With an annual attendance of more than 6,000 people, the festival is a weekend filled with books, an exhibit hall filled with exhibitors, book sellers including antiquarian book dealers and over 100 award-winning authors.

 

Columbia’s own Claire Farrell is the 2010 SC Book Festival artist and her piece “The Reader” will be featured in the Book Festival marketing and publicity materials. It will also be available for sale at the festival as the official festival poster. A local art gallery, City Art, located in the Vista on Lady Street, Columbia will host a reception honoring Claire as this year’s festival artist on Thursday, February 25.  Also, Farrell will sign the poster at the book festival on Saturday from noon till 2 pm and Sunday from 1-3 pm. Farrell is a native Charlestonian, whose earliest art encounters included private art lessons in Japan, and Saturday classes at the Gibbs Museum in Charleston.  She graduated from Duke University, holds two master’s degrees from the University of South Carolina, and has studied printmaking in Santa Fe, at Penland and at SantaRaparata Art School in Florence, Italy.  

Farrell’s work has been accepted in numerous national and state juried exhibitions and she received “Best in Show” awards in the Florence (SC) Statewide Juried Exhibition, South Carolina State Fair, the San Diego Watercolor Society Exhibit, the Friends of the Coast Exhibit in Charleston, the Waccamaw Arts & Crafts Guild Judged Show in Myrtle Beach, and the University South Carolina Alumni Art Competition.   She is a past president of the South Carolina Watercolor Society and a signature member of that organization. Farrell is represented by the Wells Gallery in Charleston and City Art in Columbia, SC.  Her work is included in corporate and private collections nationwide.

A variety of work by South Carolina fine artists will be available to browse and buy during the festival at the first-ever Fine Art Sale and Exhibit during the festival. On Sunday afternoon enjoy a wine reception at the art exhibit and visit with some of the artists. For a complete list of artists and their work, visit scbookfestival.org. 

The festival kicks off Friday, February 26 with an opening night ticketed reception, held at the University of South Carolina’s Thomas Cooper Library.  The festival takes place on Saturday, February 27, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm and Sunday, February 28, 11:30 am – 5:00 pm at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center with free general admission.  The festival features over 80 exhibitors, over 100 authors, and over 25 artists showing and selling their work in the Fine Art Exhibit and Sale in the Exhibit Hall.  Special ticketed events include Friday master classes, an opening night reception and Brunching with Authors: a moveable feast on Sunday morning.

 

During the past 14 years, the festival has hosted Scott Turow, Harlan Coben, Nikki Giovanni, David Baldacci, Dottie Benton Frank, Joyce Carol Oates, Madison Smartt Bell, Gail Godwin, Percival Everett, and many other award-winning authors.  This year will feature Sharyn McCrumb, Ron Rash, Rick Bragg, John Hart, Dacre Stoker, Dorothea  Benton Frank, Jill McCorkle, Francis Ray, Robert Hicks,Walter Edgar and many, many others.