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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.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - A former Columbia-area fugitive, who was arrested in Kentucky after skipping his child abuse trial this summer, will now spend four decades in prison for that abuse.

43-year-old Nathan Ginter was found guilty of abusing and burning his 3-year-old daughter at a June trial that he did not show up for.

That led to a multiple agency manhunt, and he was later apprehended by the Scott County Sheriff’s Office in Georgetown, Kentucky hundreds of miles away.

Body camera footage from his Kentucky arrest shows that he initially provided deputies with a false name.

Ginter was extradited back to South Carolina on Oct. 10. On Tuesday, he faced Circuit Court Judge Robert Hood in Richland County for the first time since all of this transpired to be sentenced for the child abuse charges.

Hood handed down a 40-year sentence, which was the maximum allowed under the law for these charges.

Ginter received a 10-year sentence for each child abuse charge, to be served consecutively.

“Usually judges will run things concurrently which means running them at the same time and together, but in this particular case the facts were so egregious,” Assistant Solicitor Anna Browder with the Fifth Circuit Solicitor’s Office said in an interview following sentencing.

Tuesday was also the first time the guardians of Ginter’s children had the opportunity to address him directly.

His actions did not break these children, they said.

Lindsay Ott, the guardian of Ginter’s oldest daughter who witnessed much of the abuse, said there will never be true justice for these young girls, but now at least they can feel a safety they had never felt before with him set to be behind bars for a long time.

“The day that Nathan was apprehended in Kentucky was the first time that I have slept through night in over two and a half years because I was no longer fearful that he was waiting outside my door to harm his daughter or harm me or anyone else,” Ott said during the sentencing hearing.

Evidence at trial detailed prolonged patterns of abuse over a period of three months that escalated into water torture. Much of the abuse was videotaped.

Ginter began by bruising his daughter with a bamboo stick, prosecutors said, and also used a stun gun on her, leaving her with multiple second degree burns.

“We as prosecutors see a lot of things most people don’t see,” Browder, the lead prosecutor on the case, said. “But this was something that was in excess of what we normally see when it came to the physical child abuse”

Ashley Kimbler, the guardian of Ginter’s youngest daughter who is the victim in this case, said she does not believe Ginter has any remorse, and is only sorry he got caught.

His daughter, she said, is now thriving.

“She is kind and sweet and loving and not because of what he did, but because of me and my husband,” Kimbler said. “She gets to know what true love is from a father that took her in and would move the world for her, rather than trying to ruin her world.”

Browder said Ginter’s children and their families feel some relief for multiple reasons.

“They know that their children have the ability to grow up and get through their childhood without worrying about him coming around and being out of jail,” she said. “Also just the ability to move forward a little bit that this phase of the sentencing is over. It, of course, will never be over for these children, but the fact that this part is over they know they can move forward and continue with their healing.”

Ginter addressed the court briefly, prior to being sentenced, against the advice of Brett Perry, his attorney. He said he felt Perry did not adequately represent him.

Hood pushed back, and said despite the seriousness of the charges and the case, Perry was competent and professional.

He defended Ginter to the best of his ability at trial, Hood said, despite the defendant’s absence.

The 3-year-old’s mother, Tiffany Brittain, is currently serving out a seven-year prison sentence after she pleaded guilty to charges related to similar abuse of the same child.

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Columbia will not host rounds of the NCAA’s March Madness men’s basketball championship in 2027 or 2028, despite submitting a bid earlier this year.

Columbia’s problem is its lack of full-service hotels, explained Scott Powers, executive director of Experience Columbia Sports, the city’s sports tourism agency.

“While it wasn’t a surprise, we’re disappointed,” Powers said, explaining that the NCAA informed the city earlier this month that it would not be among host cities for tournaments in 2027 or 2028.

In 2019, the city broke a nearly 50-year streak and was chosen to host a portion of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament for the first time since 1970. Almost 48,000 tickets were sold for the six games hosted in Columbia that year, and the overall economic impact to Richland and Lexington counties was $11.3 million.

It was a big moment for Columbia, not only because of the economics, but also because March Madness draws international attention and it was a chance for South Carolina’s capital city to show its assets.

The city keeps hoping to recapture that moment, but every year since the city last won a host position the requirements have gotten more stringent, Powers said. In 2019, they found creative ways around the full-service hotel problem. But the NCAA hasn’t been willing to make the same concessions in more recent years.

Columbia and the surrounding area do have a lot of hotels. There were at least 160 hotels with a total of 13,263 rooms in the Columbia metro area as of December 2023, according to the state Restaurant and Lodging Association. That’s also a significant increase from December 2019, when there were 129 hotels and under 12,000 rooms. So the region is also adding hotels. But they aren’t adding the right kind of hotels fast enough.

The NCAA wants host cities with eight to 10 full-service hotels with in-house food and beverage options, with four meeting rooms of at least 2,000 square feet. And it wants each of the eight teams playing in the tournament rounds to have their own hotel to avoid any bad blood before or after games. There are only four hotels in the region that meet those requirements, Powers previously told The State, and the city hasn’t built any new ones in almost 20 years. The last NCAA-approved full-service hotel that opened in Columbia was the Hilton Columbia Center in 2007.

Columbia wasn’t the only city in the Carolinas to miss out on the host gigs. Charlotte is the only city in the Carolinas to have been selected by the NCAA this round. Powers thinks this indicates that smaller cities might not stand a chance in the future.

Powers said he will keep bidding to host NCAA tournament rounds, but he’s not optimistic that Columbia will get selected, at least until after 2030, because bids have to be submitted up to two years prior and Columbia won’t change enough in that time. He said one solution could be to limit the number of small hotels that can be built downtown in favor of larger projects.

Developer Ben Arnold has plans to build one new full-service hotel in the Vista in coming years, and the Convention Center has also been planning a hotel project adjacent to its property.

Powers added that he doesn’t think the NCAA’s decision is an indication that Columbia isn’t a good fit to host high-profile events, pointing to the recent Premier League Rivals in Red match hosted at Williams-Brice. While there are limits to what the city can support, he said, Powers believes Columbia will still continue to build momentum to host bigger events.

“Obviously we know we’re not going to host a Superbowl,” he said.

This story was originally published October 22, 2024, 12:04 PM.

The State

(803) 771-8330

Morgan Hughes covers Columbia news for The State. She previously reported on health, education and local governments in Wyoming. She has won awards in Wyoming and Wisconsin for feature writing and investigative journalism. Her work has also been recognized by the South Carolina Press Association.

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.