Censorship, delays, and more made for a rough 2014

As one does this time of year, we in the arts department of the Charleston City Paper have become somewhat reflective. As the year draws to its inevitable champagne-fueled close, we look back to remember the biggest moments of 2014's arts year and you know what? No offense, Charleston, but most of them were bummers.

Let us hasten to add that this is not to disparage the excellent work our local visual arts galleries, theaters, and other arts groups did this year. To see how busy and impressive they were, all you have to do is flip through the Arts section of any given issue.

That being said, here follows our list of the top developments in 2014 and here's hoping that 2015 turns out to be sunnier.

The Flowertown Players, the College of Charleston, and USC Upstate nearly lose funding due to attempts at censorship

This July, Summerville Town Councilman Terry Jenkins tried to withhold $3,000 of accommodation tax funding from Summerville's Flowertown Players because he thought that RENT was too "raunchy" for a community theater to produce. Although the proposal to remove the funding ultimately failed, Flowertown's artistic director JC Conway was asked to attend a council finance meeting to explain his choice of production.

It was the third attempt at censorship of the arts in South Carolina in just a few months' time. This March, the S.C. state legislature moved to strip USC Upstate and the College of Charleston of funding for presenting a play and a book, respectively, that represent LGBT characters and lifestyles. (The play in question was How to Be a Lesbian in 10 Days or Less, and the book was MacArthur "Genius" award-winning Alison Bechdel's Fun Home.) The measure was eventually defeated, but now we're left with the knowledge that members of our legislature and town and city councils are even more backward than we thought.

The Gaillard Auditorium is delayed beyond Spoleto Festival USA 2015

On Nov. 12, the city announced that the Gaillard, which is in the midst of extensive renovation it's basically being completely rebuilt would not be open for next year's Spoleto Festival, as planned. This resulted in a whole lot of shuffling by festival staff as they scrambled to find new venues for all the shows that they'd planned to host in the shiny new performing arts center. But they handled it with grace. Spoleto's director of marketing and PR, Jennifer Scott, told us the day after the announcement that "Ultimately, we're pleased that the city took the time to stop and say, 'Wait a minute, let's have a look at what's happening.' We're just pleased that they're making the commitment to building the best hall they can."

Let's hope that the auditorium really blows us all away when it does open.

On a similar topic, Spoleto was lackluster

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Censorship, delays, and more made for a rough 2014