Spoleto Festival USA was established in 1977 on the initiative of Joseph P. Riley, Jr., and created by Gian Carlo Menotti, based upon the Festival dei Due Mondi which he founded in Spoleto, Italy in 1958. For the past twenty-five years, its American counterpart has been hosted by Charleston, South Carolina, a historic city that credits much of its economic renaissance over the last quarter century to the festival’s continued presence.

In 1991 General Director Nigel Redden invited curator Mary Jane Jacob to create a visual arts component of the Festival, resulting in the renowned Places with a Past. Beginning in 2000, Jacob returned to the Festival to create a multi-year series entitled Evoking History, inviting artists whose site specific installations complemented the challenging performing arts offerings of the festival, while they contributed to a more critical and participatory public engagement in the representation of history.