The I. P. Stanback Museum & Planetarium was pleased to announce receipt of funding from the South Carolina Humanities Council in support of a series of programs and exhibitions documenting significant aspects of the history of our state and its cultural evolution.
On February 8th, 2018, the opening and reception for the exhibition associated with the project for which public funds had been received, entitled, Resistance, Reform, & Reasoning: The Orangeburg Massacre & Its Aftermath ~ 50 years Later, followed the commemorative ceremony at South Carolina State University and considered the impact of half a century of change following the tragic events of 1968. The exhibition and humanities activities combined a compelling visual arts presentation with opportunities for public discussion, with a discourse stimulated in part by the documentary photographs of nationally noted South Carolina photographer, and recipient of the Governor’s Order of the Palmetto, Cecil Williams. In addition to the presentation of photographs, a selection of paintings, installation works, and diverse visual responses to the Orangeburg tragedy by artists from around the state and region, in tandem with colloquia regarding assessments of the social and cultural transitions within our state and nation since 1968 was also be offered.
Among the artists who participated in the exhibition and colloquia was internationally noted South Carolina batik artist, Dr. Leo Franklin Twiggs, a winner the Elizabeth O’Neil Verner Award in the Visual Arts, South Carolina’s highest visual arts honor, and, Ike Williams, a recipient of the Governor’s Order of the Palmetto, our state’s highest civilian honor. Twiggs also joined Williams in a discussion pertaining to the documentation of the tragedy, due to Williams photographic images of the events leading to the Orangeburg Massacre, and Twiggs celebrated painting series, Requiem for Mother Emanuel, currently on view in Columbia at the South Carolina State Museum responding to the infamous Charleston Nine Massacre of 2015.
At the Stanback Museum, responses to the Orangeburg tragedy have been offered by several nationally, regionally and internationally renowned artists such as Juan Logan, Gwylene Gallimard and Jean-Marie Mauclet, Giordano Angeletti, and acclaimed regional and national artists including Alvin Glen, John Glenn Wright, Kim LeDee, Maggie O’Hara, Alexander Thierry, Michaela Pilar-Brown, Dogon Krigga, Jerry Fryar, and photographer Susan Smith, who form the core of participants for the exhibition of creative works.
A pre-screening of a documentary film by journalist Steve Crum discussing the The Orangeburg Massacre was on view in the I.P. Stanback during the reception, preliminary to its broadcast on WIS-TV.
The exhibitions and discussion programs have been made possible by a generous grant from the South Carolina Humanities Council, and funding was used to facilitate discourse regarding the ideas and issues brought to the fore using the creative works generated by the artists as points of departure for further dialogue and community discourse. All programs were free and open to the general public. Future programs were to include a discussion on March 29th of women and the struggle for civil rights with journalist Vivian Glover, sociologist Dr. Alison McLetchie, and artist / activist Michaela Pilar Brown.
In addition, on Thursday, February 8th, 2018, photographer Cecil Williams was available to autograph copies of his books, Unforgettable and Orangeburg, 1968, highlighting images and information important to the documentation of the Orangeburg Massacre. The public was invited to attend and all interested were encouraged to purchase copies of the texts.