Spoleto Festival USA
No event celebrates the performing arts quite like Spoleto. Each spring, this acclaimed festival dedicates 17 days and nights to a variety of performances. Charleston’s outdoor spaces, churches and theaters play host to both familiar names and up-and-comers in the worlds of opera; theater; dance; and Americana, symphonic, choral, chamber and jazz music. During the 2016 edition, attendees could catch “Porgy and Bess” one night, Brandi Carlile another, and a jazz concert by the Freddy Cole Quartet to boot. And that just scratches Spoleto’s surface. Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats headlined an all-day outdoor concert finale with fireworks. Organizers will announce the 2017 lineup in January.
May 26-June 11, 2017. Various venues in Charleston, S.C. 843-722-2764, spoletousa.org.
Columbia Museum of Art
With more than 25 galleries, the museum spotlights artwork from all over the world. An enormous glass, metal and wire piece by Dale Chihuly hangs in the museum atrium. Claude Monet’s “The Seine at Giverny” joins works by artists ranging from Canaletto to Andy Warhol. You can see “The Nativity,” the only Sandro Botticelli fresco exhibited outside Italy. Events range from live figure drawing to artist lectures. Touring exhibits include “Cut! Costume and the Cinema,” which runs through Feb. 19 and features period costumes used in “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” and other films.
1515 Main St., Columbia, S.C. 803-799-2810, columbiamuseum.org, @ColaMuseum.
Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden
Call it living sculpture. Topiary artist Pearl Fryar invites visitors to his garden, where more than 300 plants serve as his canvas. You might find Fryar high above in a cherry-picker or on a ladder trimming trees into abstract shapes. Altered shrubs and other flora look straight out of fairy tales, bearing whimsical designs, courtesy of Fryar’s clippers. Fryar uses found objects — think metal, glass and other discarded items — to create sculptures displaying messages of peace.
145 Broad Acres Road, Bishopville, S.C. pearlfryar.com.
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