Halsey Institute's Sloan is true ambassador for the arts

When you walk into Mark Sloan's office, don't be startled if you encounter a grotesque monkey head atop the figure of a Feejee Island mermaid sculpted in 1842. Lying beside it is a display of tiny disembodied porcelain legs arranged on a bed of framed cotton.

"I'm intrigued by ordinary people engaged in extraordinary endeavors," says Sloan, who admits he would probably be running a circus if he were not a college professor.

The director of the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston, where he is an associate professor in the School of the Arts, Sloan, 50, seems to be everywhere at once.

Last winter he collaborated with Medical University of South Carolina President Raymond Greenberg in installing an impressive collection of contemporary art to humanize the hospital setting of MUSC's Ashley River Tower.

Greenberg, who grew up with Sloan in Chapel Hill, says, "Even then, Mark was very outgoing, and he has used his incredible energy to put his own imprint on important projects. He's a wonderful ambassador for the arts."

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Post and Courier.