Joye in Aiken Festival

About Us:

Joye in Aiken is a nonprofit organization dedicated to making the best in the performing arts available to our citizens, and especially our students. In 2016, Joye was awarded the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Award (South Carolina’s highest honor in the arts) for its Educational Outreach Program.

Because providing wide access to the arts is an important part of our mission, a majority of our events are free or low-cost. Ticket sales furnish only 12 – 15% of our budget, and we receive no funding from The Juilliard School. It is the very generous support of individuals like you that sustains our efforts.

For eleven years, Joye in Aiken has brought world-class actors, dancers and musicians into our neighborhoods to bring the excitement of learning and the pleasure of artistic discovery to our students. It’s an exciting and rewarding journey.

Joye in Aiken is named for Joye Cottage, a beautiful Gilded Age mansion that serves as a place of retreat and renewal for the artists who participate in our Festival and Outreach Program. The name is meant to honor the central role that Joye Cottage has played in our history, while suggesting the nature of the program itself, which has brought boundless joy to thousands of adults and children.

We invite you to share it with us.