Art, poetry and storytelling will unite to create an effervescent evening at The Cunningham Fine Arts Foundation’s third annual fine arts exhibition, “Greenville Through a Lens.”
The event will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. April 26 at the Unity Park Prisma Health Welcome Center at 111 Welborn St. in Greenville.
Guests can enjoy the talents of fine artists Timothy Cunningham, Lem Collins and PHOR, actor J-Dew and poet Dove Dupree. MC Rasaq Adeyemi will host, and DJ Kurious George and celebrity blogger MaryMak will also participate.
Timothy Cunningham, founder of Cunningham Fine Arts Foundation, said the evening is more than an art showcase. It’s a unique way to experience some of Greenville’s rich history on canvas and in performance.
“We’re reaching out to tourists, transplants and Greenville natives alike, sharing the history all around us that they may not have been aware of,” Cunningham said. “The emcee will go to each painting and tell what it meant to him and to the artist. J-Dew and Dove Dupree will deliver the passion through the spoken word, so we can cry, cheer and feel the emotions.”
Cunningham said the ideas behind the event and the foundation represent the accumulation of what he learned over 25 years as an artist.
“I showcased from the East Coast to the West Coast, paying the bills by making pieces the audience would like. I never realized how art can actually affect a community,” he said. “Over the years that tugged at me. When we came back in 2019, it hit me — I wanted to learn more about Greenville. ‘Greenville Through a Lens’ forced me to do that.”
Maturing as an artist, he began expecting his work to be more than decorative.
“I want to make my art ask questions. If you don’t have questions, that was a pointless piece of art,” he said. “It’s about telling stories — murals about Black history or the history of a little town, the schoolteacher or community-center volunteer — that’s the kind of people whose stories I want to tell.”
Cunningham created the Cunningham Fine Arts Foundation to bring some of what he had experienced in larger cities to Greenville, providing the supportive community he saw there for younger artists.
“Working in Seattle and San Diego, I was able to see that they were light years ahead of what was being done in Greenville,” Cunningham said. “Some artists had a huge impact on the community, and we’ve been able to do some of that here.”
The nonprofit offers artist workshops quarterly at Wine & Design of Greenville, which Cunningham owns with his wife, Marissa, and at Upstate Circle of Friends. Topics range from learning to stretch canvas and framing to business skills and online sales.
“I want to see artists in Greenville, especially young artists, get their ducks in a row,” he said. “We have lawyers, business coaches and marketing strategists at our workshops at no cost to them. I want to give artists those tools they need to succeed.” A percentage of proceeds from the event will be donated to the Young Brothers Academy of Greenville.
Event sponsors include the Metropolitan Arts Council, Jolley Foundation, the South Carolina Arts Commission and the Community Foundation of Greenville.
Visit cfgreenville.org to learn more about the Community Foundation of Greenville.
