In conjunction with Women’s History Month and the #5womenartists campaign by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Halsey Institute is hosting a discussion on what it means to be a woman working in the arts today in South Carolina. Beginning by highlighting each of their own work, the participants will lead an informal discussion based on their own experiences as women artists. In Halsey Talks fashion, we also welcome input and perspectives from the crowd.

Participants include:

Michaela Pilar Brown

Arianne King Comer

Camela Guevara

Donna Cooper Hurt

Kristi Ryba

Michaela Pilar Brown is an image and object maker. She studied sculpture and art history at Howard University, though she has always been a maker of things. Born in Bangor, Maine and raised in Denver, Colorado, she cut her teeth in the halls of a museum where her mother worked as a security guard, and has been immersed in the culture of objects, their making and interpretation ever since.

Arianne King Comer, a BFA graduate of Howard University, has been an Artist in Residence in the state of South Carolina since 1995. She is a textile artist creating her work in paintings, wearable art, installation art, environmental art, home deco, as well as social justice. In 1992, Arianne received the UN/USIS grant to study under the renowned Batik artist Nike Olyani Davis in Oshogbo Nigeria, where her passion for indigo manifested. She was given the Yoruba name of Osun Ronke. She is currently working on workshops planned in Port Antonio, Jamaica and a joint exhibition scheduled this fall at Charleston’s Waterfront Gallery. Arianne is an art consultant, indigo and community arts advocate, lecturer, teacher, and textile artist.

Camela Guevara is an artist and a seamstress in Charleston, SC. Guevara creates tactile fiber art combining traditional, time-honored sewing techniques and spare, geometric imagery with beads, sequins, thread, and ink. She teaches embroidery and is currently exploring free form imagery in gouache.

Donna Hurt is a visual and community engaged artist living in Charleston SC.  She holds a Bachelors of Art in Photography from Virginia Intermont College, and a Master of Fine Art from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Donna incorporates photography, sculpture, video, and performance in her practice to address the intersection of place, memory, history, and the body. Some of the highlighted institutions that have exhibited her work have been the Chicago Cultural Center, The New Orleans Museumof Art, the Fac Modern in Colorado, and the William King Museum in Abington Virginia. Donna has received grants from Alternate ROOTS in Atlanta, GA  and the Greenbelt Urban Grant program in SC. In the last year she has completed three art residencies-  Jentel in Wyoming, Caldera in Oregon, and A Studio in the Woods in New Orleans, LA. 

Kristi Ryba lives and works in Charleston, SC. Her work was included in the 2015 701 South Carolina Biennial, and in 2012 she was selected as the SCAC Alternate Visual Arts Fellow. Her work has been exhibited at 701 CCA and Columbia College in Columbia, SC, at SOMAC in Portsmouth, OH, Waterworks Visual Arts Center in Salisbury, NC, Corrigan Gallery, Redux and The City Gallery at Waterfront Park, Charleston, SC, Sumter Gallery of Art, and Dialect Design The McColl Center in Charlotte, NC, Wood Art Gallery, Montpelier, VT and Silo in New York City In 2009 she was an artist in residence at The McColl Center in Charlotte, NC.