S.C. Arts Commission awards 221 grants

The South Carolina Arts Commission has awarded $1,278,726 to communities, artists, arts organizations and schools for the 2011 fiscal year.

Funding will support arts in education, folk life and traditional arts, general operating support and subgranting in 221 projects in 37 counties.

Misty Moore of the S.C. Arts Commission said $197,824 was awarded to 29 grantees in Charleston.

"I think it's pretty significant considering this funding would have been eliminated without the support from a lot of people in Charleston who rallied for the arts last month," she said.

Nice job, Charleston art lovers. It's nice to get rewarded for what you believe in.

The Arts Commission awards other grants throughout the year, including quarterly project support, arts in education grants and individual artist fellowship awards.

Visit www.southcarolinaarts.com/awards to see a complete list of all of the agency's fiscal year 2011 grants.

For more about S.C. Arts Commission programs and services, call (803)-734-8696.

Smithsonian fellowship

Jocelyn Chateauvert has been using handmade paper to create sculptures for more than 20 years.

You may remember her work from a few months ago at the City Gallery's Contemporary Charleston 2010 exhibit during Spoleto or various other large- and small-scale installations throughout Charleston and beyond over the years.

She was recently awarded the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship to study the sculptural qualities of plants in the jungles of Guyana, South America.

She is the first artist in a craft medium to be granted the Smithsonian Fellowship, and the first to study in Guyana. She will spend 18 days this summer and again in December in the sparsely populated country at the north end of the Amazon rainforest documenting the diversity and beauty of plant species in the region.

Chateauvert has a strong connection to plants and has devoted her life to. "Transforming plant-based paper into plant-inspired artwork."

In her fellowship application, she wrote, "My passion to imbue handmade paper into an emotional representation of plant life will be informed with a greater knowledge of its structure, physical attributes and species relationships."

Chateauvert has been researching the biological holdings of the Guyana shield at the herbarium of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and studying botanical illustration in preparation for her travels.

For information about the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, contact Will Morrison at morrisonb@si.edu.

Redux classes

Integral to the Redux mission is to educate the community about current practices in art through both an academic and hands-on approach.

Year-round art classes and workshops are offered to the public for both children and adults.

More than 100 classes and workshops are available throughout the year covering a variety of topics for students from beginner to advanced.

To register for classes and for class descriptions, visit www.reduxstudios.org/edu.html.