Applications Sought for Statewide Juried Fine Craft Competition & Exhibition

2011 Best in Show Winner - "Bird of Prey" by Matt Wilson (Metal)

 Fine craft artists from across the state are invited to participate in the twelfth annual South Carolina Palmetto Hands Juried Fine Craft Competition and Exhibition.  As the state’s only fine craft competition and exhibition, objects juried into the exhibit may compete for cash prizes totaling up to $6500. The exhibition is presented as a component of the annual North Charleston Arts Festival, to be held May 4-12, 2012. Applications may be downloaded from the Applications & Registration Forms section at http://bit.ly/culturalarts. Deadline for submissions is Thursday, March 15, 2012.

Organized and presented by the City of North Charleston Cultural ArtsDepartment, with assistance from the South Carolina Artisans Center, this unique exhibition offers fine craft artists from across South Carolina the opportunity to exhibit their inspiring objects in the media of clay, fiber, glass, metal, wood, and three-dimensional mixed media.  Thousands have enjoyed the refined talents of South Carolina fine craft artists during the past annual exhibitions.  Following the close of the exhibition, up to thirty works will be selected to tour the state through the South Carolina State Museum’s 2012/2013 Traveling Exhibitions Program.  Sites across South Carolina may request the exhibit to tour in their facilities, thus providing additional exposure for the selected artists.

Clay Burnette will jury this year’s competition. Burnette is Director of Grants and Fellowships at the South Carolina Arts Commission.  His pine needle baskets have been exhibited in over 225 shows, including the prestigious Smithsonian Craft Show and the Philadelphia Craft Show, and can be found in collections of the Columbia Museum of Art, the South Carolina State Museum, the Mint Museum of Art & Craft, the South Carolina Archives and History Center, and in many corporate and private collections.  Two of his baskets are included in the South Carolina Arts Commission’s State Art Collection, and are represented in the White House Christmas Tree Ornament Collection.  His work has appeared in numerous books and publications. Burnette was the South Carolina Arts Commission’s Crafts Fellowship recipient in 1987. 

The South Carolina Palmetto Hands Juried Fine Craft Competition & Exhibition will be on display May 4–12, 2012, at the Charleston Area Convention Center, located at 5001 Coliseum Drive in North Charleston. An opening reception and announcement of awards will be held at the Convention Center on Friday, May 4, 2012.  For more information about the North Charleston Arts Festival, Palmetto Hands, or other exhibition opportunities, contact the City of North Charleston Cultural Arts Department at (843) 740-5854.

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