2018
January 9 – PechaKucha 28 at the Charleston Music Hall
As a second in an ongoing collaboration with Charleston Music Hall, our presenters were Jenny Broe, Chief Mad Scientist of Dance Lab; Katie Zimmerman, Executive Director of Charleston Moves; Joel Sadler, Yesand and Sightsee; Connor Lock, graphic designer and genius behind SEVEN; Hanna Raskin, food critic and writer at the Post & Courier; Manny Houston, musician-singer-actor-creative force; Mary Beth Natarajan, Executive Director of Charleston Jazz; Benjamin Starr, Hip-Hop artist.
Poster Designer: Connor Lock of SEVEN. Emcee: Ben Towill of Basic Kitchen. DJ: DJ Party Dad.
March 2 – PechaKucha 29 at the Charleston Music Hall
As a third collaboration with the Charleston Wine + Food Festival and also as the third in an ongoing collaboration with Charleston Music Hall, the featured presenters were: Femi Oyediran and Miles White, sommeliers and owners of Graft Wine Shop; Angela Dupree, Director of Operations at One80 Place; Ruchi Mistry and Tom McFall, owners of Huriyali Gardens; Steve Mangano, developer of the CurEat app; Fanny and Patrick Panella, owners of Bin 152, Chez Nous, and Malagon; John T. Edge, writer and head of the Southern Foodways Alliance; Zach Smith, founder of Dalai Sofia kombucha; Trudi Wagner and Patty Floersheimer, owners of goat.sheep.cow; Scott Crawford, chef and co-founder of Ben’s Friends and owner of Crawford & Son restaurant in Raleigh.
Poster Design: Nathan Durfee. Emcee: Ellen Bennett of Hedley & Bennett. DJ: Professor Ping.
May 30 – PechaKucha 30 at the Charleston Music Hall
As the fourth in an ongoing collaboration with Charleston Music Hall, our PechaKucha presenters were Joy Vandervort-Cobb, actor and theatre professor at the College of Charleston; Cara Leepson, Executive Director of Redux Contemporary Art Center; Robin Berlinsky, Executive Director of Engaging Creative Minds; Mark Stetler, photographer; Herb Kowalski (Andrew Smock), mayoral candidate and visionary; Ivan Lima; graphic designer and leader of Creative Mornings.
Poster Design: Sara Pittman and Becca Barnet. Emcee: Tiffany Silverman of The Citadel. DJ: Professor Ping.
September 5 – PechaKucha 31at the Charleston Music Hall
As the fifth in an ongoing collaboration with Charleston Music Hall, this exciting evening as always featured an array of Charleston’s most stellar creatives: Tom Bradford, one of the innovators behind the Charleston Low Line; Jen and Mike Kulick, the dynamic husband-wife duo who launched the Tattooed Moose phenomenon; Mike Quinn, master of saxophone and one of the city’s most prolifically talented music impresarios; Trace Bonner, the city’s premiere queen of Holy Cow Yoga; Jonathan Boncek, photographer extraordinaire; Taneka Reaves and Johnny Caldwell, the saucy and spirited Cocktail Bandits; Mark Sloan, director of the Halsey Institution of Contemporary Art and curator of its upcoming landmark “Southbound” exhibition; Wolfgang Zimmerman, musician-mastermind behind the brand-new Invisible Low End Power and producer at Rialto Row.
Poster Design: Victor Hart. Emcee: Kelly Rae Smith, music editor of Charleston City Paper. DJ: Professor Ping.
September 6-October 7 – The Road Between – Sara Pittman Solo Show at Beresford Studios
For a second year, the Charleston Arts Festival was proud to collaborate with Beresford Studios and presented The Road Between, an exciting new body of work by one of the city’s most talented young artists, Sara Pittman.
Pittman is an emerging abstract expressionist, who has always found art to be an intrinsic part of her being. Relying heavily on intuition, her work explores the constant exchange between her repressed state of mind and her conscious self. These are represented through the juxtaposition of loose and controlled movement, defined areas with the use of negative space, and the tension between bold and soft color. Incorporating negative space invites the viewer to have a focused dialogue with the images that are presenting themselves and beckons deeper observation. A wordless narrative unfolds in the thin, transparent layers of paint and mark-making, evoking a sense of mood and mystery between what the viewer sees as the foreground and what the eye sees overlying it. The depth of her work creates an experience by asking those viewing it to come closer and unveil what is buried beneath.
Pittman grew up in Montgomery, Alabama and was raised by an artistic family who acted as an inspirational staple throughout her childhood. Her mother, an encaustic artist and art therapist, was the first to really introduce her to the world of art. With her family's support, she quickly began evolving as an artist and went on to study painting at Huntingdon College, receiving her BFA in May 2015.
Pittman moved to Charleston, South Carolina after being accepted into Redux Contemporary Art Center in August 2016 where she continues to work out of her studio as a full-time artist. Sara held her first solo exhibition at Mitchell Hill of Charleston in 2016. She recently had a two-person exhibition, “Paintings by Jeffrey Cortland Jones and Sara Pittman,” at Matthew Rachman Gallery in Chicago, IL. Her work can be found in over 40 regional and national private collections and has been included in projects such as renowned French designer Jean-Louis Deniot's Miami house for Elle Decor. Pittman has been published in both national and international publications.
September 30 – “ The Art of the Vintage Motorcycle”: The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride
The Charleston Arts Festival collaborated on a first Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride for Charleston. This inaugural local iteration was a part of the international event, founded in 2012, and taking place in over 650 cities across 95 countries, all on September 30 in 2018.
This event brought together owner-riders of classic and vintage motorcycles as part of an international initiative to raise money for prostate cancer research as well as for treatment of mental health issues affecting men. To this date, the DGR movement had raised more than $13 million for these causes. The fifteen-mile ride circuit through the Charleston peninsula included stops at a number of Charleston’s finest watering holes and culminated at a post-ride event at the Royal American with the opportunity to view the array of these magnificent rare and vintage machines.
Various locations throughout the Lowcountry
Post-ride gathering at the Royal American.
October 5 and 6 – Poe | A Play In The Dark at Queen Street Playhouse
“Once upon a midnight dreary…”
An original music and movement exploration of the haunting recesses of Edgar Allan Poe’s mind upon the conception of his masterwork, “The Raven”, Poe | A Play In The Dark featured a score composed and performed by Andrew Walker, Co-founder and Director of the Charleston Arts Festival, and movement choreographed by Jenny Broe, Chief Mad Scientist and Owner of Dance Lab.
A thrilling, quirky and peculiar story, Poe transported attendees into the poet’s study and onto his page while illuminating his obsessive nature, rich with madness yet full of beauty. This madness, brought on by the premonition of his lost love, ignited his brilliance and gave birth to his most amazing work. Through narration, music and dance, the play unfolded Poe’s tremendous undertaking and exploited the outright war he fought with himself to complete such a masterpiece. The question was: Will Poe possess the courage, wisdom and strength to emerge from his mind’s darkest corners alive or will he be trapped there “nevermore”?
October 5 and 6 – Myth Of An Atom at Queen Street Playhouse
Myth of an Atom was the brainchild of New York-based duo, visual designer Christian Hannon (NON Visuals) and musician/producer Fallen Atom. Eclectically fusing elements of hip hop, R&B, future bass, and electronic soundscapes with fluid, sound reactive imagery, this audiovisual performance explored the nature of light, sound, and the cinematic experience with a live band. Atom and Hannon were accompanied by other musicians behind a translucent screen that was projection mapped by Hannon's visuals, creating a holographic effect. The visuals and music were of a modular nature, making each show a unique adventure for the viewer and the performers.
These performances were the third CAF appearances for Myth of an Atom. Hannon and Atom are Charleston natives, who debuted their project locally at the inaugural Charleston Arts Festival Finale in October of 2016, and returned for a stand-alone performance at 2017’s festival.
October 20 – Charleston Arts Festival | CONCOCTION at The Royal American
As an homage to its uber-successful JAIL BREAK series, the Charleston Arts Festival returned to The Royal American with its freshly re-branded signature live music and dance extravaganza, CONCOCTION. This season’s season capper featured Charleston super-performers: Wolfgang Zimmerman with Invisible Low End Power, 2 Slices, and Contour, complemented by live high energy dance performances curated by long-time CAF collaborator Dance Lab Charleston’s Jenny Broe.
October 26 - November 25 – Down Into Folds – Paul Cristina Solo Show at Beresford Studio
For a second year, the Charleston Arts Festival collaborated with Beresford Studios in presenting exciting new work by Paul Cristina, one of our region’s most talented and visionary contemporary artists.
Cristina was born in the metropolitan area of Cleveland, Ohio in August of 1983. As a self-taught artist, Cristina has continued to develop his creative sensibilities through the study of books, film, music, people and photographic images. These sources of education continue to inform his work through the experimentation of various style and media. Within the preceding year, Cristina’s work had been the focus of one-person shows at the Booth Gallery in New York City, at Beresford Studios in Charleston, and at TRAX Visual Arts Center in Lake City, South Carolina.
November 3 – Film at CAF: Premieres of Beyond Transport and Alexx Finding Home at The American Theater
Charleston Arts Festival was thrilled to present the American premieres of Beyond Transport and Alexx Finding Home, two new documentary films, by California-based filmmaker, Ched Lohr.
Beyond Transport was a moving exploration of the ways in which our devices distance us from our fellow humans by hampering our genuine ability and willingness to communicate. Conversations with taxi drivers around the world offered insight into our openness for direct communication. In the personal device era, how are we talking? Beyond Transport had recently received the 2018 award for best editing of a short documentary at the Amsterdam International Filmmaker Festival, where it was also nominated as best short documentary.
In Lohr’s brand new, second feature documentary, Alexx Finding Home told of a twenty-nine-year-old woman's mission to establish a home for her new small family following years of homelessness since the age of fourteen. This determined, soon-to-be mother, joined with a compassionate community, proved that no obstacle can overcome the power of love.
These screenings were followed by a panel discussion including the filmmaker and participants and advisors from the two films.
November 12 – PechaKucha 32 – TENTH Anniversary at the Charleston Music Hall
This milestone gathering was a marker and celebration of TEN years of PechaKucha events in the Holy. Over that period, more than 250 creatives of all stripes had shared what had inspired them in their unique and personal endeavors. PK 32 brought back many of the original illustrious presenters from PK 1 and afforded them the opportunity to reflect once again on their creative drives and ambitions within PK’s signature six minute-forty second formatting.
Among the returning presenters: Whitney Powers, architect and visionary behind “If You Were Mayor”; Tim Hussey, abstract artist extraordinaire; Jonathan Sanchez, proprietor of Blue Bicycle Books and founder of YALLFest; Jacob Lindsay, Director of the Department of Planning, Preservation and Sustainability for the City of Charleston; Brady Waggoner, Founder of HOOK and key member of The Dubplates; Nico Romo, owner of NICO; Marcus Amaker, Poet Laureate of the City of Charleston; Justin Nathanson, filmmaker and guiding force behind The Southern Gallery.
Poster Design: Steve Stegelin. Emcee: Robert Prioleau, Partner and Brand Director at Blue Ion and founding member of Charleston Creative Parliament. DJ: Professor Ping.
As the sixth in the ongoing collaboration with Charleston Music Hall, the event was complemented by Visually Speaking: PechaKucha Portraits by Jonathan Boncek, an extravagant show of photography highlighting Charleston’s myriad creatives from among the works of our local ace photog.
November 12-30 – Visually Speaking: PechaKucha Portraits by Jonathan Boncek at the Charleston Music Hall
As a distinctive marker of the TENTH anniversary of PechaKuchas in Charleston, local superstar photographer, Jonathan Boncek, curated his selection of twenty-five portraits of PechaKucha presenters, taken during his 2011-2018 tenure as staff photographer for Charleston City Paper. These portraits were on exhibit in the upper gallery of the Charleston Music Hall.