Home » Visual & Performing Arts » Illustration/Illumination » Spoleto 2001 Poster Artist

Spoleto 2001 Poster Artist

© Suzanne Hill

Charleston, S.C., USA

I recently visited Charleston, S.C., and was absolutely enthralled with the city. Its buildings were beautiful in gold, beige, salmon, aqua, and pink, the weather was breezy, there were vibrant art galleries and inviting restaurants galore. Its sidewalks and cobbled streets made for pleasant walking and exploring. A particular design of home really intrigued me – the Charleston single – a type of architecture found nowhere else, generally with open porches, or piazzas, on the second and third floors running the length of the house. My evening walks from the hotel inevitably ended at the water. Palm trees swayed, their thick leaves catching and slapping in the breeze. Mounds of sweet-scented confederate jasmine spilled over stone walls at every turn. And huge bushes of pink and white oleander bloomed brightly, their flowers giving their fragrant smell upon close inhaling. Everything was just beautiful!

According to the World Book Encyclopedia, Charleston is an important Atlantic coast port that lies on a peninsula between the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. Charleston was the wealthiest city in the South during the colonial period. Its wealth came mainly from exports of rice and indigo. The Civil War began in Charleston when Confederate soldiers fired on Fort Sumter in the city’s harbor. During the Civil War Charleston suffered great financial and economic loss. Evidently the city was too poor to “rehab” or destroy and replace much of the buildings, and so they remain for the most part authentic, intact, and/or unblemished. Today the homes are esteemed for their historic value, many of them dating from the 1700 and 1800s. Port expansion and various trades established through the ensuing years have encouraged the city to flourish.

Something I noticed in many shop windows was a poster featuring this unique piece called Stranz promoting Spoleto Festival USA 2001. The Spoleto Festival comes to Charleston each May/June – a unique celebration of music, opera, theater, and the visual arts. The Festival has an interesting history.

The History of Spoleto Festival USA

Gian Carlo Menotti is an American composer who wrote some of the most popular operas of the mid-1900s including Amelia Goes to the Ball, The Consul, and The Saint of Bleecker Street. His best known opera is Amahl and the Night Visitors, an adaptation of the story of the three wise men that is often shown at Christmas time. Menotti was born near Milan Italy in 1911 and moved to the U.S. in 1928. In 1958 he founded the Festival of Two Worlds, an international festival of the arts held in Spoleto Italy. It was designed as an exciting forum for young artists in both traditional and experimental art forms. Then in 1977 Menotti decided to start a similar festival, Spoleto Festival USA.