The Metropolitan Arts Council (MAC) just got its biggest birthday present yet.

The Graham Foundation, a private family foundation and longtime contributor to MAC, donated $1 million to help support Greenville artists. For those keeping score, that's a third of the foundation's total contributions to MAC — totaling over $3 million as of this announcement — in a single grant.

MAC turned 50 years old this month, and Greenville Journal reports that this donation is the largest single gift in the council's entire half-century history.

This $1 million influx will fund two big programs: SmartARTS and MAC's grant program.

SmartARTS

Started in 2002, SmartARTS — housed at the TD Center for Arts Integration — partners with Greenville County Schools to elevate art in the classroom. The program pairs traditional educators with "teaching artists" (read: working artists trained to share their craft with students).

Teaching artists' creative skill and knowledge, plus the classroom experience and standards-driven approach of teachers, combine to produce lesson plans that continue to enrich the arts in Greenville even after the partnership is over.

MAC grants

MAC awarded $510,455 in grants in 2022 — that's half a million to individual artists, collabs, and programs to help see their projects to fruition. Priority is given to projects that are open to all residents, and that ultimately feed back into Greenville's artistic community. A few grant recipients from last year:

Artisphere's 2022 Artists of the Upstate Exhibition
Children's Museum of the Upstate's Dream Theatre
South Carolina New Play Festival
Makers Collective's Indie Craft Parade