Halsey Institute Receives $50,000 Donation

by Lizz Biswell

The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston is pleased to announce a major gift of $50,000 to its endowment by The Joanna Foundation of Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina. This is the Foundation’s second major gift to the Halsey Institute, having previously donated $20,000 in 2015.

The latest gift is presented as a naming gift for the Halsey Institute’s Video Cavern screening room of their gallery spaces. These videos offer insights and allow visitors to deepen their understanding of the featured artist. In 2013, the Halsey Institute commissioned artist Michael James Moran to create a video viewing environment within the galleries. He chose to create a cavern, complete with stalactites and stalagmites, composed of stratified layers of wood. In addition to the video cavern, the videos can be viewed on the Halsey Institute’s website.

“The Joanna Foundation is proud to be a permanent part of the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art,” says Joanna Foundation Board of Trustees Executive Vice President Peggy Schachte. “We think this is a natural fit. Both organizations respect the past, but look to the future and work to recognize the efforts of people who are making a meaningful difference in creative and sometimes unconventional ways.”

Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art Director and Chief Curator Mark Sloan says the naming of the video cavern is a culmination of the “decades long association” between the foundation and the institute.

“The Joanna Foundation has been a longtime supporter of the Halsey Institute, but this is their biggest commitment to us yet,” says Sloan. “We are both thrilled and humbled by their generosity and hope to use this gift as leverage for other donations from like-minded individuals and/or foundations. The Trustees of the Joanna Foundation have all demonstrated their commitment to the primacy of creativity in modern society.”