Spoleto gears up. Harriet Tubman goes to the Gibbes.
Maura's Three for the Week in Charleston, 5/19/25 - 5/25/25
For those who haven’t heard me wax nostalgic about Spoleto Festival USA, and Piccolo Spoleto, it is literally where my lifelong devotion to the arts began.
Growing up, our neighbor, Mary Hagerty, hosted the festival’s earliest parties at her Legare Street home, which was literally my backyard as it was our house’s former carriage house. For the festival’s 1977 debut, I landed a part in the children’s chorus, created for the first act of The Queen of Spades, singing with Westminster Choir.
This week for me is always as backward-looking as it is forward-thinking, a mix of the profoundly nostalgic and the exhilaratingly new. It starts with the poster launch, which is detailed below along with other happenings that add to this gloriously arts-centric time of year in Charleston.
I’ll be blazing a trail, both for Charleston City Paper and for Culture South, sharing from both outlets. Look for overviews, news and reviews — the latter from me as well as from Leah Suarez, a Charleston native and Mexico City resident who is gifted as a vocalist and music critic.
So away we go, Charleston, for the most remarkable time of the year.
Spoleto toasts its 2025 poster
Market Street Circle at The Charleston Place, 205 Meeting St., downtown Charleston, Mon., May 19, 5 p.m.
It’s an annual Charleston tradition, the reveal of the poster commission for Spoleto Festival USA, which will soon splash across city streets and shop windows, and is available for purchase. Past festivals have celebrated a range of styles from painting to photography by notable artists like David Hockney and Jasper Johns.
At the Monday reveal at The Charleston Place, look for a live performance by members of the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra; a strolling tray with hand-filled cannolis provided by Sorelle; and the debut of the Spoleto Festival USA Ticket Kiosk at The Charleston Place, open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.— not to mention an effervescent top-off by way of a Champagne sabering and toast from the team at The Charleston Place.
For a full lineup of 2025 Spoleto Festival USA, visit spoletousa.org.
Track Harriet Tubman’s S.C. derring-do
Gibbes Museum of Art, 135 Meeting St., downtown Charleston, Fri., May 23 - Sun., Oct. 5
Harriet Tubman is the focus of Picturing Freedom: Harriet Tubman and the Combahee River Raid, a multimedia exhibition opening this week at Gibbes Museum of Art, as detailed in my Charleston City Paper story. The exhibition is inspired by the untold story of the Combahee River Raid from the perspective of Tubman and the enslaved people she helped to free—revealed for the first time through groundbreaking research by Edda Fields-Black, Ph.D., in her recent book COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War—which was recently recognized with the Pulitzer Prize for history.
Working in collaboration with J Henry Fair, renowned environmental photographer, and guest curator, Vanessa Thaxton-Ward, Ph.D., Director of the Hampton University Museum, Picturing Freedom recreates the full journey of these brave soldiers and freedom seekers on on June 2, 1863. The exhibition will explore the event through Fair’s photographs and video works, as well as contemporary and historic art objects and material culture, including works by artists Jacob Lawrence, Faith Ringgold, William H. Johnson and Stephen Towns.
For more information, visit gibbesmuseum.org.
See nature pop via a Magnolia Lego art installation
Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, 3550 Ashley River Rd., Charleston, Fri., May 23 - Fri., Aug. 15
Sean Kenney’s Nature POP!® comes to Magnolia. This art and nature experience: by the acclaimed artist is a highly anticipated outdoor exhibit featuring more than 40 of his larger-than-life sculptures, made entirely of LEGO® bricks. These vibrant creations celebrate the beauty of nature through a striking pop-art lens, blending bold colors, imaginative designs and intricate craftsmanship to transform Magnolia’s gardens into an immersive outdoor gallery.
For more information, visit magnoliaplantation.com.
Bonus: Head to Public Works for Hirona Matsuda’s new show
Public Works Art Center, East Gallery, 135 West Richardson Ave., Summerville, through Sat., July 12
I’ve long been drawn to the work of Hirona Matsuda, a Japanese-Irish American artist based in Charleston. The found object assemblage and kinetic sculpture that is her hallmark is informed by objects she finds, as well as by her relationship to her personal collections. By recontextualizing them as sculpture, she creates works layered with the history of each object incorporated, and resulting in something wholly, newly evocative. Her latest exhibition. Reflections On Coexistence, is now up at Public Works Art Center, and is sure to be as visually compelling as it is emotionally complex.
For more information, click here.
Fabulous info here!!