Greenville’s Metropolitan Arts Council
2023 Open Studios
November 11 and 12
Open Studios is a highly anticipated annual event sponsored by Metropolitan Arts Council with the financial support of many local Greenville, SC businesses and individuals. This exciting tradition is now celebrating its 21st year and will feature 143 artists all within a fifteen-mile radius of downtown Greenville, SC with artists in Easley, Greer, Travelers Rest and Simpsonville included.
Open Studios allows the community-at-large, free of charge, to visit and interact with artists in their creative environments and to view and acquire finished works of local art.
What began as an idea by a small group of artists to create awareness of the talents of local visual artists and to generate an opportunity for these artists to market their works to the Greenville community has evolved over the years into a full-fledged annual event. Since 2002, almost 700,000 people have visited participating artists in their studios and have purchased over $5 million in art!
WOW!
Thank you to the forward-thinking local artists whose idea created “Open Studios”, Patti Brady, Phil Garrett, Bob Chance, Sharon Campbell, Jim Campbell, Jan Wesley and many more. You recognized and transformed the importance and the vitality of Greenville’s visual artists. “Open Studios was designed to bring awareness to what was going on in Greenville’s visual arts. There is real art here-where it is made and how it is made.” according to Paul Flint, one of the originators and a local painter.
Metropolitan Arts Council’s objectives of Greenville Open Studios are:
To provide an educational experience to the entire community by inviting the public to experience the life of local artists at work in the studio environment by giving people the chance to learn about the artistic process as well as sources of artistic inspiration.
To give the artists an opportunity to market their work to the local community.
To enhance the experience of collecting art by helping people to begin art collections or enhance existing ones.
To create greater awareness of the diversity and quality of local visual arts among the public.
Greenville Open Studio printed catalogs include a list of participating artists, contact information, directions to studios, maps and much more! They are available in all the artists’ studios, in various retail locations around town and will be inserted into a November issue of The Greenville Journal as well as at Metropolitan Arts Council offices located at 16 Augusta St. In Downtown Greenville, SC.
If you do not want to carry paper, there is an app. It is an interactive virtual version of the catalog information. It is accessible on all smart phone devices. Search artists by medium and find them on Google Maps and watch artists videos with links to their YouTube Channel.
If you want to have even more fun, you can attend the annual 12 X 12 exhibit which is a sampling of works by Greenville Open Studio participating artists. This 2023 exhibit will be at Metropolitan Arts Council’s exhibit space, 16 Augusta St. The show will run from November 4th through December 8th with an opening reception from 7:00-10:00 PM on Friday, November 4th.
Please join us and celebrate our talented local artists!
