GOOD NEWS: S.C.’s Twiggs wins Gibbes’ 1858 Prize

Staff reports  |  Orangeburg artist and arts educator Leo Twiggs has won the $10,000 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art, according to the Gibbes Museum of Art and its 1858 Society.  A formal announcement reportedly will be made today.

“Requiem for Mother Emanuel #7,” 2016, by Leo Twiggs; batik; 30 x 24 inches. Image via Gibbes Museum of Art.

A painter born in 1934 in St. Stephen, S.C., who works with wax and batik, Twiggs is the first South Carolinian to win the prize, awarded since 2008.

“Much of his work explores family history, cultural heritage, and how the past is manifest in contemporary life,” according to the museum.  “His series titled Requiem for Mother Emanuel recently traveled throughout the southeast, earning acclaim as a powerful tribute to the nine church members slain during the horrific shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.”

Twiggs, winner of many art awards, receive a bachelor’s degree from Claflin University, a master’s degree from New York University and a doctorate in arts education from the University of Georgia.  He developed the art department and a museum at S.C. State University, which named him a professor emeritus in 2000.

Twiggs says of his 40 years of experimenting and using wax and dye in paintings, “I feel that I have come to the place in my career where I am not just experimenting with a medium I developed, but an instrument that has become a part of my thought processes. The medium is as much a part of my message as the message itself. It is an exciting place to be in my life as an artist.”

• Click here to see his art.

Twiggs will speak at a 6 p.m. Sept. 19 forum, followed by a 7 p.m. reception at the museum.  For tickets and more info, click here.

In other Good News:

Closing the gap.  The Spaulding-Paolozzi Foundation last week pledged $500,000 to fundraising efforts for construction of the International African American Museum, which now has less than $1 million to reach its $75 million goal.  The local foundation gave another $500,000 grant to the museum in 2015 as an early show of support for its efforts.

Teaching grant.  The College of Charleston’s Pearlstine/Lipov Center or Southern Jewish Culture has received a $143,639 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to teach faculty and instructors in higher education how to incorporate Southern Jewish history into mainstream academia, according to a release.

New job.  Fred Jones of Walterboro, a former staffer for U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, is the new director of government relations for the Southern Education Foundation, based in Atlanta.  More.

More education advocates. Sister publication correspondent Lindsay Street of Statehouse Report highlighted a new education advocacy group with more than 15,000 followers since May.  SCforEd seeks to push the legislature to boost teacher pay and opportunities.  Read more.