Artists’ Business Initiative

Collage of ABI grantee headshots and representative artworks.

Support for successful, sustainable arts-based business initiatives

Artists’ Business Initiative is a grant and a program dedicated to helping #SCartists develop the knowledge and skills to build satisfying, sustainable careers.

Responding to input from artists across the state about their key concerns, the ABI offers:

Financial support for arts-based businesses
- Use as start-up support to launch an arts-based business initiative (or significantly alter an existing initiative) that will operate in an ongoing manner.
- Or, use it to execute a temporary initiative (a one-time occurrence or single purchase) that will provide career satisfaction and sustainability.
- A one-time occurrence/single purchase may be awarded up to $3,500. An ongoing business venture may be awarded up to $5,000.
Business training
- ABI connects artists to affordable training options that support their development as entrepreneurs and profitable business people.

See how current and recent grantees are using ABI below.

FY26 Grantees

Read the news release on The Hub.

Duncan | Visual Arts: Public Art

Bio/Artist statement

Anita is an Upstate artist who has been painting for over 25 years and providing art instruction for over 10 years. Her personal artwork is inspired by her travels, heritage and love of nature. The designs she creates for teaching are often inspired by local flora and traditions, as well as the changing seasons.

As a teaching artist, muralist and entrepreneur, Anita’s goal is to bring beauty into local communities, inspire creativity, and make art accessible to the public. She offers painting workshops for adults and children, as well as innovative teaching artist residencies at local schools. She teaches art in a way that is not intimidating, but rather, encouraging and accessible to beginners. Her favorite students are the ones who claim that they “can’t even draw a stick figure” because they are the most delighted with their completed work at the end of class. One of Anita’s lesson plans from her Teaching Artist Residency, “Process Painting for 3rd Grade,” has been published by the ABC Institute.

Anita enjoys working with clients to bring joy and color to their lives through murals. Whether in a home, school, business or on a public building, a large, colorful mural has the ability to transform a space, build community and uplift people’s spirits. She is especially drawn to create contemporary, floral and interactive murals, but can accommodate various themes and styles.

Anita is listed in the South Carolina Arts Directory.

Planned use of grant

Growing the mural side of her business with equipment upgrades. Mural design tools, technical equipment like a large-scale projector and speed paint sprayer, and better safety equipment will help her create larger and more frequent murals more safely than she can currently.

Website

ADArtistStudio.com

Social media
Representative works

Click images to enlarge.

CFS mural

Wheatfield Elementary gym

Storm Drain Project
Mauldin | Literature

Bio

Photo by Will Crooks

Glenis Redmond is Greenville, South Carolina’s Inaugural Poet Laureate and a 2025 recipient of the Order of the Palmetto, the state’s highest civilian honor, awarded by the governor and approved by a bipartisan committee in recognition of a lifetime of extraordinary achievement, service, and contributions on a national or statewide scale. She has dedicated over 30 years to a career as a poet, teaching artist, and literary citizen.

Most recently, Glenis received the Highlights Foundation Inspire Scholarship in 2025 and is serving as a Baldwin Fellow (2024-2025). In 2023, she was selected as a Poet Laureate Fellow by the Academy of American Poets. She was also named a Citizen Diplomat by the Jonathan Green Maritime Cultural Center.

In 2022, Glenis received the Governor’s Award for the Arts and was inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors, the state’s literary hall of fame. She is a Cave Canem alumna and a veteran of the U.S. Army Reserves. Glenis earned her B.A. from Erskine College and her M.F.A. in poetry from Warren Wilson College.

She is the author of seven books of poetry. Her most recent titles include:
- Over Yonder: A Poet’s Exploration of South Carolina State Parks I
- The Song of Everything: A Poet’s Exploration of South Carolina State Parks II
- The Listening Skin (Four Way Books)
- Praise Songs for Dave the Potter (University of Georgia Press), with artwork by Jonathan Green
Her poetry has appeared in Orion Magazine, Callaloo, American Poets, The New York Times, and the North Carolina Literary Review. The Listening Skin was shortlisted for both the PEN Open Book Award and the Julie Suk Award.

Glenis is the proud mother of twin daughters, Amber and Celeste, and a devoted grandmother (“Gaga”) to Julian, Paisley, and Quinn.

She believes that poetry is the mouth that speaks when all other mouths are silent.

Planned use of grant

Through her business Glenis Redmond’s Outreach with Words (GROW), she is planning to publish her first children’s book based on a poem taken from her latest book, The Song of Everything: A Poet’s Exploration of South Carolina State Parks.

Websites
- GlenisRedmond.com
- Glenis Redmond’s Substack
Social media
- Instagram @glenismakingpoetryreign
Representative works

Glenis Redmond samples
Charleston | Visual Arts: Ceramics

Bio

Cristina Victor is a Cuban-American interdisciplinary artist and arts educator committed to creating and facilitating generative exchanges about the complexities of our collective and individual human experience. Through approaches including ceramic sculpture, mixed media drawing, textile installation, public flag projects, curation and accessible arts programming; she produces her work with deep consideration for the power of design, color and language. Her concern for access, balances her formal object making and public engagement projects. Recent solo exhibitions include Public Works, Summerville (2024); Norco College Art Gallery, Norco, California (2023); and Ditch Projects, Eugene, Oregon (2023). She holds an Master of Fine Arts from The San Francisco Art Institute and a bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College.

Planned use of grant

Upgrade equipment that will streamline and reduce turnaround time on both the artistic and the administrative sides of her growing business: a slab press, an clay extruder, glaze materials, essential kiln parts, shelving for studio production storage, a small office printer for invoices and shipping labels and a camera for documentation.

Website

CristinaVictor.com

Social media
- Instagram @sabiaceramics
Representative works

Click images to enlarge.

Quimbara

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