The evocative setting of a 19th century Summerville property serves as an inspiring backdrop for artists participating in the South Porch Artist Residency.
The new residency provides artists with dedicated space and time for creative work. Residents are given the option to either work alone or share studio space, and to participate in communal dinners in the evening where they can engage with fellow artists about the creative process. The Summerville property, (named for its large front porch), offers a welcoming, intimate environment with a creative community of makers and scholars.
Since opening its doors to residents last September, the nonprofit residency program has hosted visual artists, writers, scholars, performance artists, composers and even clergy. Those who apply and are accepted can stay at the property between four days and four weeks.
Co-founders and partners Brad Erickson and Brian Protheroe moved to Summerville in early 2021 after spending decades in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their goal was a lifestyle change, one that would become defined by meaningful exchanges between the artists they host and their Summerville neighbors.
The dream of opening a residency program is one that the couple, who have been together since 2009, started thinking about five years ago. Erickson spent 19 years as the executive director of Theatre Bay Area, an organization for theater artists and companies in San Francisco. He’s also a playwright.
“Part of what got us here was that I had such magical experiences on artist residencies myself,” Erickson said. “I was actually on a playwright’s retreat in Joshua Tree in Southern California. On a hike through the national park, I had this idea, like can I do this as the next thing for me? Run my own residency?
“I went back and talked to my fellow playwrights there and did a little bit of ideating. I came back and told Brian about it. We began to then look, just casually at first, through Zillow for properties that could potentially work.”
They started the search in Northern California and even toyed with the idea of central Mexico.
“The Charleston area was always on the radar because my family lives here,” Erickson said. “And there did seem to be a potential for filling a niche in South Carolina.”
They purchased a beautiful, historic five-bedroom Federalist style home in Summerville built in 1835. The history of the home’s ownership includes multiple artists and writers, who are represented in the artwork which covers the walls of the colorful, elegant home. (Some resident artists and neighbors even claim to have seen the ghost of artist Samuel Ravenel Gaillard, a painter who lived at the property in the 1960s.)
When Erickson and Protheroe first saw the house, it “ticked all the boxes.” It was big enough to host a few artists at a time with five bedrooms to stay in, a massive kitchen for communal meals and two bright, beautiful studio spaces.
“It was also the neighborhood, the community that we were going into,” said Protheroe, who also serves on the board at Public Works Art Center (PWAC).
Embraced by the community
“We wanted it to be idyllic: the big oaks with the drooping Spanish moss, magnolias, the picket fences,” Protheroe said. “We wanted that setting, and to be near the downtown area [of Summerville] too. We wanted our artists to be able to walk around the neighborhood and not have to be dependent upon a car.”
The location offers the best of both worlds: The feeling of retreat into a somewhat secluded, small-town neighborhood, plus access to culture with the Flowertown Players and PWAC just around the corner. Erickson said, “Summerville has more going on than we ever imagined.”
Erickson and Protheroe said their surrounding Summerville community has wholeheartedly embraced the residency. Neighbors will engage with resident artists and even invite them on their porches for wine in the evening. (As we sat on the front porch for the interview, a neighbor brought over eggs.) “Sunday Salons” is a new program where, every month or so, artists can invite the public to view work in progress.
Erickson, Protheroe and their resident artists gather together for dinner most nights to discuss their creative endeavors. Protheroe said that one of the most special aspects of the residency is the “magic that occurs around that dining room table.
“We make dinner together, but then we sit at that table. Our two top values, community and joy, are created there. We linger at that table. The conversations, the feedback everyone receives about their artwork … the inspiration that takes place, the changing of minds, the new perspectives and the friendships and bonds that have formed, it has been fantastic.”
Past residents include Regina Evans, a playwright working on a piece that takes place immediately after the Civil War.
“She found it to be really moving, inspiring and profoundly helpful to be here as she was writing this play,” Erickson said. A composer named Rachel Wiley stayed for three weeks.
Visual artists include Barbara Schreiber from Charlotte and Rachel Rinker from Goose Creek, who made ten large paintings in the upstairs studio space before heading off to pursue a masters in fine art.
Playwright and performer Katherine Murphy, from California, is quoted on the residency website:
“[South Porch] allowed me to make leaps and bounds of progress in my writing. … What I wanted and what I received: Freedom to spend my time as I please, in comfort, surrounded by beauty, while other artists fed my creativity.”
Erickson said a future goal for South Porch is to see more Charleston artists take advantage of this rare in-state residency offering.
“There really is something to being away even when you’re not all that far away. You can really get away from your everyday life, without having to travel thousands of miles to go do it. The experience is really rich for people, and it can really move their projects forward in a way that working at home in your home studio just doesn’t.”
Applications are open on a rolling basis.
One week is $275 and two weeks is $500.
For more details, visit southporchartists.org.
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