Art & Culture

Piccolo Spoleto: Two Festivals in One

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By Susanne Katz

Elaine Berlin's Rembrandt's Favorite

It is all about art and history. Each year Charleston, S.C., is flooded with visitors who go to enjoy the performing arts festival known as Spoleto Festival USA. In 2007 the festival ran from May 25 to June 10.

Piccolo Spoleto presents a breadth of programs concurrently. Some are outdoor events, and many are free. It is like a festival within a festival. Renae and Eddie Goldberg attend Spoleto each year and participate in many of the events. I met with them in Charleston and found them to be great guides to the city.

Getting There

The flight from Atlanta to Charleston takes only 75 minutes, and cabs are easily accessible to get from the airport to the hotel. I stayed at the Meeting Street Inn at 173 Meeting St., walking distance to most venues.

Elaine Berlin

Strolling through Marion Square, I found an outdoor artist market featuring dozens of South Carolina artists, and I stopped to visit with Elaine Berlin. Berlin's painting Rembrandt's Favorite was chosen as the official Piccolo Spoleto Festival poster for 2007. The Charleston native explained that South Carolina artists were asked to submit work for blind judging. The annual outdoor juried art exhibition is an outreach program of Piccolo Spoleto.

Berlin works in acrylic on paper and on canvas. "Color is always running through my head," she says. "My working technique is about colors and shapes, blending and layering colors so they become more three-dimensional. Landscapes, flowers and houses are the traditional subject matter of this area. My paintings are contemporary and abstract. The point is to find layers of meaning. It was difficult to choose a title for the poster, since I don't normally title my artworks."

Marion Square is on Calhoun and King streets just down the street from Berlin's Clothing Store at King and Broad. Berlin's family has owned and operated the men's and ladies' clothing store since the 1800s. "During the week my life is about keeping the books, selling and everything that goes with being in retail. I'd really love to paint full time, but I also love to cook and bake and be with family."

Berlin's paintings range in price and size from $40 for a 4-by-4-inch piece to $5,000 for a 30-by-40-inch piece. "Paper takes more time, as it absorbs the pigment," Berlin says, "so there are more layers in building the image." Elaine Berlin can be reached at eberlin@elaineberlinoriginals.com.

A World of Jewish Culture

A World of Jewish Culture is an annual event at Piccolo Spoleto, celebrating Jewish contributions to the arts. Many of this year's programs took place at Congregation Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim at 90 Hasell St., between Meeting and King streets. Programs hosted by Kahal Kodesh Beth Elohim included music by Viva Klezmer, a Charlotte-based klezmer group; a concert version of highlights from the folk opera Porgy and Bess; and a concert with the concert master of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Yuriy Bekker, with pianist Andrew Armstrong. Other programs included the film The Syrian Bride and A Big Fat Middle Eastern Wedding Celebration.

ÔDogs' at Footlight

The Footlight Players presented Dogs: The Musical at the Footlight Players Theater, 20 Queen St. I joined Renae and Eddie in some lighthearted musical fun with the cast of the theater company, which you can contact at www.footlightplayers.net. Renae says: "Spoleto is for everybody — inclusive at different levels, in street fairs, in synagogues, churches and theaters — so that many different types of people can receive it."

Spoleto's Beautiful Sounds

The next day was determined by the schedule; I had only one day to sample the beauty of the music of Spoleto. Chamber music at the Dock Street Theater on Church Street opened with a witty and informative introduction by the artistic director, Charles Wadsworth. He described the program as intriguing and complex, but this "not for the masses" performance was met, on a Tuesday at 11 a.m., with a packed house. A highlight of the program was the St. Lawrence string quartet with Todd Palmer on clarinet.

At 3 p.m. the same day, at the First Scots Presbyterian Church on Meeting Street, the Baltimore Consort and soprano Danielle Svonavec performed Italian Renaissance music. This early music ensemble delighted the audience with Orpheus in Italy: Music in the Time of Leonardo and Michelangelo, accompanied by lute, flute, crumhorn and plucked strings.

As one spectator said, this year's offerings included "tremendous presentations, and the festival in all has been lots of fun."

Spoleto Festival 2008 is already being planned. To learn about upcoming programs, go to www.spoletousa.org.

Susanne Katz curates art and sits on the board of the Marcus JCC. She writes monthly about art for Julep.

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