Rock Hill puts Gettys Center up for sale as artists rally together. Can they save it?
The heart of Rock Hill’s arts and culture community is in limbo after the city put the Tom S. Gettys Center up for sale last month.
Artists say new ownership could jeopardize the studios, events and gathering spaces they’ve enjoyed for nearly 40 years. But they won’t give up the historic downtown building without a fight.
Art lovers are banding together in a grassroots movement they call Keep Rock Hill Creative. The initiative seeks to pause sales and bring city leaders to the discussion table for solutions.
More than 100 supporters showed up to a City Council meeting on Monday. Even more expressed support from afar.
“Its loss would undoubtedly decimate the creative community in Rock Hill,” Dylan Bannister, who has studio space in the Gettys Center and helped organize Keep Rock Hill Creative, said during the meeting. “With no current alternative spaces in this market where the displaced artists, galleries, small businesses and nonprofit organizations can go, the area, named South Carolina’s first officially recognized arts and culture district, will lose the majority of its local arts and culture.”
Upkeep is too expensive for Gettys Center, city says
The Gettys Center was constructed in 1931 as a courthouse and post office and is included on the National Register of Historic Places. The center is named after the current mayor’s uncle, a former postmaster who worked in the building before representing South Carolina in Congress for five terms.
Rock Hill publicly listed the 201 East Main Street property for $2.26 million on Jan. 27.
Most of the space today is managed by the Arts Council of York County, but to the unacquainted eye, the Gettys Center still resembles a civil service building. Mailboxes line the main entrance, with labels bearing names of bygone people and businesses. Upstairs, visitors can enjoy a concert or theater production in the historic courtroom.
All of that preservation takes money. Rock Hill annually spends $100,000 on the building, said Mayor John Gettys. Another $3.2 million in upgrades are needed “to make the site work as it is.” The center has become “a drain” on resources, he said, necessitating a sale.
Long-term maintenance projects include a roof replacement, a new elevator and electrical and plumbing upgrades, according to Rock Hill spokesperson Katie Quinn.
“The fact of the matter is this isn’t a way to increase revenue. It is a way to sort of decrease the costs for this facility,” Gettys said during Monday’s council meeting. “This isn’t an attack on the arts community by any means.”
Bannister told The Herald that clarification was unnecessary: Nobody interpreted the move as an attack.
“It feels more like indifference to the arts,” Bannister said. “The city doesn’t look at this as a destination for their residents, and that’s become a huge problem.”
Rock Hill won’t sell the building unless it receives a good offer, Gettys said. He encouraged the arts community to find somebody who would buy the building and continue using it for arts purposes. There could be a “hometown discount” if locals figure out a purchasing plan, he said.
That gave little comfort to the artists in the room.
“Vincent Van Gogh has that type of money, but he’s dead,” said Kirk Irwin, whose nonprofit Friday Arts Project operates out of the Gettys Center. “Artists will get that kind of money when they’re dead.”
Artists worry about future without Gettys Center
Rumors about the building’s future have been swirling for 14 months, Irwin said. Tenants knew city officials discussed selling, but those discussions never seemed to go anywhere.
The threat became real when they saw the listing two weeks ago.
“It’s kind of like, where do we go from here?” said Alexis Howard, Bannister’s partner who has shared studio space with him since August. “This space was a dream come true.”
The Arts Council of York County lets nonprofits use the center at a discounted rate, said Mike Gentry. He’s the director of Winthrop University Galleries and of the nonprofit Don’t Sweat It Inc., which is housed in the Gettys Center and provides free and low-cost arts events for the community.
The center is booked with events about 85% of weekends, Gentry said. He’s personally hosted more than 250 concerts and events since 2010.
Gentry worries that, even if the Arts Council managed to find another property for its offices and events, the new location would not be as accessible. The building’s central location is a draw for people shopping at downtown businesses.
The Gettys Center plays an important role in several beloved events such as the Blues and Jazz Festival, the Underexposed Film Festival and Art Party, an arts festival hosted by Irwin’s nonprofit.
The building also hosts proms, drawing nights, short film events and performances by Winthrop fine arts students. It’s unclear what would happen to these events and partnerships if they lost access to the Gettys Center.
Once a prospective buyer gives the city a letter of intent to purchase, tenants will have six months to vacate, Bannister said.
Artists want more communication from Rock Hill
Just last week, the South Carolina Arts Alliance worked with its local partners to secure Mayor Gettys’ signature on a proclamation recognizing Feb. 10-14 as South Carolina Arts Advocacy Week, said Jeff Robinson, the alliance’s executive director.
That made news of the listing ironic, Robinson said.
“We did not know that this was coming,” he said.
People who want to help the cause can show up to City Council meetings and make their presence known, Robinson said. Those with a personal connection to council members can leverage those to explain to them why this issue matters, he said.
Arts advocates wished they’d been part of the discussions before the city moved to sell the property. Now, they’re asking City Council to hold off on any decisions until after they talk to them about potential impacts.
“They’re not our adversaries. They’re our neighbors,” Irwin said. “Let’s sit down and figure out how to get this $3 million.”
Gettys said the arts are stronger than ever in Rock Hill, pointing to new murals around town and the Storyline, a linear park that will tell the story of Rock Hill. There is more beyond what goes on in the Gettys Center, he said.
“It’s a building that’s almost a hundred years old that needs a lot of work. We need to see if there’s a better use of that for the best interest of the city as a whole,” Gettys said. “We think there are a lot of things that could make downtown stronger than it is today. More investment in that by the arts community could be one of those things.”
Regardless of what happens to the Gettys Center, the mayor said he believes arts will continue to grow in Rock Hill because the arts community transcends the walls of any one building.
“The mayor is exactly right. Art does transcend. That’s the whole point in exercising it, is to find a connection with greater values,” Irwin said. “But art also needs space. It needs physical space in order to be done.”
This story was originally published February 12, 2025 at 10:56 AM.
