Anderson Arts Center Readies for 51st Juried Show
Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer
In the modest galleries of the Anderson Arts Center, where sunlight filters through high windows onto walls soon to brim with unfamiliar visions, preparations are under way for the 51st annual Juried Art Exhibit—a rite of spring that draws hundreds of hopeful submissions from across South Carolina and beyond.
Erin Spainhour, the center’s executive director since last fall, describes the process with the quiet precision of someone who has watched it unfold for years. Artists may submit up to two original works in any medium—paintings, sculptures, prints, jewelry—created within the past two years; jurors chosen for their expertise, sift through more than 400 entries to select roughly 180 for display. Intake begins March 15 and runs through the 17th, with the opening reception set for April 10; those pieces that don’t make the cut aren’t turned away but juried into Art on the Town, a companion crawl through downtown Anderson businesses, kicking off April 23.
Spainhour’s enthusiasm extends to the center’s bustling calendar, which frames the juried show amid a tapestry of other offerings. At the adjacent Carnegie building, through March 6, “Mud Made Us” unites ceramics from Clemson University and the University of South Carolina, with printmaking workshops humming in the basement—silkscreen, linoleum cuts—while an oil-painting class with artist John Urban looms in May. Summer brings camps for children and adults, a teen intensive called Create Workshop, and Art Slam Junior, blending competition with instruction.
Run on donor fuel and memberships that unlock discounts at spots like Sullivan’s Metropolitan Grill and Market Theater, the center positions itself as Anderson’s quiet engine for accessible art. Spainhour, who rose from marketing coordinator to director, invites involvement via andersonarts.org, where benefits accrue like subtle brushstrokes in a larger composition. In a county where creativity often competes with the hum of industry, such events remind that selection, like art itself, is both gate and gateway.
