Monthly Archives: March 2017

Student Happenings: Senior Puts Gallery Fundamentals Into Practice

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Q&A Spotlight With Senior Neal Rice

Neal Rice is what you’d call an overachiever. At the age of 22, he’s already opened his own art gallery, Beresford Studios, in the heart of downtown Charleston, all while taking a 17 credit hour course load at the College. Like many students in the Arts Management program, Neal grew up with a passion for the visual arts. But opening your own gallery in a vibrant art scene like Charleston’s is no small feat. What helped fuel his drive to embark on such an ambitious endeavor before he’d even graduated college? The Arts Management program had plenty to do with it.

“I was in the Gallery Fundamentals class,” Rice says. “We were learning about fundraising proposals, and it just kind of hit me. Rather than just stowing that information away for future use, I went home that night and began to write out a proposal for the gallery.”

The gallery he envisioned came to fruition in February with a successful opening which featured an exhibition from local artist Chambers Austelle. Rice plans to utilize the gallery as a singular showcase for artists, granting them full, month-long exhibitions.

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Faculty Bulletin: Creative Writers Enter the Arts Management Realm With New MFA Program

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Creative writing may not be the first artform that comes to mind when you think of arts management. But to Bret Lott, Director of the new MFA in Creative Writing program at the College, a partnership between aspiring writers and arts management is a natural fit.

“It makes total sense,” Lott says of the Arts Management emphasis offered within the creative writing MFA. “The majority of the skills learned in arts management are also elements of the writing craft.”

The MFA program was in development for over a decade before it finally got underway with its inaugural class in the fall of 2016. As plans for the MFA slowly came together, Lott worked alongside Scott Shanklin-Peterson, then the Director of the Arts Management Program, on ways to integrate the traditional creative writing curriculum with an arts management component. Shanklin-Peterson retired as Director in 2014, but her successor Dr. Karen Chandler helped Lott bring the arts management emphasis to fruition.

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