As the year comes to a close, BURNAWAY Executive Director Erin Jane Nelson and Editor Logan Lockner reflect on their favorite exhibitions in the South in 2018. Stay tuned for BA’s preview of 2019 next week.

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“Southbound” at the Halsey Institute for Contemporary Art, Charleston
October 19, 2018 – March 2, 2019

The South has been a veritable Mecca for photography since the beginnings of the medium, and Southerners have been some of the leading contributors to the photography’s growth over the last century. “Southbound” makes the convincing case that the region is still a leader of photography globally by surveying not only exciting young upstarts like Sheila Pree Bright, Susan Worsham, and Tommy Kha but also acknowledging artists like Burk Uzzle, Alex Harris, and Lucinda Bunnen who have been working in the region for decades. — EJN

It’s not easy to summarize a year in arts in Charleston, nor is it easy to pick out a few events, exhibits, and interviews that stand out in a sea of stories. This list is neither comprehensive, nor ordered in any particular fashion. It’s just what we remember best about the arts scene of 2018 based on our gut reactions to works of art, people, and places. These exhibits, films, and comedians made us cry, scream, and laugh (in no particular order) all year. Here’s why: 

An exhibition four years in the making (and still going on — check it out through March 2 2019),

Southbound is impressive in both its scope and in its message. Featured in two galleries, the exhibition, which opened at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art and City Gallery this fall, looks at “photographs of and about the New South,” through the eyes of 56 artists and photographers. In our October 2018 cover story on the expansive art exhibit, writer Chase Quinn asked, “What are we actually talking about when we talk about the New South, a term bandied about with the same frequency (and often the same conceit) with which people label Charleston ‘quietly progressive?'” Quinn discovered that the term “New South” has actually been used since the 1880s, begging more questions than answers when it comes to the progress of the Southern region of the United States. From portraits of men and women in poverty-stricken areas of the country to candids of groups of folks celebrating their versions of the South, Southbound is deeply powerful, and continually important. Join in the conversation with a wide variety of screenings and discussions, held at the Halsey. Check out the full schedule online at halsey.cofc.edu.

Take a look around the College of Charleston campus before the Thanksgiving break.

Women’s and Gender Studies hosted an event for its oral history project.
Southbound artist Gillian Laub visited Alternative Processes Photography class students.

It’s been a spectacular celebration of the arts at the College of Charleston this week.

The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston hosted its annual Full Moon party. Photos by Mike Ledford

It’s been nearly 100 years since the Charleston Renaissance, an era that transformed our city into a thriving creative destination. From 1915 to 1940, local and visiting artists, architects, and writers collaborated to drive cultural progress, putting Charleston’s art scene on the national map. At first glance, this bit of historical trivia might seem nostalgic, but on closer look, it’s wildly relevant to the current moment. There’s an undeniable creative energy in Charleston these days, a soaring population growth, and a collaborative rising tide that hints towards some kind of rebirth.

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Says Mark Sloan, Director and Chief Curator of the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, “There are times when we have playfully toyed with the existing tastes, such as our recent residency of Italian artist Hitnes. He followed in the footsteps of John James Audubon, a Charleston favorite, and created his own, quite contemporary, version of the Birds of America.”

To have an understanding of the New South, we must come to grips that there is a tension between what we think about the South and what actually is true about this place.

Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South becomes the lens through which we explore these questions and ideas. Presented by The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston and curated by Mark Sloan and Mark Long, Southbound will be on view from October 19, 2018 to March 2, 2019 at both The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art and City of Charleston’s City Gallery.

What does the contemporary South look like? It could be as color-saturated as a basket of local tomatoes – or as somber as a black-and-white portrait of a tattered man. If you survey Southern photographers today, you’ll find they capture everything from junkyard dogs and Dixie signs to Mississippi’s indigenous peoples, from marching activists to homecoming queens.

Now, the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston presents a far-reaching exhibition and programming series that is as vast and varied as the divergent social, political and artistic terrain it explores.

From Oct. 19, 2018, through March 2, 2019, “Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South” will be on view simultaneously at the Halsey Institute and the City Gallery at Waterfront Park, which represents a partnership between the College of Charleston and the City of Charleston.

Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South is about the South as a whole. It doesn’t focus on one city, state, topography, and group of people. The photographs capture a feeling, a moment in time in the New South.

“Funnily enough, Charleston itself isn’t portrayed as much as you may image, but Charleston – in terms of a geographer, it’s interesting to think about the places that are represented – but its certainly very visible because of the places that photographers are drawn towards,” Mark Long said.

When looking at the historical south, Long comments that you can draw a line from Charleston to other places in an interesting way.

One photographer, Thomas Daniel, photographs people and events on the fringes of American society. Southbound features images from his reenactment series titled Southern Cause. His experience as a combat photographer in Vietnam is important to consider when viewing these images.

“He embedded himself in the civil war reenactment and disguised his camera. He gets a rank,” Sloan said.

What are we actually talking about when we talk about the New South, a term bandied about with the same frequency (and often the same conceit) with which people label Charleston “quietly progressive”? It can be hard to define and seems to really depend on who you ask. In a companion video to the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art’s upcoming photographic exhibit Southbound: Photographs of and About the New South, folklorist William Ferris reminds us that “each generation has claimed to be the New South.”

As a point of fact, the term was coined in the 1880s by journalist Henry W. O’Grady. From its inception, it was meant to describe the emerging and restructured social, economic, and political order of the South after the Civil War. Popularly, it is often used to describe specific parts of the South that more closely resemble other urban and progressive centers of the country. For photographer and native of Montgomery, Ala., Andy Scott, for example, the New South always had a very specific connotation: “Growing up in Alabama, which is not the New South in my mind, it meant Dallas, Charlotte, and Atlanta … cities that seemed to be most like the rest of the country. Progressive socially, and in terms of business engagement.”