Charleston Currents #13.08 | Jan. 4, 2021
HAPPY 2021! This picture sums up something that unites everyone — thanking the heavens and clouds that 2020 is gone, as this 3-year-old boy did in recent days on an empty Folly Beach. Whew, that was a year. Glad it’s gone. Here’s to a great 2021. Photo by Ruta Smith, Charleston City Paper.
PHOTO ESSAY, Purcell: Botany Bay is a Lowcountry treasure
COMMENTARY, Brack: Protect the magnificence of beautiful, local spots
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Charleston RiverDogs
NEWS BRIEFS: Wallace abstracts on display in January
FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
MYSTERY PHOTO: Big columns
CALENDAR: Charleston Restaurant Week is to run through Jan. 17
Botany Bay is a Lowcountry treasure
Part of the Boneyard Beach at Botany Bay on Edisto Island. Photos by English Purcell. Used by permission.
By English Purcell, special to Charleston Currents | Botany Bay Plantation Heritage Preserve and Wildlife Management Area is a Lowcountry treasure, and its “boneyard beach” is one of my favorite places to photograph.
Opened to the public in 2008, the 3,363-acre Botany Bay tract (map)is a significant wildlife habitat with several equally significant historic assets. The Wildlife Management Area is also an active archaeological site where the remains of two prehistoric Native American shell rings are being threatened by erosion.
The brown piece in the middle apparently is from a Native American pot. Purcell says artifacts like this are not to be removed from the protected Botany Bay area.
Part of a shell ring in the area.
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@charlestoncurrents.com
Protect the magnificence of beautiful, local places
Marsh at Botany Bay, by English Purcell.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | We are blessed in the Lowcountry to have beauty all around — green, teeming marshes filled with a bounty of wildlife, water vistas to soothe the soul, caverns of greenery in maritime forests. Beauty is so abundant here that we sometimes forget its magnificence.
Families who visit the area have no shortage of outdoorsy things to do that area residents take advantage of frequently. Just marvel at these natural assets:
County parks are scattered throughout Charleston County’s 916 square miles of land and 442 square miles of waterways. In February, Caw Caw Interpretive Center offers world-class viewings for migrating birds. Visitors can learn daily about the area’s deep and troubled history at places like McLeod Plantation Historic Site. Or they can stroll beaches at parks on Isle of Palms, Folly Beach and Kiawah Island.
State parks and sites, like those at Charles Towne Landing, Botany Bay and Hampton Plantation, offer a hearty blend of history and nature, just as you can find at federally-protected sites from Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie to hundreds of thousands of area acres at Francis Marion National Forest. To the north of the peninsula are the delights of barrier islands at the 66,000-acre Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge. To the south is the 11,000-acre Ernest F. Hollings ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge.
Then there are parks, big and small, throughout Charleston, North Charleston and Mount Pleasant, all of which buzz with historic buildings and areas where people can learn the region’s rich history. And to top it all off are attractions filled with nature, such as the historic plantations on the Ashley River and nearby Beidler Forest.
Yes, we are blessed. But can we do more? You bet. Let’s redouble our efforts this year to protect more land, protect more beauty and create new vistas for people to relish. At the same time, let’s fight to thwart the overdevelopment and hotel-building that are making parts of the area look like shortened urban canyons that blight big cities up and down the East Coast.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Charleston Currents, and publisher of the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com.
Charleston RiverDogs
The public spiritedness of our underwriters allows us to bring Charleston Currents to you at no cost. This issue’s featured underwriter is the Charleston RiverDogs.
The Lowcountry’s leader in sports entertainment, Charleston RiverDogs baseball is an attractive, affordable medium for your group or business. The RiverDogs, now affiliated with the Tampa Bay Rays, offer one of the finest ballparks in Minor League Baseball — Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park.
Three short words sum up the everyday approach taken by the Charleston RiverDogs front office. The brainchild of club President Emeritus Mike Veeck, the nine-letter phrase “Fun Is Good” is meant to be a guideline and daily reminder of how employees should approach their jobs and in turn capture the imagination of the fans to turn them into repeat customers.
- Visit the ‘Dogs online at: RiverDogs.com
- To meet all of our underwriters, click here.
Wallace abstracts on display in January
Firework by Scott Wallace. Image provided.
Staff reports | Works by local abstract artist Scott Wallace will be on display through the end of the month at a free show at the Park Circle Gallery, 4820 Jenkins Ave., North Charleston.
“My newest paintings flirt with the line between representation and abstraction, modified through the process of drawing, while at the same time are an exploration of the base materiality of acrylic paint itself,” Wallace said in a news release on the exhibit, called “Abstraction in Action.” The works in acrylic explore unusual color palettes and the textural possibilities of acrylic paint.
Wallace, who holds a master’s degree in fine arts from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, lives in North Charleston and teaches in the Visual Arts Department at Trident Technical College. More: ScottWallacePaintings.com.
In other news:
Foundation gets big grant. The Charleston County Parks Foundation recently was named recipient of a $125,000 grant from Chick-fil-A’s 2021 True Inspiration Awards, a program founded in 2015 to support community organizations making positive impacts in hunger, homelessness, communities of color and education. “We look forward to increasing the number of children and families we support, by continuing to remove barriers throughout underserved areas of Charleston County through the four foundation projects,” said Matt Rosebrock, business development manager of the Charleston County Parks and Recreation Commission.
Johnson listens during a discussion at a Cuban farm in 2016.
Magnolia’s Johnson retires. Tom Johnson, director of gardens at Magnolia Plantation, is retiring from his role in Charleston and readying his return to his native Georgia, after more than a decade of work on one of the nation’s only remaining romantic gardens. “I fell in love with Magnolia the first time I walked through the gardens,” Johnson said. “I was in my mid-40s. That’s when a man realizes there’s more behind you than there is in front of you, and in that moment, I knew that the restoration of the gardens would consume the rest of my career.” Read the full story in the Charleston City Paper.
Craft entries sought. Fine craft artists from around the state are invited to enter the 19th annual S.C. Palmetto Hands Juried Fine Craft Competition and Exhibition, which will be presented April 28 to May 2 as part of the North Charleston Arts Fest. Entry fee is $15. The deadline for entries is March 15. Applications are offered online only. The show, cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19, will offer objects made in media of clay, fiber, glass, metal, wood, and three-dimensional mixed media. More info: culturalarts@northcharleston.org.
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We’d love to get your impact in one or more ways:
Send us a letter: We love hearing from readers. Comments are limited to 250 words or less. Please include your name and contact information. Send your letters to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com. | Read our feedback policy.
Tell us what you love about the Lowcountry. Send a short comment – 100 words to 150 words – that describes something you really enjoy about the Lowcountry. It can be big or small. It can be a place, a thing or something you see. It might be the bakery where you get a morning croissant or a business or government entity doing a good job. We’ll highlight your entry in a coming issue of Charleston Currents. We look forward to hearing from you.
Big columns
What is this building with big columns and what is its historical significance? Send to editor@charlestoncurrents.com. And don’t forget to include your name and the town in which you live.
Our previous Mystery Photo
Our Dec. 21 photo, “Good tidings,” was a photo by Leigh Webber that Charleston’s David Rawle sent along to show the holiday spirit at Theodora Park, a pocket park in Charleston at the corner of Anson and George streets. In addition to laser lights on park pathways, words of inspiration and hope were projected on the park’s walls and trees.
Hats off to the few sleuths who correctly identified the photo: Jim McMahan of Charleston; Margaret Grant of West Ashley; Liz Rennie of North Charleston; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; and Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas.
Graf added, “Theodora Park was David Rawle’s vision. Every detail of this lovely space has benefited from his caring and gifted guidance. Theodora Park has been created through the collaboration of outstanding designers and artists, the City of Charleston, Charleston Parks Conservancy, and the truly generous support of many individuals, including the family of Theodora C. Rawle, whom the park so appropriately honors.”
Peel added the park’s design was inspired by New York’s Paley Park, but “to add some local flair to the park, it includes a wrought-iron gate designed and made by Charleston artisan and blacksmith Philip Simmons.”
- Send us a mystery: If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send it along to editor@charlestoncurrents.com.
Charleston Restaurant Week is to run through Jan. 17
Staff reports | Almost three dozen area restaurants are participating Jan. 7 to Jan. 17 in Charleston Restaurant Week, a period when diners can get special deals at restaurants all over town.
This culinary dream, executed by Explore Charleston, is one of the most highly anticipated culinary events in the Charleston area,” according to the visitors’ bureau website. “It is an opportunity to enjoy the world-renowned cuisine of the Lowcountry as participating restaurants offer prix fixe lunch and dinner menus.”
Also on the calendar:
Black Ink Festival: Online from Jan. 14 to Jan. 16. Black Ink: A Charleston African American Book Festival will feature author Kwame Mbalia as keynote speaker during the three-day online event that amplifies voices of black authors. The programs for authors and readers include panels and workshops featuring authors, publishing professionals, librarians and more. Topics include marketing your writing project, a self-publishing workshop and a discussion on advocating for black voices, a panel on influencer marketing featuring Instagram Influencer Jeanell Marvin. Learn more.
MLK Annual Business and Professional Summit: 7:30 a.m. Jan 19. While the annual breakfast event will be held for a socially-distanced few at the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau’s Camden Room at 375 Meeting Street in Charleston, you can participate virtually with hundreds virtually. Registration information will be available in early January at ywcagc.org. Philanthropist and businesswoman Anita Zucker will keynote.
Sunday Brunch Farmers Market: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., every Sunday, Charleston Pour House, 1977 Maybank Highway, James Island. While the market is discouraging people from spending too much time hanging out during the market, everyone is invited to shop their local vendors.
- If you have any online events, drop us a line (editor@charlestoncurrents.com) and make sure to put “Online event” in the subject line. Similarly, if you’ve got cool ideas for stuff to do while in isolation at home, send them our way.
ORDER NOW: Copies are in Lowcountry-area bookstores now, but if you can’t swing by, you can order a copy online today.
As more people stay home to deal with the coronavirus crisis, people are looking for things to do. You can find some fun things to do online in our calendar section below, but let us also encourage you to FORWARD your issue of Charleston Currents to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. It’s got a great price, as you know: Free! We hope they’ll enjoy our coverage.
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Charleston Currents is provided to you weekly by:
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