Artisphere's 20-year history, how it helped draw attention to downtown Greenville, arts

As an arts event that began in 2005, Artisphere, presented by TD Bank, has been a foundational piece in celebrating and supporting arts in the Southeast and the Upstate.

As part of its 20th anniversary, many defining moments make Artisphere special to Greenville's history, including the infamous microbursts of 2005, Maya Angelou's visit in 2006, the cyber arts fest held in 2020, and many more instances that make the regional art festival so unique.

According to Artisphere organizers, the event was created to gain affection for Greenville's downtown and to support the city's plans for Falls Park on the Reedy River and the Liberty Bridge. What began with 100 artists, glassblowers on the Main Street Bridge, and Judy Verhoeven as a favorite on Artists Row has morphed into an event hosting over 92,000 visitors.

"When this began in 2005, I remember feeling a great sense of community and feeling really proud of hosting a festival like this," said Kelly Barnhardt, communications lead at Artisphere, who purchased a painting from Verhoeven titled "Love Birds" at the April 2005 festival. "That was the first piece of big girl art I've ever bought."

As Artisphere 2024 has grown into a fully immersed, three-day arts weekend in Greenville, here are a few events that have helped define what Artisphere is:

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River Place Arts Festival is precursor to Artisphere in Greenville

Beginning in the early 1970s, Greenville's precursor to Artisphere was the River Place Arts Festival, which hosted a juried art competition, kid's games, and food vendors all along Main Street in downtown Greenville.

The River Place Arts Festival model came from the Oklahoma City Festival of the Arts, where former Metropolitan Arts Council Lead Henry Horowitz spent time and became familiar with creating a medium-scale arts festival.

After the River Place Arts Festival ended in 2003, Mayor Knox White and Horowitz expressed a passion for bringing a similar-styled event back to Greenville. After two years of establishing articles of incorporation and bylaws, Artisphere came to life, as Horowitz, the former city of Greenville Lead Angie Prosser and former Executive Director of Artisphere Mary Adam helped lay the foundation for what we now experience in 2024.

"It started in 2005, and you had this beautiful venue to host, and Greenville was becoming very art-centric," said Kerry Murphy, current president of Artisphere. The city was cleaning up Falls Park and the Reedy, and here comes the (Falls Park) Bridge, which was on its way. It was an exciting time."

Microbursts on opening day of Artisphere 2005

Of course, not everything ran smoothly during the first Artisphere in 2005, as a microburst, or a thunderstorm's sinking air, caused ankle-level flooding and many artists' works to become damaged on the festival's opening day.

"A storm just came in all of a sudden," said Adam, former executive director of Artisphere at the time of the storm in 2005. "A wind tunnel affected those across the Main Street Bridge, and I can remember a lot of artists' lost artwork, and a couple of artists' tents blew down."

Adam even recalls a few of the 100 registered artists packing up and leaving the festival due to the microbursts, which lasted for nearly 10 minutes.

A decision between the fire chief, a Greenville events group, and Artisphere members caused the outdoor portion of Artisphere to close from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. and resume the next day.

According to Adam, all artists had insurance, and no one had been hurt or injured.

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The St. James Court Art Show in Louisville reason Artisphere begins at noon on Friday

According to Murphy, Artisphere draws inspiration from the timing and setup of the St. James Court Art Show in Louisville, Kentucky. Greenville's art show begins at noon on Friday to capture a full day of visitors because teachers would call into work to attend the first day of the St. James Court Art Show.

"It's true," said Howard Rosenburg, executive director of St. James Court Art Show. "We had so many teachers taking off the day of the show that the school system couldn't find substitute teachers, so they decided to cancel school in the area. Rosenburg estimates this decision happened sometime in the 1980s.

St. James Court Art Show is the largest three-day event in Louisville and the only other event in Louisville where schools are closed on Friday beside the Kentucky Derby. The festival hosts 650 artists from 46 states and has existed since 1957 when it needed to raise $200 to repair the fountain in the middle of St. James Court. It sees nearly 250,000 visitors per festival.

Murphy said the decision to make the festival three days long and open at noon on Friday is influenced by the success and influence of the St. James Court Art Show.

Artisphere's permanent move to Mother's Day Weekend?

For at least a decade now, the decision to host Artisphere on Mother's Day weekend has been made with the holiday dedicated to moms in mind.

Murphy suggests that Artisphere be moved from the third weekend in April to the second weekend in May so that it always falls on Mother's Day, as some who visit Greenville's art festival have become accustomed to this.

The decision also came after the first few years of Artisphere's existence, when rain took out a full Sunday. After performing weather studies and calculations, Artisphere decided that to better avoid the rain, moving the festival from April to May would be best.

The tornado at Artisphere 2022

During Artisphere 2022, a tornado reached the area and caused the arts festival to shut down for nearly 10 minutes, according to Kelly Barnhardt, communications lead for Artisphere.

Artists closed their tents, and although it was still sunny, the threatening weather caused a bit of a scare during the opening afternoon of the event, around 4 p.m.

Much like in 2005, a plan was established to handle inclement weather in the area. If a tornado is in the area, a 20-mile radius is needed to shut down, and the City of Greenville would monitor all safety protocols.

Central processing credit card area, convenience of evaluating portfolios for Artisphere

According to Murphy, when she began back in 2008, there weren't many people snapping photos with their smartphones, as technology has caused many changes to how things work at Artisphere.

The process of sifting through many artists' applications and sales has shifted. As recently as 2008, Murphy remembers artists sending in slides of their artwork to be viewed on a projector. The artists would need to send self-addressed stamped envelopes to get their submission packages back.

Now, in 2024, the entire process is digitized through a medium called Zapplicaiton, which tracks and registers for thousands of art shows across the country. It helps organize the artists and shows to become a more seamless and synchronized process.

On the corner of South Main Street and Falls Park Drive was once a central credit card processing area where Artisphere visitors paid for their art and other festival goodies. Block captains helped communicate sales and communication between artists and the card processing area.

"Now, everyone uses the little square payment," Murphy said. "Times have changed."

Online, ticketed Artisphere festivals of 2020 and 2021

The Virtual Experience of 2020 was Artisphere's response to the pandemic, which featured the work of over 70 juried professional artists from around the country as each artist had multiple pieces for sale in an online marketplace, where patrons could browse and shop from a varied and curated selection of art, from pottery to oils to jewelry.

In 2021, the three-day art celebration was socially distanced, as Artisphere hosted a gated and ticketed event. Barnhardt also said both events were "unusual and very different because Artisphere was traditionally a free event."

2023 was Artisphere's first festival that integrated events and exhibitions that expanded into Falls Park since 2019.

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– A.J. Jackson covers the food & dining scene, along with arts, entertainment and downtown culture for The Greenville News. Contact him by email at ajackson@gannett.com, and follow him on X (formally Twitter) @ajhappened. This coverage is only possible with support from our readers. Sign up today for a digital subscription.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Artisphere's 20th anniversary in downtown Greenville, a look back