This May, join the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art for a month-long giving campaign celebrating the power of contemporary art to spark dialogue, challenge perspectives, and inspire change. Your support helps us bring thought-provoking exhibitions, free public programs, and emerging, mid-career, and oddly overlooked artists to the Lowcountry and beyond. Every gift—big or small—makes a difference. YOU can help us shape the future of contemporary art by becoming a new Member, renewing your membership, or donating a one-time gift.
This month we’re raising funds for our upcoming 2025-2026 exhibition season. Coming up in Fall 2025 we will be presenting the works of artists Raheleh Filsoofi and Kenny Nguyen.
The Halsey Institute’s curatorial vision is artist-centric. One of the first questions our curators asks artists before showcasing is “What’s something you’ve always wanted to do, but haven’t been supported in doing so?”
By championing our artists through this relationship, we ensure that each exhibition is not just a presentation, but a true collaboration—centered on the artist’s boldest ideas and dreams. Your support this May empowers us to say “yes” to ambitious projects, immersive installations, and transformative experiences that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. Help us bring these visionary exhibitions to life.
GIVE & GET: May Giving Raffles and Month-long Perks
When you give to the Halsey Institute this May, we return the favor. Check out the exciting prizes you can win and take advantage of membership perks below!
Month-long Membership Perk
Free membership upgrades for new AND renewing members beginning at the $40 Minimalist level. (Example: Join/Renew as a $125 Futurist member, then get bumped up to the $350 Postmodernist level)
All households that become new Members, renew their membership, or rejoin the Halsey Institute’s membership program will receive an exclusive 40th anniversary enamel pin
Month-long Raffle
Become a new Member, renew your membership, or rejoin the Halsey Institute’s membership program at the $350 Postmodernist level and above to be entered to win an exclusively made banner by past exhibiting artists and local Charleston talent ($250 value)
May 1-15 Raffle
Become a new Member, renew your membership, or rejoin the Halsey Institute’s membership program at any level to be entered to win a “Banned Books” T-Shirt by Bitter Southerner, a $50 gift card to local bookstore and bar, Philosophers and Fools + two books (The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin & The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates), and an exclusive Butch Anthony Halsey Institute t-shirt
May 16-May 31 Raffle
Become a new Member, renew your membership, or rejoin the Halsey Institute’s membership program at any level to win a gift card to local gift shop, Local Love Charleston, Melvin’s Barbeque, and an exclusive Butch Anthony Halsey Institute t-shirt
May 24-25: Membership Discount Weekend
This weekend only we’re offering a 20% discount towards becoming a new Member, renewing your membership, or rejoining the Halsey Institute’s membership program beginning at the $40 Minimalist level and above
Do you have questions about your current membership or some of the benefits available during the May Giving Campaign? Reach out to our Director of Development, Selynne Ancheta at AnchetaSM@cofc.edu or call (843) 953-5652.
You can also support our mission by purchasing our tote bags, award-winning publications, and more in our online shop.
Businesses can join in on the raffle fun by becoming or renewing a Community Partner business sponsorship at any level by clicking here.
*Free No Monet memberships for College of Charleston students are exempt from the perks and raffles except for the Instagram Giveaways.
If you do not wish to donate, become a new Member, or renew your membership, but are still interested in entering the raffle, please email our Director of Development, Selynne Ancheta at AnchetaSM@cofc.edu or call (843) 953-5652, so she can add your name to the raffle entries.
All gifts are tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law. You will receive a letter from the Halsey Institute thanking you for your gift.
You may join, renew, or upgrade your membership over the phone by calling Julia Hammer at the College of Charleston Foundation. Reach Julia at (843) 953- 5113.
Join us for the next Meet the Maker featuring Raheleh Filsoofi, an itinerant artist, feminist curator, and community advocate. Filsoofi’s exhibition will be on view at the Halsey Institute in fall 2025. Members are encouraged to attend from 5:30 – 6:00 PM to engage with Filsoofi and other fellow Halsey Institute Members before the presentation begins at 6:00 PM.
Meet the Makers are quarterly get-togethers for members at the Postmodernist level and above to meet an artist or maker and learn about their creative process within an intimate setting. The Maker is often an upcoming or past exhibiting artist at the Halsey Institute. They will give a presentation describing their inspiration, passions, process, and, ultimately, final result. Members are asked to bring “a bottle of wine and an open mind.” Check back again soon for an RSVP link.
Not a member yet? Not a problem! Find out more about the benefits of membership here.
Raheleh Filsoofi is a collector of soil and sound, an itinerant artist, a feminist curator and a community advocate. Her work revolves around themes of movement, immigration, and social activism. Clay and sound serve as her primary expressive mediums, enabling her to create diverse narratives through multimedia installations and performances. Her art disrupts the borders that exist between us and seeks a more inclusive world, illuminating and challenging policies and politics.
Raheleh is the 2023 recipient of Joan Mitchell Fellowship award, the 2022 Winner of the 1858 Contemporary Southern Art Award and the recipient of the 2021 Southern Prize Tennessee State Fellowship. She is an Assistant Professor of Ceramics in the Department of Art at Vanderbilt University and holds the secondary appointment at the Blair School of Music. She received her M.F.A. in Fine Arts from Florida Atlantic University and a B.F.A. in Ceramics from Al-Zahra University in Tehran, Iran.
Joshua Parks is a southern-raised Black image-maker and cultural worker with Gullah Geechee and Gulf Coast Creole heritage. His work analyzes Afro-descendant communities in the Atlantic world, their relationship to land and water as the basis of subsistence, autonomy, survival, and collective memory, and how these elements influence social and cultural development. The Halsey Institute is proud to present Parks’s first solo museum exhibition.
In his practice, Parks puts intentional relationships and storytelling first, using image as his medium for communication. This exhibition explores the interconnectedness among communities of African descendants in the Lowcountry, the Caribbean, and West Africa through photography, film, and sounds of the Atlantic World. Bridging past and present, he presents a continuum of culture across time and space underscoring the resilience and ongoing evolution of African and Afro-descendant identities all while confronting and transcending the enduring legacies of slavery and colonialism. Dispersed throughout this global representation of shared histories, Parks incorporates archival family photographs and artifacts engaging the viewer with the context of his personal history. This body of work makes evident the intimate and complex relationships among African diasporic communities and the fight for self-determination.
The Halsey Institute’s Artist Talks are free and open to the public.
Únanse a nosotros para una visita en español a David Antonio Cruz: hauntme & Joshua Parks: Born in We – African Descendants of the Atlantic World dirigida por la Dra. Christina García. Gratuita y abierta al público.
Join us for a Spanish Language Tour of David Antonio Cruz: hauntme & Joshua Parks: Born in We – African Descendants of the Atlantic World led by Dr. Christina Garcia, Associate Professor at the department of Hispanic Studies. This tour is free and open to the public.
Beat the heat with a movie screening in the galleries. Join the Halsey Institute for a free screening of Summer of Soul (2021). This event is free and open to the public. Summer of Soul (2021) has a run time of 1 hour and 58 minutes.
About Summer of Soul:
In his acclaimed debut as a filmmaker, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson presents a powerful and transporting documentary—part music film, part historical record created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture and fashion. Over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1969, just one hundred miles south of Woodstock, The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park). The footage was largely forgotten–until now. SUMMER OF SOUL shines a light on the importance of history to our spiritual well-being and stands as a testament to the healing power of music during times of unrest, both past and present. The feature includes concert performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension and more.
SUMMER OF SOUL premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, winning both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award.
Free For All
GALLERY HOURS (during exhibitions)
Monday - Saturday, 11am – 4pm
Open Thursdays until 7pm
843.953.4422
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