As part of the South Carolina Cultural Visions Council strategic plan, an institute to stimulate development of champions and advocates for the arts, cultural resources and historic resources as community and economic development assets, was envisioned. The institute would provide a means to bring together teams from communities throughout South Carolina for the purpose of improving leadership capacity at the grass-roots level in order to develop, promote and foster cultural, artistic and/or historic activities which have an organic link to the community. The outcomes from the institute are to have the team members develop programs, within the participating communities, that would be competitive for funding from national, state or regional organizations and be embraced as a high priority by other leadership groups within the community.

The format for the CULTURAL RESOURCES INSTITUTE is a three part program. The first part involves bringing the teams to a resident location for training and information on: leadership development, effective planning, network formation techniques, organization and operations ideas, fund raising, working with volunteers, working with government, community economic development, and building constituent support. The workshops, seminars and activities, presented during the institute, will focus on examples pertinent to the group's interests and the objectives of the South Carolina Cultural Visions Council. The second part of the institute involves further training in the areas of festival and events management and grant writing and financial development. Community teams will be divided into two track, festival and events, and grant development. Through workshop and independent study, participants will attain skills to improve self-sufficiency and diversify funding opportunities. The third part is a session on program problem solving and developing human capital. This two day workshop will be built around institute member projects and will be aimed to improve group planning and evaluation techniques.

The fundamental principal of the CULTURAL RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE is to develop advocacy and leadership within the community sufficient to foster independent action.

The CULTURAL RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE is a partnership between the South Carolina Arts Commission, South Carolina Cultural Visions Council and the Strom Thurmond Institute, Clemson University.

Visit the Phase #1 Photo Gallery!

Visit the Phase #2 Photo Gallery!

Visit the Phase #3 Photo Gallery!