The College of Charleston Friends of the School of the Arts and Friends of the Library will present a sneak preview of the Spoleto Festivual USA and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival. This hour-long event will be presented by music professors Edward Hart and Robert Taylor, theatre professor Todd McNerney, and director of the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art Mark Sloan. The lecture will highlight various, must-see arts events, as well as give a brief history of both Festivals. The presentation will take place on Monday, May 14, 2012 at 6 p.m. in the Recital Hall of the Simons Center for the Arts, 54 St. Philip Street. Admission is free.
A reception and book signing in the Hill Exhibition Gallery will follow the event and will include a peek at the preparatory stages of “Return to the Sea: Saltworks by Motoi Yamamato” in the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art. This traveling exhibit will premiere in Charleston as part of the Spoleto Festival USA on May 24. Yamamato will create a site-specific installation entirely out of salt during his residency at the Halsey Institute. For more information, visit http://halsey.cofc.edu. Copies of the stunning, 163-page exhibition catalogue will be available for autograph and purchase at the reception.
Both the School of the Arts and the College of Charleston Library have a long-standing relationship with the Spoleto USA and Piccolo Spoleto Festivals. For more than 20 years, School of the Arts faculty have taught specialized Spoleto classes at the College of Charleston, introducing the arts to students in conjunction with the Festivals’ performances. Hart and Taylor have performed, or had their original compositions performed, for Piccolo Spoleto on numerous occasions. McNerney has served as Theatre Coordinator for Piccolo Spoleto for over a decade and currently coordinates the Stelle di Domani Series. The Halsey Institute has coordinated exhibitions with both Festivals.
Additionally, School of the Arts faculty, students and alumni perform in Festival concerts and productions every year, including the Department of Music’s own Young Artists Series and the Department of Theatre’s Stelle di Domani Series, both of which involve award-winning students performing alongside well-established guests and alumni.
The College of Charleston Library serves as the repository for the Spoleto Festival USA archives. Performance programs, records and financial documents, as well as audio and videotapes of actual performances, of the Festival since its inception in 1977 are housed in Special Collections at the Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library.
Special Collections also facilitates the ongoing Spoleto Festival USA Oral History Project, bringing valuable collections into the library and recording narratives and points of view that would otherwise be lost. The project, which includes interviews with artists long associated with Spoleto, new artists just participating in Spoleto, political figures, board leaders, volunteers and production staff members, will be stored in Special Collections and used as research material for generations to come.
The Friends of the School of the Arts promotes and supports the School of the Arts’ departments and programs, and also strengthens the relationships amongst the School, the College, the community, and other academic and cultural groups.
The Friends of the Library at the College of Charleston supports and advances the interests of the Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library as the leading intellectual and cultural force in the community.