On March 14, 2018, we gathered to honor the contributions and talents of two Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Award winners, Corrie McCallum (1914-2009) and our namesake, William Halsey (1915-1999). We will introduce a new generation of Charlestonians to this couple’s pioneering spirit through a series of brief presentations illustrating their progressive artmaking against the backdrop of traditional Charleston.
Mayor John Tecklenburg declared March 14 as William Halsey and Corrie McCallum Day in Charleston.
Presenters include:
Mark Sloan, director and chief curator of the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art
Brian Rutenberg, former student of William Halsey and renowned painter
Caroline Wright, William Halsey scholar
Pam Wall, curator of exhibitions at the Gibbes Museum of Art
Louise Halsey, artist and youngest daughter of Corrie McCallum and William Halsey
In addition to her vast body of work, Corrie McCallum made significant contributions to the Charleston art community as an educator. She was the first artist to teach printmaking at the College of Charleston. Under her guidance, the Gibbes Museum of Art conducted the first comprehensive art appreciation program for Charleston County public school students. She held education positions at several institutions, including the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah and the Gibbes Museum of Art, College of Charleston, and Newberry College in South Carolina. Throughout her life, she remained an outspoken advocate for the visual arts.
William Halsey dedicated his life to art and art education in South Carolina. A 1939 graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, he garnered professional success in Charleston, Savannah, New York, and Mexico. He established the College of Charleston’s studio art program in 1964 and served as assistant professor and artist-in-residence for nearly two decades. His leadership and artistic vision inspired the faculty at the College of Charleston to name the College’s art gallery in his honor upon his retirement.
Today, the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art promulgates its namesake’s vision by introducing the work of emerging, mid-career, and oddly overlooked artists. The life and work of William Halsey and Corrie McCallum continue to inspire young artists, and their legacy remains precious to their three children, Paige Halsey Slade, David Ashley Halsey, and Louise McCallum Halsey.
On October 24, 2017, Chris Jordan gave a lecture titled “Encountering the Albatross,” where he spoke about his creative practice and his voyages to the Midway Atoll. During these trips, he witnessed young albatross chicks dying due to ingested plastic from the North Pacific Gyre. He decided to create a feature-length film, called ALBATROSS, to document this phenomenon.
For more information, visit halsey.cofc.edu/main-exhibitions/midway/
This lecture was presented as part of SEA CHANGE, on view October 20 – December 9, 2017 at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, Charleston, SC. The lecture took place at the Sottile Theatre at the College of Charleston on October 24, 2017.
Check out our timelapse video of the installation of Aurora Robson: The Tide is High.
Recording of a talk by Robert Storr titled “What Happened to the American Scene? Realism since 1980” presented by the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston in conjunction with the exhibition Marc Trujillo: American Purgatory. Support provided by the Quattlebaum Artist-in-Residence Program at the College of Charleston School of the Arts.
For more information and to view the slides used in the lecture, visit the event page at: https://halsey.cofc.edu/main-events/what-happened-to-the-american-scene-realism-since-1980-a-lecture-by-robert-storr-quattlebaum-artist-in-residence/
On September 16, 2017, Robert Storr spoke with Marc Trujillo about the exhibition Marc Trujillo: American Purgatory at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston, SC.
Artist and Musician Lonnie Holley performs at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur, GA on March 20, 2015.
Footage courtesy of Jenny Kleiman
This is footage that was filmed by Jenny Kleiman and projected live while the puppeteer, Will Schutze performed the opening act on stage at the Groundhog Day Concert presented by the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art in Charleston, SC at the Charleston Music Hall.
Erwin Redl’s ART AS SYSTEM lecture, May 2016
2014 International Artist in Residence Jumaadi worked with locally-based artists and musicians to write, create, compose, and preform a new shadow puppet performance.
Performance written by Jumaadi
Puppets performed by Arlene Felipe and Jumaadi
Geoffrey Cormier: Composition, percussion, voice, gamelan
James Carrier: Recorder, gemshorn, percussion, voice
Hazel Kethcum: Vocals
Jumaadi’s exhibition and residency is supported in part by the Quattlebaum Artist in Residence Endowment and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.
Special thanks to Walter Crocker and Bette Mueller-Romer and Riki Matsuda.
Camera: Brooks Quinn, Knox Smith, Tim Fennell, JJ Corbett
Produced by Brooks Quinn
This is a December 2014 performance of “Paper Plane People” by the Academic Magnet High School’s Paper Plane People Shadow Puppet Troupe. This shadow puppet performance was inspired by the puppet masters Jumaadi and Geoffrey Cormier, who assisted the students throughout the time they spent creating the show. The students in creative writing and visual art spent time with the artists and learned about their creative processes, and also took a field trip to see Jumaadi’s work at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art. Every story, puppet, and sound was created by the students.
Thursday, May 15, 2014 at the Charleston Music Hall
This lecture was organized in conjunction with the exhibition, The Insistent Image: Recurrent Motifs in the Art of Shepard Fairey and Jasper Johns, on view May 22 – July 12, 2014. Along with exhibiting his works within the Halsey Institute galleries, Shepard Fairey also created a series of large-scale public murals in locations throughout downtown Charleston, visually and thematically related to the show. Fairey took a break from painting to sit down with Halsey Institute director and chief curator Mark Sloan to discuss his first major exhibition in his hometown, the creation of an entire new body of work collectively entitled “Power & Glory”, and the events that led up to this moment.
In collaboration with the Charleston Music Hall, the Halsey Institute presented an intimate evening of music featuring Charleston’s finest locally and nationally recognized musical acts on Groundhog Day.
The Groundhog Day Concert featured music by The Opposite of a Train (Bill Carson, Nathan Koci, and Ron Wiltrout) with special guests Kevin Hamilton, Charlton Singleton, Wilton Elder, Clint Fore and John Cobb. This “house band” provided accompaniment to the evening’s invited guest artists including award-winning duo Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent, Lindsay Holler, Stephanie Underhill, Joel Hamilton, Rachel Kate, and Michael Flynn.
The evening’s musical director Bill Carson says, “This concert is a way for the local music community to show its support for the fantastic contemporary arts programming that the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art provides year-round, and year after year. The Halsey often collaborates with musicians, actors, filmmakers, architects, designers, and others to create its unique multi-disciplinary offerings. The participating musicians all want to shine the spotlight on the Halsey Institute in gratitude for their dynamic and inspirational role in this community.”
Director & Producer: Dave Brown
This video documents the dismantling of Motoi Yamamoto’s salt installation at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art and the ceremonious return to the sea. The Halsey Institute organized a major traveling exhibition of new work by contemporary Japanese artist Motoi Yamamoto. The exhibition premiered in Charleston May 24-July 7, 2012, as a featured presentation of the Spoleto Festival USA. The centerpiece of the exhibition was a site-specific installation created entirely out of salt by the artist during his10-day residency at the Halsey Institute.
An important aspect of the installation is the dismantling of Motoi’s work at the end of the show and delivering the salt back to water in collaboration with the public, hence, the title Return to the Sea. At 4:00pm on Saturday, July 7, the end of gallery hours and the official end of the exhibition, the public wass invited to gather a small amount of the salt. Then, as a group the Halsey staff and the community returned the salt to the sea at the Aquarium Wharf on Concord Street.
Eames Demetrios led curious guests through a Plaque Unveiling at Sea ceremony for one of the Kcymaerxthaere plaques in Charleston, SC. The plaque is 40 feet beneath the place where the Ashley and Cooper Rivers meet in the Charleston Harbor. Guests listened to the story of Nobunaga-Gaisen, raised a sake toast and sang traditional Kcymaerxthaere songs.
Los Angeles artist Eames Demetrios has been steadily producing Kcymaerxthaere, an epic, three-dimensional novel and the world’s largest public art project. As the “Geographer-at-Large”, he has developed an alternative universe that is largely consistent with our linear world, but with different stories, peoples, flora, fauna and physical laws.
He utilizes brass plaques, strategically placed around the world, to commemorate this story. So far there are 90 installations in 18 countries.
During the exhibition at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art in 2011, visitors encountered a glimpse into the Kcymaerxthaereal realm.
Eames Demetrios was the 2011 Quattlebaum Artist in Residence and an official visual arts offering of Piccolo Spoleto 2011.
Special THANKS! to O-Ku and Charleston Waterkeeper.
Video footage courtesy of BA McNeill and Eames Demetrios.