Tiffany Reed Silverman is The Citadel’s first full-time academic faculty member in the Fine Arts, with a mission to facilitate transformative experiences at the intersection of the arts, the military, and the community through education, exhibitions, and events.
Born to a Marine and a teacher in Beaufort, Silverman earned degrees in art history at the College of William & Mary and Williams College, and a certificate in arts management from UMass Amherst. She has held arts-related positions in publishing and museums, including Director of Education at the Gibbes Museum of Art, and has served as an adjunct faculty member in Arts Management at the College of Charleston. After starting as adjunct faculty at The Citadel in 2008, Silverman became the first permanent faculty member in the arts in Citadel history in 2011, then was named the institution’s first-ever Director of Fine Arts the following year.
Over 700 cadets (a quarter of the corps) now participate in art-related curriculum each year, including courses she developed such as Forensic Photography, Arts Management, and Combat Art. Since its creation in 2014, the Fine Arts minor has become the largest minor on campus with 500 graduates of the program. She has also led study trips to Washington, DC and New York City and is the co-director of The Citadel STEAM Camp for middle school students in partnership with The Citadel’s STEM Center of Excellence.
Instrumental in the launch of the Moore Art Gallery in 2023, Silverman has curated multiple exhibits and published two catalogs, including “Behind the Lines: Combat Art and The Citadel Experience,” now on a national tour, “Opening the Gates: Artistic Connections on The Citadel Campus,” and “All Hands on Deck: Edward Steichen and the WWII Naval Photographic Unit.” Over 18,000 people have visited the gallery under her tenure. She is also a champion for public art, including a panel honoring the South Carolina National Guard on the football stadium and a block-long mural on Rutledge for those lost in the Emmanuel 9 tragedy.
Silverman oversees a robust calendar of events, most free and open to the public. Among many other, she has brought Monuments Men author Robert Edsel and actor Bill Murray to discuss WWII Nazi art looting with 1,500 attendees, a site-specific installation of artist Mary Edna Fraser’s campus-inspired batiks as The Citadel’s first entry into Piccolo Spoleto, the launch of watercolor artist Mary Whyte’s book of portraits of veterans called We the People, and collaborated with Exit12 Dance Company to create and perform a dance about cadet life. Silverman speaks about The Citadel’s Fine Arts programs at events such as the national Combat Art Symposium, Pecha Kucha, the Roper St. Francis Leadership Lecture Series, and The Citadel Alumni Club Breakfast.
Silverman has been honored with the South Carolina Governor’s Award for the Arts, Individual Category, the highest honor in the state in her field. She was also the first recipient of The Citadel’s first Excellence in Teaching Award given to a non-tenure track faculty member, as well as the Campus Compact of South Carolina Faculty Award for Service Learning, the Krause Center Service Learning Fellowship, and the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award. Silverman’s board service includes the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Coastal Carolina Scouting USA, the Charleston Museum, the City of Charleston’s Commission on the Arts, the Junior League of Charleston, and the advisory board of the Patriot Art Foundation.
Degrees
M.A. Art History (Williams College)
B.A. Art History (College of William & Mary, with honors)
Leadership in Arts Management Certificate, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Graduate coursework in Photography, Savannah College of Art and Design
Graduate coursework in Intelligence Studies, The Citadel