Artist Entrepreneurs Receive Support From SCAC Grants

Press Release

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Two South Carolina artists (#SCartists) are recipients of FY23 South Carolina Arts Commission Artists’ Business Initiative grants, which provide career satisfaction and sustainability for artists making a living off their craft.

The Artists’ Business Initiative is a grant and program from the SCAC that offers financial support for arts-based entrepreneurial initiatives and professional training for the artists who are grantees. Grants can support start-up costs, taking an existing business in a new direction, or executing a temporary initiative (like a single business purchase) that will improve sustainability. A one-time purchase may be awarded up to $3,500, and an ongoing business initiative may be awarded up to $5,000.

New grantee Talin Keyfer (above right) is an Anderson County artist who works in enamels and metals to create contemporary jewelry. Her works are available at various shows and through her website, talinkeyferjewelry.com.

“In 2020, after some difficult transitions, I decided to commit to my love of art full time,” Keyfer said. She was accepted as an emerging artist at significant arts festivals and plans to use her grant on marketing, hoping to increase effectiveness through a marketing plan and growing a customer base.

Eric Schultz (right), assistant professor of music at Coastal Carolina University, is a prize-winning clarinetist who performs as a soloist and in chamber and orchestra settings. His grant will enable him to record and release a debut solo album, “Storytelling.”

“The album will feature several new pieces written by diverse composers, for me,” Schultz said. The central theme of the album will be identities, including the LGBT community and a Caribbean religion from a Puerto Rican composer, another’s Afro-Latina perspective, and “melding traditions from the eastern and western sound worlds” created by a Taiwanese composer, among others.

As the annual Small Business Saturday approaches on Saturday, Nov. 26, the SCAC encourages South Carolinians to support local artists and arts-based businesses as they shop for unique, considered holiday gifts now and for any reason throughout the year. The latest data from the SCAC showed that South Carolina’s creative economy supports 115,000 jobs and generates tax revenues of $269 million.

Artists’ Business Initiative grants, intended for professional caliber working artists in South Carolina, open for letters of intent to apply in late summer each year. More information is available at https://www.southcarolinaarts.com/grant/abi/.

About the South Carolina Arts Commission

The mission of the South Carolina Arts Commission is to promote equitable access to the arts and support the cultivation of creativity in South Carolina. We envision a South Carolina where the arts are valued and all people benefit from a variety of creative experiences.

A state agency created by the South Carolina General Assembly in 1967, the SCAC works to increase public participation in the arts by providing grants, direct programs, staff assistance and partnerships in artist development, arts industry, arts learning, creative placemaking, and folklife and traditional arts. Headquartered in Columbia, S.C., the SCAC is funded by the state of South Carolina, by the federal government through the National Endowment for the Arts, and other sources. Visit SouthCarolinaArts.com or call 803.734.8696, and follow @scartscomm on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for #Arts4SC and #SCartists content.

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