COLLABORATORS
Alloneword Design
Background and Mission: A design and development shop focused on artists, restaurants, and cultural organizations.
What do you appreciate most about Charleston’s arts community and wider culture? As Charleston sits in the midst of unparalleled growth and an influx of voices from afar, the opportunities to change and add to the artistic narrative abound. The market is still maturing thus removing barriers for inclusion that larger markets face. A more egalitarian (pudding in the proof) approach is blending with important established art creating the current scene.
What Charleston Arts Festival event are you most excited for, and why? Women & Radiohead, simply because I have missed all of the other one of these creations and keep hearing about how magical they have been. Looking forward to all events though.
Website: www.alloneworddesign.com
Dance Lab
Background and Mission: The lab is more than just a dance studio. it is a safe environment, a friendship mecca, a creative dance breeding ground, a performance platform and a beautiful space for dancers of all ages and genres to create, transform and discover. our dance classes are filled with positive vibes and unthinkable brilliance. whether it's your first time on the dance floor or your one millionth, the lab creates a learning environment rich with encouragement and lush with opportunities. we provide an all-encompassing dance education for recreational through professional levels including an unmatched performance season experience for concert and competition dancers alike. if you are looking for an evolved dance experience, come check out the lab, we know you'll be pleased with our "chemistry". no pun. #verypunny.
What do you appreciate most about Charleston’s arts community and wider culture? The openness to try something new. the support.
What Charleston Arts Festival event are you most excited for, and why? Excited to see how the "origin" will be executed and received.
Website: www.dancelabcharleston.com
Artist & Craftsman Supply
Background and Mission: Artist & Craftsman has been serving Charleston creatives for over 20 years. Our mission is to promote the arts by providing our community with the resources to create.
What do you appreciate most about Charleston’s arts community and wider culture? Its energy.
What Charleston Arts Festival event are you most excited for, and why? The finale at the old city jail. That event brings together so many different styles of art and performance.
Website: www.artistcraftsman.com
Stephen Blackmon = photographer
Beginning with a PEPSI branded red, white and blue Polaroid camera given by his grandmother, then stumbling into the darkroom at the age of 17, Stephen has progressed through the current digital era and run multiple photo finishing labs. He has been a part of the professional photographic industry for more than 10 years. Stephen specializes in many forms of photography including: commercial, photojournalistic wedding and event, portraiture, and live performance. His photographs have been featured in numerous magazines, papers and blogs including Weddings Unveiled, The Wedding Row, Charleston City Paper, The Art Institute of Charleston Quarterly and others. Awards include 1st and 2nd place along with honorable mention in Charleston City Paper Photography Contest, Martha Stewart Bride's Choice Awards 6 years running and Best of The Knot Weddings. Stephen also enjoys leading workshops as well as educating enthusiasts and pros alike on a one-to-one basis. In 2016, he partnered as the official photographer to the Charleston Arts Festival in it's inaugural year.
Victor Hart = Visual Artist
I was born in Charleston and have lived here my whole life. I always have difficulty describing my art to people. Most pieces are started with just a simple concept and the meaning and intent to the piece often only comes to me while I’m working on it. My work usually contains a central, concrete idea that is then enforced with vague suggestions and thoughts that I like to sprinkle through the piece in the form of simple doodles and scribbles. People often see my work as having frightening imagery or elements of horror, but I don’t see it that way. Despite the odd imagery I strive to impart my figures with a sense of dignity and a welcoming quality to the viewer.
vassiliki falkehag = Visual Artist
Vassiliki Falkehag lives and works in Mount Pleasant, SC. For 25 years she divided her time between Charleston, Greece and Sweden working with exhibitions, public commissions, cooperative art activities, and as a quest lecturer at art academies and universities. She is affiliated with Orebro Art College in Sweden where she was a head teacher from 2000-2009. She exhibits internationally with major exhibitions at the Lunds Konsthall, Leksands Konsthall, Orebro Konsthall, Orebro OpenArt, Orebro university Gallery, Stockholm Culture Capital, Sweden. Lausanne Musee des arts Decoratifs, Lauzanne National Theater Garden, Switzerland. Polychronopoulos Museum, Skironio Sculpture Park, Athens, Greece. John Moores University Gallery, Liverpool, UK. Moore Farms Botanical Garden, commissioned by ArtFields, Lake City, SC. Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, Ga. Her mostly site-responsive work ranges from intimate interventions to large-scale installations. Employing a light ecological footprint in the choice of recycled materials, ideas and diverse plants, it is often interactive raising questions of place, space, public/private and nature.