Feature Articles


March Issue 2002

Brookgreen Gardens in Pawleys Island, SC, Opens New E. Craig Wall, Jr. Lowcountry Center

Brookgreen Gardens in Pawleys Island, SC, has completed a $4 million renovation project and is opening the doors of its new E. Craig Wall, Jr. Lowcountry Center on Mar. 9, 2002.

It was built as a barn and stables in 1932, and later used as a maintenance facility. Now it's a state-of-the-art educational center that provides distinctive new ways to tell the Brookgreen story to visitors.

The E. Craig Wall, Jr. Lowcountry Center, a 30,000-square foot brick structure with a shiny new copper roof, will add to the history and culture components of Brookgreen. In celebration of the center, our Lowcountry Festival kicks off at the same time, featuring 12 weekends of special events and speakers.

The Lowcountry Center offers indoor and outdoor spaces, both with unique program capabilities. The 15,000-foot nearly square courtyard in the center of the four quadrangle buildings features a rice field trunk exhibition in a re-created creek, cultural gardens with heirloom plants, a program shed for performances and speakers, and the Courtyard Café, an outdoor dining area offering muffins, snacks, sandwiches, salads and soups.

Lowcountry: Change and Continuity, a major new exhibit, tells the story of human interaction with this land over the centuries. It features wall size photomurals by South Carolina naturalist photographer Tom Blagden, of Charleston, SC, along with a range of artifacts tracing the history of man's occupation of this extraordinary landscape. Two new daily programs will acquaint visitors with Brookgreen's animal life - "Meet the Animals" and Lowcountry archaeology - "Digging Deeper" in which visitors can try their hands at sifting for cultural treasures. Daily excursions, including a boat tour along the tidal creeks and a back roads trek into portions of the property not normally open to visitors, will also run from the center.

Brookgreen Gardens is located on U.S. 17 between Myrtle Beach and Charleston, SC, and is open to the public daily. It also contains the Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington Sculpture Garden, the country's first sculpture garden where more than 550 works of American figurative sculpture are displayed throughout one of the greatest public gardens in the Southeast. In addition, the property contains wildlife and historical exhibits that reveal the distinctive life and land of Lowcountry Carolina. Brookgreen Gardens is one of only 12 institutions in the country accredited by both the American Association of Museums and the American Zoo and Aquarium Association.

For more info call 800/849-1931, 843/235-6000, or at (http://www.brookgreen.org).

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