LATEST ANNOUNCEMENTS
MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR
Happy New Year Halsey-ites!
Last year was momentous! We celebrated our 30th anniversary with special events and incredible talent. Not to name drop (okay, to name drop), but it was a thrill to showcase the works of Jasper Johns, Shepard Fairey, Kathleen Robbins, Jody Zellen, Bob Trotman, Yaakov Israel, Jumaadi, and Picasso.
The coming year is shaped by results from a visitor questionnaire we sent out in fall 2014. We discovered that we have a dedicated and vocal community full of arts supporters who are excited by our brand of adventurous contemporary art. We will be implementing some administrative changes and tweaking a few programs. As always, we are open to your suggestions.
Our 2015 schedule begins with, in the words of my friend Marcia Cohen, a terrific painter and SCAD professor, “a relatively unknown older artist who lives in a treehouse in the wilds of northern Alabama and the inside of her house resembles a Joseph Cornell box.” Her name is Patricia Potter. When I saw her work I was unprepared for the encounter as I’d never seen anything quite like her work. I cannot wait to share Patterns of Place with you in January.
William Halsey’s 100th birthday would have been March 13, 2015. In honor of our namesake, we will dedicate the year’s exhibition schedule to his memory. Please turn the page for more information about this artistic pioneer.
THE GALLERIES
In The Marion and Wayland H. Cato Jr. Center for the Arts, the Halsey Institute has a much-expanded space on the first floor of this five-story building. The Halsey occupies two interlinked gallery spaces, a dedicated media room, and a library/resource area.
FOUNDATION AND GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
The Halsey Institute is supported by a variety of private and public funders, including: Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Asian Cultural Council, Bishop Family Foundation, City of Charleston ATAX Grant, Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina, Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund, Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, Graham Foundation, Harpo Foundation, Henry Luce Foundation, Henry and Sylvia Yaschik Foundation, Japan Foundation, Joanna Foundation, South Carolina Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, and NASA
MEMBERSHIP AND COMMUNITY PARTNERS PROGRAM
In addition to grant funding and the funding from the College of Charleston, we sustain our dynamic programming with the encouragement and support of our Members and Community Partners – those who keep the mighty Halsey afloat. The cash and in-kind donations from these individuals, businesses, and organizations afford us the ability to maintain free programming for the community. Members and Community Partners enjoy a variety of stratified perks. Each year, we offer a new set of limited edition prints available exclusively to our Patron members. Artists who have been a part of the Halsey Institute’s programming have specially created these prints for us. Beginning at the Postmodernist level ($350), Members may choose from one of the prints we have available. To find out more about our Membership and Community Partners programs, click here.
TOURS
The Halsey Institute produces free educational programming in conjunction with the exhibitions that are relevant and accessible, including: guided exhibition tours, artist lectures, symposia and workshops, printed materials, audio tours, and a blog. The Looking to See guided group tours are available to any school group or organization. The tours are often accompanied by hands-on projects and writing activities. For each exhibition, the artist(s) will give a public lecture and lead a walk-through of their work in the gallery space. For some exhibitions, we create an audio tour that shares background information on the artist and observations from the staff. The Halsey Institute’s blog provides deeper information on our exhibitions on topics such as the artist’s process and thoughts, insights from the curator, and interviews with the artist. To learn more about our educational programs, click here.
TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS
Many of the Halsey Institute’s exhibitions travel to museums and galleries nationally, and some internationally. We provide these exhibitions at a subsidized rental fee to established venues that wish to show adventurous art at an affordable price. Recent venues that have hosted our exhibitions include the Monterey Museum of Art, CA; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC; Tufts University Art Gallery, Medford, MA; Visual Arts Center of Richmond, VA; Mobile Museum of Art, AL; and the Laband Art Gallery, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA. To learn more about out traveling exhibitions, click here.
FILM SERIES
Each year, the Halsey Institute screens independent films in conjunction with the exhibition on view. The films’ content varies greatly, but the events always have the same focus, to bring independent film and filmmakers to Charleston for stimulating conversation and to serve as a meeting place for community members, no matter their interests. Discover the value and magic of independent films! To learn more about our films, click here.
HALSEY SHOP
The Halsey Institute maintains an online shop for our exhibition publications, tote bags, and video soundtracks. Click here to see what’s new from the Halsey!
BIBLIOTECA
The Halsey Institute has a reference library that is open to the public for browsing. Biblioteca contains exhibition catalogues, art history books, artist monographs, as well as rare books on uncommon topics. This is a non-lending library that offers a cornucopia of inspiration for those interested in visual culture.
VIDEO CAVERN
In 2013, we commissioned artist Michael Moran to create a unique video-viewing environment. He chose to create a cavern, complete with stalactites and stalagmites, comprised of stratified layers of wood. In this space, we screen the artist videos produced for our exhibitions. To watch our videos, click here.
MISSION
The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston School of the Arts provides a multidisciplinary laboratory for the production, presentation, interpretation, and dissemination of ideas by innovative visual artists from around the world. As a non-collecting museum, we create meaningful interactions between adventurous artists and diverse communities within a context that emphasizes the historical, social, and cultural importance of the art of our time.
SCOPE
Housed within the School of the Arts at the College of Charleston, less than a block away from the busiest pedestrian intersection in the state, the Halsey Institute’s public facilities include two interlinked museum quality exhibition spaces totaling 3,200 square feet, a dedicated media room, a reference library, and archive. In our complex, we have proximate access to two theater spaces, a recital hall, lecture hall, and film screening facility that we use for a variety of presentations. Our host institution, the College of Charleston, offers extraordinary academic and administrative resources. We interweave the intellectual capital around us into the fabric of our ongoing programming, working with faculty and international colleagues as guest curators, consultants, or advisors on specific projects.
HISTORY
The Halsey Institute was originally named the Halsey Gallery for the artist William Halsey, an accomplished Charleston native whose modernist works were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to note a few. Halsey was the first individual to teach a studio art course at the College of Charleston beginning in 1964, and continuing to teach here for twenty years. Upon his retirement in 1984, the Studio Art faculty voted to name the art gallery after him to honor his contribution to the arts in Charleston. Mr. Halsey died in 1999. Since 1984, the gallery bearing the Halsey name has presented hundreds of exhibitions by regional, national, and international artists. In 2005, the gallery changed its name to the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art to more accurately reflect the range of programming produced. Conceived as a non-collecting contemporary art facility, the Halsey Institute remains a vital cultural resource for the City of Charleston, the State of South Carolina and the region. The Halsey Institute hosts between five and seven exhibitions per year, highlighting adventurous contemporary art by emerging and mid-career artists of national stature. All exhibitions are accompanied by extensive educational programming. In addition, the Halsey Institute has maintained a strong international component over the years, bringing in artists from all over the world for residencies, lectures, and exhibitions. In 2012, the South Carolina Arts Commission presented the Halsey Institute the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Award with special recognition to director Mark Sloan. This is the highest honor the state gives in the arts.
PROGRAMS
EXHIBITIONS – LECTURES – SPECIAL EVENTS - FILM SCREENINGS - PUBLICATIONS – COMPREHENSIVE WEBSITE - ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCIES
We originate between five and seven exhibitions per year, many of which travel nationally, and host a year-round schedule of lectures, panels, symposia, screenings, discussions, and special events. We also produce video documentaries about the artists and exhibitions that we originate. These videos provide keys to understanding the artist’s creative process and are permanently archived on our comprehensive website. We also produce award-winning publications for many of our exhibitions. These catalogues feature thoughtful commissioned essays that provide meaningful context for the exhibitions and offer a permanent record of the artist’s project with the Halsey Institute. Our emphasis has long been on providing audiences with privileged access to the creative process itself. We enjoy sharing our belief that there is much that can be learned by seeing how an artist turns “a thought into a thing.” Charleston, South Carolina has a remarkable history as a port city and cultural crossroads. The Halsey Institute is committed to building on and exploring the complex and sometimes troubling history of this place through diverse exhibitions and an international artist-in-residence program. To find out our current and upcoming exhibitions, click here.
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ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE
About once a year, we host an artist-in-residence for a period of weeks or months. The purpose of the residency is to provide artists with a unique opportunity to produce new work, which will be exhibited at the Halsey Institute. We seek to foster meaningful interactions between our artist-in-residence and the community whenever possible, through public events, lectures, and workshops. We aim to provide further insight into the life of an artist and their creative process. Often, a video is produced, documenting the artist’s time in residence. Past artists-in-residence include Long-Bin Chen, Tiebena Dagnogo, Eames Demetrios, Htein Lin, Rikuo Ueda, and Motoi Yamamoto among others.
COLLABORATIONS
The Halsey Institute often partners with other departments on the College of Charleston campus, as well as with local businesses and organizations. These partnerships enrich our exhibitions and extend our footprint outside of the galleries. On campus, we have collaborated with the Addlestone Library, and the Avery Institute, as well as Art History, Arts Management, English, Geology, the Lowcountry Hall of Math and Science, Sociology, and Studio Art. Off campus, we have worked with the City of Charleston, Clemson University Architecture Center, Medical University of South Carolina, NASA, New Music Collective, Pure Theatre, and Redux Contemporary Art Center among others to produce special programs in conjunction with our exhibitions and events.
ART*O*MAT
The Art*O*Mat is a repurposed cigarette vending machine converted to sell art. The mission of Artists-in-Cellophane (A.I.C.), the sponsoring organization of Art*O*Mat ®, is to encourage art consumption by combining the worlds of art and commerce in an innovative form. With roughly 400 contributing artists from 10 different countries, A.I.C. has created an opportunity to purchase original artwork while providing exposure and promotional support for the artists. A.I.C.’s belief is that art should be progressive, yet personal and approachable. What better way to do this than with a heavy cold steel machine? Better yet – make it Circus-themed! Wouldn’t you like to see your own work in our machine? Visit artomat.org.
