ARTISPHERE, AN EXPERIENCE TO REMEMBER

NEWS + MEMBER EXHIBITS

by Selene Paschoal

Artisphere 2025 (photo credit: Artisphere.org)

Mother’s Day is well celebrated in many ways, but no place matches the festivities in Greenville, SC with its festival, “Artisphere.” Ranked the third-best art festival in the U.S. by USA Today, Artisphere’s vision is to engage, inspire, and enrich the city’s diverse community by celebrating the arts with a weekend of art, music, and local food.
Art has always been important to Greenville. Established in the early 1970s, River Place Arts Festival was Greenville’s first annual art festival, ending in 2003.

At that point, the downtown area was undergoing major redevelopment and the city’s objective was to create an event that would promote the arts while showcasing the improved downtown

River Place Arts Festival (photo credit: Greenville News)

area. Greenville’s mayor, Knox White, asked the Metropolitan Arts Council if they would undertake such an endeavor. Henry Horowitz, the Council’s chair, said that the event should be governed by its own entity. Horowitz borrowed from his experience in the early 2000s, serving on the board of the Oklahoma City Festival of the Arts, gaining firsthand experience with organizing a successful juried arts event.

“Amazon Lilies” by Ebelyn Beck, a 2026 exhibitor in the Emerging Festival Artist category and a local quilt artist from Anderson, SC

Artisphere was launched in 2003, with the first event taking place in 2005 in downtown Greenville. Originally called “Artisphere: The International Arts Festival of Greenville”, the event received 282 applications for 100 spaces in the Artists Row that first year. Many changes have been made in the ensuing 21 years of the event. The number of applications for 2026 was 1,142 with 140 national and local artists accepted in 17 categories: Ceramics, Digital Art, Drawing, Emerging Festival Artist, Fiber, Furniture, Glass, Jewelry-Precious, Jewelry-Semi-Precious, Metalworks, Mixed Media 2D, Mixed Media 3D, Painting-Oil or Acrylic, Painting-Watercolor, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture, and Woodwork. In 2024, an area for high school student artists called “Rising Stars,” was added.

This year, in addition to Artists Row, several signature Artisphere experiences will be offered: Kidsphere free craft area, Live Art Demonstrations, Street Chalk Art, The Art Lab, live music, local performing arts on six stages, and the Culinary Arts Café, a showcase of regional talent and inspired flavors.

Artisphere is more than just art and culture. It has a strong impact on the regional economy. According to the organization, these are the 2025 impacts: $16 million in total economic impact; 141 total artists with a combined $2.57 million in sales; $100,000 donated to the arts in the form of stipends, contributions or non-profit donations; $1 million donated since Artisphere’s inaugural year in 205l; and, festival attendance by more than 80,000 people.