As 2024 comes to a close, we’re reflecting on some of our favorite Charleston City Paper arts coverage from the past year. There were arts-focused feature stories on everything from self-expression in the skateboarding scene in Charleston to Spoleto offerings, Lowcountry film locations and independent fashion designers.
And as usual, the City Paper kept up our reputation for in depth artist interviews, with some of our favorite 2024 profiles on visual artists including:
- Riivo Kruuk, who honors his Estonian heritage through large-scale paintings
- Annie Rhodes Lee, who tells human stories through figurative sculpture
- Jirah Perkins, the winner of this year’s North Charleston Arts Fest poster design contest and a Charleston native, who had her first ever solo show at Park Circle Gallery
- Demond Melancon, whose solo show at the The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art brought a New Orleans tradition, Black Masking, into the contemporary art world
- Shepard Fairey on why he made a pro–Kamala Harris poster ahead of the 2024 presidential election
- The most recent winner of the Gibbes Museum’s annual $10,000 prize, Sherrill Roland, who combines installation, sculpture and performance to depict his experience serving 10 months in prison for a crime for which he was later exonerated
- Taylor Faulkner and Creighton Barrett on their Hed Hi Studio show, “Beach Creeps,” which transformed the space into a whimsical surf bar over the summer
- David Boatwright and his site-specific exhibition, That’s All Folks!, contending with history at the Aiken-Rhett House in the fall.
We also talked to comedians and singers stopping in town — including famous funny gal Sarah Silverman and Broadway legend Idina Menzel — and previewed the homecoming comedy show from former Charlestonian Dusty Slay. We covered local comedian Tim Hoeckel’s first recorded special, Touch of Class, which was released in August.
We shared stories on filmmakers, such as Summerville-based Mark Stewart Iverson, whose faith-focused comedy, For Prophet, debuted this summer; and Jeff Tyner, who shot his debut hockey film, The Late Game, here in Charleston. We got the scoop when Danny McBride released his new tequila, Don Gato, and talked to Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert about their new cookbook.
There were lots of cool interviews with writers, including North Charleston-based author Todd Ziegert on his debut novel, I AM ROMAN DAWCIO, and Charleston author Signe Pike, whose book series The Lost Queen will soon become a TV show. In August, we outlined how former S.C. Poet Laureate Marjory Wentworth’s new book deals with critical times in South Carolina’s history.
We reviewed the poetry debut of College of Charleston MFA grad Joshua Garcia, and gave our take on multiple local theater productions, like PURE Theatre’s Fat Ham and The Last Five Years; Queen Street Playhouse’s awesome staging of Urinetown; the Flowertown Players’ Take Me Out and The Void Theater Company’s first show as a part of Piccolo Spoleto, Goodnight Embryos.
There was definitely no shortage of cool, genre-defying events to cover this year, including:
- The return of Kulture Klash, which took over North Charleston’s Navy Yard Nov. 16 with an immersive art showcase and all-day music performances
- The June opening of Wit’s End Comedy Lounge in North Charleston
- The second annual Charleston Anime Fest in April
- Singers & Stanzas, a May event presented by Holy City Arts & Lyric Opera
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