In South Carolina, Artistic Freedom Is on the Ballot This November
A governor-appointed arts commission has denied funding from two LGBTQ+ organizations and an artist focused on immigration issues.
As South Carolinians prepare for Election Day on November 3, some are considering how their vote could affect the governor-appointed South Carolina Arts Commission (SCAC). In August, the agency established new guidelines prohibiting the funding of work that promotes "any ideology," echoing Trump’s rhetoric, and denied funding to an artist and two LGBTQ+ performing arts organizations earlier this month.
Comprised of nine governor-appointed volunteers, the SCAC has distributed over $132 million in grants to artists, schools, and cultural organizations across South Carolina since Governor Robert E. McNair established it in 1967. Over the past year, the agency has come under scrutiny for singling out LGBTQ+ arts groups in its grant decisions and implementing opaque funding restrictions. After an August 20 board meeting, the commission announced that grantees cannot direct funds to "promote any ideology."
"Without a clear definition of 'ideology' or 'promotion,' the new rule can be used to suppress almost any cultural activity that touches on society, history, identity, religion, science, or politics," the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) wrote in a statement published yesterday, October 28, condemning the SCAC. The grant rule echoes President Donald Trump's targeting of federal grant funding for projects related to "gender ideology," a vague term used to push essentialist and anti-trans concepts of gender.
"SCAC's adoption of a new grant rule after proposals had been independently reviewed and vetted is a problem in itself," Elizabeth Larison, director of arts and culture advocacy at NCAC, added in a statement to Hyperallergic. "But the fact that this rule is vague enough to allow government appointees to veto any projects they don't personally like is a threat to artistic freedom and democratic principles in South Carolina."
