South Carolina Arts Commission loses its chair and interim director after an LGBTQ+ grant dispute

The South Carolina Arts Commission voted unanimously on Thursday, October 15, not to elect a new board chair and to share leadership duties among commissioners, WIS reported. At the same meeting, the agency's interim director, Ashley Brown, stepped down and returned to her role as a deputy director, the SC Daily Gazette reported. Commissioners unanimously chose Ce Scott-Fitts, the agency's interim senior deputy director, to take her place.

The changes follow the resignations of chair Flavia Harton and commissioner Russell "Rip" Parks, both effective Friday, October 16, and a dispute over grants to two LGBTQ+ arts groups. The commission is a state agency whose grants go to arts nonprofits across South Carolina.

The grant vote

On October 1, the board voted 5-3 to deny grants to the Greenville Gay Men's Chorus, which had requested about $13,000, and Spartanburg's Proud Mary Theatre Company, which had requested almost $4,000, the Gazette reported. An independent review panel had recommended both, and they were the only applicants denied, South Carolina Public Radio reported. Each group received $4,750 from the commission the year before, according to the Gazette. In August, the board approved about $3.7 million for more than 170 other organizations.

Harton, as chair, votes only to break a tie and did not vote. Representatives of the two groups and the state's American Civil Liberties Union called the decision discrimination, and the ACLU wrote to the board that it might violate the First Amendment, the Gazette reported.

The resignations

None of the three who stepped down cited the funding vote as the reason, the Gazette reported. Harton told the commission she needed more time for her full-time job; WIS reported she cited personal reasons and family. Parks, who was appointed in March 2025 and voted against the grants, wrote to the governor that he could not meet the "all-consuming time demands that I anticipate in the foreseeable future." Asked by WIS whether the funding votes played a part, he said, "No, actually it did not, no. It's a time issue," and said he stands by his vote. Brown did not give a reason.

Gov. Henry McMaster, who appoints the board, told reporters he likely won't have time to appoint permanent replacements before he leaves office at the end of the year, the Gazette reported. At the same October 15 meeting, the board unanimously declined an $1,800 grant to an early-career artist after questions about whether the work broke an August resolution telling evaluators to disfavor projects that promote any ideology; Parks called it "pure political ideology."

What boards can take from it

In our view, the episode shows what happens when a board overrules its own review panel without a written reason. Funders can reduce that risk by agreeing in advance how panel recommendations are weighed, recording the basis for any departure, and deciding who leads if the chair leaves. For the basics of a board's role, see what a board is for.