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Broome High School (Spartanburg)

• Guitars for Student Engagement
• FY26 Education – School Arts Support

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Broome High School’s music appreciation class introduced first-time musicians to guitar fundamentals, culminating in ten students performing for 400 people at the winter concert. Additionally, the grant-funded instruments launched a weekly guitar club, providing critical access for students without prior instruction. This program will continue as a permanent fixture in future curricula and club activities, ensuring long-term student engagement and musical growth.

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All students enrolled in Broome’s music appreciation class completed a guitar unit for the Final weeks of the fall 2025 semester. For most of those students, it was the first time they had played a guitar, and many had never played any instrument at all before.

Students received daily instruction in guitar, focusing on technique and the building blocks of musicianship on guitar. Students played several ensemble pieces as a class and also had an opportunity to learn pieces of their choosing for an independent study project, learning how the basic guitar techniques they had learned applied to music they were interested in listening and performing. Students had instructor guidance throughout both projects as they learned musical fundamentals and beginner repertoire on the instrument.

10 students in the music appreciation class elected to participate in a guitar ensemble performance of two pieces at the school’s winter concert. Most of these students had not performed onstage in front of an audience before, and they performed two pieces, “Feliz Navidad” and “Silent Night,” for an audience of almost 400 in attendance.

In addition to the use of these guitars in music appreciation class, Broome High School has a guitar club that meets weekly. Several new students have begun attending guitar club meetings and have been using the grant-funded guitars as a way to begin learning the instrument. Many of these students have had interest in learning guitar, but have not had prior access to instruments or instruction.

The guitar club will continue throughout the remainder of the school year, with plans to also continue into next school year. Music Appreciation classes will employ the guitars as a learning tool in future semesters as well.

Mat Duncan

• Moon of Another Earth
• FY26 Arts Project Support

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Presented in March 2026, Moon of Another Earth featured 37 new paintings within a historic Charleston warehouse. Utilizing earth-based pigments and reclaimed materials, the immersive installation explored Lowcountry ecology through local species and imagined forms. Complemented by living plants and printed artist books, the exhibition activated a nontraditional space, successfully engaging a broad audience through themes of place, perception, and the symbolic South Carolina landscape.

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Moon of Another Earth was a solo exhibition of 37 new paintings presented in March 2026 in a raw warehouse space at Charleston’s historic Naval Yard. The project brought together a year’s worth of work into a cohesive installation grounded in the ecology, atmosphere, and symbolic landscape of South Carolina’s Lowcountry.

The exhibition featured paintings of local species, environments, and imagined forms—snakes, birds, trees, waterways, and plant life—rendered using a custom earth-based color palette and executed on irregular, shaped supports made from salvaged and reclaimed materials. Installed together, the works created an immersive environment that functioned both as a unified landscape and as a series of individual objects, inviting viewers to move through the space and form personal connections to the imagery and themes.

In addition to the paintings themselves, the project included several supporting elements that expanded the exhibition experience. A central installation of living plants and flowers introduced a dynamic, temporal component to the space. Printed materials, including postcards, stickers, and a small artist book of drawings, extended the work beyond the gallery.

The project was realized through a combination of studio production, material sourcing, and on-site installation. Paintings were completed over the course of the preceding year, with final preparations and installation taking place between mid-February and March 2026. The exhibition opened to the public with a reception on March 20, followed by additional public viewing hours on March 21 and 22. Deinstallation and artwork delivery took place immediately after the exhibition closed.

The exhibition presented a cohesive body of work that explored relationships between place, perception, and material, while activating a nontraditional exhibition space and engaging a broad local audience.

Pawleys Island Festival of Music and Art, Inc.

• Steve Leslie’s Songwriting Workshop
• FY26 Art of Community: Rural SC

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In October 2025, the Pawleys Island Festival of Music and Art hosted songwriter Steve Leslie for a workshop with 86 Title 1 students from Georgetown middle and high schools. Students mastered music theory and strategic songwriting techniques, learning to approach lyrics as creative puzzles. This outreach successfully inspired students’ artistic passions and future musical visions, concluding with a public performance where students and their families received free admission.

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PIFMA brought Steve Leslie to Georgetown County for the 2025 fall festival. On the morning of Oct 16th, from 8:30-9:30 am, the artist brought his guitar and was accompanied by his pianist (who are both educators) and conducted his songwriting workshop with the chorus and band students from two Title 1 Schools, Georgetown Middle & High School, which was originally a total of 97 students (30 Middle School Band, 20 Middle School Chorus, 38 High School Band, 9 High School Chorus). The updated numbers for that day were 86 students (69 African American, 15 white, and 2 Hispanic), as well as 3 music/band/chorus teachers. On the evening of the same day, the artist performed publicly at PIFMA’s event from 7-9 pm. All of the children, their families, and the teachers/principals were invited to attend the evening concert for free. 

PIFMA’s purpose and main goals for this outreach were to expose Georgetown County’s students to the art of music, to open their minds to the creativity of songwriting, and to inspire the students to continue growing with their artistic passions, which, due to the reactions of the teachers and students, we believe was a success. The students learned about music theory and a strategic songwriting approach, the principles behind ALL great songwriting (regardless of genre or style), how to use song structure as a creative element, and acquired skills that will last a lifetime, where every future song can benefit. Steve explained many aspects of songwriting, including the two approaches, subjective and objective. He made a point about how songwriting does not always have to come from how you’re feeling, but a song that needs solving through the lyrics. He mentioned how limitations can be liberating. Some specifics for objective writing are rhyming with the title, coming up with a list of words that rhyme with that title, and then creating a puzzle that tells a story. He had a student of his once say that he solves a song like he’s playing chess. He not only opened the students’ eyes to new ways of writing songs through his core objectives of the workshop, but also a new vision for their futures surrounding the world of music. Hiring artists like Steve Leslie to teach, perform, and engage with the local students is an incredible experience and is especially inspirational for our local students, so that they understand it is never too early nor too late to be artistic, creative, musically talented, pursue their passions, or simply dream.

• SCAC names next seven Emerging Artist grantees
• SCAC’s Platts to retire this summer
• SCAC announces six new recipients of Governor’s Award for the Arts
• Native artists, quilting advocate to receive 2026 Folk Heritage Award

Some select analytics from our social media channels.

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56 posts reached 50,600 users. We gained 224 new followers, bringing our total to 12,154.

Instagram

2,200 users visited our profile, a 94% increase over Q2. We reached almost 20,000 users total with our content, and added 250 followers, for a total of nearly 5,500.

LinkedIn

The effect of posting open jobs in a nutshell: visits to our profile were up 434% over Q2, and we gained 121 new followers.

Most-Engaging Content

The most engaging content, ranked by interactions, included multiple posts surrounding the fellowship grant opening and an engagement-driven post showing childhood photos of staff (a social media trend that was going around at the time). Content about SCAC job openings and David’s retirement ranked highly as well across channels.

The City of Clemson Art Center is using an SCAC grant to partner with Clemson University and Clemson Downs on a memory care artist-in-residence program.

Art serves as a vital bridge for those facing dementia, offering a human-centered approach that transcends traditional medical intervention. The Memory Care Project Artist in Residence program focuses on how visual arts can stimulate the brain, helping to bypass cognitive barriers and reconnect individuals with their sense of self. By engaging different neural pathways, creative expression provides a unique avenue for cognitive stimulation that may help sustain function and slow the perceived decline of memory and identity.

Beyond individual benefits, the program fosters a safe social environment that reduces anxiety and isolation for both participants and caregivers. This collaborative creativity reinforces community bonds and emotional well-being, proving that art is not merely a hobby but a sophisticated tool for cognitive health.

Since its 2024 launch, the program has developed a specialized toolkit now being shared across South Carolina. To solidify this impact, the initiative is integrating a research component to investigate the evidence-based benefits of art on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD). By evaluating cognitive, social, and psychological outcomes, the project aims to refine a scalable model for memory care facilities statewide, demonstrating that artistic engagement is essential for maintaining quality of life and cognitive resilience.

Recognized as one of the Southeast’s premier professional ensembles, the Greenville Symphony Orchestra reaches over 50,000 people annually. Led by Music Director Lee Mills, the 2025-2026 season—titled “The American Season”—embarked on the orchestra’s 78th year, which is using SCAC funding to tie into the nation’s 250th birthday through a diverse exploration of its musical heritage.

The season features high-profile performances including:

• Grand Canyon Suite + Rachmaninoff 2: Featuring pianist Jonathan Mamora, Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate’s Chickasaw legend Spider Brings Fire, and Grofé’s iconic suite with immersive visuals.
• The Last Five Years – American Music Now: A showcase of contemporary voices featuring cellist Seth Russell and a world premiere by Ivan Enrique Rodriguez.
• Dicey Langston: A world premiere by Peter B. Kay and Mark Waldrop honoring a local Revolutionary War heroine, paired with Copland’s Appalachian Spring.
• Porgy & Bess: A grand finale featuring stars DeAndre Simmons and Laquita Mitchell alongside Copland’s Old American Songs.

To deepen community connection, the GSO has introduced “Counterpoint Panels.” These free public discussions, moderated by Mills, unite scholars and artists to explore the intersections of music and society. We invite everyone to join this celebration of the American spirit through the transformative power of orchestral music.