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Click here to jump down to some local art galleries.
Arts Council of Beaufort County
In Beaufort, the guiding creative force is the Arts Council of Beaufort County. The Arts Council, supported by 600 members, works with artists, organizations, educators – and even the mayor and commercial fishermen – to foster the arts and present exhibitions, concerts and theatre events.
(843) 521-4145
Visual Arts
A new tradition, emerging in downtown Beaufort’s Bay Street commercial district, focuses on the visual arts. Dozens of art galleries and studios have sprung up in recent years, featuring everything from abstract art, figurative painting, and sculpture to ceramics, photography, and textiles. Several times each year, the gallery owners organize new exhibitions around a downtown gallery walk, which grows more popular each time.
Dance
A popular pastime for Beaufortonians involves the muse of dance. Byrne Miller Dance Theatre, now in its fourth decade, leads the way on the local performing arts scene. Established by one of South Carolina’s great arts and dance advocates, the organization presents an array of dance concerts by local and national companies – from classical ballet, to Irish and country dancing, to cutting-edge modern dance.
(843) 524-1117
The Festival Series
USC-Beaufort is home to the Festival Series, a five-concert chamber music program hosted and directed by the legendary Charles Wadsworth, who also is a regular host at New York’s Lincoln Center and Charleston’s annual Spoleto Festival. Audiences love the impresario’s wit and charm and his down-home introductions to some of the world’s leading performers, such as Robert McDuffie and Chee-Yun and the St. Lawrence and Brentano String Quartets.
(843) 521-4145
Theatre
The theatrical arts are covered by local troupes such as Lowcountry Shakespeare, the USCB-based Rafael Sabatini Players, Wild Women Productions, and Beaufort Little Theatre.
“There’s a wonderful assembly of creative people and force,” says Jeff Evans, founder of Lowcountry Shakespeare. “Producing a play in Beaufort is a real community-wide effort, and might involve rehearsing alongside your plumber, a librarian and television producer. It might mean that a local architect or interior designer builds the sets, or that local students pitch in to learn the craft.”
More Music
Other forms of musical energy are ignited through the work of local groups like the 80-member Lowcountry Chorale, the long-standing Beaufort Orchestra, the five-part season of the Fripp Island Friends of Music, and the recently established Arts on the Island series of free concerts at Sea Island Presbyterian Church. For a midday treat, try the free organ concerts in historic St. Helena Episcopal Church.
St. Helena Island Arts
The Penn Center has special-event art and cultural displays throughout the year and a permanent museum of Gullah and African American history and culture.
(843) 838-2432
Red Piano Too at the St. Helena corners has a huge selection of local and national contemporary and primitive art. They even display a few pieces by the late Same Doyl, whose paintings on scrap wood and metal are now recognized as American treasures.
(843) 838-2241
The Ibile Indigo House is a studio for creating textile art using natural dyes and indigo, once an important crop in the lowcountry.
(843) 838-3884
Arts in the Park
At the downtown Waterfront Park, Arts in the Park offers a spring and fall series of free performances, from Gospel to jazz to folk to steel drums and Bluegrass, plus that Beaufort favorite, the wildly raucous Atlanta Seed and Feed Marching Abominable. Some performances are at noon, others in the evening.
Art Galleries
Business Listings
Gloria Dalvini Watercolors
| Phone: (843) 521-0221 | PO Box 303
Beaufort, SC 29901 | |
A studio/gallery located on the waterfront in downtown Beaufort. The gallery is filled with original paintings and prints of the lowcountry done in fresh, soft colors by artist Gloria Dalvinin. Many days the artist can be found here working on her latest paintings.
Indigo Gallery
| Phone: (843) 524-1036 | 809 Bay St.
Beaufort, SC 29902 | |
Red Piano Too Art Gallery
Phone: (843) 838-2241
Fax: (843) 838-3620 | 870 Sea Island Parkway
St. Helena Island, SC 29920 | Email
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One of the south's most important collections of folk art in the south's most unique gallery.
The Gallery
| Phone: 843-470-9994 | 917 Bay Street
Beaufort, SC 29902 | |
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