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The Post and Courier launched its Arts and Culture Lab, a newsroom initiative aimed at expanding coverage of the arts, culture and creative life in Charleston, the Lowcountry and communities across South Carolina.
Supported through founding investments of $270,000 from the Wayne and Alicia Gregory Family Foundation and $100,000 from the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the Arts and Culture Lab ensures sustained statewide arts coverage at a time when many cultural organizations face declining visibility.
“The vitality of our cultural ecosystem and our local newsrooms go hand in hand,” said Alicia Gregory, president of the Wayne and Alicia Gregory Family Foundation. “By directly supporting arts journalism as a founding sponsor of The Post and Courier’s Arts & Culture Lab, we are making a commitment to further uplift and strengthen our region’s incredible artists and cultural organizations.”
The Wayne and Alicia Gregory Family Foundation is matching all donations dollar for dollar up to $100,000, doubling the impact of every contribution to the Arts & Culture Lab.
Gregory added, “Bolstered by matched donations, we look forward to seeing the impact this initiative will have and are grateful to partner with The Post and Courier and our friends at the Donnelley Foundation to help make this a reality.”
The initiative expands The Post and Courier’s arts coverage through two major newsroom additions: a new full-time arts and culture reporter and a free, statewide arts and culture calendar designed to help communities across South Carolina share, discover and promote cultural events. Because of the generous support of donors, content from the Arts and Culture Lab will be available for free to all readers at postandcourier.com/arts-culture.
“The arts are central to how communities understand themselves and one another,” said Post and Courier CEO and Publisher PJ Browning. “Through the Arts & Culture Lab, we are expanding our commitment to telling those stories across South Carolina, with an emphasis on access, visibility and long-term impact.”
The Lab also reflects longstanding philanthropic support for the arts in the region.
According to Arnold Randall, executive director of the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, “Our foundation has been supporting arts organizations throughout the Lowcountry for decades. We do it because we care deeply about the arts, and we see the positive impacts arts organizations have on our communities. We also see firsthand the kinds of challenges these groups are facing, and how a lack of arts coverage compounds those challenges.”
Randall added, “We are thrilled to support the Lab because journalism is a vital piece of the arts ecosystem. It widens the reach of arts and cultural work, ensuring that it is seen and valued.”
The launch was marked by a Feb. 3 gathering of artists, arts leaders, cultural organizations and community members at the Gibbes Museum of Art, hosted in partnership with Society 1858. Attendees came together to celebrate the initiative and meet the Lab’s new arts and culture reporter and team.
To double your impact through the $100,000 matching campaign or for more information about the Arts and Culture Lab, contact Claire Linney at clinney@postandcourier.com . To submit events to the calendar, visit postandcourier.com/arts-culture/calendar.