Hello!

I'm Beryl Dakers and This is Palmetto Scene.

South Carolina is nationally known for its contributions to the arts.

And we ranked number one in arts education.

One unique program which nurtures and supports young artists is available to students across the state.

The South Carolina Governor's School For The Arts and Humanities offers young artists a once in a lifetime opportunity to receive free professional arts training along with a nationally recognized high school education.

♪ flute music ♪ There's just something I think really incredible about being able to convey something without words.

I think that when it's done it's really really effective and really powerful I'd love to be a part of the team of the world artists in the world that are pushing for change in arts in that way.

The governor's school for the arts and humanities is a public residential high school serving students in grades eleven and twelve primarily, in five art areas.

We serve students in music, creative writing, dance drama, and visual art.

Our students come from all forty six counties of the state and we're very proud of having graduates from a residential school as well as in our summer programs from throughout the state of South Carolina.

All of our students audition for our artistic programs and they're selected based upon the quality of that audition.

And for the students in the residential program they spend their junior and senior years on campus with us and graduate with a high school diploma from the state of South Carolina as well as an artist diploma.

Our students are passionate about the arts which is why they have come to us because they want to complete their high school education with us.

So they are a student who is excited, engaged and that carries forward throughout the the work that they do, whether that's in their academics or outside of class and student life.

And so they are kids who want to immerse themselves in the arts.

And we're always happy to see them grow and develop as young artists.

Academics here however, allow our students to rise above.

We have small class sizes.

We have individualized attention from our faculty.

And we are ready to support students wherever they come to us regarding their academics.

A lot of people I meet are surprised to remember that we're a public school, so we get students who graduate with a South Carolina high school diploma.

We're that kind of academic program I think that is geared toward working with these talented young people.

So we do that kind of traditional subjects but in maybe untraditional ways, unconventional ways, just the fact that we have these kids in our classroom means that it's going to be kinda unconventional.

They are unique and that's both, you know, great and a challenge but I have attended a lot of their events in the arts and seeing them.

You know a student who may struggle a little bit in statistics get up and just sing very beautifully you know in another language and just be so very confident in that or the artwork that some of the visual artists do.

That's, that really is unique and so you do get to see both sides of those students and we have to try to find ways to address that, you know, through the academics.

What, like for instance, drama students love to read the word problems in class.

That is almost like an audition for them So it is a unique experience here with them.

It's pretty incredible where people go from here.

So this is a time where they try it all and then they start honing in.

So by about the last semester it's almost like a a master's program where they are doing a concentration or their working with directly with an artist mentor and they get to do a big project by the end, that's professional quality.

The Governor's School is magical.

And the way that you feel when you first walk in is sort of unparalleled because the architecture in the school and all the pretty foliage and then all the students hanging out and just loving there art, and what they and their fellow students.

It feels magical and it makes you want to stay forever.

When I step foot on campus I knew this was the place to thrive in my art.

I knew I'd be surrounded by other kids who have the same interests as me.

Not only the students around me but the teachers, the faculty and the residential life it's all a community of support knowing that this is my end goal is to become a professional dancer.

For our parents I know that this requires a lot of thought.

I say that as a parent.

And so they carefully consider whether this is the right fit for their student.

And then we work with them to again be part of this community.

We want parents to view this as a partnership with us, working directly with the school, helping them to help their student to grow and develop into the great artists that we see come out of the Governor School.

I remember she went into the audition and I was told the audition was fifteen minutes.

And she was in there for about forty five minutes.

and I'm thinking to myself what's going on because he was in there and nobody came out.

Finally the Mr Murray it was.

He was the head of the, I don't know if he's still there, the head of the drama department.

But he came out and he said to me, 'We'll see you next year.'

It was a difficult you know at the beginning because she had been home and she had been the child that was always around me.

But she made a lot of friends, you know.

But one of the things that she she spoke about was some of the friendships that she made.

They've been lifelong.

I think that we have a very successful alumni base.

We are excited that many of our alumni return home to South Carolina and we're thrilled to see that growh and that connection with the state.

There's a lot, a lot of talent coming out of South Carolina.

So it's an artistic base.

The problem was there just, there wasn't any outlets there for us growing up, you know, which hence I came to Greenville and found found my artistic haven here in the Governor's school.

When I came to campus it was my first time realizing that like oh people live and go to school in a completely different way.

I've never seen a campus or seen kids you know running around doing this that and the third.

I'm a southeren country boy coming from Pendleton, you know what I'm saying.

So I I never been around artists in this capacity, you know.

I never hung out with dancers.

I never listened to someone practice, you know, Beethoven or Bach symphony twelve.

I've never been around that community of people but I, what what I knew from that strangeness was that it's where I needed to be in a very weird way.

Because in school I expressed myself as an artist.

So I expressed myself in a very dramatic, intense, outward way.

And some school systems don't, you know, they don't know how to cater towards that.

They don't how to teach kids that are in that kind of capacity.

But when you come here and you you find out that like oh there are teachers here who understand that the arts and liberal arts or science and math, marine and all that they go hand in hand.

So after a while once you get your feet sunk into you like this is is a special place.

It's just a special place.

Your objective, get to him.

Did you know that once a child leaves the foster care system there is a fifty percent chance they'll be unemployed?

Or that there is a twenty five percent chance they'll be imprisoned?

Despite these negative statistics however, there are also many positive outcomes.

Krystel Reid, a former child in foster care now uses her experience as a way to advocate for children who are currently in the system and she works with organizations that helped her during those difficult years 'Our approach,' Krystel grew up with her family in Charleston.

When she was fifteen she went to live in foster care.

Her home life wasn't safe and she made the decision to leave with her sisters.

I had no forethought.

I knew that we couldn't stay where we were.

And so I just prayed for strength and I prayed for courage.

I wasn't sure of the words that I would use but I needed to have some type of solution because the environment that we were in, was not conducive at all.

And so I had no forethought about where we would be.

If I would be homeless.

If we'd move into a relative.

I just knew that if we didn't do something critically, my sister would probably not be with us today.

After years in foster care, Krystel worked hard went to college worked in politics and later became an advocate for the foster care system.

She set out to help others that were in the same situation as she was.

I decided that I could do one of two things.

I could either succumb to my circumstances or I could try my best and make the best out of a bad situation.

I chose the latter.

Through her advocacy she has worked the several organizations including the Midlands Foundation for Foster Children an ancillary group that fills in when the Department of Social Services cannot.

And we provide extra money for scholarships because the state is limited as to what they can do.

We help with camps and the state is limited with that.

So what we do is we supplement what they need.

And then to help that they have a good Christmas, we take care of the teens.

and then we give them, you know, a Christmas present, a Christmas bonus.

And then you know to urge them to stay in school they become aware of our party that we do at the end of the year, for the seniors.

Now this year we gave them money, plus nice tote bags for them to start going out moving on in life.

I'm a product of my community but the Midlands Foundation specifically provides scholarships to kids that are graduating from high school.

They provide scholarships to kids that are going to college.

They also provide something that we think of that's a very common commodity to all of us.

They provide backpacks and they provide luggage, which think about that you may ask why.

I remember very keenly, moving from C.Y.D.C to my first foster home, moving all my possessions and a knapsack and a black hefty trash bag.

Think about the symbolism of what that says.

You've already gone through a traumatic event and now you're moving all of your worldly possessions in a hefty trash bag.

The Midlands Foster Youth foundation makes sure that when kids if they have to move that they have a backpack and they have a piece of luggage that they can carry their materials in.

And whether it is a suitcase or scholarship, the Midlands Foundation sees it as an investment in the future.

I mean you got to realize those children are going to be the future of this country.

So it's up to us as adults to make sure that we provide as good an influence as we can.

Help them get as much education as we can.

Like you to look at Krystel.

Krystel went through the foster care system.

She got help from an organization such as ours and then she went and she got an education.

And you're gonna find there's more and more that are trying to do that Trying to break the cycle.

I think that's the big thing that we try to stress as an organization, is to break the cycle.

What advice would Krystel give to those in the system thinking about their future?

You really just have to be persistent.

And you have to know that just because where you are today that does not dictate where you're going to be tomorrow.

You are the master of your future you get to choose what you want, but you have to put the work in.

Another organization providing aid for children is the Children's Fine and Performing Arts Foundation located in Charleston.

Last summer they gathered children with autism and encouraged them to express themselves through the arts.

A photographer.

an art teacher and children with autism spent a day together learning about themselves inside and out through photography and painting well today I'm helping facilitate this project Me, Myself and I and we're working with students to talk about identity and so I start off with talking to them a little bit, meeting them what they want to project to the world and I do a quick portrait of them.

They're not still for long so it's got to be fast.

and then and I print the photograph and Melissa starts doing a lesson with the children based on the photograph and they have a mirror and she teaches them how to do water color self portraits.

Melissa Bradshaw an art teacher liked the idea of giving the students a chance to interpret how they believe they look and learning about themselves in the process.

It's never been the product that's been important.

It's always been the step by step process.

So the kids are learning a lot as we're going through the process, but they're also learning a lot about themselves, especially you know when we talk about color.

It's not necessarily using realistic colors and we're looking at Picasso and and how he interprets portraits and things like that.

Maybe color based on emotion and so it really it lets them have a freedom that they don't have in other areas.

And it makes them feel successful and they can think outside the box.

I teach self portraits all the time to my students.

So it's it's just it's a wonderful thing for children because it's what they know the most is being able to sort of look inside and and really think about themselves and and express themselves, you know, which is so important.

And their uniqueness.

That's what we're celebrating, their uniqueness.

The arts are important for all children but as Beth Bogush, Executive Director of the Children's Fine and Performing Arts Foundation explains, even more so for children with autism.

Autistic children really tap into that because, you know a lot of them are non verbal.

A lot of them have sensory issues.

And the arts allows them to find something that might open a pathway for them.

And as we saw today, we did our big art project every child approached it a different way.

Some people some of the some of the children absolutely loved to see their photographs.

Some children loved to, the texture of the paint and how the strokes looked on the paper.

They loved to connect that, you know what they saw in the picture to what they saw on the page.

And we were very surprised that we had such a diverse group of children and yet they all came with different levels on the spectrum and yet they all were able to complete the picture of a portrait of who they were.

I believe that for autistic children it really fulfills a need that they're not getting elsewhere.

Because a lot of times communication is a struggle.

A lot of times socially they struggle.

So, they can talk about their artwork with their peers.

It it gives them confidence.

So socially it helps them.

And that also really, it makes them feel like they've accomplished something and it feels successful, which is highly important Both Lisa Riddles children are participating in the Me, Myself, and I project.

She feels this is important for their growth.

We were grateful for any opportunity to involve the kids in an art project that is not about the product but rather the process.

Something that engaged them, and helps self expression for the kids because in schools they often don't get that opportunity.

It's all about what they can create based on what the other kids are creating.

So we love an opportunity for them to have something that is just their own with no pressure and no expectations.

This art process is really involving cognitive thought, looking inward, explain who you are, and expressing that to the world in a in a way that they usually don't get to do.

So I think it's very important.

How many things do we do in our own lives that are creative and exciting?

And so many of our kids feel the pressure, the internal pressure to be perfect.

So if we can let them see art early as something that's a process, then they're much more likely to engage in it later on and find things that they can do to relaxation for jobs, you know just within their own lives.

It can it can give them much more joy in their lives.

And on this day there was joy all around.

Next continuing our Women Vision series, this week the spotlight is on recipient, Hope Blackley.

Blackley has spent her career helping others especially youth in the upstate.

Whether through politics education or in her role as an advocate working with many non-profits.

Her advice to young people,'No matter the obstacles, continue to work hard!'

My vision for the, for Spartanburg County, for the state and for this nation is to be open, be honest, to acknowledge when when there is a correction that needs to be made based on something that may have not gone right or just was done completely wrong.

But being accountable that that's I would like that to be what people say about me or remember about me.

That she was accountable.

She was open and that when she spoke she told the truth regardless of how hard the resistance might come from that.

For almost nine years, Hope Blackley served as Spartanburg County Clerk of Court, where she encountered resistance first hand.

She inherited numerous issues that needed correcting including a building with mold issues.

She fought for an initiative that would clear the way for a new county courthouse.

You successfully supported legislation to remediate and then to move from this building, the courthouse.

Tell us about that.

It wasn't a want it was an actual need.

So beginning in two thousand fourteen is when I did my first presentation to County Council and went throughout the County to civic organizations and clubs and did presentations on why we needed a new structure.

And then of course when County Council agreed to put this out for penny referendum for the constituent base of Spartanburg County to vote on it.

It successfully passed.

It passed way... It was a landslide and I think a lot of people were shocked I was not shocked, based on having support from the most conservative folks out of the tea party, as well as Republicans and Democrats all came together.

It was a bipartisan effort to get this initiative passed.

Why is it so important for this new building?

Well one, Spartanburg is headed in a totally different direction than where we've been in our past and it's time for growth and change.

And sometimes that that is hard for folks but it's time and.

But more importantly the issues that we're having, the environmental issues were having in this facility would warrant with strong strong support that we need to be out of this facility.

The new building is slated for completion in three to four years.

Advocating for issues and people is nothing new for Hope Blackley.

She began her career as a preschool teacher before moving to the Seventh Circuit Solicitor's office as a Child Victim Advocate.

So that transcended my path from education into legal the legal world government and basically in that capacity I prepped children to testify who have been abused, for court.

I really loved it.

However, it was highly emotional based on the fact that most of those cases were of sexual abuse nature.

But that kinda led my path in a different direction and I became a huge advocate for victims of crime.

It became personal in two thousand three when my sister was murdered.

She was murdered here in Spartanburg.

And then my step-sister two years later was murdered in Fredericksburg, Virginia by her husband.

So both of these cases were a direct result of domestic violence so that just took my, took on another path in regards to working in government and the legal field and being an advocate for victims of crime.

So, I've worked on murder cases, criminal, domestic violence cases to sexual abuse cases so and white collar crimes as well.

How have these tragic events in your life, your family members affected your, your own career?

I mean of course it was a lot of sadness and dealing with the death of both my sisters and my best friend who was murdered by her husband.

It made me, but it also made me step back because I had already been in that line of work and I'm thinking well how am I helping so many other people.

But people who are right here close in my life, I missed it.

So it took me a minute.

I went through some therapy based on that In regards to thinking maybe I missed it.

Maybe I was putting to much into work and not really paying attention to my relatives and friends in the instances that they were dealing with with crime and abuse.

So it made me look at it in a different way but also.

Looking at these particular incidents or people that I've worked with whether it was relatives or friends or colleagues or just a client as if what if this was me?

What if this was someone I know.

And technically in certain instances it has been someone that I knew that had had an issue and and how it felt as a as a family member or a victim myself in regards to helping someone get through some troubling times.

And that's what an advocate does, is helping someone get through a very harsh time in their lives.

But I always picture or think what if this was me.

Her life took another turn when then Governor Mark Sanford was looking for a crime victims ombudsman.

Her supervisor at the time was Solicitor Trey Gowdy who would later become U.S.

representative for South Carolina's fourth congressional district.

Then Solicitor Gowdy urged her to think expansively.

He says I just see you doing something bigger.

I can see you've being an elected official or doing something bigger for South Carolina.

I said, "Really.

I'm.

Okay."

I mean.

You know I was stunned.

No one had ever said anything like that to me and from that point on he really pushed and encouraged me to think outside the box in regards to my professional capacity.

And while she did step out of the box for her professional capacity, it was not always easy.

When she stood for election as County Clerk of Court, as a single mom, she frequently took her daughter to campaign events.

It's amazing how much wisdom she has as an eighteen year old now but I think that's part of her being taken along with me to different functions and sitting in the back room as a single mom and saying, "Just sit here!

Mommy's got to make this speech or momma's got to do this and that."

And end up having conversation with folks and seeing real world.

I think when she saw when we were campaigning one time and she saw me asking for votes and there was a gentleman who said that I would never vote for a black woman.

And she was so appalled and offended at that.

And she just said there,"I don't understand why people would, are so mean."

And I said, "Well 'That was a lesson I'm glad you got to see because he's entitled to his opinion, whether we like it or not.

but I respect him for at least telling the truth because he was telling what he felt was his truth, although we don't agree with that.

Just think of all the people who feel that way and will not will never tell you such.

So we know where he stands and we know we have to work for.

Glad you saw that.

It's okay.

That was a great life lesson to show you that everybody's not gonna agree with you or support you.

Since our interview with Hope Blackley, last fall, she has moved to a new position as District Director with Congressman William Timmons' office in the Fourth District, where she will undoubtedly meet new challenges.

But her advice to her daughter and other young people is steadfast.

No matter the obstacles, work hard.

Again never allow anyone else to define or put limitations on your life based on the fact that you are the determining factor in what you can do.

And although efforts or initiatives may be very hard and they may look bleak.

If you're doing it for the right reasons and not being self serving, there'll be a lot of positives that will come out of that.

♪ For more stories about the Palmetto State, please visit our website at palmettoscene.org and of course be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram then join us again next time for another edition of Palmetto Scene.

As we leave you tonight, our "Palmetto Postcard" comes from the Landsford Canal where the Rocky Shoals Spider Lily is blooming.

And boy, is it beautiful!

By the way, don't forget to send us your postcards video or photos.

Send them to palmettoscene@scetv.org For ETV and Palmetto Scene, I'm Beryl Dakers.

Thank you for watching ♪