Join us for an artist talk by Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan, two of Asia’s leading contemporary artists noted for their community-based installation works around the world. They are currently in Charleston as artists-in-residence at the Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts (FSA). The talk will be followed by a Q/A session moderated by FSA Founder Tyler Rollins.

FSA, based in Charleston, SC, builds on the wisdom of millennia of careful reflection about the divine, and fosters conversations, residencies, and other programs to nurture connections between contemporary art, spirituality, and faith.

Alfredo Juan Aquilizan (b. 1962, Cagayan, Philippines) and Isabel Aquilizan y Gaudinez (b. 1965, Manila, Philippines in 1965) evolved their collaborative practices within the spheres of their family and communities of friends and artists. They moved with their five children to Australia in 2006 and now divide their time between Brisbane and Los Baños, Philippines.

In June 2023, the Aquilizans presented a major survey exhibition, Somewhere, Elsewhere, Nowhere, at Museum MACAN (Jakarta, Indonesia), which encompasses two decades of their work. They have exhibited in galleries and institutions worldwide, including Japanischen Palais, Germany (2024); Groninger Museum, Netherlands (2024); Rockhampton Museum of Art (2024); Asia Culture Center (2024); the Art Gallery of New South Wales (2023); National Gallery Singapore (2022); Podo Museum, South Korea (2022); Madre Museum, Italy (2022); Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong (2021); Museum of Brisbane (2021); Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand (2019); Mao Jihong Arts Foundation and Centre Pompidou, China (2018).

The artists have participated in several art fairs and biennials including the National 4: Australian Art Now, Campbelltown Art Centre (2023); Busan Biennale, South Korea (2019); Gangwon International Biennale, South Korea (2018); Sharjah Biennale, UAE (2013); Asia Pacific Triennale, Australia (2009); Singapore Biennale (2008); Biennale of Sydney, Australia (2006); Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2004); and Venice Biennale, Italy (2003).

Their works are included in collections of the Museum MACAN (Indonesia); Singapore Art Museum; Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (Japan); National Museum of Australia (Canberra); Queensland Art Gallery (Australia); MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum (Thailand); ILHAM Museum (Malaysia); MSK Museum of Fine Art (Ghent, Belgium); Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (Australia); and Lopez Museum Foundation (Philippines), among others.

Continuing our collaboration with SaltWata Cinema Club, we will be screening Daughters of the Dust (1991), written and directed by Julie Dash.

SaltWata Cinema Club is an itinerant film club designed to engage the community in film and conversation, with an emphasis on Black, Diasporic, Indie, and short films. It was created in 2019 by Charleston’s current Poet Laureate, A$iahMae. For more information about A$iahMae, visit asiahmae.com. Read more about SaltWata Cinema Club in this article by Chelsea Grinstead in the Post & Courier. 

Daughters of the Dust is a languid, impressionistic story of three generations of Gullah women living on the South Carolina Sea Islands in 1902. A short Q&A to follow the film.  

Simons Center Room 380, located on the 3rd floor of the Simons Center, 54 St. Philip Street. Enter the Simons Center main entrance on St. Philip Street and take the elevator at the right to the 3rd floor.  

Parking is available at the George Street Parking Garage, and street parking. 

Free and open to the public. 

What do artists need to sustain their creative lives, and what can we offer one another to help make that possible?

Join Sharon Louden, artist, educator, and founder of the Institute of Sustained Creativity, for Needs, Wants, Gives, an open, conversational workshop designed to spark connection, strengthen creative communities, and build new opportunities for artists.

Drawing on decades of experience working with artists and arts professionals across the country, Louden addresses the practical, everyday challenges of sustaining a life in the arts. At the heart of this workshop is a simple but powerful idea: artists can help one another thrive by sharing knowledge, resources, skills, and opportunities.

Participants will be invited to reflect on what they need, what they want, and what they can give. Through an informal exchange among artists of different generations, backgrounds, and experiences, the workshop creates space to build relationships, discover shared priorities, and explore how individual strengths can support a more connected and generous creative community.

Louden developed this approach through years of conversations with artists, national book tours, workshops with Creative Capital, advising Joan Mitchell Foundation grantees, and decades as an educator. Across these experiences, she has seen how validation, inclusion, and meaningful opportunities to share work are essential to artists’ long-term sustainability.

Come ready to share, listen, connect, and imagine what becomes possible when artists invest in one another. Please RSVP to make sure we have a big enough room.

Sharon Louden wears many interchangeable hats: artist, educator, advocate, consultant, community builder, founder and director of the Institute for Sustained Creativity, and editor of the Living and Sustaining a Creative Life series of books. As a changemaker, Louden amplifies creative voices and advances meaningful opportunities for artists — particularly those who are underserved and underseen — across all disciplines to help them sustain their creative lives.

With decades of experience across sectors, Louden is a visionary leader and connector who bridges communities and catalyzes change. She is a skilled collaborator, convening siloed stakeholders from the nonprofit and business sectors to generate dialogue and drive collective progress. At its core, all of her work is rooted in her active creative practice as a working artist.

The Institute of Sustained Creativity functions as a catalyst to connect artists, arts leaders, organizations, foundations, corporations, nonprofits, and academic institutions. We build and grow meaningful relationships by centering artists’ needs and goals through intentional, intergenerational, and cross-sector introductions. Our work bringing together stakeholders does not end with initial matchmaking. We remain committed to successful collaborations that become lasting over time.

Bring the whole crew for a fun-filled morning of art and creativity! Inspired by the exhibitions Grounded in Grain, Washed in the Water, this free event features hands-on activities for all ages — yes, even adults! 

Free and open to the public.