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July Issue 2005
South Carolina State Museum in Columbia, SC, Features Works from Charleston's City Hall
The South Carolina State
Museum in Columbia, SC, has been entrusted to hold valuable art
from Charleston City Hall while the facility undergoes a multi-million
dollar renovation. Museum visitors can see this art in the exhibit,
A Look Inside: Decorative Arts of Charleston's City Hall,
showcasing paintings and furniture that have been temporarily
removed from the building. The exhibition will be on view from
July 8, 2005, through June 11, 2006.
"This all started with the city of Charleston asking us to
store some paintings while its city hall building is being renovated,"
says Chief Registrar Michelle Baker. "The paintings arrived
in August of 2004 and will be here until the project is complete,
which is supposed to be in December of 2006."
Twenty-three paintings, including portraits of George Washington
and a horse, will be displayed in the Museum's fourth-floor, 401
Gallery. Baker says that most of the paintings in the show are
portraits featuring some past mayors of Charleston and prominent
South Carolinians.
These South Carolinians include Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States; Daniel Jenkins, who formed an orphanage for African-Americans during the 1890s; Clelia McGowan, the first female in South Carolina to hold a political office; and Septima Clark, a Charleston-born civil rights activist.
Some of the paintings are as large as 110 inches in length and require a great amount of space for their display. "Five of the paintings are very large and will take up a whole wall by themselves," says Baker.
Paintings will not be
the only decorative arts that are displayed from Charleston City
Hall. Also in the collection are two chairs, one with a wicker
bottom, a brass light fixture in the shape of a goddess, a wooden
table, and a sword once used by General Pierre G.T. Beauregard.
Also housed at City Hall were printing plates used to create currency
during the War of 1812 and the Civil War, as well as the early
days of Reconstruction. Because of high inflation, the city of
Charleston received permission to make its own currency.
For further information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call 803/898-4921 or at (www.museum.state.sc.us).
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