Piccolo Spoleto Celebrating 35th Year

Every year the City of Charleston packs more arts events into the annual 17-day Piccolo Spoleto Festival than most similar sized cities see in a year.

The 2013 fesitval will be no different. Now in it's 35th year, the festival features visual arts installations, live theater, dance performances, live music and more, and many of the events are free.

Piccolo Spoleto Founding Director Ellen Dressler Moryl is stepping down after this year's festival wraps up. She has already retired from her position as Director of the city's Office of Cultural Affairs (OFA), but stayed on to manage the festival one last time.

"It's a very mixed bag for me," Dressler Moryl said. "It's hard to put your baby out there and let it go and flourish, and let other people be its overseers."

She was recruited to the city by Mayor Joe Riley in 1977, taking the helm at OFA in 1978 and launching the first Piccolo Spoleto Festival a year after the Spoleto Festival USA's 1977 premier in the Holy City.

With hundreds of free and moderately priced events during the 19-day festival Piccolo Spoleto has grown up as a more affordable option for many arts enthusiasts in Charleston, running concurrently with Spoleto Festival USA.

"If you're going to be an arts manager anywhere, Charleston is a dream," Dressler Moryl said.

In addition to creating the Piccolo Spoleto festival, Dressler Moryl also convinced Riley to allow her office to move into the Dock Street Theater, it's home for 30 years before moving into a new office on Meeting Street several years ago, and set up the City Gallery, which has also moved to a new location on Prioleau Street, overlooking Waterfront Park.

In choosing a festival poster for the 2013 festival Dressler Moryl departed from the poster competition model used in previous years and instead commissioned Charleston based artist Nathan Durfee to create something special for the 35th anniversary. The two spent several months working on poster concepts and came up with something that they feel speaks to the themes and ideas behind the festival — namely bringing the arts to the people.

"The whole thing about art is to make people feel empathy toward others and compassion and to lift the spirits of people," she said.

Durfee brought in a character he has painted numerous times before, a dog named Bartholomeux.

"Bartholomeux is a character I've explored in the past and was something I wanted to bring in to this," Durfee said. "It's about Bartholomeux finding a community and audience for his art and the community itself being fed by the art and becoming more creative itself."

In the image chosen for the poster Bartholomeux is surrounded by birds and other animals, each doing something artistic. One holds a palette smeared with paint, one is in front of a microphone, one has a guitar, another drums, one wears a tutu another tights, some are in costumes.

Durfee said he made several Bartholomeux paintings while refining the concept for the poster image, all of which will appear in his solo show at the City Gallery at Waterfront Park beginning Saturday, May 18.

The Piccolo Children's Festival poster and the Spotlight Series poster were chosen through a competition though. Harold Kessler was selected as the Children's Festival poster artist, the third time one of his works has been selected for that honor. Cheryl Baskins Butler's somewhat Cubist take on the steeples dotting the Holy City's skyline was selected for the Spotlight Series poster.

Tickets for Piccolo Spoleto events are available at www.piccolospoleto.com,  over the phone through OvationTix by calling 866-811-4111, or in person at the festival box office at the Charleston Visitors Center at 375 Meeting St.