“Being brave does not mean being unafraid. It’s being scared and going forward with it anyway.”
Sisi Garland is the Executive Director of Heart Inclusive Arts Community, an interdisciplinary art studio in North Charleston, South Carolina, serving adults with disabilities. With a background in stage management and theater, Garland has worked in New York and Charleston and celebrates five years of leadership at Heart. She believes in the power of creativity, community, and courage in the arts.
About
Sisi Garland is the Executive Director of Heart Inclusive Arts Community in North Charleston, South Carolina, where she works from her pink office in the Heart Art studio. She has been with the organization for five years. Heart is a multi-disciplinary art studio for adults with disabilities that offers opportunities in visual and performing arts and other creative outlets.
Garland sees South Carolina’s Lowcountry as an inspiring location for artists: “Visually, it’s stunning, especially in this Lowcountry region… there’s also such a rich culture here, and so many different cultures coming together.” She describes the local creative community as not only supportive, but also actively engaged with Heart’s mission. Garland expresses that the local community “will rally their support around us.”
Being from a small farming town in Delaware, Garland initially feared she wouldn’t be able to make a sustainable career in the arts. In this small town Sisi wasn’t exposed to what the arts consisted of, “I had no real concept of what being a professional creative could look like. It felt to me at the time like you either had to be a Lister red carpet famous or a sad, struggling wannabe, and that there was not in between.” After moving to Charleston, South Carolina where she attended the College of Charleston, where she learned how to express creativity in the professional world.
A turning point came when she accepted her first professional stage management role after college. That production connected her to the theater company she has now worked with for nearly 15 years. The best advice she’s ever received: being brave doesn’t mean being unafraid, it means moving forward despite fear.
