The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art is pleased to present the exhibition The Image Hunter: On the Trail of John James Audubon, featuring new work by the Italian artist Hitnes. The exhibition and its related programming have been developed as a special research initiative by the Halsey Institute to honor the importance of Charleston to Audubon’s legacy.
John James Audubon spent the early decades of the nineteenth century tracking birds and drawing them with the goal of creating a compendium of all of the birds in the United States. Charleston played an important role in Audubon’s work as he kept a studio here in the home of his friend and fellow naturalist John Bachman. Audubon searched for specimens on the Sea Islands off of Charleston’s coast, and he even included the city’s distinctive skyline from the 1830s—replete with church steeples—in his drawing of the long-billed curlew.
Nearly two hundred years later, the Italian painter and muralist Hitnes embarked on a twenty-city road trip to retrace and rediscover the America that Audubon traversed in the making of his opus TheBirds of America (1827–39). Traveling along Audubon’s exploratory routes, Hitnes sketched and painted what he saw, creating an updated visual documentation of the birds Audubon painted. This body of work, along with objects and ephemera collected along the journey, will be on view at the Halsey Institute beginning in August 2018. The exhibition follows Hitnes’s residencies in Charleston at the Halsey Institute in the Summers of 2017 and 2018.
The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art is pleased to present the exhibition The Image Hunter: On the Trail of John James Audubon, featuring new work by the Italian artist Hitnes. The exhibition and its related programming have been developed as a special research initiative by the Halsey Institute to honor the importance of Charleston to Audubon’s legacy.
John James Audubon spent the early decades of the nineteenth century tracking birds and drawing them with the goal of creating a compendium of all of the birds in the United States. Charleston played an important role in Audubon’s work as he kept a studio here in the home of his friend and fellow naturalist John Bachman. Audubon searched for specimens on the Sea Islands off of Charleston’s coast, and he even included the city’s distinctive skyline from the 1830s—replete with church steeples—in his drawing of the long-billed curlew.
Nearly two hundred years later, the Italian painter and muralist Hitnes embarked on a twenty-city road trip to retrace and rediscover the America that Audubon traversed in the making of his opus TheBirds of America (1827–39). Traveling along Audubon’s exploratory routes, Hitnes sketched and painted what he saw, creating an updated visual documentation of the birds Audubon painted. This body of work, along with objects and ephemera collected along the journey, will be on view at the Halsey Institute beginning in August 2018. The exhibition follows Hitnes’s residencies in Charleston at the Halsey Institute in the Summers of 2017 and 2018.
Wednesday, September 5, 7:00 PM
Recital Hall, Simons Center for the Arts
54 St. Philip Street
Free and open to the public
Q&A with director Paul Tschinkel to follow
This film features a rare interview with painter Jean-Michel Basquiat, conducted in 1981 in his studio on Crosby Street in SOHO. Basquiat, an internationally renowned artist as well as enfant terrible of the 1980s art scene, died tragically in 1988 at the age of twenty-seven. Both during his brief life and since his untimely death, numerous stories and legends that chronicle his quick rise to art world stardom have arisen.
In this ART/new york installment, the twenty-one-year-old Basquiat, already a well-known art figure is interviewed by art historian and curator Marc H. Miller. The artist’s fondness for high jinks as well as his exuberant spirit are captured as he describes his working process and comments upon his art-world persona.
This lecture is part of our Meet the Maker series for Postmodernist members and above. To join our membership program, please visit here or call (843) 953-5652.
As a curious boy, Butch Anthony spent countless hours exploring the fields and back roads of his Alabama home. Digging up bones, tin cans, old bottles, and fossils was good training for the soon to be artist. He developed a keen eye for finding stuff that others overlooked.
Anthony has made a name for himself by turning salvaged trash into treasures. Birds, fish, stingrays, and cats are just a few of his animal creations made of all manner of materials. From hogwire and scrap metal, he also fashions tables, lamps, and chairs that are suitable for the garden, porch, or indoors.
Wearing overalls as his business suit, his homespun demeanor belies his wit, talent, and genius. When he’s not assembling bits and pieces, he often sketches on old sepia photographs and paints large scale circus side show banners.
Here are a few articles if you’d like to learn more:
Feel the beauty and serenity of this ancient forest! Frequented by photographers and nature lovers from all over the world, our 18,000-acre bird and wildlife sanctuary offers a beauty unsurpassed in the South Carolina Lowcountry. Francis Beidler Forest is the world’s largest virgin cypress-tupelo swamp forest—a pristine ecosystem untouched for millennia. Enjoy thousand-year-old trees, a range of wildlife, and the quiet flow of blackwater, all from the safety of our 1.75-mile boardwalk.
Bring your camera and binoculars and join us at Audubon South Carolina’s Francis Beidler Forest in Harleyville for an enriching and beauty-filled 2-hour walk and bird-banding demonstration. Light refreshments provided.
This event is free to attend, but registration is required. Limited to 16 participants. To sign up for a space, please email Lizz Biswell at BiswellL@cofc.edu
What happens when you take art out of the protection of museum walls and plexiglas cases? How does art exist in the public sphere?
Join us as we have a discussion on the nature of street art. Using Hitnes and his public murals around the country as a springboard, we will consider how street art functions both inside and outside the art world.
About Halsey Talks
Halsey Talks are an ongoing series of roundtable discussion on intriguing concepts in art. While they may take advantage of exhibitions on view at the Halsey Institute, the are open-ended in nature. As a platform for a deeper understanding and discussion of fascinating ideas in art, Halsey Talks are open to all.
All members are invited to join the Halsey Institute staff and tour guides for a fun-filled family-friendly celebration of The Image Hunter: On the Trail of John James Audubon. Enjoy guided tours, art activities, and refreshments. This event is open to all levels of Halsey membership.
To join the Halsey Institute family, please visit halsey.cofc.edu/sustain/ or call (843) 953-5652.
Join the Halsey Institute staff for a fun and exclusive evening tour. Beginning at 6:00 PM, curators Mark Sloan and Bryan Granger will lead Halsey Institute members on a guided tour of The Image Hunter: On the Trail of John James Audubon, featuring the work by artist Hitnes.
Explore the exhibitions, get insider knowledge, meet other Halsey Institute lovers! This tour is for Halsey Institute members only.
To join the Halsey Institute family, please visit halsey.cofc.edu/sustain/ or call (843) 953-5652.
The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art is pleased to present the exhibition Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South, an unprecedented photography project co-curated by Mark Sloan, director and chief curator of the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, and Mark Long, professor of political science, both of whom are on the faculty of the College of Charleston, in South Carolina.
The exhibition will be on view simultaneously at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art and the City Gallery at Waterfront Park. A brunch reception on Saturday, October 20 will celebrate the exhibition’s opening at the City Gallery.
The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art is pleased to present the exhibition Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South, an unprecedented project co-curated by Mark Sloan, director and chief curator of the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, and Mark Long, professor of political science, both of whom are on the faculty of the College of Charleston, in South Carolina.
The exhibition will be on view simultaneously at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art and the City Gallery at Waterfront Park.
City Gallery at Waterfront Park, 34 Prioleau Street
Join us for a reading by poetry students studying with Nikky Finney at the University of South Carolina. The group will read ekphrastic poems inspired by photographs included in the exhibition Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South.
Nikky Finney, Professor of Creative Writing and Southern Letters at the University of South Carolina and 2011 winner of the National Book Award for Poetry, contributed four new poems to the Southbound catalogue. She will read her work in a separate event, An Evening with Nikky Finney, on February 12, 2019.
Join us for a lecture by Southbound photographer Jeff Rich, a South Carolina-based photographer and educator who explores water-related issues via long-term documentary projects about specific regions of the United States. He earned his BA in film and video and MFA in photography from Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia and serves as assistant professor of photography at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina.
Rich’s project Watershed: A Survey of The French Broad River Basin was awarded the 2010 Critical Mass Book Award and was published as a monograph in 2012. The second installment of the project, Watershed: The Tennessee River, was published in 2017. His work is housed in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; the Asheville Art Museum, North Carolina; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia; and The Do Good Fund, Columbus, Georgia.
Watershed takes as its subject The French Broad River basin and The Tennessee River basin. These two waterways play important roles in the economic vitality, recreation, and quality of life of their regions, though they have also been beset by serious pollution problems. Both have been strongly impacted by industrial and governmental projects and Rich’s photographs document the effects of this history on the landscape and the people who inhabit it.
For members at the Conceptualist level + Enjoy the party before the big crowd, or stay all night! Early access to the Moon photo booth, specialty food and drink, and music.
7:00 – 10:00 PM: All members
Enjoy a delightful, art-filled evening of live music, drinks and creative fare, magical entertainment, the famous Moon photo booth, and the opportunity to win fun and creative experiences in our raffle.
Membership levels begin at $40; $17.70 for students.
All members are welcome. Our members support the Halsey Institute’s innovative exhibition and educational programming, which has become a vital part of the Charleston community.
Sounds of the South is a symposium focused on the evolving historical and contemporary music of the American South. Featuring lectures by renowned historians, ethnomusicologists, musicians, and Southbound photographers.
The Sit a Spell Conversation Series aims to encourage thoughtful conversation on a variety of topics and issues faced by today’s New South.
In a series of four installments, participants who represent the diverse facets of the Lowcountry community will be available in the Southbound exhibition space and available for free-form conversation during lunch hour, from 12:00 – 2:00 PM.
Check back soon for participant and topic information.
Wednesday, November 14 at the Halsey Institute
Wednesday, December 5 at City Gallery at Waterfront Park, 34 Prioleau Street
Wednesday, January 16 at City Gallery at Waterfront Park, 34 Prioleau Street
Join us for a free film screening of Southern Rites and a Q&A with the director and Southbound photographer Gillian Laub.
Laub spent over a decade working in Montgomery County, Georgia after first learning of the high school’s segregated prom and homecoming dances in 2002. In 2010, after the community had received national attention from Laub’s photographs, the school elected to integrate the prom. Although Montgomery County had seen social progress with the integration of the dance, the community was divided once more when one of the school’s former students, twenty-two-year-old African American Justin Patterson, was killed in January of 2011 by a white father who found him in their home with his daughter. In light of this event, Laub began exploring this story and the broader issues of racial violence in the community. Her work resulted not only in a 2015 monograph of photographs, Southern Rites but also in an HBO documentary film by the same name, as well as a traveling exhibition organized by the International Center of Photography. Photographs from Southern Rites are featured in Southbound.
Gillian Laub is a photographer and filmmaker based in New York. Her work has been widely exhibited and is included in several prominent public collections, including the High Museum, Atlanta; the International Center of Photography, New York; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
This lecture is part of our Meet the Maker series for Postmodernist members and above. To join our membership program, please visit here or call (843) 953-5652.
After graduating from SF Art Institute as a painting major Boatwright spent several years making short experimental films which he showed at many of the cinematheques in Europe. He returned to his home state of South Carolina in 1977, and received a National Endowment for the Arts individual artist grant to make documentary films in Charleston. He later became a graduate fellow at AFI film school in Los Angeles, co-founded a film production company, directed over 100 commercials, and made several documentaries.
While working as a filmmaker, he maintained an interest in studio painting and was fortunate to return to Charleston in 1984, as it began to expand culturally and demographically. David soon found that he could support himself and a growing family by working as a designer, painter, filmmaker, and musician.
Working under the mantle of Lucky Boy Art, Boatwright’s painting evolved into a specialty as he began creating large murals and hand-painted signs on many exterior façades around Charleston. In addition to the signs, he was also being commissioned to make murals and paintings for the interiors of restaurants, and was able to sell studio pieces to collectors and commercial establishments.
Producing public murals for clients with a rigorous city approval process—all while maintaining artistic integrity—has, at times, been elusive and difficult. Over time, his clients began to give him a wider latitude, and he has been able to merge personal expression with the specific needs of a project in a balanced way, growing as a painter through the experience. Find out more on his website: luckyboyart.com
City Gallery at Waterfront Park, 34 Prioleau Street
The Sit a Spell Conversation Series aims to encourage thoughtful conversation on a variety of topics and issues faced by today’s New South.
In a series of four installments, participants who represent the diverse facets of the Lowcountry community will be available in the Southbound exhibition space and available for free-form conversation during lunch hour, from 12:00 – 2:00 PM.
Check back soon for participant and topic information.
Wednesday, November 14 at the Halsey Institute
Wednesday, December 5 at City Gallery at Waterfront Park, 34 Prioleau Street
Wednesday, January 16 at City Gallery at Waterfront Park, 34 Prioleau Street
Sheila Pree Bright is a photographer based in Atlanta. She has been recognized with multiple awards, including the Santa Fe Fellowship, and her photographs are in the collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Library of Congress, both in Washington, D.C., and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and the High Museum of Art, in Atlanta, among many others.
Bright’s sustained focus on the African American experience in the South has entailed projects that range from the most apparently banal, suburban living, to the most charged, the Black Lives Matter protests in the region and beyond over recent years. Bright’s work also showcases a profound historical sensitivity, as seen for example in her 1960Who series, in which she wheat-pasted on buildings across Atlanta her portraits of locally significant but nationally unsung heroes of the civil rights movement in the mid- twentieth century, afterwards making photographs of those public art installations.
Bright’s photographs found in Southbound are drawn from her #1960Now series, which examines race, gender, and generational divides to raise awareness of millennial perspectives on civil and human rights. With a focus on capturing the efforts of emerging young leaders affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement, Bright has made photographs on the front lines of demonstrations in Ferguson, Baltimore, and Atlanta, among many other places.
College of Charleston School of Sciences and Math Building, Auditorium
This symposium focuses on historical and public memory in the South. A series of lectures and panels will focus on important topical issues such as the controversy over the presence of Confederate monuments and use of the Confederate flag.
City Gallery at Waterfront Park, 34 Prioleau Street
The Sit a Spell Conversation Series aims to encourage thoughtful conversation on a variety of topics and issues faced by today’s New South.
In a series of four installments, participants who represent the diverse facets of the Lowcountry community will be available in the Southbound exhibition space and available for free-form conversation during lunch hour, from 12:00 – 2:00 PM.
Check back soon for participant and topic information.
Wednesday, November 14 at the Halsey Institute
Wednesday, December 5 at City Gallery at Waterfront Park, 34 Prioleau Street
Wednesday, January 16 at City Gallery at Waterfront Park, 34 Prioleau Street
All members are invited to join the Halsey Institute staff and tour guides for a fun-filled family-friendly celebration of Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South. Enjoy guided tours, art activities, and refreshments. This event is open to all levels of Halsey membership.
To join the Halsey Institute family, please visit halsey.cofc.edu/sustain/ or call (843) 953-5652.
The Sit a Spell Conversation Series aims to encourage thoughtful conversation on a variety of topics and issues faced by today’s New South.
In a series of four installments, participants who represent the diverse facets of the Lowcountry community will be available in the Southbound exhibition space and available for free-form conversation during lunch hour, from 12:00 – 2:00 PM.
Check back soon for participant and topic information.
Wednesday, November 14 at the Halsey Institute
Wednesday, December 5 at City Gallery at Waterfront Park, 34 Prioleau Street
Wednesday, January 16 at City Gallery at Waterfront Park, 34 Prioleau Street
City Gallery at Waterfront Park, 34 Prioleau Street
Nikky Finney, Professor of Creative Writing and Southern Letters at the University of South Carolina and 2011 winner of the National Book Award for Poetry, was commissioned to create new work in response to photographs from the Southbound project. Finney wrote four new poems that she will read, along with readings of other work.
Finney was born in South Carolina, within listening distance of the sea. A child of activists, she came of age during the Civil Rights and Black Arts Movements. At Talladega College, nurtured by Hale Woodruff’s Amistad murals, Finney began to understand the powerful synergy between art and history. Finney has authored four books of poetry: Head Off & Split (2011), The World Is Round (2003), Rice (1995), and On Wings Made of Gauze (1985). Finney also authored Heartwood (1997), edited The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South (2007), and co-founded the Affrilachian Poets.
City Gallery at Waterfront Park, 34 Prioleau Street
Join the Halsey Institute staff for a fun and exclusive evening tour. Beginning at 6:00 PM, curators Mark Sloan and Mark Long will lead Halsey Institute members on a guided tour of Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South at City Gallery at Waterfront Park. The City Gallery is located at 34 Prioleau Street.
Explore the exhibitions, get insider knowledge, meet other Halsey Institute lovers! This tour is for Halsey Institute members only.
To join the Halsey Institute family, please visit halsey.cofc.edu/sustain/ or call (843) 953-5652.
This dynamic panel exploring photographers’ privileged access to communities that we might otherwise never have the chance to see. Featuring Southbound artists Deborah Luster, who photographs prisoners in Louisiana’s Angola Prison; Susana Raab, who photographs migrant workers in Florida; Sofia Valiente, who documents a transitional community of registered sex offenders, and Rob Amberg, who photographs intentional communities and those who live off the land in rural North Carolina.
Join the Halsey Institute staff for a fun and exclusive evening tour. Beginning at 6:00 PM, curators Mark Sloan and Mark Long will lead Halsey Institute members on a guided tour of Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South in the Halsey Institute galleries.
Explore the exhibitions, get insider knowledge, meet other Halsey Institute lovers! This tour is for Halsey Institute members only.
To join the Halsey Institute family, please visit halsey.cofc.edu/sustain/ or call (843) 953-5652.
