Two Upstate arts organizations are waiting to find out whether the South Carolina Arts Commission will release grant money it has held back for months, with a final vote now set for this week. The Greenville Gay Men's Chorus and Spartanburg's Proud Mary Theatre Company were the only two groups out of nearly 180 approved recipients asked to resubmit and defend their artistic merit before receiving funds from the agency's $3.7 million statewide operating support pool in 2026.
The commission's board voted in August to pause the two groups' grants, according to FOX Carolina, even as the agency had already awarded more than 400 total grants so far this year. The Greenville Gay Men's Chorus had been recommended for roughly $40,000 over the next three years, while the exact single-year amount withheld from the chorus was $13,050, according to Qnotes Carolinas. That figure represents 13% of the chorus's overall budget, per the station's reporting.
Mary Adam, executive director of the Greenville Gay Men's Chorus and founding director of Artisphere, the large downtown Greenville arts festival, said the chorus already provided artistic-merit information during its original application process. She told the station the funding is vital to the chorus and that its quality is amazing. Adam said she hoped commissioners would not be swayed by outside pressure when they finally vote.
A Shifting Rationale Behind the Delay
The board's public reasoning for withholding the funds has changed over the course of the year. Board member Jessica Rourke originally wrote in an email, later obtained through a public records request, that public funds should not go to organizations structured around specific sexual orientations, nor should they support drag performances, as reported by the Post and Courier. The same reporting found that state arts officials delayed the broader $3.7 million grant package partly over board concerns tied to federal Executive Order 14168, which restricts federal funding for programs promoting what the order calls gender ideology; the commission receives annual funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The agency's official reasoning shifted from concerns about sexual orientation and drag to a focus on artistic merit after the ACLU of South Carolina sent a formal legal warning letter in mid-August, according to Advocate.com. In an August 20 statement, the ACLU of South Carolina argued that the commission's new policy barring funded work built around any ideology was overly vague, saying that all art conveys ideas and that LGBTQ identity cannot be classified as an ideology. The civil rights group asserted that rejecting applications based on sexual orientation amounted to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.
Legislators Raise Concerns, Commission Cites Obligations
Rip Parks, speaking for the commission, said he was alarmed when he saw the two grant requests and that he could not defend the programs to concerned legislators. The commission said it is not denying the funds right now but is further reviewing the two grant requests, adding that members of the South Carolina General Assembly had raised questions about the two applicants and the artistic merit of their work. The agency said it is obligated to address concerns raised by the General Assembly, the governor, and the people of South Carolina. Parks declined to provide additional comment beyond the commission's statement, per the station.
The commission's board also passed a resolution stating that grant funding cannot be used to promote any ideology, according to the same FOX Carolina report. Created by state statute in 1967, the commission is governed by a board of commissioners appointed by the governor and confirmed by the South Carolina Senate, according to Qnotes Carolinas; the currently serving board members were appointed under Gov. Henry McMaster. Critics note that South Carolina Code of Laws Section 60-15-10 directs state arts policy toward encouraging and assisting rather than limiting the freedom of artistic expression, as reported by the South Carolina Daily Gazette, framing the statute as the commission's own foundational law.
Voices From the Chorus and the Theater
Jonathan Osborne, a member of the Greenville Gay Men's Chorus who joined after moving to Greenville from Chicago, said the situation feels discriminatory. He said the chorus has provided him with a community, and that regardless of the funding outcome, the group plans to continue and will get through the situation. The chorus has its next concert scheduled for December.
Proud Mary Theatre Company, established in Spartanburg in 2017, is a non-profit community theater dedicated exclusively to producing plays and performing arts that address LGBTQ+ experiences and social issues in Upstate South Carolina, according to the Post and Courier. The chorus previously received Arts Commission grant funding for three consecutive years before this year's pause, per Qnotes Carolinas.
Vote Moved Up to This Week
The commission originally planned to decide the two groups' fate at an October 15 meeting, but the board moved that vote up by two weeks to a special called meeting on Thursday, October 1, the Post and Courier reported, after officials issued a press release on September 22 announcing the expedited date. FOX Carolina reports the board is set to vote on the funding at that special called meeting this week, closing out a monthslong review that began with private board emails and ended under threat of a First Amendment legal challenge.
