Harry and Becca Dalton are known throughout York County for their generosity and volunteer
efforts. The two Charlotte, N.C., natives helped save Nanny's Mountain near Clover
and the Worth Mountain area on the Broad River; participated in the restoration of
two historic buildings on Main Street in Rock Hill; and provided funding for the Dalton
Gallery at the Rock Hill Center for the Arts, Clinton Junior College library art gallery,
Winthrop University Galleries and Winthrop's Department of Theatre and Dance. They are participating sponsors for the new Dalton Downtown Arts Initiative to encourage
collaboration among area galleries.
Music and Winthrop have both played a major role in the life of Shirley Fishburne.
She earned a bachelor's degree and master's degree in organ performance at Winthrop
before earning an Ed.D. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She also
attended the Haarlem Organ Academy in Holland and is a certified Orff instructor to
teach music to children. Fishburne taught music at Winthrop for 17 years, in addition
to teaching at other area colleges and schools. She served as co-chair for the steering
committee to restore the D.B. Johnson Memorial Organ in Byrnes Auditorium, volunteering her time to present eight organ recitals throughout South Carolina
and Georgia to raise awareness of the organ.
Roy Fluhrer, who was "born in a trunk" in Chicago to parents touring with the Federal
Theatre Project in the latter stages of the Great Depression, has spent his life in
the arts. He won an acting scholarship to Northwestern University as a junior in high
school, earning a degree from there and later a master's degree and Ph.D. from Bowling
Green State University. He worked as artistic and managing director of a theatre in
Ohio, as chair of the theatre department at the University of Idaho and as vice chancellor
of the N.C. School of the Arts. Since 1989, he has headed the Fine Arts Center in
Greenville, S.C. the state's first secondary school for gifted students in the literary,
visual and performing arts.
For the nearly 17 years he has spent in South Carolina, including part of the time as president of the S.C. Arts Alliance, he has worked on various local, state and national committees to lend his voice to fulfilling the belief in the power of the arts to transform not only our lives and our educational system but the very fabric of our culture. He is a long-time member of the Arts in Basic Curriculum Project housed at Winthrop.
Since 1984, Pearl Fryar has not stopped molding the shcrubs and trees in his 3-acre
yard in Bishopville into topiary art with a gas-powered hedge trimmer. The first recognition
of his talents came in the mid-1990s when Fryar was included in a series of art exhibitions
at Winthrop and the South Carolina State Museum to spotlight self-taught artists.
With an exhibition at Spoleto USA in 1997 and a feature in Art in America, Fryar's reputation grew. Tour buses began arriving at his garden by the dozens. He has since appeared on ETV and Home & Garden Television and also has been featured in Sandlapper and Southern Living magazines. Fryar has won numerous awards including being named a S.C. Ambassador for Economic Development by Gov. Mark Sanford in 2003.
For more than 30 years, Susie Surkamer has dedicated her career to the development
of a thriving arts environment in South Carolina. Her work with the S.C. Arts Commission
began in 1974 when she joined the agency as dancer-in-residence. She moved to the
areas of arts development and a dministration before being named executive director
in 1994.
Since then, the S.C. Arts Commission has earned a national reputation as a leader in arts education reform, rural arts development, design arts and other initiatives. Surkamer's work in strengthening partnerships has led to her service on numerous state, regional and national boards and alliances, including Winthrop's Board of Visitors. She has served on several panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and for other organizations.
