CAMDEN, S.C. — The city of Camden is full of artists.
Artists expressing their passion through painting, drawing, and even sculpture making, and most people don't know that a portion of Camden was declared a cultural district.
The designation happened back in 2020 and the city wants to get the word out about what that means.
Katharine Spadacenta is the Main Street Manager for The City of Camden, "The South Carolina Arts Commission designated a portion of downtown Camden as a cultural district in October 2020 right in the middle of the pandemic, and we are only now just getting to the point where people are learning about it, and we're celebrating it."
The designation means the city is a hub for art, which includes not only things like galleries but other unrelated businesses that support the arts, by hanging up pieces from local artists in their shops.
Dolly Patton, the executive director for the Arts Center of Kershaw County, says she is thrilled to see their cultural district grow "Camden has a long history of Cultural Arts, and activity and drawing people here and it will make our city more vibrant with this designation encourage more artists and art studios."
Spadacenta added, "In addition to the gallery at the art center, we have four commercial galleries downtown."
The fourth gallery which just opened in recent weeks has kicked off the list of changes to the district. Patton added many new projects are following behind, "We are kicking off our 2022-2023 seasons at the arts center with Spongebob the musical, it will run the weekends of the 12th and the weekend 19th, but it kicks off our seasons, we have four other theatre performances throughout the year, and 6 gallery shows"
The City is also working on the week-long celebration for the month of September for the Cultural district, with more details to come.