Art Museums

The Gibbes Museum of Art hosts a collection of mostly American fine art – some with a connection to Charleston and the lowcountry – displayed within a historic Beaux Arts style building. Besides its permanent collection (including a collection of miniature portraits), the museum hosts a selection of rotating exhibitions.

The museum is open Tuesday-Sunday. Tuesday and Thursday-Saturday, 10am-5pm; Wednesday, 10am-8pm; Sunday, 1pm-5pm. Admission to the first floor is free. Admission to exhibitions on the second and third floor is $15 for adults, $13 for seniors (62+) and military, $10 for students and $6 for children (4-17). More details

The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, located inside the College of Charleston’s School of Arts, eschews the accumulation of a permanent collection of works in favor of a half dozen temporary exhibitions each year, around which it bases its programming. One or two exhibitions are usually running at any one time, focusing on the work of selected contemporary American and international artists. More details

While exhibitions are running, the gallery is open Monday-Saturday, 11am-4pm (7pm Thursdays). Admission is free.

Art Galleries

Charleston has several dozen commercial galleries representing works by local, national and international artists. Lowcountry art is well represented, with scenes of Charleston, and the wildlife and nature of the South Carolina coast, on display in many of the city’s galleries.

Most of Charleston’s art galleries are located within only a few blocks of each other downtown, and you can easily explore a good number of them in a morning or afternoon. The city’s main “gallery districts” are in the French Quarter in the eastern lower peninsula, and along King Street, to its west.

Theater & Performing Arts

The North Charleston Coliseum & Performing Arts Center is one of the area’s bigger event spaces, offering theater, musical and dance performances, sports, expositions, concerts, and more.

For plays and musicals, there is Charleston Stage at the Dock Street Theatre, the Woolfe Street Playhouse, South of Broadway (in North Charleston), and for contemporary plays, Pure Theatre.

Other options for the performing arts include community theater group the Footlight Players, comedy theater with the 34 West Theater Company, comedy mystery theater at The Black Fedora Comedy Mystery Theatre or musical variety shows with Brad & Jennifer Moranz Present.

Arts & Culture Events

→ See also: Music festivals in Charleston and vicinity

Charleston has a large number of annual festivals centered around music, culture and the performing arts, besides dozens of one-off events. The highlight of Charleston’s arts calender is the Spoleto Festival in early summer, accompanied by the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, the latter focused on the artists and performers of the southeastern states.

Music festivals include the Greater Charleston Lowcountry Jazz Festival, in fall; and Color of Music and the Charleston Jazz Festival in winter.

Several additional heritage festivals focus on the music and other aspects of the culture of specific regions, nationalities and ethnicities. There is the Lowcountry Irish Fest in winter; the Lowcountry Cajun Festival in spring; the Charleston Greek Festival and Charleston Carifest in summer; and the Scottish Games & Highland Gathering in fall.

Other arts festivals include Summertown’s Flowertown Festival in spring; the North Charleston Arts Fest and the Sweetgrass Cultural Arts Festival in summer; and the MOJA Arts Festival in fall.