The South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts & Humanities (SCGSAH) is a boarding school for the arts located in Greenville, South Carolina, United States. Founded in 1999 by Virginia Uldrick, the high school program provides pre-professional training in creative writing, dance, drama, film, music and visual arts to sophomores, juniors and seniors, in a master-apprentice, arts-centered community. The Governor's School also offers arts-intensive summer programs for 7th-through-11th-grade students.
As one of the state's three Governor's Schools, enrollment is eligible to any South Carolina student with selection based on application to individual arts areas and auditions for most programs. High school study consists of academic coursework that meets the requirements of the South Carolina high school diploma, studio practice with professional artist-faculty members, and a humanities-focused component integrated throughout the academic year. Tuition for the nine-month high school is free; financial assistance is available to offset the required purchase of a high school meal plan and a residence hall fee.
As a part of its mission, the Governor's School serves as an arts resources to all teachers and students in South Carolina, offering comprehensive outreach programs designed to bring together artists, educators, community organizations and schools.
History The South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts began as a state-supported five-week program hosted by Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. Its creation was driven by Virginia Uldrick, a music educator and district official who had served as the first director of Greenville's Fine Arts Center arts magnet school begun by Greenville District Superintendent J. Floyd Hall in the 1970s. Uldrick, along with businessman Arthur Magill, first proposed the idea of a statewide summer arts program to Governor James Edwards in 1979; the request was denied based on a Governor's School summer program already in place at the College of Charleston. A second proposal with the support of Uldrick, Magill, and Hall was submitted in 1980 with Governor Richard Riley issuing an executive order creating the program in October of that year.
The inaugural session on 1 July 1981 accommodated students in drama, visual arts, and creative writing. Studies in music and dance would be added later on in the second and fourth summers. Enrollment was limited to 260 students; an Outreach Program located in Orangeburg County and offshoot Academy and Dance programs expanded offerings around the state in the late 1980s.
By 1990, two feasibility studies had been conducted on the concept of adding a year-round residential program. Bill 4036 sponsored by David Wilkins in support of such a program was presented to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1993, but it was not passed until 15 June 1994. After taking effect in 1995, a legislative study committee formed by Governor Carroll Campbell carried out the bill's action of determining "the desirability and feasibility of providing funding, location, and access for a year-round governor's school for the arts and humanities." Uldrick and her staff formulated the school's accessibility plan for students of South Carolina while committee leader Senator J. Verne Smith investigated proposals to host the school. Out of the five entities expressing interest—Aiken, the Unified Alliance for the Governor's School of Greenville, Newberry, Union, and USC-Spartanburg—Greenville was the unanimous committee vote to be the location for the new school.
The Greenville campus broke ground on 11 May 1998 after land, money, and a design for the campus had been secured. The school's 8.5 acres overlooking the Reedy River in Greenville's West End were donated in a joint arrangement with both the City of Greenville and Greenville County as negotiated by Greenville developer Bob Hughes and attorney C. Thomas Wyche. Meanwhile, in the two years leading up to construction, a capital campaign co-chaired by Governor's School for the Arts Foundation board members Minor Mickel Shaw and Mary Rainey Belser raised a total of $14.5 million in private sector donations to secure the state's agreement of $12 million in funding. The final necessary component—the school's design—was settled through an architectural competition coordinated by Hughes and state entities, with Greenville-based firm Freeman & Major Architects being awarded the contract for their concept of a Tuscan village.
The school opened on 5 September 1999 with a class of 125 students housed in its dormitory on campus. The arts-academic complex planned for the rest of the campus remained in progress after the school's opening and was not finished until January of the following year. A second phase of construction completed the original campus setting with the addition of a gymnasium, science wing, additional classrooms, and faculty offices.
Campus The campus, named in Uldrick's honor, is situated on an east-west bluff immediately south of Falls Park on the Reedy in downtown Greenville. Its land, along with the Greenville County Square complex to its south, once comprised the men's campus of Furman University before being razed for redevelopment in 1958. In the context of the city, construction of the school in 1998 fulfilled a long-standing objective of Greenville's downtown revitalization as the desire for a Governor's School for the Arts had been enumerated in strategic planning led by former mayor Max Heller from as early as 1987. Placement of the school in the West End in proximity to venues like the Peace Center for the Performing Arts was also noted in reinforcing the area's arts and entertainment identity.
Original campusInitial plans by Freeman|Major Architects drew inspiration from Italian architecture and built around the idea of a European artist village. The main complex, oriented around a communal courtyard and amphitheater facing north, contains a variety of arts studios, administrative offices, and academic classrooms generally organized into departmental centers (e.g., the Hartness Guinn Center for Music, the John and Genevieve Sakas Center for Drama, the Dorothy Peace Ramsaur Center for Academics, etc.). Performance spaces such as the Margaret Reynolds Smith Recital Hall and the Sakas Theatre are integrated into the building and provide for on-campus events; visual arts exhibitions are also available through the Lipscomb Family Foundation Gallery located within the campus as well. The campus is also served by the John I. Smith Charities Library which holds a collection of over 20,000 items, a computer lab, and a production room. The dormitory, named in honor of J. Verne Smith, exists as a separate structure at the east end of the campus with housing for a maximum of 242 students.
Renovations and additionsAfter its initial phases of construction in 1998, the physical campus remained relatively unchanged. Dormitory renovations updating student lounges and residential staff facilities took place in 2008, but new structural expansion of the main complex would not take place until 2013 upon construction of a new administrative wing at the front of the campus. In May 2018, the school broke ground on the last remaining land available for expansion to accommodate a two-story, 10,000 square foot building for the music department to house studios, practice rooms, large ensemble spaces and humidity-controlled instrument storage space.
Admissions and curriculum Admission to the high school program is based on a combined application and audition process per artistic discipline of interest in the academic year preceding entry. Specific audition requirements vary by arts area but collectively engage components such as portfolio review, workshop or performance settings, and interviews to evaluate artistic ability and potential. South Carolina students are generally eligible to apply in their tenth-grade year, though with some exceptions: Consideration for sophomore entry is allowed in the areas of dance and music, and music students may apply for senior entry through application during the junior year.
Students attending SCGSAH continue completing the educational requirements towards a South Carolina high school diploma. The school offers core subject areas—English, mathematics, sciences, social studies, and foreign languages—at College Preparatory (CP), Honors, and Advanced Placement (AP) levels. Academic periods are scheduled in the morning with afternoon class hours dedicated to arts instruction within the discipline of enrollment. Upon graduation, students who have completed all academic, arts, and humanities requirements graduate with a South Carolina high school diploma as well as a South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities Scholars Diploma in their arts discipline.
Creative writing Courses in creative writing are led by professional writers in practicing literary forms and genres such as creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and screenwriting. Subsequent classes in each focus area continue individual critiques, work development, and exposure to established writers while approaching new structures and elements.
Dance Study in dance involves multi-year development of ballet technique based on a variety of classical ballet training systems such as Vaganova method, Cecchetti method, and that of the Royal Academy of Dance. Training in pointe or men's technique and Variation is also undertaken, progressing to choreography and styles taught in Ballet Repertoire courses; pas de deux classes are added selectively at the culmination of training. In the same span, student dancers also gain experience with modern and contemporary dance repertoire with additional courses in pilates, improvisation, and specific dance-relevant seminars—historical dance, nutrition, dance-related careers, etc.—included within the curriculum.
Drama Dramatic training at the school is organized through continuous coursework in acting, voice and speech development, and auxiliary topics such as movement studies, theatre history, and professional preparation. Acting class integrates the Michael Chekhov technique and perspectives from and components of the work of Viola Spolin, Uta Hagen,Tawnya Pettiford-Wates, Augusto Boal, and other practitioners. The semester culminates in the rehearsal and performance of selected scenes. Previous presentations have included works such as "Master Harold"...and the Boys by Athol Fugard, John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, and Shakespeare's The Tempest with the department also collaborating with the school's Outreach program to provide these performances to local schools visiting the campus.
Music The music curriculum consists of several courses—year-long units of theory and music history, and possible study of twentieth-century music and/or music technology—complementing programs of individual and ensemble applied music. Instrumental and vocal students within the department take weekly, hour-long individual lessons along with master classes and group seminars while also participating in the school's larger string, wind, and/or sinfonia orchestral performance ensembles as appropriate. All music students are enrolled in the school's choir as part of the ensemble component; vocalists additionally participate in chamber choir and opera/musical theater workshop courses offered by the department. Classes in conducting, jazz ensemble, introductory piano, contemporary music, and music technology are also available in the junior and senior years.
Visual arts