In 2016 one of Rock Hill’s established artists approached us about an idea to serve the greater art community here. She had been doing a “gallery art sale” around the start of the holidays for years and wondered if this could be expanded into something larger. Thus Art Party was born.

The first year we did Art Party (in November 2016) we had four sites in the downtown area of Rock Hill open to allow artists to show their work—in galleries and studios. We estimate we had over 100 people visit in the two-day period during Art Party. One year later, in 2017 Art Party took a large jump in scope.

From four sites in 2016, Art Party 2017 had a dozen sites throughout the city. There was even a juried show of 20+ local and regional artists who showed their works in local businesses. The final night of Art Party we hosted a celebration with about 60 guests who came to listen to a local band, Elonzo Wesley, and hear regional journalist Tommy Tomlinson speak on “The Art of Paying Attention”—about seeing the important things in life that may be missed if you don’t look.

But the highlight for us was the Friday night performance piece of local ensemble XOXO Performance. The title of the piece was called All the Dogs and Horses and was tagged as an “acid Western”. The director got up before the start of the drama and said that the “acid” of the story didn’t come from psychotics like mushrooms or pharmaceuticals, but the “acid” one gets from “self-contemplation and prayer”. At one point in the drama, the heroine had to shoot her companion—her horse—because he broke his leg. The next instant, after being shot, the horse is miraculously resurrected, with the heroine exclaiming, “But you were dead, I shot you!? But now you’re alive!?”

After watching the performance, one of the college students involved with us agreed with one of our more seasoned artists that the whole performance was a “religious analogy”. That was evident. The 60 or so guests at the performance got to hear about what prayer can effect and also see the death and resurrection of a main character who goes on with the heroine to prevail over evil. Sound familiar?

Art Party continues to provide a place for us to serve our fellow artists and at the same time build integrity with them so that we may continue to speak into their lives about the important things in life.