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.

…

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.

The almost ubiquitous internet acronym IRL, which stands for “in real life,” suggests a bifurcation of lived experience. Denoting a fracturing of reality, it breaks life into two domains: one existing in the connections between servers on the internet, and the other in the realm of lived experience. While this fragmented reality was more conceivable in the internet’s early existence, younger generations are growing up in a world where one’s IRL and online selves are often indistinguishable. As Orit Gat wrote in 2018, “a word to differentiate between time spent online and offline isn’t very handy after smartphones, which all but ensure we’re never actually offline.”

“These tweets have my location?” reads the text below a photograph of orange trees shot by artistic duo Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman.

Yes, they do.

That point is proven by the two photography educators who have combined their talents for a project called “Geolocation.”

Their exhibit, which features photographs taken at a variety of locations where tweets were posted, is on display at the College of Charleston’s Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art through early March.

The art does not include identifying information, geographic data or any outside context. It just includes a photo with the original tweet below. And while sometimes the subject matter and caption make sense together, other times they might not seem necessarily connected at all.

“Cars are nothing but money pigs #hateit #waitingsucks #impoor” reads the tweet beneath a picture of an auto shop.

Some might wonder why colleges and universities have art museums and may even question the value of the museum to the institution. Mark Sloan, director and chief curator of the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston, has dedicated the last 26 years to answering that question. During his tenure, the Halsey Institute has been transformed from a small, sleepy gallery to a vibrant space with engaging, imaginative shows that drew visitors both near and far and introduced the community to innovative contemporary art.

“All the liberal arts disciplines come together in one place at the Halsey Institute; the humanities, arts and sciences are presented in conjunction with educational programming that includes discussions, film screenings, lectures, conferences and panels,” says Sloan, who is retiring at the end of the month. “People from across campus and all over the world are involved in Halsey programming.”

Mark Sloan was tired of the stereotypes, of how people thought of southerners as slow-talking, slow-thinking bumpkins.

So he set out to change those perceptions.

The result of his efforts is the photo exhibit “Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South,” now showing at the LSU Museum of Art.

Sloan, director of the Halsey Institute of the College of Charleston, and the institute’s curator-at-large Mark Long began working on the project six years ago.

What started with a search for images developed in one of the most comprehensive projects about the American South ever assembled.