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Gibbes Museum opens 1858 Prize cycle

$10,000 for contemporary southern art

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: September 30, 2022

The Gibbes Museum of Art is pleased to announce the 2022 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art.

Each year, Society 1858, the museum’s young professionals auxiliary group, awards a $10,000 cash prize to one artist whose work demonstrates the highest level of artistic achievement in any media, while contributing to a new understanding of art in the South. Past winners include Stephanie J. Woods (2021), Stephen L. Hayes (2020), Donté K. Hayes (2019), Leo Twiggs (2018), Bo Bartlett (2017), Alicia Henry (2016), Deborah Luster (2015), Sonya Clark (2014), John Westmark (2012), Patrick Dougherty (2011) and Radcliffe Bailey (2010). Submissions for 2022 will be accepted online at www.1858prize.org from Aug. 1–Sept. 30, 2022. “Society 1858 strives to celebrate diverse Southern artists through the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art,” says Emily Broome, president of Society 1858. “We are thrilled to announce the call for submissions for this esteemed prize. Past winners have gone on to receive many accolades and often return to the Gibbes as visiting artists.” Artists from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia are eligible to apply. All submissions are thoughtfully reviewed by a panel of visual arts professionals, Society 1858 representatives and Gibbes Museum of Art staff members. The winner will be awarded $10,000 and a feature at the Amy P. Coy Forum on Feb. 10, 2023. Two honorable mentions will be awarded $500 each. Artists must submit:
  • Completed registration form
  • Brief artist statement (150 words or less)
  • Resume or CV
  • Portfolio of work (up to 10 images) including title, date, medium, and dimensions for each work
  • $25 non-refundable entry fee
  • Submit at www.1858prize.org
  • For general questions about the 1858 Prize, please contact the Gibbes Museum of Art at 1858prize@gibbesmuseum.org
  • For technical support, while submitting your application, please contact SlideRoom at support@slideroom.com
Winner and honorable mentions will be announced in November 2022 on the 1858 Prize website and via press release.

About Society 1858

The 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art is presented by Society 1858, a member auxiliary group of the Gibbes Museum of Art. This group of dynamic young professionals supports the Gibbes Museum with social and educational programs tailored for up-and-coming art patrons. To learn more about membership in Society 1858, please visit https://www.gibbesmuseum.org/become-a-member/#society-1858.

About the Gibbes Museum of Art

Home to the Carolina Art Association, established in 1858, the Gibbes Museum of Art is recognized among the oldest arts organizations in the United States. Housing one of the foremost collections of American Art from the 18th century to the present, the museum’s mission is to enhance lives through art by engaging people of every background and experience with art and artists of enduring quality and by providing opportunities to learn, to discover, to enjoy and to be inspired by the creative process. For more information, visit www.gibbesmuseum.org.

Submitted material

Looming deadlines for major art calls

Get 'em in, #SCartists!

  • 1858 Prize DEADLINE: Sunday, October 31, 2021
  • ArtFields DEADLINE: Monday, November 1, 2021

There are big prizes up for grabs in the South Carolina arts scene. Are you going for them?

ArtFields, operating out of Lake City in southern Florence County, is accepting submissions for its historic tenth year. ArtFields offers a unique combination of competition and celebration for Southeastern artists, so fittingly this call is open to artists 18 and older practicing in all media from 12 Southeastern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Lo,\uisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. This is an opportunity for part of $100,000 in cash prizes during the 2022 event taking place April 22-30. Accepted artwork is displayed all around our downtown—in spaces like boutiques, restaurants, barbershops, and more—to create a town-wide gallery. If you're unaware, click here to explore what ArtFields is all about and how you can be part of it. The submission deadline is Monday, Nov. 1. Not terribly far from Lake City as the crow flies is the South Carolina Lowcountry. The Charleston-based 1858 Society of the Gibbes Museum of Art has a call out for contemporary art. Artists from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia are eligible to apply. The winning artist receives $10,000 for work that contributes to a new understanding of art in the South. In addition to the monetary award, artwork will be chosen by the Gibbes Curatorial Team, in collaboration with the artist, for display in the Mary Jackson Modern and Contemporary Galleries for the duration of 2022. Their submission deadline is one day earlier on Sunday, Oct. 31. Find out more about the 1858 Prize here.

Jason Rapp

#SCartists making rounds in the media

Keeping our eyes on you

Sculpture of a man peering through binoculars set in a wooded space

Listen, don't get creeped out, but we've got our eyes on #SCartists.

If the SCAC sees you getting into the news, whatever the medium, The Hub is here to amplify the message. Here is a recent story for our readers to enjoy:
  • Dr. Leo Twiggs is about as accomplished as it gets. He's a decorated artist, being awarded the Governor's Award for the Arts for  lifetime achievement (2017) and the prestigious 1858 Prize for Southern Contemporary Art (2018). He and fellow Orangeburg resident and art historian and philosopher Dr. Frank Martin recently sat for a conversation on American art and the African American aesthetic for Black Art In America.

Image by Oliver Kepka from Pixabay

Jason Rapp

2019’s 1858 Prize finalists announced by Gibbes Museum of Art

Winner to be announced later this month

Finalists include one #SCartists

1858 Prize logo
The Gibbes Museum of Art is pleased to announce the finalists for the annual 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art. The 2019 finalists are Damian Stamer, Donte’ K. HayesStephanie Patton, Martha Clippinger, Michi Meko and South Carolina's Herb Parker, an installation artist. One of these artists, whose work demonstrates the highest level of artistic achievement, while contributing to a new understanding of art in the South, will be presented a $10,000 cash prize and have one selected artwork exhibited in the contemporary and modern galleries for the duration of 2020. “This year we were forced to choose six finalists due to the outstanding caliber of candidates we received,” said Angela Mack, executive director at the Gibbes Museum of Art. “Each of these finalists embodies an artist on the forefront of southern contemporary art. The 1858 prize embodies everything that the Gibbes stands for, and this years’ nominees truly impressed us.” This year, more than 200 artists across the Southeast submitted applications. The winner will be announced by the end of November and celebrated at the Amy P. Coy Forum and Prize Party hosted by Society 1858 at the Gibbes on Feb. 6-7, 2020 in Charleston. The forum will bring together artists and experts for a conversation about the impact of contemporary art in the South followed by a reception celebrating the 2019 winner.

2019 Finalists

Damian Stamer Damian Stamer (b. 1982) is a North Carolina based painter. In an ongoing series, the artist captures old barns, however picturesque and quaint, that stand as remnants of American industries founded upon slavery and exploitation. Time is visible here. Quiet moments approach the sublime when afternoon light rakes the grain of a fallen beam, or cloud-like stuffing erupts from a rotten chair. Violent and tender, this beauty hinges on the delicate nature of existence. These remnants are, like us, soaked with impermanence. We cannot escape a similar fate. Damian Stamer has exhibited extensively in the Southeastern United States as well as internationally in Tokyo, Japan and Budapest, Hungary. His work is in the permanent collection of The Mint Museum and the North Carolina Museum of Art. He is represented by SOCO Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina and Bridgette Mayer Gallery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Donte’ K. Hayes Donte’ K. Hayes is a Georgia based ceramicist. Through the influence of hip-hop, history, and science fiction, the artist’s artwork explores themes in Afrofuturism, a projected vision of an imagined future which critiques the historical and cultural events of the African Diaspora and the distinct black experience of the Middle Passage. While also delving into deeper social issues which broaden the conversation between all of humanity. From these ideas, his art practice is based on research and references the visual traditions from the American South, the Caribbean, and the African continent. Hayes works in clay as a historical and creative base material to inform memories of the past. Ceramics becomes a bridge to conceptually integrate disparate objects and or images for the purpose of creating new understandings and connections with the material, history, and social-political issues. These ceramic objects are vessels, each making symbolic allusions to the black body. Donte’ K. Hayes has exhibited extensively across the Southern United States as well as internationally in London, England. He is the recent recipient of full tuition residencies at the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, Maine and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine. His artwork is in the permanent collection of the Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia and Spruill Arts Center, Atlanta, Georgia. Hayes is a 2020 Forthcoming Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) Degree Candidate, School of Art and Art History, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. Herb Parker Herb Parker (b. 1953) is a South Carolina based installation artist. His nature-based installations, which began in the mid-seventies, are created to enhance a viewer’s perception of the environment and our relationship with nature. These environmental installations evolved from the artist’s thoughts on the mechanism of natural systems in time. This series serves as an ephemeral memento to the resilience of nature and an affirmation of the continuum of systems within the natural order.  Parker’s nature-based installations speak in a hybrid language from three distinct realms: architecture, sculpture and landscape.  His thoughts revolve around time, movement, history, culture, community, dialogue, spirituality, entropy and regeneration. The architectural situations created have recurring motifs that include; sanctuary, labyrinth, the golden ratio, and a place for dialogue. Herb Parker hopes to achieve a synthesis of systems from the natural world in the service of architectonic ideals. Herb Parker is a professor of art at the College of Charleston since 1991. He was awarded the South Arts South Carolina Fellowship, South Arts, Atlanta, Georgia in 2017. Parker’s nature-based installations have taken him all over the world, most recently to create “Sami Dialogue,” Landart in Alingsas, Nolhaga Park in Alingsas, Sweden and to participate in the 8th Geumgang Nature Art Biennale, Mt. Yeonmi, in Gongju, Korea. Martha Clippinger Martha Clippinger (b. 1983) is a North Carolina based multi-media artist. Clippinger’s work blurs the lines between painting and sculpture, fine art and folk, craft and design. The artist intuitively explores color, geometry, and texture while constructing dimensional paintings from scraps of wood and sewing quilts from reclaimed fabrics. Clippinger embraces the inherent imperfections of found materials and integrates them into the off-kilter geometries and irregular symmetries of their designs. A curiosity to learn about different materials engages the artist in a variety of processes. Clippinger’s developed a visual vocabulary of colors, shapes, and which forms across a range of media that includes not only wooden constructions and quilts, but also woolen weavings and ceramics. The painted constructions, while modest in scale, occupy a space beyond their physical dimensions, and the large, woolen tapestries shift from wall to floor and back again.  Clippinger uses these objects to play with architecture and draw attention to the relationship between the artwork and its surrounding. Martha Clippinger most recently exhibited with Elizabeth Harris Gallery in NYC, Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens in Philadelphia, PA, and Hodges Taylor in Charlotte, NC. Her practice and work was featured in Burnaway’s September editorial “Take Five: Textiles.” She has instructed at Duke University, NC and Penland School of Craft, NC. Michi Meko Michi Meko is a Georgia based multi-media artist. In the summer of 2015, they almost drowned. Inviting this life changing event’s influence into the artist’s studio practice, Meko’s recent paintings and sculptures focus on the African American experience of navigating public spaces while remaining buoyant within them. Meko’s work contributes to an important conversation, reflecting upon the African American experience in public spaces. Now more visible and open with the evidence and sharing offered by social media. This barrage of images simulates the experience of drowning under the heavy weight of ten thousand pounds of pressure while being held to the ocean’s floor. Michi Meko’s work uses a visual language of naval flags and nautical wayfinding, combined with romanticized objects of the American South as a means to communicate the psychological and the physical. These references signal the warning of a threat or the possibility of safe passage. Working beyond the physical image of the body, objects of buoyancy and navigation become metaphors for survival. Michi Meko’s most recent selected solo exhibitions include Chimento Contemporary in Los Angeles, CA and the Alan Avery Art Company in Atlanta, GA. In 2017, Meko was awarded the Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant. His work lives in the permanent collection of the High Museum of Art, GA among many private collections. Stephanie Patton Stephanie Patton (b. 1969) is a Louisiana based multi-media artist. Humor plays an important role in the artist’s work. Often using it as a device to bring attention to critical issues including an exploration of mental and physical health, themes of healing, comfort and self-preservation. As a child of a parent afflicted with mental illness, Patton can speak of the misunderstood nature of this disease and the taboos associated with it. Through this experience, Patton gravitates towards materials and processes that best addresses their conceptual concerns and often allude to various emotional states. Mattress quilting can suggest ideas related to birth, death, intimacy, relationships, illness and rest. Patton also uses vinyl in sculptural relief work for its physical properties as well as for its inherent references to mental and physical health and protection. Patton’s work often addresses psychological themes while exploring the relationship between humor and personal therapies. Stephanie Patton was recently selected as South Arts 2019 Southern Prize and State Fellows. Patton’s work exhibited at Art Miami, Miami, FL with Arthur Roger Gallery and the New Orleans Museum of Art, LA. This year, Patton was the Artist-in-Residence for the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans, LA, June – July. Stephanie Patton’s work lives in private and public permanent collections including the New Orleans Museum of Art, LA, and the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation, Los Angeles, CA. The 2019 panelists included 2018 Prize Winner Dr. Leo Twiggs, Society 1858 representatives Emily Broome and Jay Benson, Artist/Curator Alex Paik, Birmingham Museum of Art Curator Hallie Ringle and Spelman Museum of Fine Art Curator Anne Collins Smith. For more information, visit www.1858prize.org.

About Society 1858

The 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art is presented by Society 1858, a member auxiliary group of the Gibbes Museum of Art. This group of dynamic young professionals supports the Gibbes Museum with social and educational programs tailored for up-and-coming art patrons. To learn more about membership in Society 1858, please visit www.gibbesmuseum.org.

About the Gibbes Museum of Art

Home to the Carolina Art Association, established in 1858, the Gibbes Museum of Art is recognized among the oldest arts organizations in the United States. Housing one of the foremost collections of American Art from the 18th century to the present, the museum’s mission is to enhance lives through art by engaging people of every background and experience with art and artists of enduring quality and by providing opportunities to learn, to discover, to enjoy and to be inspired by the creative process. For more information, visit www.gibbesmuseum.org.

Tuning Up: Recent opportunities for #SCartists (ICYMI)

Good morning!  "Tuning Up" is a morning post series where The Hub delivers curated, quick-hit arts stories of interest to readers. Sometimes there will be one story, sometimes there will be several. Get in tune now, and have a masterpiece of a day. And now, in no particular order...


The Hub gives coverage to topics and they are quickly overtaken by the sands of time. "Tuning Up" wants to dust a couple of items off and bring them back to top-of-mind status. So, in case you missed these, here you go:

Submissions open for $10,000 1858 Prize

Prize honors contemporary Southern art

Submissions open Aug. 1 through Oct. 1, 2019
The Gibbes Museum of Art is pleased to announce the 2019 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art. Each year, the 1858 Prize is presented by Society 1858, a member auxiliary group of the Gibbes Museum of Art comprised of young professionals. The $10,000 cash prize is awarded to one artist whose work demonstrates the highest level of artistic achievement in any media, while contributing to a new understanding of art in the South. Past winners include Leo Twiggs (2018), Bo Bartlett (2017), Alicia Henry (2016), Deborah Luster (2015), Sonya Clark (2014), John Westmark (2012), Patrick Dougherty (2011), and Radcliffe Bailey (2010). Submissions for 2019 will be accepted online at www.1858prize.org from Aug. 1-Oct. 1, 2019. "For more than 10 years, Society 1858 has celebrated a diverse number of southern artists through the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art,” says Molly Waring, President of Society 1858. “This year, we are pleased to announce the call for submissions to help further our mission of supporting contemporary artists from the south whose works present a new understanding of art in the region." Artists from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia are eligible to apply. All submissions are thoughtfully reviewed by a panel of visual arts professionals, Society 1858 representatives, and Gibbes Museum of Art staff members. Artists must submit:
  • completed registration form
  • brief artist statement (150 words or less)
  • résumé or CV
  • portfolio of work (up to 10 images) including title, date, medium, and dimensions for each work
  • $25 non-refundable entry fee
  • submit at www.1858prize.org
For general questions about the 1858 Prize, please contact the Gibbes Museum of Art at 1858prize@gibbesmuseum.org For technical support while submitting your application, please contact SlideRoom at support@slideroom.com Finalists will be announced in October and the winner will be announced in fall 2019 on the 1858 Prize website and via press release. The winner will be celebrated at the Amy P. Coy Forum and Prize Party hosted by Society 1858 at the Gibbes on February 6 & 7, 2020 in Charleston.

Submitted material

Tuning Up: 1858 Prize and forum tomorrow + SEPF 2019 lineup

Good morning!  "Tuning Up" is a morning post series where The Hub delivers curated, quick-hit arts stories of interest to readers. Sometimes there will be one story, sometimes there will be several. Get in tune now, and have a masterpiece of a day. And now, in no particular order...


Collaborative first steps. Tomorrow is a big night at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston. Dr. Leo Twiggs is set to receive the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art. The pride of Orangeburg is the first S.C. artist (ahem, #SCartists) to receive the $10,000 prize. But you knew all that. What you might not know is that afterward is the Amy P. Coy Forum and 1858 Prize Party (6-8 p.m., 135 Meeting St., Charleston) at which representatives from ArtFields, South Arts, and the Gibbes will use the forum to discuss collaboration among the Southeast's three biggest arts prizes, which happen to be awarded by those entities. Where will it lead? We don't know, but that's why we're going. See you there? $35. SEPF announces 2019 guest artists. (And there are some, ahem, key names here.) Summertime is music festival time, and every year Columbia is a piano hotspot. The Southeastern Piano Festival is set to return June 16-23, 2019 and last week announced their guest artists. Artistic Director Joseph Rackers promises and incredible week of music. (Take it from The Hub – don't miss Alessio Bax). In addition to performances, accomplished pianists will give masterclasses and it all comes to a head with the Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition on June 21. (The teenage winner performs a concerto with the South Carolina Philharmonic.)

Leo Twiggs wins prestigious 1858 Prize

Orangeburg artist Leo Twiggs – 2017 recipient of the Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Governor's Award for the Arts for lifetime achievement and "elder statesman of contemporary art in South Carolina" – is the first S.C. artist to win the Society 1858 Prize for Contemporary Art. A native of St. Stephen, Twiggs works in batik, a wax-resist method of dying textiles. Much of his work explores family history, cultural heritage, and how the past is manifest in contemporary life. His series titled Requiem for Mother Emanuel recently traveled throughout the southeast, earning acclaim as a powerful tribute to the nine church members slain during the horrific shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.

The 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art awards $10,000 to an artist whose work contributes to a new understanding of art in the South. Presented annually, the prize recognizes the highest level of artistic achievement in any media. Artists from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia are eligible to apply. Applications are accepted exclusively from August through September each year.
The prize is presented by Society 1858, a member auxiliary group of the Gibbes Museum of Art where young professionals support the Gibbes Museum with social and educational programs tailored for up-and-coming art patrons. Further reading See the exclusive by Adam Parker in the Post & Courier.

Verner Award recipient Leo Twiggs a finalist for 1858 Prize

The Gibbes Museum of Art and Society 1858 have announced the 2018 short list of finalists for the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art. The five artists selected for the short list are:

  • María Magdalena Campos-Pons,
  • Stephen Hayes,
  • Birney Imes,
  • Leo Twiggs,
  • and Susan Worsham.
The 1858 Prize, awarded annually with a cash prize of $10,000, acknowledges an artist whose work demonstrates the highest level of artistic achievement in any media, while contributing to a new understanding of art in the South. Nearly 250 artists from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia submitted applications to the 2018 competition. The finalists were selected by a distinguished panel of judges including:
  • Bo Bartlett, artist, 2017 winner of the 1858 Prize;
  • Liza Cleveland, Society 1858 board member;
  • Adam Justice, Assistant Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art, The Mint Museum;
  • Anja Kelley, Society 1858 board member;
  • Marshall Price, Nancy Hanks Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Nasher Museum of Art;
  • Pam Wall, Curator of Exhibitions, Gibbes Museum of Art;
  • and Caroline Wright, Independent Curator and Co-founder of look-see.co.
The 1858 Prize winner will be announced by the Gibbes Museum in August.

Submitted material

Tuning Up: Writing workshops for girls + 1858 Prize + Twitter

Good morning!  "Tuning Up" is a morning post series where The Hub delivers quick-hit arts stories of interest to readers. Sometimes there will be one story, sometimes there will be several. Get in tune now, and have a masterpiece of a day. And now, in no particular order...


Writing workshops for girls.  Big opportunity here for high school girls (grades 9-12) who are serious about honing their sci-fi and fantasy and/or poetry-writing skills: Columbia College is to offer two workshops June 18-22 on its campus, one on each topic. We don't cross-post much, but take a quick peek at Arts Daily for more information. The poetry workshop will be taught by Dr. Ray McManus, who pitched in as one of the judges for the Poetry Out Loud state finals this past March. Good enough for government work. It's not mentioned in the story, but just so you know, an additional $100,000 appropriated to the S.C. Arts Commission's budget by the Senate is among the differences to be reconciled by a General Assembly conference committee next month. While the budget was not sent to Gov. McMaster by the legislators' self-imposed deadline, this story claims a government shutdown is unlikely. The Hub and SCAC, along with other dedicated state employees, are grateful. Follow us. Do you follow us on Twitter? We'd hate to think you'd miss such social media goodness as this (right). Social media, for all its ills, is also one incredible tool. We're hoping to improve our Twitter presence, while (clearly) not taking ourselves too seriously. Last call for 1858! Applications for the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art awarded by our friends at the Gibbes Museum will be accepted through May 31! The 1858 Prize awards $10,000 to an artist whose work contributes to a new understanding of art in the South. Learn more here.