It’s not easy to summarize a year in arts in Charleston, nor is it easy to pick out a few events, exhibits, and interviews that stand out in a sea of stories. This list is neither comprehensive, nor ordered in any particular fashion. It’s just what we remember best about the arts scene of 2018 based on our gut reactions to works of art, people, and places. These exhibits, films, and comedians made us cry, scream, and laugh (in no particular order) all year. Here’s why: 

An exhibition four years in the making (and still going on — check it out through March 2 2019), Southbound is impressive in both its scope and in its message. Featured in two galleries, the exhibition, which opened at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art and City Gallery this fall, looks at “photographs of and about the New South,” through the eyes of 56 artists and photographers. In our October 2018 cover story on the expansive art exhibit, writer Chase Quinn asked, “What are we actually talking about when we talk about the New South, a term bandied about with the same frequency (and often the same conceit) with which people label Charleston ‘quietly progressive?'”