Join us as the 2021 MOJA Arts Festival
Kicks Off Today!
September 30 - October 10
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Visual Art Exhibitions On View Through October 10 |
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MOJA Juried Art Exhibition
City Gallery at Waterfront Park
On view through October 10
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The annual juried art exhibition highlights the recent work of artists across South Carolina featuring painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture and fabric art. Artworks receiving prizes are presented alongside a limited selection of pieces identified by the juror as meriting display. This year’s juror is watercolorist Andrea Hazel.
Invited artists for this year’s exhibition include: Kelly Atkinson, Kelvin Blufton, Maxine Brown, Julie Byrd Diana, Andrea Capers, Alfred Casciato, Jeleata Nicole Davis, Sonny Dugal, Lynda English, Kerri Forrest, LySandra Gathers, Rosemary Giusti Dillon, Alvin Glen, Bob Graham, Raven Greene, Malik Hayward, Katie Heatley, Shannon Hopkins, Ann Igoe, Lori Isom, Caseline Jenkins, Anne M. Jennings, Christine Johnson, Rachel Jones, Christopher Kyle, Cynthia Male, Robert Maniscalco, Ervin McDaniel, Harry McFadden, Zaire McPhearson, Robert B. Reed, Addelle Sanders, Gloria Smith, Stuart Tessler, La Toya Thompson, Simone Voelker, and Marvin Youngblood.
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MOJA Arts Festival - Jonathan Green Exhibition
James Island Arts and Cultural Center, James Island
On view through October 10
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Exhibition of Jonathan Green's illustrations for "The Freedom Ship of Robert Smalls" written by Louise Meriwether.
The MOJA Arts Festival dates: September 30 - October 10
"This project is funded in part by the City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs and the City of North Charleston Cultural Arts Program through their joint administration of the Lowcountry Quarterly Arts Grant Program and the South Carolina Arts Commission which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John and Susan Bennett Memorial Arts Fund of the Coastal Community Foundation of SC."
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Drapetomania by Abba Nizar
Praise House at DeReef Park
October 2, 3, 9, and 10
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Drapetomania is a solo art exhibition featuring the paintings of Kelvin Maurice Blufton, Sr., better known as Brother or Abba Nizar, on view at the Praise House at Dereef Park. “Drapetomania” was a diagnosis rendered by certain physicians circa 1851 to explain that a mental illness afflicted certain Africans, causing them to flee captivity. Nizar’s work focuses on Gullah Culture and the anti-slavery, collective resistance waged by captured Africans forcibly immigrated to the United States from West Africa.
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Free Verse: The Kickback III (open mic)
Dock Street Theatre
October 1 at 6:00pm
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Gullah MOJA Art Experience Reception
Cannon Street Arts Center
October 1 at 5:00pm
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Jayn de Gullah/Geechee Famlee fa de "Gullah Moja Experience" brought ta hunnuh by de "Gullah/Geechee Family Foundation" and de "Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition" een partnership with the Moja Cultural Art Celebration of de City of Charleston, SC een de Gullah/Geechee Nation. Come experience Gullah/Geechee culture, arts, and history as we pay homage to our ancestors and celebrate our living legacy at three events October 1st and 2nd, 2021 in the Holy City.
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Gullah MOJA Art Experience College of Charleston, Courtyard of Sciences and Mathematics Building
October 2 at 12:00pm
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Enjoy a Gullah/Geechee afternoon of spoken word, Gullah/Geechee talk, ourstory, and art featuring Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation; artist Quadrey Stuckey, Elder Carlie Towne, De African Spirit Dayclean, Poetress Georgia Nubia, and Songstress Lorraine Singleton. Bring da famlee fa jayn we!
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Whip Appeal: A Tribute of the Music of Kenneth Babyface Edmonds
Dock Street Theatre
October 3 at 8:00pm
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We are delighted to be partnering with Charles A. Miller Jr. to have the live taping of his "Whip Appeal" tribute to the music of Babyface coincide with this year's MOJA Arts Festival. Whether you are able to be amongst those attending the recording, or if you enjoy the fully produced professional video via MOJA social media after the festival, we know you are going to be knocked out. Charleston has many of the world's finest musical talents and we can't wait to hear what they do with this storied songbook.
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Saturday, October 2 from 5:30-7:00pm
Steam Roller
Vivian Moultire Playground
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Saturday, October 2 at 4:00pm
Deninufay African Drumming and Dance
DeReef Park
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Sunday, October 3 from 11:00am-1:30pm
Carl Bright and the Bright Family Singers;
Ann Caldwell and the Magnolia Singers
White Point Garden
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Procession is a batik by Arianne King Comer and was completed during a recent Visiting Artist residency at the Gibbes Museum of Art. |
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2021 MOJA Poster Artist
Arianne King Comer
Procession
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Arianne King Comer, a BFA graduate of Howard University, has been an Artist in Residence in the state of South Carolina since 1995. She is a textile artist creating her work in paintings, wearable art, installation art, environmental art, home deco, as well as social justice.
In 1992, Arianne received the UN/USIS grant to study under the renowned Batik artist Nike Olyani Davis in Oshogbo Nigeria, where her passion for indigo manifested. She was given the Yoruba name of Osun Ronke.
She was owner of Ibile Indigo House on St Helena House '98-04. 2004, Arianne traveled to Istanbul, Turkey as a guest artist sponsored by her daughter, a designer/stylist, Nicole King Burroughs. Arianne created one of a kind jean for Mavi Jeans’s .In 2007, she had the opportunity to join The Charleston Rhizome Collective to conduct a textile workshop in batik and indigo at the World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya. 2006-7, Arianne was artist in Residence for North Charleston Cultural Affairs Office. In 1999, she was featured in the PBS documentary, "Messengers of the Spirit," and in 2003 was featured in an Indigo Art segment on HGTV's "Country Style," which is still in syndication. She is an active member of Alternate ROOTS, Charleston Rhizome and a designer for Seeking Indigo. Her work is in several traveling exhibitions nationally as well as statewide. In 2012, Arianne had two solo exhibitions: “My Spirit Speaks” at the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Alabama and “Voices from the Water” at Dalton Gallery in Rock Hill, SC. She is the official poster artist of the 2021 MOJA Arts Festival, in Charleston.
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ABOUT MOJA
The MOJA Arts Festival is a multi-disciplinary festival produced annually and directed by the City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the MOJA Planning Committee, an all-volunteer community arts and cultural group. Additional assistance and guidance is provided by the less formal networks of the MOJA Advisory Board, a group of civic leaders who assist with fundraising and advocacy, and the Friends of MOJA patron circle, representing individual and corporate donors.
Due to continuing safety concerns about COVID-19, the 2021 MOJA Arts Festival will not incorporate its traditional platform of large scale free public events and ticketed performances by national and international artists. A series of MOJA events scaled to mirror current CDC guidelines for safe public assembly in both outdoor venues and indoor facilities is anticipated for this autumn, along with public art initiatives, pop-up art exhibitions and new programs intended to interrogate and rearticulate key concepts of identity, heritage and community.
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Connect with the MOJA Arts Festival |
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