Post and Courier
A poignant and fitting community gesture takes the form of an outdoor exhibition in Theodora Park. The public oasis south of Gaillard Center has become a gathering place for Gaillard staff and Spoleto Staff and artists, along with Charleston residents and visitors.
The driving force behind both Theodora Park and the temporary exhibition is David Rawle, a nearby resident who dreamed up the transformation of the space, which is about two-fifths of an acre, tirelessly raising the funds to help create it and maintain it.
When we sat on a bench there, Rawle and I observed other glimmers of the festival to come, as musicians with instruments in twos passed by on their way to rehearsal. Rawle explained how he had conceived of the exhibition, titled “Celebrating Geoff Nuttall: An Exhibition of Photographs by William Struhs,” as a way to pay tribute to Geoff Nuttall, Charles E. and Andrea L. Volpe Director of Chamber Music of Spoleto Festival USA, who died this past year at the age of 56 of pancreatic cancer.
A charismatic, beloved force of the festival, Nuttall was a twinkle-eyed, jocular proof of the perennial power of chamber music, drolly demystifying it with each performance, while at the same time hewing to the highest standard of artistic excellence.
For the exhibition, Rawle worked with the festival to devise eight large-scale rpints of photography by Charleston-based photographer William Struhs. The works, which will be lit at night, capture the palpable joy that Nuttall and his merry musicians delivered day after day, year after year, at the Dock St. Theater.