Calendar of Opportunities: SC General Assembly (2025 Session)
Engaging with your elected official regularly can be a powerful way to showcase your work, strengthen relationships, and raise awareness for the arts. Remember, advocacy isn’t always about a specific “ask.” Advocates can also play an important role in keeping leaders engaged in the local arts community by simply highlighting the work you are already doing!
Unsure who your State legislators are? You can locate them easily using this tool. Be sure you are referring to your State Senator and State House of Representatives member.
Explore the Calendar of Opportunities below for easy ideas on how to engage with legislators during each month of 2025!
Adapted from the League of American Orchestras
Send a happy new year note to your elected officials and introduce yourself. If your legislator is newly elected, they are likely still becoming familiar with constituent organizations. This is a great opportunity to preview what you’re planning for the year, flagging any special community events your elected officials might find of interest.
Bonus: Are you attending SC Arts Day in February? Let them know you are coming and invite them to breakfast using this email template!
The General Assembly will convene on January 14th, 2025.
SC Arts Advocacy Week is February 10-14, and SC Arts Day is February 13 at the State House!
If you’ll be joining us in Columbia, make sure you’ve let your legislator know.
Even if you can’t join us, you can help by following us on social media, reposting the content we’ll be sharing all week long, or even creating your own content to help us celebrate. Be sure to tag your legislators in AAW posts!
BONUS: Check our our Digital Toolkits for some other simple ways that you can help us raise awareness back home during AAW.
March is full of celebrations for arts education! Consider coordinating activities and social media to be part of a groundswell of support for arts instruction in schools, including:
If you’re with an organization, prepare stories that demonstrate how vital the arts are in engaging students and the role you play in supporting arts education.
If you work in education, collaborate with school leaders to celebrate the arts in your school — and don’t forget to include legislators if appropriate!
Can’t have a legislator there? This is also a great opportunity to engage local leaders, like school board members or city council members!
Did you know? State legislators work part time, and are usually only in Columbia Tuesday-Thursday. This means that Mondays and Fridays are a great opportunity to engage them at home.
Use March to follow up on any connections you made during Arts Advocacy Week/Day activities. Invite officials to visit with you and to check out any education or community programming behind the scenes. These are prime photo opportunities for both you and your officials.
Memorial Day events are also a great time to show officials how the arts are involved in local celebrations and observances. If your organization or school is hosting an arts event, remember to plan well ahead and consider inviting officials to attend (or speak). Don’t forget to post photo or video!
The General Assembly will adjourn on May 8, 2025 (unless they vote to extend).
By June, the General Assembly will (hopefully) have finished this year’s budget, and their legislative work for the year.
Send them a message to thank them for their continued support for the arts, and remind them of any events you have going on this Summer that they may want to attend!
Many arts organizations around South Carolina participates in some sort of 4th of July celebration. Your elected officials will be looking for opportunities to be part of civic events – make sure they know far in advance, so they can join yours. Again, these types of community-wide celebrations make for ideal moments to provide a brief speaking opportunity to policymakers to welcome the audience and kick off your local celebration of our nation’s independence.
State Legislators are fully in recess by this point in the year. This is a great time to request to meet in person, thank them for their support this year, and discuss their priorities for next year.
Discussions like this are an important part of helping legislators align creative sector goals with statewide goals, and keeps you at the forefront as a partner in community success!
September 14-20 is National Arts in Education Week. Be sure you’re following us on social media so you can engage with our advocacy content and help us spread the word about the importance of arts education.
You can also gather your own testimonials, photos, and video demonstrating the impact of arts education – share with your community, families, friends, and most definitely your elected officials!
BONUS: If you work in Education, check out our Digital Toolkit for Educators for other ways to advocate from your classrooms!
October is National Arts and Humanities Month. If you partner with any humanities/literacy organizations, this is an opportune time to feature your joint efforts and support those partners.
The close relationship between the arts and humanities is the perfect opportunity to recruit more advocates to the cause, and double the impact of your messages!
Veterans Day on November 11th is another huge opportunity for civic engagement! Has anyone in your organization served in the military? Be sure to highlight them!
If you are involved in any arts and military efforts, let your community know, and invite your elected officials to experience these programs in person.
ADVOCACY 101: Even though State Legislators will not be up for election this year, don’t forget to VOTE for other elected offices on Nov. 4.
Does your organization send holiday cards? Don’t forget to include elected officials!
Thank them for their continued public service—especially any who have supported the arts—and let them know what you would do with increased support in the future. If you’re planning a festive event or participating in a community-wide celebration marking the end of the year, make sure your officials are invited, and if appropriate, find a speaking role for them.
