.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Sep 1, 2022 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) is excited to announce the opening of their Main Gallery exhibition, Narratives Ending In Separation. The exhibition features the work of acclaimed artist Linda McCune. The exhibition opens with a First Friday reception from 6:00 – 9:00 pm on Friday, October 7th 2022 and continues until November 23rd, 2022. The exhibition will also be open during the First Friday on November 4th.
In Narratives Ending in Separation, Linda McCune’s mixed media sculptures traverse emotional autobiographies that memorialize cherished family, childhood fears, and a young woman’s longing for children. These sculptures give the opportunity to remember and honor the importance of the everyday, of family. Her finely crafted structures are embedded with made and found objects to imbue her sculpture with an abstract spirituality and a ritual of symbolic details. She reminds us that all our past can be prophetic to our present.
Linda McCune
Linda Williams McCune’s home and continuing family ties to rural Tennessee greatly influence her multiple media sculptures and drawings constructed in her home studio in Greer, South Carolina. She has been featured in numerous exhibitions across the U.S. and internationally. Her work is in many collections including the South Carolina State Art Collection, Columbia Museum of Art, Hunter Museum of American Art, and the Asheville Museum of Art. Her work has been reviewed in a number of publications including, Atlanta Art Papers and the Artists and Critics Forum. McCune has won the SC State Artist Fellowship, the National NISOD Award, the Metropolitan Art Council’s Carl R. Blair Award for Commitment to Arts Education, Elon College’s Excellence in the Arts and Humanities Grant and the Metropolitan Arts Council Project Grant. She was honored by the SC Arts Commission’s 100 years 100 Artists ’Views from the Edge of the Century Project and as a founding board member of the Mountain Makin’s Festival in Morristown, TN, a Southeastern Tourism Society Top 20 and a New York Times Tennessee top festival. Linda McCune recently retired from Greenville Technical College’s Department of Visual Arts, as Academic Program Director and Lead Professor in art history, fine arts and art education. She enthusiastically maintains her studio practice and exhibition schedule.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Aug 10, 2022 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) revealed the incoming class of the Brandon Fellowship at its Annual Showcase on August 5. The Fellowship is a 12-month program that aims to develop three emerging artists between the ages of 21 to 30 who represent the diversity of the Greenville visual arts community. Now in its eighth year, the program provides free studio space, a stipend for supplies, a supportive environment, mentorship, and art education, including professional development resources, to help these artists thrive in the next step of their education, career, or business.
“We’ve had such strong candidates apply for the Brandon Fellowship this year, representing the breadth of talents and perspectives of young Greenville artists,” says Kevin Kao, the chair of the Brandon Fellowship selection committee. “We’re so excited to present our new fellows and cannot wait to see the impact that they will have with GCCA as well as the greater Greenville community.”
Orlando Corona is a Greenville-based oil painter and printmaker, born in Mexico. His artwork is based on his Mexican culture and as a first-generation immigrant in the U.S. While only having 3 years of experience, he has been in several galleries since the age of 17 and has studied under several local artists. His favorite artists include Diego Rivera, a Mexican muralist; Posada, a printmaker; and Pablo Picasso. Orlando strives to create impactful art that can be shared with others. Art is his creative way of communicating his thoughts and speaking to the world.
A self-taught painter and mixed-media artist, Faith Hudgens grew up in Greenville and has worked professionally as a highly regarded tattoo artist since establishing her practice in 2017. Her paintings are vibrant, emotional, and layered with spirituality. She has participated in exhibitions at Greenville Technical College and the Commerce Club. Faith is an uplifter in her community and volunteers regularly with Miracle Hill Ministries hosting art classes for young girls in foster care. Faith has also hosted PRIDE events with Upstate Pride SC and donates art to organizations that support women and the LGBTQ+ community. Faith’s overarching goal is to cultivate positive change through her art and specifically, to use art as a platform to propel Greenville forward in unity, cultural diversity, and minority inclusion.
RaAmen (Rah-Mēn) Stallings Is an aspiring creative who is passionate about all forms of art. He is a graduate of both Greenville Senior High Academy and Greenville Technical College where he received an associate’s in Business Administration. Although he has worked professionally as a photographer since launching his business in 2020, RaAmen is now focused on developing his skills as a painter. He is committed to expanding his artistic practice and believes strongly in the power of art as a way to inspire and facilitate community and conversation.
This year’s Brandon Fellowship selection committee included chair Kevin Kao, sculptor and Assistant Professor of Art at Furman University; Danielle Fontaine, encaustic artist, and Brandon Fellowship Founder; Rhonda Rawlings, a GCCA board member and community director for Mill Village Ministries; Nick Burns, painter and mixed-media artist and alumnus of the Brandon Fellows class of 2020; Patricia DeLeon, painter and mixed-media artist; and Kara Bale, operations manager for GCCA who oversees the Fellowship program.
“I couldn’t be more excited about our new fellows,” says Kara Bale, who oversees the program at GCCA. “It was a very challenging selection process as we had so many talented and deserving applicants, but I feel the committee did an excellent job and selected three individuals who strongly reflect GCCA’s mission to enrich the cultural fabric of our community. Each has already used their art to grow community and further important conversations so it will be amazing to see what they accomplish within the supportive structure of the fellowship.”
Previous Brandon Fellows alumni have gone on to become full-time working artists, designers, participants in Artisphere and other festivals, graduate students, artists-in-residence, instructors, community muralists, published artists, grant recipients, and award winners.
An exhibition featuring the work of the 2021-22 Brandon Fellows, Kim Le, Sienna Patterson, and Terrell Washington is on display through Sept. 28 in GCCA’s Main Gallery. Kim Le’s work comes from the ugly, wounded, and abject parts of a young girl’s psyche, reappropriating the common language of cuteness that little girls use to cope with their pain to connect to the furious and wretched spirit of young girls and women everywhere who’ve been beaten down by the world around them. Through expressive imagery and journal entries, Sienna Patterson explores the concept of the fool’s journey through the lens of her personal experiences. Depiction the trials of self and the price that we pay to develop the ego to surpass the ego and to transcend the ego. Terrell Washington’s “Genesis: Omens and Decisions of Existence”, features Abrahamic beliefs and highlights the realness of prayer, our blessings and curses, human nature, while putting people of melanin at the center of it all. This exhibition can be viewed during GCCA’s open hours Tuesday-Friday from 9 a.m. – 5 PM and Saturday from 11 AM – 3 PM.
To learn more about the Brandon Fellowship, visit https://artcentergreenville.org/brandon-fellowship/.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Jul 12, 2022 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) will hold its seventh Annual Showcase on Friday, August 5, from 6 – 9 pm at 101 Abney Street in the Village of West Greenville. The Annual Showcase is GCCA’s premiere event for artists and art lovers of all ages, featuring a new Main Gallery exhibition of local artists and current Brandon Fellows, a special exhibition of youth artwork created during GCCA’s Summer Art Camps, live artist demos promoting classes on the fall Art School schedule, visits with 25 in-house studio artists, and much more.
The Annual Showcase exhibition highlights over 100 GCCA members each year whose artwork embodies the talent and diversity of GCCA’s vibrant visual arts community. From contemporary paintings to functional ceramics and everything in between, there is something for everyone at the Annual Showcase exhibition in the Main Gallery.
The 2021-2022 Brandon Fellowship exhibition will also be on display with work by emerging artists Kim Le, Sienna Patterson, and Terrell Washington. Kim Le’s work comes from the ugly, wounded and abject parts of a young girl’s psyche, reappropriating the common language of cuteness that little girls use to cope with their pain to connect to the furious and wretched spirit of young girls and women everywhere who’ve been beaten down by the world around them. Through expressive imagery and journal entries, Sienna Patterson explores the concept of the fool’s journey through the lens of her personal experiences. Terrell Washington’s “Genesis: Omens and Decisions of Existence”, depicts the realness of prayer, our blessings and curses, human nature, all while highlighting people of melanin at the center of his work. In addition, after a competitive selection process, GCCA will announce the three new Brandon Fellows for the upcoming 2022-2023 program year.
This summer GCCA’s summer art camps introduced a variety of visual art mediums to over 150 campers. To culminate all the hard work completed by instructors and campers, the Summer Art Camp Showcase will present a collection of various artworks from campers ages 5-12 years old in the Gray Loft.
First Friday attendees can also attend in-person demos by GCCA instructors and learn more about the Fall Session offerings for the new Jewelry and Printmaking classes. There will be a free ReCraft family art activity, new Loft Gallery exhibitions by GCCA resident studio artists Mary Pauly and Hans-Peter Bolz, and the Greenville County Schools Winners Show will still be on display in the Community Gallery.
Visitors will also have the chance to meet GCCA’s new Development Director, Chelsea Rudisill. Chelsea comes to GCCA after many years of fundraising experience including work at the Peace Center and the Asheville Museum of Art.
After First Friday, the Annual Showcase exhibition will be open to visitors through September 28 on Tuesdays through Fridays from 9 am – 5 pm and Saturdays 11 am – 3 pm. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, call GCCA at 864-735-3948 or visit www.artcentergreenville.org.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Jul 12, 2022 | News
Greenville, SC – The Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) has named Chelsea Rudisill as its next Development Director. As the newest member of the GCCA team, Chelsea brings extensive experience providing strategic direction and generating funds to support and sustain high-impact nonprofit organizations.
Chelsea is a native of Greenville, SC. She is a Certified Fund Raising Executive and has previously held development positions at the Peace Center in Greenville, Asheville Art Museum in Asheville, NC, and Richland Library in Columbia, SC. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Policy from Duke University and a master’s degree in Arts Administration from Winthrop University. Chelsea is an active member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and served as a 2020 and 2021 committee member for AFP Global’s Women’s Impact Initiative.
“We are extremely excited to have Chelsea join our team. Her fundraising and grant writing experience, coupled with her interest in the arts, makes her a tremendous asset,” explains Jess Burgess, GCCA’s CEO. “GCCA works tirelessly to bring high-quality accessible arts experiences and education to the community of Greenville. Chelsea’s expertise will help the organization develop a funding model that supports our mission and programs to continue to make a lasting impact for Upstate South Carolina.”
Chelsea comments: “I am thrilled to be joining the team at Greenville Center for Creative Arts and look forward to helping build sustainable support to strengthen visual arts engagement and provide resources for emerging artists.”
Please consider joining us for our 7th Annual Showcase on Friday, August 5, 2022, from 6-9 PM, and greet Chelsea to welcome her to our team.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Jun 3, 2022 | News
June 3rd, 2022: Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) is excited to announce the opening of their Main Gallery exhibition, In Flux. The exhibition features the work of acclaimed artists Brent Dedas, Tom Dimond, Andy Holliday & Lijun Chao. The exhibition opens with a First Friday reception from 6:00 – 9:00 pm on Friday, June 3rd and continues until July 27th, 2022. The exhibition will also be open during GCCA’s First Friday event on July 1st, 2022.
In Flux communicates visual conversations either between the artists, with chaotic external forces, or with their own memories. Their work requires them to relinquish a certain degree of control and react in turn to the conversation revealed before them. The tense visual motion the artists create highlights the collaborative processes in which they work.
Brent Dedas
Brent Dedas is an Associate Professor of Art at University of South Carolina. He received his Masters of Fine Arts degree along with a Museum Studies Curatorial Certificate from the College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning, University of Cincinnati. His Bachelor of Fine Arts is from the Hite Art Institute, University of Louisville.
Tom Dimond
Tom Dimond retired in 2006 as an Emeritus Professor of Art from Clemson University. He began his career at Clemson first as the Director of Lee Gallery and then as Professor of Painting. He grew up in Massachusetts and received a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and an MFA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He taught at both Winthrop College and Clemson University. He also worked as Art Director for the National Lampoon Magazine.
Andy Holliday
Andy Holliday teaches at Auburn University in Auburn, AL. He earned his MFA in Printmaking from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and his BFA in Printmaking from Auburn University. His studio practice ranges from printmaking to ceramics and sculpture. He seeks to broaden the boundaries of technical printmaking and expand accessibility to the medium.
Lijun Chao
Lijun Chao teaches drawing at Auburn University in Auburn, AL. She is originally from Heze City, Shandong Province in China. She specializes in drawing and painting, including traditional Chinese watercolor. She earned her MFA in Painting from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Lijun is interested in themes of motherhood, distance and connections in her work, and she is eager to connect traditional practices to diverse techniques and approaches.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Jun 3, 2022 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) will begin accepting applications for its annual emerging young artist program, the Brandon Fellowship, on Friday, June 3, 2022. This 12-month program aims to develop three emerging artists between the ages of 21 to 30 who represent the diversity of the Greenville community. Those selected receive free studio space, a stipend for supplies, a supportive environment, mentorship, and complimentary art education for one full year. Through this unique opportunity for young creative arts professionals, Fellowship alumni have established themselves as full-time working artists, designers, graduate students, artists-in-residence, instructors, published artists, grant recipients, and award winners.
This will be the eighth year for the program, which was created in 2015 when the Art Center was founded. The application will be available until July 3rd on GCCA’s website. In addition, paper copies can be picked up in person at 101 Abney Street Tuesday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., or Saturday 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Applicants must be legal citizens of the United States and residents of Greenville County. They must also be between the ages of 21 and 30. Prior professional art training or post-secondary education is not required for consideration. Completed applications must be received by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, July 3, 2022, to be considered.
To learn more about the Brandon Fellowship or to support the program with a donation, visit www.artcentergreenville.org/brandonfellowship.
About Greenville Center for Creative Arts
Founded by a dedicated group of local artists and philanthropists, Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) opened in May 2015 as a community hub for the visual arts. A 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, its mission is to enrich the cultural fabric of the communities it serves through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. GCCA provides arts education to more than 900 people each year, as well as showcases local artists, and nurtures appreciation and enjoyment in the arts. It houses artists’ studios, an emerging artists’ fellowship, exhibitions, free community programs, and classes for all ages. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
by Greg | Apr 4, 2022 | News |
Greenville, SC – Jess Burgess has been named Chief Executive Officer of Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) following an extensive local and national search. Burgess brings 15 years of experience in nonprofit administration and the performing arts. She has a proven track record of start-up to growth-phase organizational development and is excited to work closely with GCCA’s stakeholders to chart a strategic path forward for continued success. Burgess uniquely combines a passion for engaging programming, strong fundraising, and creativity that are essential for leading a thriving arts organization.
As shared by GCCA Board Chair Yvonne Julian, “I am excited to announce that GCCA will have an enthusiastic, energetic, and experienced leader who will maintain the momentum we’ve achieved in our pursuit of sustainability and expanded reach in the Greenville community and beyond.” Burgess comes to GCCA from Dogtown Dance Theatre (Richmond, VA) where she has served as Executive Director since 2015. Burgess received a B.A. (Cum Laude) in Dance and Communications from James Madison University, and a Professional Certificate in Fund Development from the University of Richmond Institute for Philanthropy. Burgess serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Central Virginia chapter as well as that of the James Madison University College of Visual and Performing Arts.
Since GCCA opened in 2015, the Founders and Board of Directors have made significant progress toward ensuring that a permanent home for the arts is realized in Greenville. Jess shares this goal as expressed in her recent remarks, “I am thrilled to make Greenville, South Carolina my new home and help shape the arts community for years to come. Greenville Center for Creative Arts is in an outstanding place to make a lasting impact on the lives of artists and those who love art, and I am excited to help GCCA excel in the future.” You are cordially invited to meet Jess and personally welcome her to Greenville at GCCA’s 7th birthday celebration at the May 6th First Friday event and opening of a new art exhibition.
In late 2019, GCCA finalized the purchase of the Cloth Building, which currently houses all of GCCA’s programs. It has recently completed a renovation of this building, adding many new artist studios and classroom spaces. To date, the GCCA Art School has attracted more than 2,300 students for classes and workshops, and hundreds of scholarships have enabled students of all ages and income to participate in quality arts education.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) and Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Apr 3, 2022 | News
Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) in association with Walt’s Waltz, a non-profit mental health organization, is excited to announce the opening of the new Community Gallery exhibition, Step Out Of Stigma. The exhibition features the work of Upstate artists Eli Warren, Nick Burns, Sherrill Hill, Will Crooks, Mimi Wyche, Lisa Steffens, Traci Martin, Savannah Rose Ralph, Barbara Castaneda, & collaborations with Dr. Frank Clark between artists Lisa M. Shimko and Terrell Washington. The exhibition opens with a First Friday reception from 6:00 – 9:00 pm on Friday, May 6th, and continues until Wednesday, June 22nd, 2022. The exhibition will also be open during the First Friday on June 3rd, 2022. Step Out Of Stigma is sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Visual art provides a cathartic release of pent-up, stigmatized topics such as anxiety and depression. It can evoke an emotional response in process but also in product through the lens of the spectator. Let’s stop dancing around mental health conversations. In Step Out Of Stigma artists, Eli Warren, Nick Burns, Sherrill Hill, Will Crooks, Mimi Wyche, Lisa Steffens, Traci Martin, Savannah Rose Ralph, Barbara Castaneda, Lisa M. Shimko, and Terrell Washington open up discussions surrounding mental health conditions through a variety of techniques and mediums. Their work represents the dark, depressive days, the chaotic, anxious days as well as the days filled with light and hope.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
About Walt’s Waltz
Walt’s Waltz is a non-profit organization that seeks to be a compass and a megaphone for mental health support, education, and change. For more information, visit https://www.waltswaltz.com.
by Greg | Apr 1, 2022 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) is excited to announce the opening of their Main Gallery exhibition, Sight(s) Specific. The exhibition features the work of acclaimed artists Charles Geiger, Julia Morrisroe, & Meredith Stoudenmire. The exhibition opens with a First Friday reception from 6:00 – 9:00 pm on Friday, April 1st and continues until May 25th, 2022. The exhibition will also be open during the First Friday on May 6th, 2022. Sight(s) Specific is sponsored by TOWN magazine.
In Sight(s) Specific, artists Charles Geiger, Julia Morrisroe, and Meredith Stoudenmire investigate ideas ranging from narratives associated with monuments & contemporary events to the thrill of adventure. Through abstracted forms, environmental and social issues precipitate to create conversation surrounding our past and our future. Charles Geiger uses abstracted botanical forms in his paintings that merge with social and environmental issues. Julia Morrisroe’s paintings examine the purpose of public monuments and who they served. Through imagery of volcanoes, Meredith Stoudenmire’s paintings explore adventure and risk taking.
Charles Geiger
Geiger grew up in Charleston, South Carolina and currently lives and works full-time in New York’s Hudson Valley region. He studied art at East Carolina University and Computer Science at Millersville University. Much of his art is informed by science concepts which are interlaced with current environmental and societal stresses. A recent exhibition of his paintings on climate change at NYU Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. was underwritten in part by the Rachel Carson Center, New York University Arts and Humanities Art & Art History, and eARThumanities.
Julia Morrisroe
Julia Morrisroe is an artist and writer whose work has been exhibited internationally.
Morrisroe’s abstract visual language examines the flood of images and information (relevant or not) to expose the impossibility of meaning in this oversaturated environment through installations, murals, prints and clusters of painting. Morrisroe is a Professor in painting and drawing at University of Florida and serves on the Conference Committee of the College Art Association and the Curatorial Board for 352Walls for the city of Gainesville, FL. Morrisroe’s paintings, drawings, and installations have been exhibited in museums and art galleries worldwide in over 17 solo exhibitions and 90 group exhibitions.
Meredith Stoudenmire
Meredith Stoudenmire is an visual artist and writer, born and based in Greenville SC. She makes paintings and books focused on adventure, bravery, and a quest for answers, using volcanoes as a symbol and a character. After graduating from the Atlanta College of Art with a BFA in Printmaking, she lived in various cities before returning back to her hometown in 2010.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Feb 3, 2022 | News
WHAT: City of Women, an initiative that aims to advance the role of women in our community and businesses, will launch in Greenville with a juried exhibition at Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA). The initiative’s community-based mission is to celebrate the legacy of impactful women who have played a significant role in making Greenville the vibrant community it is today.
WHO: More than 50 Upstate artists submitted work in a variety of mediums through an open submission process that highlights historical and contemporary women who have made a significant impact in the Greenville community. Areas of recognition include healthcare and well-being, education, economic opportunity, science and technology, civic engagement, and arts and culture. The juror for the exhibition is Jonell Logan, Creative Director of the McColl Center for Art + Innovation in Charlotte, NC. This exhibition is sponsored by Wyche, P.A.
WHEN: This effort will culminate in a free public exhibition that will be featured through a virtual gallery on GCCA’s website and in a special juried exhibition opening on First Friday, March 4, from 6-9 p.m. and on display through April 27. All appropriate entries will be included in the virtual gallery. Juror selections will be exhibited in GCCA’s Community Gallery and be eligible for $2,000 in prizes.
WHERE: Juror selections can be seen in GCCA’s Community Gallery at GCCA at 101 Abney St., Greenville, SC 29611. To view the virtual gallery and see all submissions, visit artcentergreenville.org/exhibitions/city-of-women. From March 4-6, the public can vote online for their favorite piece to receive a “People’s Choice” prize package of art supplies.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Jan 14, 2022 | News
Greenville, SC – Premier Arts Collective (PAC) has partnered with Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) to award one Brandon Fellowship alumni a free artist studio at GCCA through August 2024. After a competitive selection process, artist Nick Burns was selected as the recipient of the new Premier Arts Collective Studio at GCCA.
“One of our chief goals at PAC is to provide opportunities for artists to create as a means of healing, therapy, and growth as an individual and artist. This partnership with GCCA allows us to do that in an impactful way within an exceptional space,” says Gene Krcelic, President of PAC. “Nick is not only an excellent artist but an even better person. We know he will use this studio space for his own development as an artist and do an incredible job impacting others as they use art as a vehicle for personal and communal impact.”
The new studio is located in a high-profile, renovated open studio space at GCCA, alongside the current class of the Brandon Fellows. As part of this partnership, Burns will also act as a mentor to the current Fellows and serve on the Brandon Fellowship Selection Committee.
“I am so glad to be coming back home to GCCA,” he explains. “This opportunity will not only support my growth as a multi-disciplinary artist and teacher but also allow me to help talented visual artists from low-income communities make the most of the Brandon Fellowship opportunity and teach practical skills that can help build financial growth and success.”
GCCA’s Brandon Fellowship is a 12-month program that each year aims to develop three emerging artists between the ages of 21-30 who represent the diversity of the Greenville community. The Fellowship provides a supportive environment, mentorship, and art education to help young artists launch their art career in our community or prepare for formal arts studies, foster a sense of community, and promote diversity in the visual arts.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
About PAC
Premier Arts Collective is an experiential non-profit organization offering healing and therapy through the arts and music to serve the underprivileged and those affected by trauma and abuse. For more information, visit premierartscollective.com, or check out PAC on Facebook (Premier Arts Collective) & Instagram (@premierartscollective).
by Greg | Jan 10, 2022 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) is pleased to announce seven new members elected to its board of directors.
- Earle Furman, GCCA Founder and Chair, NAI Earle Furman, LLC
- Daniel Hartway, Upstate SC Business Banking Manager/SVP, First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.
- Benjamin Hepner, Attorney, Holder Padgett Littlejohn + Prickett
- Blair Knobel, Editor-in-Chief, TOWN Magazine
- Kate Lacher, Artist & Creative Coordinator, Craig Gaulden Davis
- Rhonda Rawlings, Neighborhood Engagement Director, Mill Village Ministries
- Heather Wheless, Sr. Director of Human Resources, Thermo Fisher Scientific
In addition, the organization elected these officers.
- Chair – Yvonne Julian, Retired, Sales Executive, The Dow Chemical Company
- Vice Chair – Bradley Wingate, Director of Visual & Performing Arts, Greenville County Schools
- Treasurer – Tony Callander, Retired, Partner, Ernst & Young LLP
- Secretary – Jim Gorman, Studio Artist
“We are thrilled that GCCA has attracted such a tremendous slate of new directors to help us strengthen our impact and achieve our strategic goals,” says Kim Fabian, GCCA’s Executive Director. “Their collective talents will help to ensure long-term sustainability and foster meaningful economic and outreach impact through the education, advancement, and promotion of the visual arts.”
GCCA also named two former directors as members of its Founder’s Circle: artist Patricia Kilburg, and philanthropist and retired business leader Tracy Hardaway. This distinction recognizes these GCCA founders for their vision and commitment to the organization.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Jan 3, 2022 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) is excited to announce the opening of their February exhibitions, My Daughters Gathers Seeds by Rachel de Cuba and matthew anthony batty & Production Landscape with Meghan Kirkwood. The exhibition opens with a First Friday reception from 6:00 – 9:00 pm on Friday, February 4th and continues until March 23rd, 2022. The exhibition will also be open during the First Friday on March 4th, 2022. As part of GCCA’s exhibition programming, there will be an ARTalk discussion on Tuesday, March 8th from 6:00 – 7:00pm.
My Daughter Gathers Seeds is a collaborative exhibition between Rachel de Cuba and matthew anthony batty. The works in this show tackles large cultural concerns through tender moments and soft, powerful movements. Combining digital media and traditional craft the artists have worked to create a spectrum of pieces that will invite viewers to consider acts of empathy and tenderness. In Production Landscape, Dr. Meghan Kirkwood explores the path of the Dakota Access Pipeline in the four states it crosses: North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois. Meghan uses landscape photography to question the nature and extent of social and environmental costs of this activity.
Rachel de Cuba
Rachel de Cuba is an interdisciplinary artist raised in Sebastian, FL. She received her BFA in Studio Art at Flagler College in 2013 and her MFA in Digital Art at Indiana University in 2019. She received recognition for her thesis work with Grant awards from Indiana University. In 2019 she was invited to create new media artworks for the New Orleans Film Festival with support from the Andy Warhol Foundation. de Cuba’s work has been shown nationwide and was recently selected to exhibit in 701 Center for Contemporary Art’s 2021 South Carolina Biennial in Columbia, South Carolina. Her mixed media work has also been selected for publication in New American Paintings Southern 2022 Edition. Rachel de Cuba is currently a Co-Director of Tiger Strikes Asteroid Greenville and the Provost Pathways Fellow in Art at Clemson University.
matthew anthony batty
matthew anthony batty received a BFA in Studio Art at Flagler College in St. Augustine, FL and their MFA in Studio Art at Indiana University. batty has received recognition for their practice through Grants–In–Aid while at Indiana University, and has been selected as an artist-in-residence at The Birdsell Projects in South Bend, IN. matthew was invited as an artist-in-residence with The Weight of Mountains, a nomadic video art program, which spent the winter in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada making work for a solo show at Black Vulture Project, in Paoli, Indiana. matthew, most recently was commissioned by the New Orleans Film Festival to create an installation for the festival, which was funded in part by the Andy Warhol Foundation. batty also explores curatorial work as an extension of their art practice. They have curated exhibitions such as Extended Family at Spalding University in Louisville, KY. They have also curated experimental venues such as The Breezeway Gallery, The Fuller Projects, and in 2018 he was an artist/curator-in-residence with Black Vulture Project, focusing on quarterly experimental poetry/video/performance events. matthew anthony batty recently was working with the Center for Rural Engagement at Indiana University as an artist advocate facilitating discussions with rural communities to build relationships in order to support the community with art programming.
Meghan Kirkwood
Meghan Kirkwood is an Assistant Professor of Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis where she serves as area head of Photography. She earned a B.F.A. from Rhode Island School of Design in Photography before completing her M.F.A. in Studio Art at Tulane University and PhD at the University of Florida. Kirkwood’s photography has been exhibited throughout the United States, Europe, Thailand, Mexico and South Africa. Her photographic research looks at the ways in which landscape imagery can inform and advance public conversations around land use, infrastructure, and planning.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Dec 1, 2021 | News
December 1, 2021: Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) is excited to announce the opening of a new Community Gallery exhibition, Get Home Safely. The exhibition features the work of emerging artist Malik Greene. The exhibition opens from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm on Friday, January 7th, and is on display until February 23rd, 2022. The exhibition will also be open during the First Friday on February 4th, 2022 from 6- 9 pm.
For Malik Greene, “home” does not exclusively relate to a physical destination. Rather, there is an emphasis he places on empowering feelings of security that “home” can convey. Get Home Safely is an autobiographical exhibition that traces the exploration into his origin story. Through his emotive paintings one can find evidence of his self-exploration. Malik states, “Get Home Safely is in reference to the story of the Prodigal Son and demonstrates that no matter how far one may go they will always have a place to return home…These pieces seek to uncover a world within my mind, a place fortified by my eyes and ambitions, not swayed or collided with a world I am not the creator of. My desire is to convey my truth as well as uncover the truth and beauty placed within those that I hold close to my heart.”
Malik Greene
Malik Greene is a South Carolina-based artist who began creating professionally in 2019 after graduating from Coastal Carolina University with a Bachelors in Psychology. The art practice of Malik Greene is primarily self-taught and art forms such as manga illustration and fashion design helped the artist develop a strong passion for uncovering his truth through his creativity. His works tell the story of his life, his desires and the subtle nuances that may affect the way in which he receives the world. The work of Malik Greene captures his mental state and allows him to stand in the center of his world, his mission is to create what is around him. He captures his personal history through intimate oil and acrylic portraits of family, moments and memories that convey his experience as a Black Man and Black artist alike. The normality of Black subjects within his art conveys a certain power; one that does not rely on pain, trauma and past oppression to propel his artistic vision. He finds strength in his identity, and his art has become his voice to understand himself. Malik uses bold colors, textural brushwork and unique figuration to evoke emotion and emphasis within his work.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Nov 1, 2021 | News
Greenville, SC – Today, many aspects of our communities reflect a history built and created by men. The names of cities, streets, bridges, and buildings; the statues in our parks, the holidays we celebrate. Now, thanks to City of Women Greenville, we can help our community rethink what they know about history and advance the role of women today and in the future.
To launch this initiative, Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) and City of Women Greenville are partnering to invite Upstate artists to submit work that highlights historical and contemporary women who have made a significant impact in the Greenville community. Areas of recognition include healthcare and well-being, education, economic opportunity, science and technology, civic engagement, and arts and culture.
Submissions are open from November 1, 2021, to January 6, 2022, and must be made via GCCA’s website at https://www.artcentergreenville.org/city-of-women-submissions.
This effort will culminate in a free public exhibition that will be featured through a virtual gallery on GCCA’s website and in a special juried exhibition opening on First Friday, March 4, from 6-9 p.m. and on display through April 27. All appropriate entries will be included in the virtual gallery. Juror selections will be exhibited in GCCA’s Community Gallery and be eligible for $2,000 in prizes.
“There is great power in sharing the untold and forgotten stories of the women who helped to build Greenville. It deepens our collective understanding of history, brings to light many unknown contributions, and builds a more inclusive future for all,” explains Elizabeth Davis, President of Furman University, a partner institution of City of Women. “This is why we at Furman University are proud to be a part of City of Women and honor the mission to celebrate, recognize and inspire the women and men of our community. We are especially excited to see this come to life through the expression of our robust artist community at GCCA this March.”
“We can think of no better way to kick off this important initiative than through the visual arts, such a pivotal part of our Greenville culture,” adds Kim Fabian, GCCA’s Executive Director.
The call for submission is open to all artists 18 years of age or older living in Upstate South Carolina (Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson, Pickens, Oconee, Greenwood, Laurens, Cherokee, Union, and Abbeville Counties). This is a juried exhibition for artists working in all traditional and non-traditional 2D and 3D media, including painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, fiber arts, mixed media, and sculpture. All artwork must be original in concept, design and execution. Film, video, computer art, reproductions (such as giclee, prints), crafts or jewelry are not acceptable unless used as part of a mixed media artwork or collage. Installation art or performance art are not accepted.
The juror for the exhibition is Jonell Logan, Creative Director of the McColl Center for Art + Innovation in Charlotte, NC. This exhibition is sponsored by the Wyche, P.A.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
About City of Women
City of Women is a community-based initiative with a mission to celebrate the legacy of impactful women who have played a significant role in making Greenville the vibrant community it is today. The initiative also aims to advance the role of women in our community and businesses today and in the future.
by Greg | Nov 1, 2021 | News
November 1, 2021: Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) is excited to announce the opening of their December exhibition, Mementos of Life Beyond Death. The exhibition features the work of acclaimed artists Jessica Burke, Jody Servon, and author Lorene Delany-Ullman. The exhibition opens with a First Friday reception from 6:00 – 9:00 pm on Friday, December 3rd, and continues until January 26th, 2022. The exhibition will also be open during the First Friday on January 7th, 2022. As part of GCCA’s exhibition programming, there will be an ARTalk panel discussion with the exhibiting artists virtually on ZOOM on Tuesday, January 11th from 6:00 – 7:00 PM. This exhibition is sponsored by Piedmont Arthritis Clinic and Dr. Richard and Amy Kim.
In Mementos of Life Beyond Death, artist Jody Servon (Boone, NC) with author Lorene Delany-Ullman (Newport Beach, CA) and artist Jessica Burke (Charlotte, NC) navigate the complex interconnections between identity and death, and explore the relationships we make along life’s journey. Jody Servon and Lorene Delany-Ullman’s Saved: Objects of the Dead series captures the depth of the human experience through photographic documentation and prose poetry based on memories imbued into common objects once belonging to the departed. These remnants shed light into each individual’s life. Jessica Burke’s Dressed Up in Bones & Sugar City drawings serve as investigative tools to unearth the fictions of identity and the fragility of life. In posed still-life compositions in which the figures are replaced with skeletal features, Burke creates striking metaphors for lived experience that provide insights into human nature that are intimate, provocative or sometimes humorous.
GCCA will hold two free workshops in coordination with the Mementos of Life Beyond Death exhibition. The Prose Poem: Objects in Memoriam, a writing and photography virtual workshop with Jody Servon and Lorene Delaney-Ullman will be offered on Thursday, January 6th from 7:00 – 8:00 PM & Talking to Grief: Finding healing through poetry community poetry reading with Kimberly J Simms and Shay Black of Wits End Poetry will be held on Thursday, January 20th from 7:00 – 8:00 pm. Register online at https://www.artcentergreenville.org/exhibitionschedule
About the Artists
Jessica Burke
Born in Wichita, Kansas, Jessica Burke (J.B.) is a figurative artist and educator. She is an Associate Professor of Art and Foundations Coordinator at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Working in both traditional and digital drawing media, she focuses on concerns at the intersection of identity, popular culture and mass media. Her drawings have been published in Manifest’s International Drawing Annual (INDA) 13 and in North Light Book’s Strokes of Genius 9: The Best of Drawing. She will also have work published in the 2nd Edition of the textbook, Art for Everyone by University Press in January 2022.
Her creative work is in private, public and corporate collections that include the City of North Charleston, South Carolina; the City of Savannah, Georgia; Seminole State College, Florida and the National Living Treasure Museum in Yugawara, Japan. Her work has been included in over fifty competitive group and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally including the Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts; the Toshima Gallery in Tokyo, Japan; the LuXun Academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China and the Kepco Plaza Gallery Museum in Seoul, South Korea. has been included in over fifty competitive group and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally including the Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts; the Toshima Gallery in Tokyo, Japan; the LuXun Academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China and the Kepco Plaza Gallery Museum in Seoul, South Korea.
Jody Servon
Jody Servon creates collaborative and socially engaged projects that encourage public interaction and personal exploration. Her projects have been included in exhibitions, screenings, and public spaces in the U.S., Canada, and China. Servon’s writing and/or art has been featured in New American Paintings, Emergency Index, Kakalak, and Artful Dodge. Her collaborative work with Lorene Delany-Ullman has been published in AGNI, Tupelo Quarterly, Palaver, Lunch Ticket and Tarpaulin Sky. Reviews and articles on her projects have been in The New York Times, The Miami Herald, Arizona Daily Star, Los Angeles Times and Time magazine’s Money.com. She has participated in numerous artist residencies including Vermont Studio Center, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Artspace, and Virginia Center for Creative Arts. Servon received a MFA in New Genre from The University of Arizona and a BFA in Visual Art from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. She has served on numerous boards including: Elsewhere Museum, North Carolina Museums Council and the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design. Currently she is professor and coordinator of the art management program at Appalachian State University in North Carolina.
Lorene Delany-Ullman
Lorene Delany-Ullman’s book of prose poems, Camouflage for the Neighborhood, was the winner of the 2011 Sentence Award, and published by Firewheel Editions (December 2012). She recently published her poetry in Zócalo Public Square, TAB: A Journal of Poetry & Poetics., and Kosmos Quarterly. Her poems have been included in the following anthologies: Orange County, A Literary Field Guide (Heyday Books, 2017), Bared: Contemporary Poetry and Art on Bras and Breasts, (Les Femmes Folles Books, 2017), and Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease (Kent State University Press, 2009). She works in collaboration with the artist, Jody Servon, on Saved: Objects of the Dead, a photographic and poetic exploration of life, death, and memory. Together, their project has been published in Tarpaulin Sky, Tupelo Quarterly, Lunch Ticket, and AGNI. In 2019, Saved: Objects of the Dead was shortlisted for the Tarpaulin Sky Press publication award. Delany-Ullman and Servon received an Illuminations Grant, UC Irvine for Saved: Objects of the Dead exhibition at UC Irvine, winter 2020. Delany-Ullman currently teaches composition at the University of California, Irvine.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Oct 5, 2021 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) will open a new Community Gallery exhibition, Looking Back and Forging Ahead: A Covid Retrospective with artists Jane Allen Nodine and Ashley Waller on Friday, November 5th, 2021. An opening reception will be held on November 5th from 6-9 PM. The exhibition will be on display until December 29th.
Operating within the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, artists Jane Allen Nodine and Ashley Waller share their perspectives on the ways the virus impacts our thinking and daily life. Since the lockdowns occurred, Ashley Waller channels her paintings into melancholic distortions of home environments. She emphasizes that “greater time at home has strained stereotypical expectations of the home and reveals the depth of environment & relationship failings…the occupants of the domestic spaces exude a sense of unease and separation, and they often fail to interact with each other.”
Jane Allen Nodine’s abstract paintings first served as a coping mechanism as she was separated from family. As Jane states, “I began working with no specifics in mind, other than letting the process of making art flow like that of the surrealists with automatism, the performance of actions without conscious thought or intention. Soon this process began to show results like a lens coming into focus.” The work then came to embody a response to the fears of the virus as well as to hopes for a brighter future. She metaphorizes the drowning of negative ideations through forms of shriveled texture being taken over by richly colored paint.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
by Greg | Sep 13, 2021 | News
Greenville, SC – Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) is launching a new series of FREE professional development workshops called “The Business Toolkit for Artists.” The six-part series will give visual artists insight into the resources and skills needed for career growth in the fine art industry. The program is funded in part by the Metropolitan Arts Council, which receives support from the City of Greenville, BMW Manufacturing Company, Michelin North America, Inc., SEW Eurodrive and the South Carolina Arts Commission.
Topics range from foundational basics for every artist like writing an artist statement, to more advanced business tools like taxes and money management for creative entrepreneurs. Led by recognized industry professionals, these workshops will help artists transition their unique craft into a sustainable business model.
“We are thrilled to have the support from MAC to launch this series,” says Kim Fabian, GCCA’s Executive Director. “Professional development opportunities like these are critical to build skills and career mobility in the artist community. Being able to offer this curriculum for free allows people who may not have the financial resources for continuing education to benefit from this valuable content.”
The line-up of workshops includes:
- Applying to Juried Shows: A How-To Guide and Portfolio Review with Robin Aiken, Artisphere Visual Artist Manager, on Saturday, October 2 from 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
- (Virtual) Taxes for Artists, Freelancers and Creative Businesses (Virtual) with Hannah Cole, Enrolled Agent and Founder of Sunlight Tax, and Tax & Money Columnist for the Art Blog Hyperallergic, on Saturday, November 20, from 9:00 – 11:00 a.m.
- Social Media 101 for Artists with Will Henderson, Associate Director of the Clemson Social Media Listening Center, on Friday, October 15, from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
- Making Post Art School: Methods for Finding Grants, Exhibitions & Residencies with Jonell Logan, Creative Director, McColl Center for Art + Innovation, former Executive Director of The League of Creative Interventionists, & Founder of 300 Arts Project, on Saturday, October 30, from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
- Telling Your Story: Tackling Artist Statements and Grant Narratives with Jennifer Oladipo, Marketing Strategist, Arts Advocate & Publisher of The Chord, on Wednesday, October 20, from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
- Directing Your Personal Money for Creative Business Success (Virtual) with Edris Tucker, AFCPE Accredited Financial Counselor, CommunityWorks and former NFCC Certified Credit Counselor & Financial Educator, on Thursday, November 4, from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
These workshops are free and open to any artist in the Upstate community. Artists can attend them all or pick and choose. Workshops fill on a first-come, first-served basis and are held in-person at GCCA unless listed as “virtual” in the title. Registration is required for all workshops by visiting www.artcentergreenville.org/classes and scrolling down to Professional Development.
About GCCA
Greenville Center for Creative Arts is a non-profit organization that aims to enrich the cultural fabric of the community through visual arts promotion, education, and inspiration. For more information, visit www.artcentergreenville.org, call 864-735-3948, or check out GCCA on Facebook (Greenville Center for Creative Arts) & Instagram (@artcentergvl).
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