Arts Planner: Verner Awards, Broadway and medically-inspired art
Museum of Art, poet Nikky Finney, Hootie & the Blowfish to receive Verner Awards
A Columbia band, poet and museum are among the eight individuals or organizations to receive the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Governor’s Awards for the Arts.
The Columbia Museum of Art has been named the 2016 recipient of the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Governor’s Award for the Arts in the Organization category, and poet Nikky Finney and the band Hootie and the Blowfish will receive Verner Awards in the Special Recognition category. The Verner Awards are the highest honor the state presents in the arts and recognize outstanding achievement and contributions to the arts in South Carolina.
"Each of these Verner Award recipients has attracted positive national attention for the Palmetto State," S.C. Arts Commission Chairman Henry Horowitz said in a statement. "Their contributions regionally and nationally are a source of pride for South Carolinians living anywhere."
Awards will be presented at the State House at 11 a.m. May 11.
Eight individuals and organizations will receive Verner Awards. All of this year’s recipients have brought national recognition to South Carolina, enhancing our state’s reputation as a leader in the arts.
The full list of this year’s recipients:
Special recognition: Hootie & the Blowfish and Nikky Finney (Columbia)
Artist: Mary Edna Fraser (Charleston)
Individual: Betty Plumb (Rock Hill)
Arts in Education: Joye in Aiken (Aiken)
Business/Foundation: The Phifer-Johnson Foundation/The Johnson Collection (Spartanburg)
Government: The City of Greenville
Organization: The Columbia Museum of Art
OTHER ARTS EVENTS AROUND THE MIDLANDS
‘Arte Corporis: Exploring the Anatomical Body’
The “Arte Corporis: Exploring the Anatomical Body” exhibition showcases anatomically and medically inspired contemporary art of all media. This visual art exhibition will coincide with the two-day symposium, “Art, Anatomy, and Medicine since 1700,” sponsored by the University of South Carolina’s Provost’s Office and the School of Visual Art and Design, in partnership with the Columbia Museum of Art.
The exhibition runs March 7 – April 1 at McMaster Gallery, 1615 Senate St., with an opening reception from 5:30-7:30 March 31. Free. The symposium will be held March 31-April 1 at the Columbia Museum of Art, 1515 Main St. artsandsciences.sc.edu/art/arte-corporis-exploring-anatomical-body
Nickelodeon Theatre hosts series curated by Nikky Finney
National Book Award-winning poet Nikky Finney has curated a series of films to screen on Mondays in March at the Nickelodeon Theatre. Each film is is some way about the struggle to find freedom. The first film is “4 Little Girls,” in which director Spike Lee reconstructs the racial unrest in 1963 Birmingham that precipitated the bombing of a black church that killed four little girls.
6:30 p.m. Monday at the Nick, 1607 Main St.; $10. nickelodeon.org
‘Broadway Back Together’
See four Broadway actors from shows like “Rent,” “Wicked,” “In The Heights” and “Motown the Musical” in a collaborative performance.
7:30 p.m. Saturday at Harbison Theatre at Midlands Technical College, 7300 College St., Irmo; $28. www.harbisontheatre.org
Chamber Music on Main
Christopher O’Riley on piano, Tessa Lark on violin and Edward Arron on cello perform works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Maurice Ravel, Christopher O’Riley and Antonín Dvořák at Chamber Music on Main.
6 p.m. Happy Hour, 7 p.m. concert on Tuesday at the Columbia Museum of Art, 1515 Main St.; $35, $28 for members, $5 for students. www.columbiamuseum.org/happenings/chamber-music-main-5