Art
Embracing, engaging and curating our local creative community.
Featured Gallery
Mary Gilkerson - Evening Light
An exhibition of monotypes and oil paintings from the artist Mary Bentz Gilkerson, an artist who used color and light to connect people to the experience of place.
Richland Library's galleries inspire, engage and enrich our customers, local artists and community partners through the visual arts. We believe that access to and interaction with art is essential to nurturing a growing, thriving, culturally and historically rich creative community. Through a variety of flexible gallery spaces, the library is able to exhibit and promote local artists as well as welcome nationally recognized artists, illustrators and traveling exhibitions. Request to Exhibit
Artist-In-Residence:
Richland Library’s Artist-in-Residence Program aims to connect the community with local working artists and to provide creative and educational opportunities to the community in a way that supports cultural and artistic exchange. Learn More

Partnerships:
One Columbia works with Richland Library's executive leadership team, board members and community members to select proposals for art that fit with the needs of each of our library’s communities. Selected artists conduct workshops for the community related to their craft.
Public Art:
For each library, 1% of the construction budget is going toward public art. Inspired by our brand promises, we’re encouraging artists to serve the public good and nurture communities. One Columbia for Arts and History is helping us build your library by coordinating the selection of new pieces of public art for all of our renovations.

Ballentine | Barbara Streeter
A stunning, kaleidoscope of color and energy, the Hyperbolic Crochet Wisteria Sculpture is a community driven project of knitted and crocheted yarn creating a sculpture that showcases the strength, individuality and diversity of the local community.

Ballentine | Ayako Abe-Miller
A textile/fiber installation of ephermal organza cubes where one side of every cube holds a "memory" provided by members of the Ballentine community.

Cooper | Loren Schwerd
Arcadia is a fabric sculpture inspired by a graphite rubbing taken from the trunk of a large felled tree. The crinoline used creates shadows and patterns and sparks imagination.

Main | Michael Hagen
Spanning nearly 40 feet, this unique mural was produced by Michael Hagen, Mr. Sendak's stage and set designer. It is the first and only Sendak-authorized mural of his work.

Main | Michael Hagen
Maurice Sendak's stage and set designer, Michael Hagen, has brought the imaginations of thousands of children to life with these free-standing, three-dimensional Wild Things.

Main | Kimi Maeda
Kimi Maeda is a Japanese-American theatre artist based in Columbia, South Carolina. She created a "shadow tunnel that leads into the new children's storytime room. This interactive art piece enables children to create puppet shows and play with shadows.

Main | Marius Valdes
Marius Valdes created a permanent art installation made from more than 5,000 hand-drawn bookmarks on a 50 x 9 foot entrance wall in the Teen Center. Many of the bookmarks were created by local community members of all ages.

Main | Enid Williams
Staff fell in love with the work of SC artist Enid Williams. Our design team connected with Enid Williams and Milliken & Company and voila, custom flooring based on Williams' work was produced for the Main Library renovation.

North Main | Laurie Brownell McIntosh
Columbia-based artist Laurie Brownell captured the spirit of the participants' community in -panel installation composed of their deconstructed and reassembled creations.

St. Andrews | Jarod Charzewski
The project titled The Band Shell comes from every community's basic need to meet, an intuitive human nature to create and perform. The structure is a performance space that will give the St. Andrews community a lasting sense of identity.

Blythewood | Jarod Charzewski
"The Water Tower Pavilion was inspired by the Blythewood steam train water tower. This tower was a figure in the town's history and serviced the Blythewood railway industry. The pavilion nourishes the community and its culture while embracing its historic beginnings.
Local Artist Directory:
Learn more about local artists with a little help from our friends at One Columbia Arts and Culture. Select an artist below to explore their work, and search the full directory on the One Columbia website.
For more information, contact:
Ashley Warthen
Arts Coordinator
803.929.3430
artful@richlandlibrary.com