A fund to honor her late father, Emmy award-winning television producer Charles Hobson.
Hallie S. Hobson is the Harlem-based founder and principal of HSH Consulting LLC, a boutique management consulting firm supporting nonprofit arts organizations. She created a fund in The Trust to honor her late father, Emmy award-winning television producer Charles Hobson, who, beginning in the 1960s, produced pioneering programs that gave a powerful voice to Black New Yorkers and helped dissipate racial stereotypes.
“In philanthropy, I think it’s important to put your dollars where your values are. It takes resources to bring good into the world, so we should commit to causes that are important to us and support them.
I’ve lived all over the country, but I fell in love with New York because of its energy and vibrant arts community. One of the incredible things about New York is you don’t have to buy a ticket and go in to see a show at a museum or theater. There’s just magic on the streets all the time in these serendipitous encounters with people and culture.
I first became passionate about the arts because of my parents. My father was a documentary filmmaker. My mother, Cheryl Chisholm, worked in publishing and at the Smithsonian Museum of African Art—and is now completing her PhD. We always went to museums, concerts, and dance performances—and perhaps more importantly—knew painters, writers, dancers, all kinds of makers. Arts, culture, and creativity are just an organic part of who I am.
I know artists and visionaries have dreams of what they want to bring to the world. As creatives themselves, both my parents instilled in me the importance of resourcing ideas to make them something tangible, so that’s a lens that I’ve brought to my love of the arts.
After my father died in 2019, I realized that creating a fund in his name could be a great way to pay tribute to him. The fund has been a fun reason to talk to people about his legacy and share memories. And now people who knew my father know there’s this vehicle they can use to honor him and his work. It’s a living, growing resource.”
