The Arts Council of York County connects people through art, culture, dance, drama, film, & music. Founded in 1977, the Arts Council of York County strives to serve York County, South Carolina and the surrounding area. The Arts Council of York County's mission is to create arts programming that encourages education, economic development and arts advocacy through unique art experiences that engage the community to make York County a regional arts destination. The vision is to create and support a thriving, diverse and vibrant arts community in York County.

One of the many ways that we at the Arts Council strive to achieve the goals of our mission and vision is to create arts focused community programs for artists and residents in and around York County, SC. The Arts Council of York County's programming covers a diverse range of art forms and includes programs and events such as monthly artist vendor markets, an international short film festival, concerts featuring local and regional bands, art classes for beginners, poetry and short story writing competitions, visual art competitions, speed drawing tournaments, and much more!

The Arts Council orders postcards for most or all of our arts events ranging from concerts to fundraising galas to gallery exhibits and receptions. We also print brochures for festivals, which serve the dual purpose of advertising the festival in advance and providing key information during the event. Additionally, we print rack cards for long-term programs such as our yearly gallery calendar and annual membership drive. A portion of the printed promotions are mailed out to our patrons, and the remainder are placed in our arts facilities, local visitors centers, businesses, and hotels.

Through the years, the marketing team at the Arts Council of York County has seen time and time again how integral printed promotions and direct mailings are to the success of an arts event, and thus our organization and the arts community in our county. There are several target demographics which we have found to have a far greater response to physical promotions than digital promotions.

Two of those demographics are locals who are not yet involved in the arts in York County, and travelers interested in arts related activities. Those groups are difficult to reach digitally since they are not signed up for our newsletter or connected to us on social media. Print marketing allows us to meet those audiences where they are, whether that is a local brewery who has a stack of our festival brochures, a hotel that has our yearly gallery calendar in their display, or the home of a family member who received a postcard in the mail and hung it on their refrigerator.

We are excited to continue fostering the arts in our community, but are faced with the added challenge of a significantly reduced marketing budget due to decreased funding and lack of event revenue. Renewing our printing grant will help us at the Arts Council to continue to promote our arts events off-line, and therefore help us uplift local artists, support our arts economy, and provide arts focused activities for students and adults in York County.

ACYC was awarded a 2021 nonprofit printing grant. Through this grant, we were able to offset the cost of printing and mailing brochures for our first in-person festival since 2019.