With Spoleto Festival USA and Piccolo Spoleto set to let loose on May 22, it’s definitely a “more is more” few weeks of art ahead. Savvy, strategic arts lovers make the most of these cultural riches with a little organizational prowess.
One tack is to head out for the day, after pinpointing in advance some local exhibitions on offer around town. This has the added advantage of converging the local and global — and often with a healthy short walk.
After a midday concert, for example, slip into a cool gallery and get an eyeful. Pregame an opera at an afternoon art museum like the Gibbes Museum of Art, and then indulge in a quick nibble or drink before the production. Here are a few standouts to inform the art-infused days to come.
Around the Dock
Queen Street brims with some of Charleston’s most well-curated galleries. So finding visual inspiration near its historic theater is effortless.
Travel east, and discover the monthly revolving exhibitions of Robert Lange Studios. The gallery shows mid-festival, offering plenty to peruse after matinees. In May Beyond Belief gathers diverse painters to explore the poetic territory where realism and imagination meet. In June, Paradise Found is the fantastical, saturated solo exhibition by artist Denise Stewart-Sanabria that employs color theory to arrive at joy. 2 Queen St. More: robertlangestudios.com
But the block between Church and Meeting is bounty alone. The inviting Corrigan Gallery, with its pink exterior and charming courtyard, has a solo exhibition of paintings, among them many botanicals, by Townsend Davidson, up through the month of May, followed in June with works by landscape painter Frances Humphreys Roosevelt. 38 Queen St. More: corrigangallery.com
In May, the nearby Stevenson and Co. at 50 Queen St. spotlights works by its represented artists, to be followed in June by a solo exhibition of work by Riivo Kruuk, which reimagines Estonian folklore, traditional dress and ancestral symbolism through contemporary visual language. More: stevensonandco.shop.
Across the street, you’ll also find contemporary and abstract works at Atrium Gallery (atriumartgallery.com), which gathers local, regional and national artists.
Head along Church Street toward Meeting Street, and the east corner buildings of both house galleries: Meyer Vogl at 122 Meeting St., and the new Duckworth Gallery at 120 Meeting St., which through June 29 presents A Moveable Feast, in which gallerist/artist John Duckworth celebrates three decades of Charleston artists, friendships and creative exchange. More: duckworth.gallery
Around the corner, the Gibbes Museum of Art is set to impress, starting with its May 22 opening of Mary Whyte: Salt of the Earth, a series of paintings by the acclaimed watercolor artists, not to mention its current stunner, Rodin: All the Truth in Nature, with 14 of the artist’s bronze sculptures displayed throughout the museum.
Campus life
The College of Charleston has played an integral role in Spoleto Festival USA since its early days, with then President Ted Stern working with former Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. to host artists in residence halls and offer other campus resources.
Spoleto has long used the college’s Sottile Theatre, weighing in on the renovations to ensure it can technically accommodate ambitious sights and sounds, among them this year’s production of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. The festival has also taken over venues at the college’s Simons Center for the Arts, which has lately next-leveled with the building’s overhaul.
The building also segues into the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, which is known to mount striking new exhibitions during festival time. This year, under the leadership of Michael Dickins, its new director and chief curator, the Halsey has two up now through July 25.
In Make Room, multidisciplinary artist In Kyoung Chun reflects on the shifting sense of home — both safe and fragile, stable yet impermanent — by way of transparent houses, suspended structures and intimate paintings. In Second Sleep, Florence, S.C., native Maria Britton displays textile-based works called Draperies, in which patterned bedsheets become expertly layered, pleated, and playful abstract paintings. 161 Calhoun St. More: halsey.charleston.edu
From Gaillard to IAAM
An anchor of Spoleto since its first go in 1977, Charleston Gaillard Center has in recent years gained an illustrious neighbor with the 2023 opening of the International African American Museum (IAAM), a 10-minute walk away. This year’s expected standout festival shows include the U.S. premiere of Scottish Ballet’s Mary, Queen of Scots, a Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra concert of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and another of Mahler Symphony No. 1.
Beyond its impressive, Lowcountry-focused permanent display, IAAM also regularly curates special exhibitions that draw from its collection, pull from others and commission new works, too. Its current offering is middle of somewhere: the art and the legacy of Black Southern makers, a meaningfully curated context to American traditions by spotlighting the creativity, resilience and cultural contributions of Black artists from and inspired by the American South. It includes textiles, furnishings, ironwork, ceramics and more that span centuries and include contemporary works. 14 Wharfside St. More: iaamuseum.org
Around town
If you’re behind the wheel, a quick peninsular detour also yields fruit.
Opening May 29, with a reception from 5-8 p.m., the ever-inventive Redux Contemporary Art Center presents its annual Creative Corridors studio artist exhibition, drawing from its wide-ranging collective of resident artists for the yearly effusion. 1056 King St. More: reduxstudios.org
Those in the Cannonborough-Elliottborough area will find visual art, dance and theater at Cannon Street Arts Center during 10+4+1. From May 22-29, an exhibit features works of sought-after local artists including Linda Fantuzzo, Joe Walters, David Higginbotham, Mary Walker, Lese Corrigan, Hirona Matsuda, Kristi Ryba, Jeff Kopish, Herb Parker and Yvette Dede.
Beyond the visual arts, the collaborative art project will also feature a dance performance of The Yellow Wallpaper that joins Annex Dance, Unbound Ballet and Collective SC on May 23 at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.; and a production of Brad Erickson’s play Kansas on May 24 at 2 p.m.
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