Join us for the Opening Reception and Awards Ceremony for the exhibition, Young Contemporaries 2023 on Friday, March 17 from 5:00 – 7:00 PM as we celebrate the accomplished students at the College of Charleston. The award winners will be announced at 6:00 PM inside the Halsey Institute’s galleries and on the Halsey Institute’s Instagram Stories live. This event is free and open to the public.

The Young Contemporaries and Salon des Refusés category awards are funded by the Dean’s Excellence Fund for the College of Charleston School of the Arts. The Norton M. Seltzer Award is funded by Mindelle Seltzer, and the Karin Jurick Award is funded by the Robert Lange Studios community.

Now in its 38th year, the Halsey Institute and the College of Charleston Studio Art Department are proud to present Young Contemporaries 2023. The annual exhibition is a celebration of talented artists at the College of Charleston. With works selected by a nationally renowned juror, the exhibition reflects the strength and diversity of practice in the School of the Arts’ rigorous programs. Featuring a wide range of media, including paintings, sculpture, photography, and prints, the exhibition showcases the efforts of the student body at the College.

Artist David Antonio Cruz serves as the juror and awards judge for Young Contemporaries 2023.

Concurrent with Young Contemporaries is the Salon des Refusés, showing in the exhibition space of the Cato Center for the Arts. The works in the Salon are chosen by Studio Art faculty. The origin of the Salon des Refusés dates to Paris in 1863, when artists who had been rejected from the official Salon caused such a protest that Emperor Napoleon III ordered another exhibition held for them. Among the painters in the original Salon des Refusés were Camille Pissaro, Henri Fantin-Latour, James M. Whistler, and Edouard Manet.