Greenville County School District’s Fine Arts Center celebrates a milestone anniversary.
Vee Popat firmly believes he has the best job in Greenville: As director of the Fine Arts Center, he witnesses daily what happens inside the public arts high school’s walls.
The Center’s 450 students—selected from Greenville County’s 15 high schools through annual auditions—“make magic,” he says, in their pre-professional studies of architecture, creative writing, dance, digital filmmaking, music, theater, theater design and production, and visual arts. Guiding them is a cadre of teachers who are professional artists and musicians.
“Things just click here,” says Anna Cassell, a YoungArts national competition winner who plans to study fiber arts in college. “It is a good place to try a bunch of new techniques you hadn’t considered before, but also, it helps you forge a passion.”
Cassell and her classmates spend half of each school day pursuing their passions. While some may rehearse for dance, music, and theater performances and create artworks in varied mediums, others might compose original correspondence in creative writing classrooms, design a tiny house in the architecture lab, or animate a film inspired by a French poem.
“You feel the energy when you walk into the building. You can also feel the relaxation and focus,” says Popat, as he walks through the art-lined hallways. “The students are happy. The faculty are united in their goals. We’re always doing things we’ve never done before because we’ve fostered this tight-knit culture.”
This marks FAC’s 50th school year, a milestone achieved through “a combination of a lot of great things,” Popat says. “We’re standing on the shoulders of many people who came before us. We’ve had a history of very dedicated professionals. Our community embraces us, and the school district is behind this model and what it does for kids.”
When FAC opened in 1974—as the state’s first specialized arts school—the “vision was to provide more of a rigorous course of study than the high school programs could offer at that time,” Popat says of the model developed by Governor’s School founder, Dr. Virginia Uldrick, and school district leaders.
It combines highly interested students with highly experienced staff teachers and guest artists who visit each semester. Because class sizes are small and class periods are longer, there is more individualized instruction and a faster learning pace. “It enables us to really push the progress,” Popat says.
That has brought success. Among the thousands of graduates—90 percent of whom pursue higher education, with 70 percent choosing arts-related majors—are Broadway actors, Grammy-nominated musicians, and career artists. Current students routinely win art competitions, perform at Centre Stage and other professional venues, and average $10 million in scholarship offers. The award-winning school has grown from five to eight programs (some have subspecialties), created summer intensives and artist residencies, and established the nonprofit FAC Partners to assist with community and student support.
“It’s the leadership that makes a difference. The passion Vee and his staff instill in the kids has caused FAC to be a terrific place,” says Dr. John Warner, the FAC Partners’ former volunteer executive director.
For 1992 graduate William Downs, FAC provided foundations for his Atlanta College of Art bachelor’s degree in painting and printmaking and his career as a contemporary artist. “My young creative mind was always fully charged when I was there,” he says. “You are surrounded by kids that you automatically connect with.”
The students’ energy and FAC’s former director, Dr. Roy Fluhrer, inspired Downs when he returned to the school in 2023 to create Down in the Valley, an india-ink-and-graphite wall drawing. Located along the stairway’s wall, “it’s surrounded by so much magic and so much talent,” he wrote in an Instagram post at the time.
FAC will celebrate its 50th anniversary on April 10 at the Peace Center and induct select alumni into an inaugural Hall of Fame. It was created to recognize “those who have taken this opportunity and made an impact,” Popat says, adding that it also is a means to inspire current students and “to show them they can be anything.”
Looking ahead to the next 50 years, Popat envisions adding programming as space allows and making the community more aware of FAC as “an option for students who have a passion,” he says.
“We will continue to push the boundaries on what is possible for and available to our students,” the director adds. “We’re only limited by our imagination.”
To learn more about The Fine Arts Center (FAC), visit fineartscenter.net.
50 Years of Fine Arts – A Timeline
- 1974 – Greenville County Schools receives a Department of Education Grant to fund The Fine Arts
Center (FAC), which opened in August 1974 at the former Hattie Duckett Elementary School on
Washington Street. It is the first specialized public arts school in the state. - 1989 – Dr. Roy Fluhrer is appointed as the FAC director.
- 1992 – The Jazz Studies program is added to the curriculum.
- 1993-94 – The SC Arts Commission awards FAC the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Award for Outstanding
Contributions to the Arts in South Carolina. - 2007 – FAC moves to a newly constructed 65,000-square-foot building next to Wade Hampton High
School. - 2012 – FAC starts The Fine Arts Center Partners, a volunteer-run nonprofit organization created to
support students’ educational experiences. - 2013 – Fluhrer and architect Bill Pelham create the Art of Architecture Program. Designed in
collaboration with Clemson University’s four-year architecture program, it is the nation’s first high
school architecture program. - 2016 – Fluhrer establishes the FAC Fiber Arts Program as a component of the Center’s Visual Arts Curriculum,
with support from five local textile industry leaders. It is the nation’s first high school Fiber Arts program,
designed in collaboration with NC State University’s four-year fiber arts program. - 2017 – Fluhrer retires after 29 years at FAC’s helm. He was the school’s longest-serving director.
- 2019 – Mr. Vee Popat is appointed as the school’s director.
- 2020 – The FAC Partners reorganize, focusing on increasing the depth and breadth of student
support. Priorities shift to funding artist residencies, class fees, and field trip costs for pupils in poverty,
scholarships to summer workshops, and more. - 2022 – FAC receives a Greenville Women Giving grant to expand the Center’s Summer Arts Intensive,
providing tuition and transportation to the program for students from the county’s underserved areas. - 2023 – The Arts Schools Network names the FAC an Exemplary School in recognition of its commitment
to excellence. The five-year designation runs from 2023 to 2028. - 2024 – FAC receives the Leadership in Arts Award during the Community Foundation of Greenville’s
Charitable Giving Awards. The Architecture Program receives the Arts School’s Network 2024 Community
Partnership Award for its partnership with the Greenville Homeless Alliance and Soteria on the Tiny
House Collaborative.
A Special Celebration
FAC will mark its 50th anniversary with a celebration on April 10 at 7p.m. at the Peace Center. The night will feature exclusive performances by students and notable alumni, including Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Marcus King; comedian, actor, and writer Rory Scovel; and professional violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins. They will be among the school’s inaugural Hall of Fame inductees. To purchase tickets, visit peacecenter.org/events.
