The Gibbes Museum Store now has an online shop! The Museum Store showcases the creativity of regional artists, and collaborates with artists on exclusive products only available at the Gibbes. Featured products include jewelry, gifts, art supplies, books, and specialty items—introducing art into everyday life. Shoppers can also purchase a gift certificate to brighten a friend’s day. The store is managed by Erin Glaze Nathanson, Director of Contemporary Initiatives and Public Engagement, who is working daily to increase our online offerings on the new site.
The Museum Store has been a fixture of the Gibbes since 1970. Founded and originally staffed by the Women’s Council Auxiliary Group, it was initially called the Turtle Shop after Anna Heyward Taylor’s woodblock print, Sea Turtle. During the Gibbes’ Capital Campaign from 2014 – 2016, the Women’s Council raised over $250,000 to secure its naming rights and it is now officially called the Gibbes Women’s Council Museum Store. Although Gibbes staff manage the day-to-day operations, Women’s Council volunteers continue to help staff the shop.
The original mission for the store was the potential it offered for earned income to support the programming at the Gibbes due to the city’s increased tourism. Now, while many of our other streams of earned income such as classes and admissions are halted, the Gibbes store is again providing the Museum with an invaluable revenue stream. Every tax-free purchase directly supports the Gibbes Museum’s mission to enhance lives through art by helping to fund our exhibition and educational programming. Shop now at store.gibbesmuseum.org.
WORK OF THE WEEK
These are challenging times for our entire community, including our wonderful visual artists. Part of what makes the Gibbes so special is our partnerships with these artists. Through our Gibbes Visiting Artist program, we showcase the creative process and enable our visitors to understand art beyond the finished aesthetic. These open studios provide the opportunity for exchange of ideas, inspiration, deeper understanding, and even a safe space for challenging discourse. Along with the Museum’s galleries, we’ve had to close these studio spaces, and have taken this moment to collaborate with our past visiting artists to feature an original work for sale each week.
Our manifesto states, “In the presence of art, we have the opportunity to see inside someone’s heart, mind, and soul and feel what they felt. That understanding and compassion make us more understanding, compassionate people, who, in turn, create a more compassionate, understanding world. That is art’s gift.” Our visiting artists have brought this sentiment to life, and we’re pleased to present a new offering in the store featuring a “Work of the Week”. These original artworks provide an opportunity to invest in a work of art by our talented and accomplished visiting artists, and provide a means to support the artist and the Museum simultaneously.
WEEK OF APRIL 13
About this Work
“I painted Farfugium, Gibbes Museum during my residency at the Gibbes in 2019. It was done from observation in the museum’s garden. To me, the piece represents a questioning of authentic experience vs. mediated experience. I flip between traditional genres like plein air painting and newer ones in the digital sphere. During this time of quarantine, how can we create ‘authentic’ interactions with others when most of these interactions are mediated by computers? Paintings are, in a sense, simulations just like more recently developed mediums. I think we can use our long standing analysis of traditional genres to help us understand these new ways to stay connected,” said Eddy. Shop now.
About the Artist
Adam Eddy received his BA in Studio Art and Art History from College of Charleston, and his MFA in Painting and Drawing from Boston University. His work has been exhibited nationally in group and solo exhibitions. He currently resides in Charleston, SC, where he teaches in the department of Studio Art at the College of Charleston.
Adam Eddy participated in the Visiting Artist program at the Gibbes from January 10–May 10, 2019.
WEEK OF APRIL 6
About this Work
Hirona Matsuda is best known for her miniature-scale assemblage sculpture. She uses found and salvaged materials to reconstruct images influenced by observations of her surroundings. The results are narrative constructions with a focus on the balance of light and shadow, deliberately composed to recreate the feel of a remembered space as well as highlight its physical elements. Shop now.
About the Artist
Matsuda grew up in Charlotte, NC and moved to South Carolina to attend the College of Charleston. She set up her studio in the downtown arts district soon after graduation and produced her first group exhibition in 2007. Since then she has collaborated with some of Charleston’s most influential contemporary artists and curators. In recent years she completed several large scale installations and set designs with local artists Alan Jackson and Riki Matsuda. This experience with installation and site specific work influenced her most recent solo exhibition “1218” at Beresford Studios which incorporated quintessential found objects on a larger, more interactive scale.
Hirona Matsuda participated in the Visiting Artist program at the Gibbes from September 17–October 6, 2018.
WEEK OF MARCH 30
About this Work
“This piece is a note to myself that ‘time’ encompasses a much more vast share of who I was, who I am, and who I might become. My present space and condition will always be torn down and rebuilt by time,” says Tim Hussey. Shop now.
About the Artist
Tim Hussey’s work can be described as ambiguous abstraction mainly composed of frenetic forms and indiscernible space. Hussey was born in Dover, Delaware in 1970 and grew up in Charleston, SC. He received his Bachelors in Fine Arts in 1992 from Rhode Island School of Design, spending his junior year at Parsons Paris. He has received numerous awards from American Illustration, Print Magazine, and The Society of Publication Designers.
Tim Hussey participated in the Visiting Artist program at the Gibbes from April 22–May 19, 2019.
Published April 10, 2020