Our Member Meet-ups offer experiences like behind-the-scenes virtual tours, virtual artist talks, and meet-and-greet events with the curators. Don’t miss out on this fun opportunity to celebrate the Halsey Institute community and engage with contemporary art in these singular times. This event is open to all levels of membership. Not a member yet? No problem! Explore the benefits of membership here.
This event will take place on Zoom. To attend, please RSVP to halseyRSVP@cofc.edu
Join us for a happy hour Member Meet-up featuring the new Dean of the College of Charleston’s School of the Arts, Dr. Edward Hart, and the Halsey Institute’s new director Katie Hirsch. Hart succeeds Dean Valerie Morris, who served as the School of the Arts dean from 1998-2020. Hirsch takes the helm of director following the December 2020 retirement of Mark Sloan, who had served as Chief Curator and Director since 1994.
Dean Edward Hart is a CofC alum, Charleston native, Music Department faculty member, and composer. His music has been performed in the United States, Latin America, Africa, and Europe including performances in New York, Los Angeles, Kiev, Vienna, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Johannesburg, Boston, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He has received many commissions and was named Composer in Residence of the Charleston Symphony for the 2019-20 season. We look forward to hearing Dean Hart share his vision for the School of the Arts.
Katie Hirsch joined the Halsey Institute team in August 2016 and was most recently our Curator and Director of Strategic Partnerships before being appointed as Director on April 1. She has curated exhibitions on Roberto Diago and Coulter Fussell, among others. She served as Associate Curator for the Halsey Institute’s landmark 2018 exhibition Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South, for which she contributed to the catalogue. Prior to the Halsey Institute, Hirsch worked for Spoleto Festival USA and island6 Arts Center in Shanghai, China. Before turning her focus to contemporary art, Hirsch specialized in the art and culture of the Maya. She thus not only brings a broad knowledge of art history and visual culture, but also the unconventional knowledge of the Yucatec Maya language, acquired through years of study in Mexico with support from government fellowships. We look forward to hearing Katie Hirsch share her vision for the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art’s future.
Join the Halsey Institute staff and your fellow members for a fun and exclusive evening tour! Halsey Institute curators Bryan Granger and Katie Hirsch will lead you on a tour of our current exhibitions Dan Estabrook: Wunderkammer and Jibade-Khalil Huffman: You Are Here. Explore the exhibition, get insider knowledge, and meet other Halsey Institute lovers!
We are able to host a maximum of 25 people in the galleries for this event and will also stream the tour to Zoom for those that would like to join in virtually. The limited capacity means we will need to require an RSVP to claim a spot in the galleries or receive the Zoom link and passcode. RSVP to halseyRSVP@cofc.edu
The work of Dan Estabrook oscillates between image and object and back again. Using antiquated forms of photography, such as salt prints and tintypes, Estabrook examines the objecthood of photography and its ability to represent the truth. He often combines multiple tintypes or adds metal to his images, further commenting on photography’s connection to reality. His sculptural works become recreations of his photos, further blurring the line between image and object. Interested in the studio as a site for fabrication, Estabrook’s sleight of hand in creating still life tableaus asks viewers to reconsider why things appear as they seem.
Jibade-Khalil Huffman is a collector of visual culture, layering images familiar and unknown to build new meaning. Using unrelenting movement, Huffman’s work draws on all senses, utilizing video, audio, text, and the ultimate tool: the viewer’s own experience. In his new work featured at the Halsey Institute, Huffman considers the concepts of reality and embodiment. This is explored through visual elements we would expect to find in a video game, which typically rely on first or third person perspectives, while Huffman seeks to explore the second person. The concept of embodiment renders the human body both subject and object, depending on the perspective employed. You Are Here asks us to question the nature of our own realities and the modes through which we understand them.
Join the Halsey Institute staff for a fun and informal “ta-ta” to our current exhibitions Dan Estabrook: Wunderkammer and Jibade-Khalil Huffman: You Are Here! Drop by the galleries for a last look at the exhibitions, say hello to Dan Estabrook, and enjoy remarks from our director and director of exhibitions at 5:30 PM and 6:30 PM.
We are able to host a maximum of 50 individuals in the galleries at any one time during this event. In compliance with the College of Charleston’s precautions against the spread of COVID-19, all visitors to this event, regardless of vaccination status, MUST wear a face mask inside the galleries and observe physical distancing while socializing. This event is free and open to the public.
The work of Dan Estabrook oscillates between image and object and back again. Using antiquated forms of photography, such as salt prints and tintypes, Estabrook examines the objecthood of photography and its ability to represent the truth. He often combines multiple tintypes or adds metal to his images, further commenting on photography’s connection to reality. His sculptural works become recreations of his photos, further blurring the line between image and object. Interested in the studio as a site for fabrication, Estabrook’s sleight of hand in creating still life tableaus asks viewers to reconsider why things appear as they seem.
Jibade-Khalil Huffman is a collector of visual culture, layering images familiar and unknown to build new meaning. Using unrelenting movement, Huffman’s work draws on all senses, utilizing video, audio, text, and the ultimate tool: the viewer’s own experience. In his new work featured at the Halsey Institute, Huffman considers the concepts of reality and embodiment. This is explored through visual elements we would expect to find in a video game, which typically rely on first or third person perspectives, while Huffman seeks to explore the second person. The concept of embodiment renders the human body both subject and object, depending on the perspective employed. You Are Here asks us to question the nature of our own realities and the modes through which we understand them.
