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The Nick Rolls out Annual Red Carpet Party Celebration Details

Columbia, SC – The Nickelodeon Theater invites you to its annual Red Carpet Awards Party hosted by entertainer Patti O’Furniture in celebration of the 2024 Oscars on March 10, 2024. As anticipation for Hollywood’s most prestigious awards ceremony builds, The Nick will welcome members and friends to join in the glitz and glamor of the film industry.

This special event promises an evening filled with star-studded excitement, elegant attire, and a festive atmosphere that captures the essence of the Oscars. Guests will be treated to a VIP experience as they walk the red carpet, posing for photos and enjoying the buzz of anticipation surrounding the biggest night in cinema.

Attendees will have the opportunity to watch the live broadcast of the 2024 Oscars in both of our theaters, creating an immersive viewing experience. You’ll feel like you’re in the heart of Hollywood! The nonprofit movie theater aims to bring the magic of the Oscars to the local community, fostering unity and celebration of the art of filmmaking.

In addition to the live broadcast, the Red Carpet Party will feature themed decorations, cocktails, heavy hors d’oeuvres and an engaging performance by host Patti O’Furniture. This event serves as a fundraiser for The Nick, with proceeds supporting their mission to provide accessible and enriching cinematic experiences for all.

Tickets for The Nick’s 2024 Red Carpet Party are available for purchase at NickRedCarpet.com. Don’t miss the opportunity to be part of a glamorous evening celebrating the magic of cinema and supporting The Nick’s dedication to fostering a love for film in South Carolina.

Serving the Midlands of South Carolina, The Nickelodeon seeks to build a stronger, more inclusive, and more equitable community through film presentations that both entertain and provoke critical dialogue. The Nick is South Carolina’s only nonprofit arthouse theater. Located in the heart of Columbia, it provides community members with the tools to gather, interpret and appreciate the moving image in all its variety through theatrical and educational programs.

Rick Saunders, CEO and Founder, Joins MUSC Children’s Health Fund Advisory Board of Directors as Director

Rick Saunders, First Reliance Bank CEO and Founder

Rick Saunders, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of First Reliance, has been appointed to the Medical University of South Carolina Children’s Health Fund Advisory as Director. As a Board member, Rick, a loyal advocate of the Children’s Hospital within the community, will advise on financial responsibilities with development while participating in third-party community events to support keeping MUSC kids at the forefront of the community. Board members support the efforts of the Children’s Hospital Fund and the Children’s Miracle Network staff and stay current on the hospital’s departmental fundraising needs.

Rick said, “Participation is key to driving positive change and making a difference in our communities. By getting involved in initiatives like the Medical University of South Carolina Children’s Health Fund Advisory, we can help improve the health and well-being of children in our state; whether that is through financial support, volunteering, or advocating for the cause, every contribution counts. Let’s work together to create a brighter future for our kids.”

ABOUT FIRST RELIANCE BANK
Founded in 1999, First Reliance Bancshares, Inc. (OTC: FSRL.OB) is based in Florence, South Carolina, and has assets of approximately $950 million. The Company employs more than 200 professionals and has locations throughout South Carolina and central North Carolina. First Reliance has redefined community banking with a commitment to making customers’ lives better, its founding principle. We offer a full range of personalized community banking products and services for individuals, small businesses, and corporations, including a full suite of digital banking services, treasury services, a Customer Service Guarantee, and a Mortgage Service Guarantee. First Reliance also offers two unique community customer programs, which include Hometown Heroes, a package of benefits for those serving our communities, and Check ‘N Save, an outreach program for the unbanked or under-banked. Additional information about the Company is available on our website, www.firstreliance.com.

First major museum exhibition on the complex and poignant work of Darrel Ellis heads to the CMA

Darrel Ellis. Untitled (Aunt Lena and Grandmother Lilian Ellis). 1990. Collection of Frank Franca. © Darrel Ellis Estate.

Columbia, S.C. – The Columbia Museum of Art announces Darrel Ellis: Regeneration, on view Saturday, February 17, through Sunday, May 12, 2024. Co-organized by the Baltimore Museum of Art and The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Darrel Ellis: Regeneration is the first comprehensive museum exhibition on the profoundly moving and complex work of Darrel Ellis (1958–1992). Having débuted at its organizing institutions to widespread critical acclaim, the exhibition makes its next stop (and first in the Southeast) at the CMA and will be fêted with an afternoon of art activities and talks at the opening celebration on Saturday, February 17.

Over the course of his career, Darrel Ellis developed a distinct studio practice that merged the formal vocabularies of drawing, photography, painting, and printmaking to redefine Black male identity and family within the constructs of art history and mainstream culture.

From the exhibition text: “Can a photograph keep a memory alive? This is the question at the heart of the complex, convention-bending practice of Darrel Ellis. Ellis was a precocious artist whose major innovation involved projecting photographs he inherited from his father, Thomas Ellis, onto hand-made, sculpted surfaces, then rephotographing the distorted image. He similarly translated his own photographs into paintings and drawings.”

Ellis was influential during his life, inspiring the work of other artists and participating in more than 20 group exhibitions in New York and Europe before his career was cut short in 1992 by his death at the age of 33 due to an AIDS-related illness. While his work was included in important contemporary surveys, it is only now garnering the posthumous attention it deserves.

To produce his groundbreaking images, Ellis shifted across a wide range of media, employing painting, printmaking, drawing, sculpture, and photography to generate endless variations on a single image. This often involved projecting photographic negatives onto sculpted reliefs and re-photographing the results. He also leveraged protrusions and recesses to disrupt the continuity of his projected surfaces, blocking and blurring areas of the image, and experimented with post-production color tints and ink washes, producing painterly effects on the photographs. Ellis’ approach to appropriation was unique among contemporaries as he often used his deceased father’s photographic archives as primary source material.

Darrel Ellis: Regeneration examines the full arc of Ellis’s career through approximately 55 works on paper, including a historically significant body of work that captures the experiences and public perceptions of Black men living with the AIDS virus, as well as an expansive group of portraits of his family members that offer a record of Black domestic life. The exhibition also reveals the results of the most comprehensive technical study of Ellis’ singular process and features archival materials that provide new insights into the artist’s life and work.

Three decades after his passing in 1992, the CMA is thrilled to present the work of Darrel Ellis through the collaboration of The Bronx Museum of the Arts and the Baltimore Museum of Art in this exhibition, bringing fresh scholarship plus critical attention to the artist and his oeuvre.

“Today, we publicize ideas of ourselves through a plethora of digital tools at our fingertips, but before there were iPhones, filters, and Photoshop, there was Darrel Ellis,” says CMA Director of Art and Learning Jackie Adams. “Ellis’ multi-experimental processes proliferated from his own archive of family photographs and negatives, and his examinations of shaping one’s own truth and reality — explored through themes of Black male identity, gay identity, Black domesticity, interior spaces, and personhood — are as relevant as ever.”

Darrel Ellis: Regeneration is co-organized by the Baltimore Museum of Art and The Bronx Museum of the Arts.

Opening Celebration for Darrel Ellis: Regeneration & Interior Lives
Saturday, February 17 | 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. | Talks 2:00 – 3:30 p.m.
Celebrate the opening of featured exhibitions Darrel Ellis: Regeneration and Interior Lives: Modern American Spaces with an afternoon of family-friendly activities and talks. Enjoy exhibition-inspired art activities including a photo booth, experimental Gelli print activity, build-your-own diorama station, and home-themed indoor design challenges with the Big Blue Blocks. At 2:00 p.m. hear back-to-back talks from the featured exhibitions’ curators — learn about Interior Lives from Michael Neumeister, CMA senior curator, then about Regeneration from Leslie Cozzi, its original co-curator and Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs at the Baltimore Museum of Art, and Sergio Bessa, its original co-curator and chief curator emeritus at The Bronx Museum of the Arts. Both talks include a Q&A with the audience. Plus, be on the lookout for docents with an “Ask me about the art!” button throughout the galleries for an opportunity to chat and ask questions. CMA members are invited to bring a friend along between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m. to see the exhibitions, attend the celebration, and enjoy food by Sarah Simmons of City Grit and beverages from Curiosity Coffee Bar in the reception gallery. Free with membership or admission.

Dr. Leslie Cozzi (she/her), FAAR’18, joined the staff of the Baltimore Museum of Art in the fall of 2018 as Associate Curator in the department of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, where she currently oversees the museum’s collection of post-1900 works on paper. At the BMA, she helped conceptualize the museum’s 2020 Vision initiative spotlighting female-identified artists with presentations of Valerie Maynard, Zackary Drucker, SHAN Wallace, and Ana Mendieta. Recent projects at the BMA include the critically acclaimed survey A Modern Influence: Henri Matisse, Etta Cone, and Baltimore; Omar Ba: Political Animals; and Darrel Ellis: Regeneration, the artist’s first major museum retrospective.

Dr. Antonio Sergio Bessa is chief curator emeritus at The Bronx Museum, New York, where he has organized several exhibitions, including: Jamel Shabazz: Eyes on the Street (2022); Sanford Biggers: Codeswitch (2020, in collaboration with Andrea Andersson), Gordon Matta-Clark: Anarchitect (2017, in collaboration with Jessamyn Fiore); Martin Wong: Human Instamatic (2015, in collaboration with Yasmin Ramirez); Paulo Bruscky: Art Is Our Last Hope (2014), and Joan Semmel: The Lucid Eye (2012). Dr. Bessa holds a Ph.D. from NYU Steinhardt School of Education, and in 2005 he participated in the Museum Leadership Institute at the Getty Center.
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Darrel Ellis: Regeneration is presented through the support of our generous sponsors and grantors. Silver Sponsors: Dr. Suzanne R. Thorpe and Dr. John W. Baynes. Bronze Sponsor: Councilwoman Allison Terracio, Richland County Council. Friend Sponsors: Barbara B. Boyd; Hotel Trundle. Patron Sponsors: Joseph Bruce; Haynsworth, Sinkler, Boyd; Suzi and Robert Clawson; Beth and Matthew Richardson. Grantors: City of Columbia; Experience Columbia SC; Richland County Government; South Carolina Arts Commission; Discover South Carolina.

Rosenblum Coe Architects, Inc. Unveils New Name and Logo as Firm Leadership Evolves

Caplea Coe Architects, Inc. Logo

Rosenblum Coe Architects, Inc., a longtime Charleston-based architecture firm, announced its new name: Caplea Coe Architects, Inc. (CCA). This new name reflects the elevation of architect Josh Caplea, AIA to Vice President alongside current owner and President, Steve Coe, AIA. The firm has also unveiled a new logo to signify the growth and evolution of the leadership team.

Caplea has been working in the architectural field for over two decades, demonstrating technical expertise, dedication, and commitment to serving clients across South Carolina. He has previously served as a project architect and project manager at several architecture firms, where he specialized in K12 Education design. Since joining the firm, Caplea has played a crucial role in several successful projects, including the Charleston County School District Camp Road Middle School, Town of Mount Pleasant Fire Station No. 4, and Charleston County School District Morningside Middle School.

CCA was originally established by Jeffrey Rosenblum in 1978 as Rosenblum and Associates, a one-man firm in downtown Charleston. Steve Coe joined the firm in 1993, becoming a partner in 2001, and eventually took over ownership in 2014 after Rosenblum’s retirement. Today, CCA serves a diverse range of public and private sector clients, specializing in public safety, municipal, educational, and health care architecture. The firm is excited to embark on this new chapter and remains committed to providing exceptional design services to its clients.

For more information about CCA, please visit www.capleacoe.com, and connect with them on social media.

Lisa Hostetler Brown Selected to Receive the Gold Compleat Lawyer Award

Irmo, SC –  LAWYERLISA is pleased to announce that Certified Elder Law Attorney Lisa Hostetler Brown has been selected to receive the Gold Compleat Lawyer Award given by the University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of law to recognize alumni for outstanding civic and professional accomplishments.

Lisa Hostetler Brown, Certified Elder Law Attorney

Lisa will be presented the award at the School of Law’s annual Compleat Awards reception in April in Columbia.

About the Compleat Lawyer Awards

The Compleat Lawyer Awards were established in 1992 by the USC Joseph F. Rice School of Law Alumni Council (formerly the Alumni Association) to recognize alumni for outstanding civic and professional accomplishments. Recipients are individuals who have made significant contributions to the legal profession and exemplify the highest standards of professional competence, ethics, and integrity. Gold recipients have been in practice 16-30 years.

About LawyerLisa

Serving the entire state of South Carolina from locations in Irmo and Simpsonville, LawyerLisa, LLC delivers comprehensive elder law and estate planning with a personalized approach. For more information, please visit www.LawyerLisa.com. Managing Attorney: Lisa Hostetler Brown Main Office: 7511 Saint Andrews Rd, Ste 3 Irmo, SC 29063. Lisa is Certified as a CELA by the National Elder Law Foundation.

40th Annual Lowcountry Oyster Festival Announces Musical Acts, Children’s Events and Beneficiaries Details

CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Charleston Restaurant Foundation (CRF) is pleased to announce the live music acts for the 40th annual Lowcountry Oyster Festival, happening February 4, 2024, at Boone Hall Plantation. Radio Bomb, including some members of the Blue Dogs, Uncle Mingo and the East Coast Party Band, will headline the event after Solid Country Gold takes the stage.

“For 40 years we’ve had the honor of celebrating one of our region’s most beloved traditions with thousands of our friends, family and visitors, creating one of the most popular culinary events in the country,” shares Charleston Restaurant Foundation President, Jonathan Kish. “The Charleston Restaurant Foundation is honored to continue to use this essential Charleston event filled with music, food and fun to give back to the community.”

Featuring over 50,000 pounds of oysters, highlights of this event include the legendary oyster shucking and oyster eating contests, beer, wine and cocktails and a variety of food options from local restaurants and food trucks. Kids can enjoy the elevated Pluff-a-Pallooza Children’s Area, offering activities such as bubble therapy, a climbing wall, a “noisy oyster percussion” play area, cookie decorating with “pluff-mudd” frosting, sweetgrass basket weaving, egg toss, juggling with Deena-Jungleena, stilt performers and much more. The schedule of events will take place between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.

The Lowcountry Oyster Festival is a charity fundraiser and donated over $124,000 to local causes as a result of the 2023 festival. The 2024 beneficiaries include Coastal Conservation Association, Pay It Forward, Hollings Cancer Center, Shriners’ Hospitals for Children, Ronald McDonald House, College of Charleston and The Culinary Institute of Charleston.

The festival is a rain or shine event. No pets, coolers or outside food and beverages will be allowed. Oyster knives and gloves will be available for purchase. Boone Hall Plantation is located at 1235 Long Point Road, Mount Pleasant, SC, 29464. There are two entrances into the event: the main Boone Hall entrance off Long Point Road and the entrance off Highway 17.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit https://bit.ly/4aSw29F.

Dr. Bill Jones Named New President of Columbia International University

Dr. Bill Jones named CIU President

The Columbia International University Board of Trustees has named Dr. Bill Jones as the new president of CIU.

Jones currently serves as CIU chancellor and previously served as CIU president from 2007-2017. Jones brings a wealth of experience and leadership to the position.

In his previous role as CIU president, Jones laid the foundation for the university to move into the next century. His strategic, visionary approach included spearheading initiatives such as CIU’s first fully online degree program, and the Kepha Institute reaching students online in East Asia. Other initiatives included establishment of CIU’s Cook School of Business, establishing intercollegiate athletics, the addition of six new buildings, and tripling the CIU endowment. Also, under Jones, the CIU Prison Initiative received full accreditation. Through an associate of arts degree, the CIU Prison Initiative equips inmates to serve as chaplain assistants in prisons throughout South Carolina.

Jones’ Bible study ministry to marketplace leaders, including state and federal government officials, was recognized by South Carolina when he was awarded the Order of the Palmetto in 2019, the state’s highest honor. He was also awarded the Key to the City of Columbia by Mayor Steve Benjamin in 2017. Having a passion for spreading the Christian faith, Jones co-founded Crossover Global in 1987, an organization that has planted over 4,000 churches around the world.

CIU Board Chairman Dr. Hans Finzel says Jones’ life reflects his deep commitment to CIU’s mission of educating students from a biblical worldview to impact the nations with the message of Christ.

“Dr. Bill Jones has a rich history serving Columbia International University and the community of Columbia,” Finzel said. “We could not be more thrilled at his appointment as our next president as we enter our second century of impacting the nations with the message of Christ.”
Jones will begin serving as president on Feb. 1, 2024. Inauguration details will be forthcoming.

Jones replaces Dr. Mark Smith who resigned from CIU in February 2023 over health concerns. Interim President Dr. Rick Christman will continue serving CIU as executive vice president.

Dr. Jones is married to Debby Jones, who holds a master’s degree in Christian Education from CIU. Together, they have four married children and eleven grandchildren.

Founded in 1923, Columbia International University is private, Christian and multidenominational. With over 2,300 students studying on campus or online, CIU specializes in Bible-centered professional development that prepares students to impact the nations with the message of Christ in ministry, missions and the marketplace. CIU is recognized for its emphasis on biblical authority and world evangelization. www.ciu.edu

John Boyd Selected to Sustain SC Board of Directors

John Boyd

COLUMBIA, SC – Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd, P.A. is pleased to announce that John Boyd has been selected to serve a two-year term on the Board of Directors for Sustain SC, an economic development-driven organization connecting the sustainability goals of business in South Carolina with local solutions.

John chairs Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd’s Environmental Group and practices in the areas of environmental, regulatory, administrative and general corporate law. His environmental practice includes permitting, enforcement, due diligence and risk assessment, real estate transactions, environmental audits, voluntary cleanup contracts, brownfield redevelopment and traditional issues surrounding toxic substances, hazardous and solid waste management, air emissions and water quality. John is recognized for Environmental Law in the 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America©. He also works in the areas of utility regulation and renewable energy.

Active in the community, John is an adjunct professor of Federal Environmental Law and Policy at the University of South Carolina School of Law and serves as a member of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce Environmental Affairs Committee. John is a past board member and president of the Nickelodeon Theatre.

About Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd, P.A.
Established in 1887, Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd is a full-service law firm providing creative and efficient solutions for local, national and international clients. With more than 110 attorneys located throughout the Carolinas, we are well-positioned to meet the complex legal needs of our clients. Learn more at www.hsblawfirm.com.

Robinson Gray names Chris Boguski a Member of the firm

Chris Boguski

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Robinson Gray has named attorney Christopher Lee Boguski a Member of the law firm.

He was voted into the position in December 2023.

“Since joining us four years ago, Chris has effectively represented our clients in a wide variety of cases,” said Cal Watson, the law firm’s managing member. “It’s a pleasure to welcome him to the membership of our growing firm.”

Chris focuses his practice at Robinson Gray on commercial litigation, creditors’ rights, and real estate and title insurance litigation. He is admitted to practice by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of South Carolina, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

His work in these areas has brought him honors from Best Lawyers in America, which has included Chris on its Ones to Watch List for each of the last four years. This past year, Columbia Business Monthly named him as among the Legal Elite of the Midlands.

Chris, who grew up in Columbia, has practiced here since graduating from Charleston School of Law in 2012. While in law school, he served as the Student Works Editor for the Federal Courts Law Review and was a summer law clerk for the Honorable Bristow Marchant, U.S. Magistrate Judge for the United States District Court.

Chris currently chairs the Robinson Gray Pro Bono Committee.

About Robinson Gray Stepp & Laffitte, LLC

Located in the BullStreet District, Robinson Gray Stepp & Laffitte, LLC, is a South Carolina law firm that offers a tailored, hands-on approach. It provides business transactional and litigation representation in all state and federal trial and appellate courts in South Carolina. The firm’s 39 attorneys serve clients ranging from multi-national corporations to small businesses and individuals. For more, visit https://robinsongray.com/.

Michael Crump joins Robinson Gray as associate

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Attorney Michael D. Crump has joined Robinson Gray law firm as an associate.

His practice with the firm will focus on workers’ compensation.

Michael earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law in May 2022. He had received a bachelor’s degree with honors in mass communication from Winthrop University in 2018. While in law school, he was very active in Moot Court activities, and argued before the Supreme Court of South Carolina as a finalist in the 2021 J. Woodrow Lewis Competition.

In addition to state courts, Michael is admitted to practice before the United States District Court of South Carolina and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

After joining the bar in 2022, he worked with another private law firm in Columbia, overseeing litigation in a variety of areas, including dram shop, prison doctor defense, automobile wrecks and premises liability.

“We’re pleased to start off the new year with Michael as a new member of our workers’ comp team,” said Cal Watson, the law firm’s managing member. “We are sure he will help us continue providing excellent representation to our clients in that critical area.”

About Robinson Gray Stepp & Laffitte, LLC

Located in the BullStreet District, Robinson Gray Stepp & Laffitte, LLC, is a South Carolina law firm that offers a tailored, hands-on approach. It provides business transactional and litigation representation in all state and federal trial and appellate courts in South Carolina. The firm’s 39 attorneys serve clients ranging from multi-national corporations to small businesses and individuals. For more, visit https://robinsongray.com/.