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Corrie McCallum 1914 - 2009
Mrs. Halsey was born March 14, 1914 in Sumter, SC, the daughter of David Ramsey McCallum and Emmie Parker McCallum. Despite a childhood with no formal art training her adventuresome spirit and creative energy led her to study art at The University of South Carolina. She briefly considered becoming a medical illustrator. In 1936 she had the opportunity to be the director of an art space under the auspices of The Works Project Administration/Federal Art Project. She saw this as a chance to educate school children about art. This early interest in teaching became a focus in her life along with that of creating art. In search of better art training, she applied for and won a scholarship to attend the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in the fall of 1935. This also allowed her to follow her fellow South Carolinian William Halsey (whom she had met while they were at the University of South Carolina) so that they could once again be in proximity. The rigorous classes in drawing, painting and art history were the shared backdrops for their evolving relationship.
In 1939 William Halsey was awarded the James Paige Traveling Fellowship. This was the school’s highest honor given each year to a graduating art student to provide for 2 years of study and travel abroad. The two art students decided to continue their lives together and were married in the Old North Church in Boston. Due to the oncoming world war, Europe was not safe so an alternate location for study was chosen, Mexico. While living in Mexico City their first child, Paige, was born.
Upon returning to the USA in 1942 the couple moved to Savannah GA where they both taught art. There in 1944 their next child, David, was born. In 1945 they returned to Charleston where they settled down to establish their careers in the arts. Along with William Halsey and the sculptor Willard Hirsch, Corrie Halsey opened the Charleston School of Art. Subsequently Mrs. Halsey taught in many locations in the area. Their third child, Louise, was born in 1949. Mrs. Halsey was a founding member of the Guild of South Carolina Artists (1950). During the 1960’s as the Curator of Art Education at the Gibbes Museum of Art, she traveled to the county elementary schools giving talks and doing demonstrations.
For many years the duties of teaching, making art and raising a family left no room for travel. Once the children were older the Halseys headed off to see the world. Initially choosing Central and South America, they eventually went to Europe and many parts of Africa. In 1968 she was the recipient of a Hughes Scientific and Cultural Foundation Grant. She chose to take a trip around the world. She visited places such as Japan, India, Cambodia, Iran and Bali. The influence of the art she saw during her travels led to her interest in printmaking. From simple woodcuts to more complex works in lithography she followed her passion in this new medium. Later while teaching at the College of Charleston she established the fine art print department. The Southern Graphics Council named her Printmaker Emeritus in 1984.
Never content to stay with one medium or one style she moved from painting to prints to sculpture. In 1994-95 the Gibbes Museum of Art presented “Corrie McCallum: A Life in Art.” a major retrospective of her work in these media. Always happy to expand her skills she started writing poems. In 1997 Expressions; Images and Poems was published.
In her role as an artist and art educator she was a mentor to young artists. A lifelong Democrat, an early proponent of integration and a feminist by nature she made a difference in the lives of many in the Low country. Her love of color and the natural world were integral to her life and evident in her art. Among the many things for which she will be remembered are her preference for turquoise, her curiosity about others, and her spirit of adventure. She leaves behind a wonderful legacy in her art, which is vibrant, diverse, and a tribute to the long and productive life she spent doing what she loved.
She is survived by two daughters: Paige Halsey Slade of Jacksonville, FL and Louise Halsey of Owensboro, KY; one son: David Halsey of Mt. Pleasant, SC; six grandchildren: David Slade, Heather Halsey, Julian Slade, Alice Driver, Ian Driver and Mia Halsey; three great grandchildren: Duncan Eisen-Slade, Malcolm Slade and Laura Slade.
The family has asked that, in lieu of flowers, contributions should be made to the Corrie McCallum Fund at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston.
The McCallum-Halsey Foundation »
Post & Courier Story »
Corrie McCallum in her studio on Fulton Street in February of 2000. Post and Courier photo by Bill Jordan.
Press Watch
[10.21] The Halsey unveils Aldwyth's cabinet full of curiosities
Charleston City Paper
If you've been downtown recently, you'll have noticed some big, unblinking eyes watching you from posters and stickers. If you're on the Halsey Institute's mailing list, you've probably received an e-mail that promises you'll see "an eyeful," with a Benday-dotted orb attached. The searing image recurs in the work of the Hilton Head-based Aldwyth, an artist who will be the first to exhibit in the Halsey's brand new gallery space. Ironically, this artist, whose watchful eyes seem to follow us nearly everywhere we go, has been toiling for years out of sight of the art world.
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[10.17] State of the Art:The Halsey Institute opens its new
designed-for-the-future facility
Charleston Magazine
"We could have a monster truck show in here!" laughs Mark Sloan, curator of the College of Charleston's Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, as he gazes around the cavernous hall that will soon serve as the gallery's hub.
Sloan may not be joking. In his 15 years steering the Halsey, he's hosted everything from circus sideshows to a Japanese artist who sets her paintings on fire. With an estimated 3,300 square feet of display space and 13-foot ceilings in the new Marion and Wayland H. Cato Jr. Center for the Arts, the Halsey can finally host large-scale sculptures, paintings, and exhibitions. "It is a purpose-built, state-of-the-art facility designed with the anticipation of new technologies," says Sloan. "We have the ability to respond creatively to any artist's desires."
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[10.07] INSIDE OUT
artnet.com
Aldwyth, the single-named South Carolina artist now having her first solo museum show, a retrospective, is a voracious collector, scrupulous cataloguer, encyclopedic archivist, sly social commentator and corrective art-historian. In short, she is a consummate artist.
Aldwyth resists the categories that others tend to put her into; although she dropped her first name in order to obscure her gender, she says she is not a feminist, and that her work is not political. She generally transcends the distinctions among genres, and avails herself of many traditions. Her work reflects influences from folk art and craft; obsessive outsider art; modernism, Dada and Surrealism; gender politics; and everything else going on in the world.
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[09.16] - Everyday People—Palmetto Portraits IV runs the gamut from priests to roller girls, Nick Smith
Charleston City Paper
The life of a portrait photographer isn't all brides, babies, and watching the birdie. The discipline encompasses many different styles, formats and focal points. But there's one thing that all good portraits have in common — they capture the subject's character in one frozen moment. In Palmetto Portraits IV, MUSC and the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art have teamed up to tell the stories of everyday people with a brand new collection of photographs.
The project began as an imaginative way to brighten up the interiors of some of MUSC's newest buildings. University President Ray Greenberg realized that he didn't have to go the traditional route of putting up framed Monet posters. With the same amount of money, he could display original, local art instead. But he wasn't sure how to put the idea into action.
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[09.10] - Lesson in Survival: Palmetto Portraits at MUSC, Olivia Pool
Post & Courier
The Medical University of South Carolina, in partnership with the Halsey Institute, will be unveiling the fourth and final installment of the multiyear collaboration, Palmetto Portraits Project.
The opening reception will take place 5-7 p.m. Sept. 16 in MUSC's new James B. Edwards College of Dental Medicine, 29 Bee Street.
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[09.09] - An Art Odyssey: The Halsey's 16-year journey to build a home comes to an end, Nick Smith
Charleston City Paper
Passing the Albert Simons Center for the Arts on St. Philips Street has been a noisy, hazardous pursuit for the past two-and-a-half years. With one lane and sidewalk blocked off, pedestrians crowd the remaining thoroughfare and spill onto the street. Work has continued in earnest on a new wing since its foundations began to take shape in January 2007. The barriers and scaffolding around this new wing, named The Marion and Wayland H. Cato Jr. Center for the Arts, have become such a commonplace sight that they're practically ignored by most people. Now those barriers are coming down and the School of the Arts has started to move furniture and resources into the five-story space.
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[09.06] - A New Year, A New Life, Jeffrey Day
Carolina Culture
This is the first time in 20 years I haven't been looking at the coming arts season from inside a newspaper office. During the early 1990s, I started an annual arts guide at The State newspaper, called Arts Ahead, which provided full calendars, stories about what was coming up in the arts and tips for best enjoying and affording the arts. While I can't do all that on this site (at least not yet) here are a few of my thoughts on what's coming up.
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[08.29] - CofC art gallery ready for, excited about new space on Calhoun, Ken Hawkins
The Digitel
At long last the college's new art building is nearly done, and that means the Halsey gallery gets to move into its new and much better space at 161 Calhoun Street in downtown Charleston.
The official name of the new building is the "Marion and Wayland H. Cato Jr. Center for the Arts."
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[08.29] - Halsey Institute begins relocation, Bill Thompson
Post & Courier
The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston on Friday began its relocation process into the new Marion and Wayland H. Cato Jr. Center for the Arts. The official opening date of the Cato is Oct. 23.
The move from the Simons Center for the Arts to 161 Calhoun St. will offer heightened visibility and public access as well as greatly enlarged and improved facilities, said Mark Sloan, director and senior curator of the HICA.
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[08.28] - Halsey Institute prepares for big move—Celebration complete with song and dance, Amber N. Crago
Charleston City Paper
The Halsey Institute for Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston has a new home. As of Aug. 28, they'll be setting up shop in the Marion & Wayland H. Cato, Jr. Center for the Arts, located at 161 Calhoun St. downtown. The new location gives the institute the opportunity for tremendous growth and improvement with three galleries and a library/resource center.
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[08.16] - FALL ARTS PREVIEW
Charleston City Paper
[08.12] - VArts Watch: A Weekly Cultural Policty Publication of Americans for the Arts
Americans for the Arts
The Halsey Institute for Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston announces the award of an $80,000 program grant from the prestigious Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for this year and next. Established in 1987 in accordance with Warhol's will, the foundation's objective is to foster innovative artistic expression and the creative processes that support artists and their work.
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[08.06] - Halsey Institute for Contemporary Art receives major funding
Post & Courier
The Halsey Institute for Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston announces the award of an $80,000 program grant from the prestigious Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for this year and next.
Established in 1987 in accordance with Warhol's will, the foundation's objective is to foster innovative artistic expression and the creative processes that support artists and their work. The foundation values the contribution that organizations like the Halsey Institute make to artists, audiences, and to the community as a whole, explains Rebecca Silberman of the Halsey Institute.
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[07.15] - Halsey Institute Receives Major Funding from Warhol Foundation
Post & Courier
The Halsey Institute for Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston announces the award of an $80,000 program grant from the prestigious Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for 2009 and 2010.
Established in 1987 in accordance with Warhol's will, the foundation's objective is to foster innovative artistic expression and the creative processes that support artists and their work. The foundation values the contribution that organizations like the Halsey Institute make to artists, audiences, and to the community as a whole.
read full article »
[05.27] - Crowning glory in art: Exhibit a good reason to let your hair down
Post & Courier
"Go big, go bold, or go bald."
This was the ongoing statement for "Hair on Fire," the current hair exhibit at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston.
Visitors to the opening were urged to style their hair in the most outrageous ways possible, so as to "blend in" with the artwork. One of the artists, Caryl Burtner, even set up an ongoing "clipping station" where visitors could cut off a piece of their hair and add it to her collection. Talk about letting your hair down.
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[05.21] - Hair on Fire
Carolina Culture by Jeffrey Day
“Hair on Fire” brings together some artists with a Charleston connection (Loren Schwerd taught at the college for several years and Caryl Burtner showed her collection of toothbrushes and other items at the college a decade ago) as well as others from across the country. They’re all women and they all make art of, or closely connected to, hair.
Making art from hair isn’t new and to prove it the gallery has a display of historical hair art borrowed from the Charleston Museum dating back to 1750.
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[05.20] - The Halsey Institute explores the question of hair: Good Hair Day Charleston City Paper
In the most scientific terms, hair is just protein filaments that grow outward from follicles deep within the skin. It spans most of the body's surface area, proliferates most visibly from our scalps, and serves a number of biological purposes, most notably heat regulation.
Why, then, have these strands of keratin remained such a subject of intense aesthetic, societal, and mythological fascination over the course of human history?
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[04.22] - Solid skills and bursts of color in this year's Young Contemporaries Charleston City Paper
Every year, the Halsey surrenders its walls to the CofC's Studio Art Department. Any current student is eligible to submit work, and the results always reflect a variety of styles and working methods.
Juror Brian Rutenberg is an alumnus and a celebrated painter now based in New York. He is adept at capturing moods with abstract landscapes in lush, deep colors, so it's no surprise he's chosen some striking oil paintings for this diverse and entertaining show.
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[04.09] - Young Contemporaries Exhibit features competing student artists George Street Observer
Students and faculty filled the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art Thursday night, April 2, for the opening of “Young Contemporaries,” the Halsey’s annual juried student exhibition. The event showcases the work of C of C studio art students, hand-selected by C of C alumnus and New York City artist Brian Rutenburg.
“I don’t like to compare the ‘Young Contemporaries’ shows from year to year, but I can say I think this is among the strongest in my 15 years here,” said Halsey director Mark Sloan.
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[02.12] - War on Terror: Inside/Out Daily Serving
Photographs from Christopher Sims and Stacy Pearsall turn the War on Terror: Inside/Out, as if showing us its seams. Sims documents American-made Iraqi and Afghan villages, used to train soldiers in North Carolina and Louisiana, in his series Home Fronts: The Pretend Villages of Talatha and Braggistan. Pearsall, a military combat photographer since age 17, presents the facts of her experience, daily life that is dark, but captured with elegance and expression, and deeply humanistic. We are allowed an extended gaze into these otherwise restricted worlds. Curator Mark Sloan at College of Charleston's Halsey Institute has met his goal "to plumb the ironies and contrasts for all I could get."
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[01.22] - Halsey Contrasts Two Realities from War Front George Street Observer
C of C's Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art bustled with patrons Friday night, Jan. 23, for the opening of War on Terror: Inside/Out. A collection of photographs by Christopher Sims and Stacy Pearsall, the exhibit documents two contrasting realities of the present War on Terror.
The first floor of the gallery showcases the work of Duke University professor Christopher Sims. As spectators made the first round through his photographs, they expressed shock and surprise at the surreal war images of guts coiling from stomachs and artificially red blood on the ground. Whether they read the artist statement or came to the conclusion themselves, it did not take long for the onlookers to deduce that the images were not in fact from the Middle Eastern warfront.
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[01.28] - Photos from the Front - Cover Story! Charleston City Paper
Stacy Pearsall has never been good with words. What she saw in Iraq during two tours only makes them harder to come by. She knows what John McCain meant by leaving "with honor," but feels Vietnam has little bearing on the War on Terror.
We sent volunteers to Iraq, for one thing, who didn't know who the enemy was. Her friend Donny lost his head to a sniper. Her friend Katie lost most of her right hand to one. Soldiers feared their throats would be slit in their sleep. Food was often poisoned. Pearsall herself was wounded twice in combat, once while carrying a man to safety.
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[01.25] Photographers look at 'War on Terror' - Post & Courier
Stacy Pearsall photographs a soldier sitting on a cot, reflecting on a lethal firefight that killed some of his comrades earlier that day. Eight thousand miles away, Christopher Sims snaps a picture of an actor dressed as an Iraqi insurgent in the backwoods of Louisiana.
The two separate viewpoints highlighted by Pearsall and Sims will be showcased in the "War on Terror" art exhibition at the College of Charleston's Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art.
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