The Cultural Council needs your financial support in creating a better community through the arts.  On this page you see a number of our projects described.  Please consider a contribution.  Send a check to: Cultural Council PO Box 2626 Pawleys Island, SC 28585 If you would like to support a specific project on this page, please indicate it in the "memo" section of your check.  For more information on any of these efforts, please email or call us. Can't make a monetary contribution at this time, but still want to support?  Check out our Wish List for ways you can donate supplies, equipment, or services.

Teach My People - After School Program As part of our after-school arts experience at Teach My People, we asked the  middle school students to give us their vision of what their home meant to them.  In an effort led by artist Jean Hanna, photographer Chip Smith and poet Libby Bernadin, the students were armed with disposable cameras and asked to take pictures of “their home.”  The students were then asked to  write a poem about the images.   Here’s an excerpt of “My Tidelands are Full of Mystery” by Dequan Funny: “My tidelands are full of mystery, all full of history. It’s like things I learned in elementary. Listen to hammers pound and saws saw, Like a dog scratching wood with its paw. Save our tidelands. Save it today. So your children’s children will have somewhere to Discover, learn and play.” To continue this program, donations are needed for materials, student incentives, software and instructor fees.

Digital Arts Experience - Carvers Bay Library In this program, middle-school youth spend 12 weeks learning the basics of composition, photography, image editing, creation of slide programs, music production and video/film production.   The effort is a collaboration of the Georgetown County Library System and the Cultural Council of Georgetown County, which resulted in the purchase of new Macintosh computers, audio recorders and still and video cameras with a grant from the Francis P. Bunnelle Foundation.  Other funding came from the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation to fund the curriculum development and instructors. Research shows that young people who are exposed to the arts do better in math and have better verbal skills than youth who are not engaged in the arts.  But this project goes beyond even that goal.  In the end, by working on state-of-the-art graphic and multi-media computers and programs – with instruction from working professionals – these youth will learn skills that are being used everyday in a variety of professions in this area.” Donations to continue this program are needed to pay instructors, fund software and buy new Apple hardware along with still and video cameras.

Grants to Local Artists & Groups Grants up to $1500 to support the region’s artists and artistic activities are available from the Cultural Council, the official arts organization of Georgetown County.  Funds from the South Carolina Arts Commission must be matched by the Cultural Council from our operating funds. For a copy of the application and guidelines, click here.   In 2007 and 2008, grants helped fund the Litchfield Ballet Foundation, a series of Chamber Music Concerts, a Community Heritage Festival in rural Plantersville, a student documentary on the annual Gullah-Rice Festival, and a presentation by the South Carolina Watermedia Society when they held their 2008 annual Exhibit in the Grand Strand. Qualified individuals and organizations may apply anytime.

ARTS-IN-EDUCATION -- In-School Residencies Theatre, music, folklife and weaving are some of the art disciplines that are being enhanced in Georgetown county public and private schools through the Cultural Council of Georgetown County’s Artist-in-Residence program.  The program is jointly funded by the participating schools, the Cultural Council and the South Carolina Arts Commission. In 2008-09,  Weaver Kim Keets worked with students at Georgetown High School.  Andrews High School students received coaching in drama and poetry reading from performer Francee Levin.  And the Afro-Cuban drumming group Egbe Kilimajaro introduced students at Plantersville Elementary School to the cultural significance of drumming.  Nancy Basket brought her weaving and folklife skills to Lowcountry Day School in Pawleys Island.  And Connie Lippert taught her traditional weaving skills to students at Andrews Christian School. The state on provides about $3,000 annually, which the Cultural Council and the schools must match. Funds are needed to match the state funds, to enable the Cultural Council to expand the program to reach more schools and students in the County.