Jibade-Khalil Huffman’s work defies definition. His video work is sculptural. His prints hum with electricity. Cut outs in walls are enlivened with projections. Text is given equal weight as a visual. In this newest iteration, commissioned by the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art and set to expand over a series of forthcoming exhibitions, Huffman’s work draws on all senses, utilizing film, print, audio, text, and the ultimate tool: the viewer’s own experience.

Trained as a poet and an artist, Huffman’s work is the answer to his own ever-evolving stream of internal questions about how culture functions and communicates. Although each new project is approached as its own unit, Huffman’s work continually considers how Black Americans are seen and see themselves, and their collective engagement with societal trauma.

Of the many heartening signs of Charleston’s reopening, the flurry of local visual arts happenings may be the most inspirational sight for sore, screen-weary eyes.

In some ways, the timing is uncanny. A typical cultural year in Charleston often boasts new summer shows in local galleries and arts venues that are strategically timed to ride the arts-centric groundswell of Spoleto Festival USA and Piccolo Spoleto.

Like the festivals, the visual arts hubs are coming back, too — and in a significant creative splash set to shore spirits through a good chunk of a Charleston summer.

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The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art has regularly launched summer shows by kicking them off with the two festivals. On May 14, it opened two concurrent exhibitions.

“Both have radically altered their respective galleries, which is an exciting way for us to welcome and encourage visitors back to the Halsey Institute,” said Katie Hirsch, director of the Halsey, who devised the plan with curator Bryan Granger, the Halsey’s director of exhibitions and public programs.

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 artist’s 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.

The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston School of the Arts is excited to announce the appointment of a new Director. Katie Hirsch, the current Interim Director, Curator and Director of Strategic Partnerships took the helm of Halsey Institute Director on Thursday, April 1, 2021. Hirsch’s appointment follows the December 2020 retirement of the Halsey Institute’s long-time director Mark Sloan.

Katie Hirsch shares, “I am honored to be the new Director of the Halsey Institute. It is a true privilege to lead the talented team that brings innovative artists to Charleston and beyond. I am eager to connect with our community in this new role, and to share the compelling programming that the Halsey has planned.”

The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston School of the Arts today announced the appointment of a new Director. Katie Hirsch, the current Interim Director and Curator and Director of Strategic Partnerships took the helm of Halsey Institute Director on Thursday, April 1, 2021. Hirsch’s appointment follows the December 2020 retirement of the Halsey Institute’s long-time director Mark Sloan.

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“I am honored to be the new Director of the Halsey Institute,” Hirsch said. “It is a true privilege to lead the talented team that brings innovative artists to Charleston and beyond. I am eager to connect with our community in this new role, and to share the compelling programming that the Halsey has planned.”

The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston School of the Arts announced the appointment of a new Director. Katie Hirsch, the current Interim Director and Curator and Director of Strategic Partnerships took the helm of Halsey Institute Director on Thursday, April 1, 2021. Hirsch’s appointment follows the December 2020 retirement of the Halsey Institute’s long-time director Mark Sloan.

Katie Hirsch shares, “I am honored to be the new Director of the Halsey Institute. It is a true privilege to lead the talented team that brings innovative artists to Charleston and beyond. I am eager to connect with our community in this new role, and to share the compelling programming that the Halsey has planned.”

On the other side of the pandemic, the Charleston arts scene will look markedly different.

It’s not just the lingering wariness of packed lobbies. It is not just the downsizing and reconfiguring of many organizations as a result of the shutdown.

The playing field is swapping out enough major players that it could have the potential to dramatically alter the cultural landscape in Charleston and beyond. Throughout the city and the state, high-profile arts leaders have exited, announced retirements or set departure dates.

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There is Mark Sloan, former director and chief curator of the College’s Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, which is known nationally for its public-facing gallery that mounts exhibitions of some of the most thought-provoking artists of the day. He, too, has left ahead of the successors he mentored, Katie Hirsch,  Halsey’s interim director, and Bryan Granger, director of exhibitions and public programs.

Below a picture of an orange tree growing near Joshua Tree National Park in California is a simple question: “These tweets have my location?”

The combination of online commentary and visuals of the physical world is what drives “Geolocation,” a photography project by artist duo Larson Shindelman.

Larson Shindelman is made up of Marni Shindelman, an associate professor at the University of Georgia’s Lamar Dodd School of Art and the area chair for photography and interdisciplinary art and design, and contemporary artist, Nate Larson.

An exhibition of “Geolocation” is open in the College of Charleston’s Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art as well as online as a virtual exhibition until March 5.