Charleston Currents – Spoleto Festival

MORRIS: Spoleto is at home here — and part of our edge

By Kyra Morris, contributing editor | 1977 – the beginning of Charleston’s emergence as a world destination city– was also the first year of Spoleto Festival USA. Is this a coincidence, or is there a correlation?

Gian Carlo Menotti, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning composer, sought to establish a sister festival to the Festival dei Due Mondi of Spoleto, Italy. After a comprehensive search for the right place, he chose Charleston. It met his expectations for old world charm, historical architecture, and abundance of theatres and other performance spaces, including the variety of beautifully-maintained churches that reminded him of those in Italy.

by Kyra Morris · 05/30/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Money, Views

CALENDAR, May 23+: Cycling, festivals, Gibbes, more

Calendar events for week of May 23, 2016: Gibbes Museum reopens; Piccolo Spoleto and Spoleto Festival USA commence; Cycling talk, Nunsense, Grace Tea Room, more

by Andy Brack · 05/23/2016 · Comments are Disabled · calendar

This photo shows the scaffolding that was put into place to allow artisans to restore the dome of the Gibbes Museum of Art during a two-year renovation. The museum reopens this week capping a full week of arts in the Charleston area, as outlined in our Focus piece in the new issue. (Photo provided.)

FOCUS: It’s the season for the arts

Staff reports | If there ever were a week for the arts in Charleston, it’s this week, which marks the May 28 reopening of the Gibbes Museum of Art after a two-year renovation and the start of the annual 17-day festival season featuring Spoleto Festival USA and the 2016 Piccolo Spoleto Festival.

Four new shows opening May 28 (of course they’re new … the museum has been closed for two years!) include:

* The Things We Carry: Contemporary Art in the South (Gallery 8), which features paintings, sculpture, photos and mixed media by a diverse group of artists who address the South’s troubled history, including responses to the 2015 Emanuel AME Church tragedy.

* Beyond Catfish Row: The Art of Porgy and Bess (Gallery 9) celebrates the George Gershwin opera as interpreted by visual artists. …