South Carolina's three major centers for the visual arts are the Gibbes Art Gallery in Charleston, the Columbia Museum of Art and Science, and the Greenville County Museum of Art. Local theater groups in the larger municipalities produce five or six plays a year; Columbia's Town Theater claims to be the nation's oldest continuous community playhouse.
Augusta is home to the Augusta Opera, the Augusta Symphony, and the Augusta Jazz Project. Charleston and Charlotte also have orchestras. Perhaps South Carolina's best-known musical event is the Spoleto Festival—held annually in Charleston during May and June and modeled on the Spoleto Festival in Italy—at which artists of international repute perform in original productions of operas and dramas.
The South Carolina Arts Commission, created in 1967, has developed apprenticeship programs in which students learn from master artists. In 2003, the South Carolina Arts Commission and other South Carolina arts organizations received grants totaling $1,184,800 from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). In 2000, the National Endowment for the Humanities contributed $1,025,487 for 14 state programs. The state and various private sources also provided funding for the council's activities. The state of South Carolina has approximately 200 arts associations and 50 local arts groups.