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A Columbia man was arrested for stealing more than $44,000 from the nonprofit organization where he used to be the executive director, according to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

Darrel President Sr., 56, was charged with breach of trust with fraudulent intent ($10,000 or more) on Oct. 16, SLED said in a news release.

Between May 19, 2023 and Feb. 29, 2024, President took funds from Greenbrier Resource Community Development Center and spent the money on “his personal enrichment,” according to an arrest warrant and affidavit shared by SLED.

“Darrel President did knowingly, willingly and without the the lawful authority to do so, take, steal or convert to his ownership, more than $10,000 from Greenbrier Resource Community Development Center where he was an authorized signer on the bank account for (the nonprofit organization) and in a position of financial trust,” an arrest warrant said.

The money — approximately $44,220 — was taken after the nonprofit had received $100,000 in state funded grants to build a community center in Fairfield County, the affidavit said.

President withdrew the money from the nonprofit’s bank account without the approval or knowledge of the organization’s board members, according to the affidavit.

There was no word about what personal items President bought with the stolen money, or if all of it was spent.

When President was questioned by the nonprofit’s board members he admitted to withdrawing the money and agreed to repay the funds, according to the affidavit.

“President began making payments back for the funds fraudulently withdrawn in June 2024,” the affidavit said.

SLED said President was booked into the Fairfield County Detention Center. Information about President’s bond was not available.

President will be prosecuted by the 6th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.

If convicted on the felony charge, President maximum punishment of 10 years in prison, according to South Carolina law.

In 2018 and again in 2022, President unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the Richland 2 school board.

In a breaking news situation, facts can be unclear and the situation may still be developing. The State is trying to get important information to the public as quickly and accurately as possible. This story will be updated as more information becomes available, and some information in this story may change as the facts become clearer. Refresh this page later for more updated information.

When Wim Roefs, the longtime owner of if ART gallery in Columbia’s Vista and a founding board member for the 701 Center for Contemporary Art, passed away suddenly in the spring of 2022, it was an incalculable loss for the arts scene, both local and at-large.

In his three decades of work, Roefs was an ardent supporter and champion of visual and performing arts on a local, regional, national and international level, creating a vast network of artists and colleagues that spanned two continents and consistently pushed the boundaries and standards of what was possible in a place like Columbia.

“Eye to Eye: the Roefs-Waddell Collection Exhibit” is in some ways a tribute to that legacy, a private mirroring of the visual arts he promoted and made space for in the public community.

But that’s not exactly right, according to Eileen Waddell, his wife of nearly 30 years who built this private collection. It's a personal tapestry of a life spent together, too, Waddell said of the collection.

By some estimates, theirs is among the largest private collections in the state. It was started in 1996, when they moved in together.

“I can walk from piece to piece and kind of remember when I got it, maybe even how much I paid for it, but (definitely) the circumstances of the purchase and where it’s been in my house,” Waddell said of the art that will be on display from Oct. 24 through the end of the year.

For Waddell, the collection is as much an idiosyncratic story of arts collecting as it is a statement about Roefs' public role as a volunteer and gallery owner.

Waddell recalled how they bought that first piece in 1996, but how another from the same collection kept haunting them. They contacted the artist, Mike Williams, saying, "'Hey, do you still have that? Because we can't get it out of our heads,'" Waddell recalled.

"That's often how collecting starts, with a spark, something that sticks in your head.”

The couple ended up with a great many pieces by Williams, a Sumter native and University of South Carolina alum who has had a prolific, internationally renowned career. Waddell cites Williams — along with fellow South Carolina native and Batik artist Leo Twiggs and Dutch figurative artist Kees Salentijn — as a favorite among the collection.

Other familiar artists the two loved include local luminaries like Tyrone Geter, Laura Spong, Peter Lenzo, Mary Robinson, Anna Redwine, Michaela Pilar Brown and Virginia Scotchie.

While she recognizes the ways in which the collection speaks to Roefs’ public role in promoting the arts, her story of the exhibit is deeply personal, encompassing their shared love of art — “our taste overlapped by 80, 90 percent."

Building the collection also gave the couple an experience of connecting with artists they loved personally and directly, as well as their evolution from budget-minded collectors to expanding it with three-dimensional works over the years.

Harriett Green, one of the founders of 701CCA alongside Roefs, helped curate the exhibition with Waddell. She said the late gallerist would always discuss opening his home for art tours, but the idea never came to fruition during his lifetime.

“Their collection is legendary in some art circles, and for them a source of pride and accomplishment,” said Green. “There are many different styles and equally many different media represented. I wouldn't describe it as a particularly focused collection, but rather an encyclopedic one that provides a snapshot of many major contemporary art movements.”

This includes an unusual blend of artists from both Europe and the United States. Roefs was born and grew up in the Netherlands, so many Dutch artists, in particular, are featured in the collection.

“(Roefs) had an artistic sensibility that was different than most Americans, and there were different movements that happened in Europe that didn’t take as well here,” explains Waddell.

She also loves how their collection is idiosyncratic in other ways. The collection holds a bevy of less-prominent pieces by famous names, acquired by the couple visiting artist studios and scouring through archives.

“We have a lot of things in the collection that might sit in a gallery somewhere for decades and never sell, but they fit our taste,” Waddell pointed out.

The collection is, in many ways, the story of the life they shared with each other, complete with a set of rules and guidelines for how they acquired pieces and where they would go in their home.

“You don’t realize that you’re amassing a body of work because what you’re doing is just making your environment look better,” she said.

“You are what you collect, and you collect what you are, and it shows.”

“Eye to Eye: the Roefs-Waddell Collection Exhibit” is on display at 701 CCA until year's end. Gallery hours and more information at 701cca.org

Another step has been taken in the Carolina Crossroads Project to improve the traffic flow in the area of Columbia known as Malfunction Junction.

A well-traveled exit ramp on the westbound side of Interstate 126 was temporarily closed, according to the South Carolina Department of Transportation. The I-126 westbound off-ramp to Colonial Life Boulevard was closed for construction, SCDOT said Thursday in a news release.

Specific information about the road work was not available.

The closure is expected to last until Nov. 1, according to the release.

As part of this closure a detour has been put in place.

Drivers will be detoured using the Greystone Boulevard/Riverbanks Zoo interchange at I-126. The detour will take drivers first to Broad River Road then to Bush River Road, where they can reconnect with Colonial Life Boulevard, according to SCDOT.

“SCDOT asks that drivers slow down and pay attention to signs and crews when driving through the work zone,” the release said.

This move is one of many that are part of the Carolina Crossroads Project, to improve traffic in the area near the line between Richland and Lexington counties where there’s a junction for I-126, Interstate 26 and Interstate 20.

In September, the I-26 eastbound off-ramp to Bush River Road was permanently closed. The final closure of the I-26 westbound off-ramp to Bush River Road will take place early next year, SCDOT said.

Anyone seeking more information about the closures and updates, can go to the project webpage, or call 800-601-8715.

In a breaking news situation, facts can be unclear and the situation may still be developing. The State is trying to get important information to the public as quickly and accurately as possible. This story will be updated as more information becomes available, and some information in this story may change as the facts become clearer. Refresh this page later for more updated information.

A company that has outdoor apparel stores nationwide has opened a new spot in a trendy Columbia shopping center.

Orvis recently debuted a new shop at 702 Cross Hill Road in the Cross Hill Market shopping center just off Devine Street. While the store already is open for business, it will have a grand opening celebration from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 25-27. There will be giveaways, sales and refreshments during each of those days, and a portion of the proceeds from the celebration will go to Congaree Riverkeeper, according to social media posts from Riverkeeper and Orvis.

Congaree Riverkeeper is a nonprofit that advocates for the protection of rivers and streams in the Midlands area.

Initially founded in 1856 and headquartered in Vermont, Orvis is a leading name in outdoor clothing, fly fishing gear, products for dogs and more. It has locations nationwide, including additional South Carolina stores on King Street in Charleston and on Main Street in Greenville.

“Columbia has been a focus for us for several years as an opportunity to further expand our footprint in South Carolina, and Cross Hill was our preference for several reasons: it’s active, energetic and close to our core customers,” Orvis director of real estate Jason Williams said in a previous story in The State.

Cross Hill Market has been an enduringly fashionable shopping hub near Devine Street and Garners Ferry Road, southeast of downtown Columbia. The plaza is home to a Whole Foods grocery store, Midwood Smokehouse barbecue restaurant, Basil Thai Cuisine, Athleta clothing shop and more.

The shopping center is at the nexus of a handful of high-traffic roads. About 29,000 cars per day travel down Devine Street nearby, per state Department of Transportation statistics, while about 46,000 cars per day travel down Garners Ferry Road and 16,100 per day traverse Cross Hill Road.

This story was originally published October 21, 2024, 11:30 AM.

An art piece awarded as part of the competitions at this year’s S.C. State Fair has been disqualified due to the use of artificial intelligence.

The piece, “Country Woman” by Blackville artist Terrance Washington, had been awarded Best of Division - Amateur, which comes with a $300 cash prize. Organizers for the fair, which takes place in Columbia, declined to comment on the piece’s disqualification beyond a statement sent out to the artists who submitted to this year’s competitions. That statement doesn’t specify whether the cash prize had already been awarded or if the fair will try to get it back.

“It has been brought to our attention that there was a violation of the art contest rules in relation to Digital Media and the use of Artificial Intelligence,” the fair’s statement reads. “Contest rules clearly state in Divisions 107-Professional and 607- Amateur that pieces ‘Must NOT be created using generative Artificial Intelligence (AI).’ ”

Washington couldn’t immediately be reached for comment about his piece’s disqualification.

“We hope to work to educate our exhibitors on the rules related to digital art and also to work with our judges to prevent this from occurring in the future,” the fair’s statement continues. “While we believe this was an unintentional mistake, we encourage all competitive exhibit participants to closely read the rules in place and to act with integrity. This year, the SCSF had over 1600 pieces registered for the art show. 1276 unique pieces of art are currently on display. Of those pieces, 20 are entered in digital art. After being informed there was a piece of art generated with AI on display, the artwork was pulled. We are working to ensure that this does not happen again. However, we also must rely on the integrity of our artists and trust they are following the contest rules.”

Local artists told The State that the piece was pulled after they reached out to the fair, pointing to a July 2023 post on X (formerly Twitter) from Washington that includes “Country Girl” and three other pieces with the caption: “I did my first A.I. Art, it’s based on Artist Thriving in a rural communities [sic].”

Artists who responded to the situation online were pointed in their criticism.

“The work of living artists all across the internet is scraped and compiled to create these images without the artists’ knowledge, consent, or compensation,” West Columbia illustrator, printmaker and photographer Colton Giles posted to Facebook. “This combined with the use of GenAI in place of commercial illustrators, graphic designers, photographers, and many other professional artists is a more pressing issue than the gray-area conversations around what may or may not be real art. GenAI imagery is theft, and that is not a gray area.”

West Columbia artist Sean McGuinness, who creates Godzilla-centered mash-up art via the brand Neo Monster Island and who submitted multiple pieces to the fair’s digital art competition, told The State he worries about the event’s ability to detect AI submissions moving forward.

“I don’t think the State Fair is really prepared for this,” he said. “Think about who’s judging these pieces, a bunch of older folk who don’t even know how to recognize digital art. The only reason this got brought up is because they were able to find out the forum where the guy admitted it was AI.”

This story was originally published October 18, 2024, 1:32 PM.

The State

Jordan Lawrence is a reporter for The State covering Lexington County. He has worked for newspapers in the Columbia area for more than a decade, having previously served as the lead editor for Free Times and the Lexington County Chronicle. He has won several South Carolina Press Association Awards, including recognition for breaking news reporting, business reporting and arts and entertainment writing.