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October Issue 2006
University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC, Features 30th Anniversary Exhibit for McKissick Museum
The University of South Carolina's McKissick Museum, in Columbia, SC, which has showcased the stories of Southern culture for three decades, is telling its own story.
As part of the museum's 30th anniversary, the museum is displaying items from its own collections in an exhibit called, Telling Our Story: 30th Anniversary of McKissick Museum, on view through Dec. 9, 2006.
Among the objects on display are a 6-by-4-foot oil painting of the McKissick Museum, as well as items from the museum's special collections, including Southern traditional pottery from the folk arts, gems and minerals from the natural sciences, and a spinning wheel from the material culture collections.
Since it was established in 1976 by former USC President William Patterson to preserve the university's collections and to be a resource for teachers, students and the community, McKissick Museum has built a reputation among artists and Southern culture aficionados for its exhibits that highlight Southern culture and traditions.
"For the past 14 years, I have viewed McKissick Museum as a beacon of consistent light for artists, collectors, academicians and individuals who have a desire to learn about Southern culture and life through the use of the visual arts," said artist Jonathan Green, whose works have been prominently displayed at McKissick.
"Additionally, the museum has helped provide critical services to me and to my studio staff through its director, curatorial staff and educational outreach programs."
Lynn Robertson, director of the museum, said the collections are an important resource for anyone studying Southern heritage.
"Today, the university's collections at McKissick are among the most important at a Southern university," Robertson said. "They tell the history of USC and are very important in any study of the history and cultural heritage of South Carolina."
One of the museum's very first exhibits showed objects of folk art and material culture that clearly reflected life of the South. The Southern Make (1981), Social Fabric (1984) and Carolina Folk (1985) exhibits acquainted viewers with the nature and importance of regional folk arts. The exhibits not only encouraged people to preserve material culture, but also to donate some of their own materials to the museum.
In the mid 1980s, the museum gained national attention by supporting the South Carolina Folk Arts Program, which promoted South Carolina's traditional arts. Practicing artists of South Carolina shared their knowledge about their traditional art collections and provided it to be displayed at the museum. As the museum gained popularity, works by noted international artists such as Pablo Picasso, as well as noted South Carolina artists such as Edward Rice and Sam Doyle, adorned the museum walls.
In the early 1990s, the museum introduced interdisciplinary research and exhibition projects, including Jubilation: African-American Celebrations in the South Between Emancipation and Civil Rights and From Deep Roots to New Ground: The Art of Jonathan Green.
The late 1990s brought non-traditional topics and artists to the museum with exhibits that took a new look at the South. Bernie Imes' photographs depicted a declining Mississippi road house in Whispering Pines. Photographer Stanley Lanzano took moving photographs of Lowcountry religion in Lord, I wish I had a Prayin' Church Tonight. The museum also expanded its initiatives to include film projects, traditional craft workshops and community festivals.
The new millennium brought change to the McKissick
Museum once again as more exhibits became faculty-and student-focused.
It continues to be a research laboratory and a classroom for students
and faculty to work with museum curators on projects. The
Museum Management Certificate Program has also been established
to teach graduate students museum skills. McKissick has won many
awards and has received many endowments for its impact on the
community and the nation. In 2001, McKissick Museum
won the Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Award for its outstanding contribution
to South Carolina arts, and, in 1992, it received the South
Carolina Governor's Award for exemplary humanities programming.
In 1985, the museum received a grant from the National Endowment
for the Arts, Folk Arts Program. This established the first South
Carolina Folk Arts program of the state.
For more information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings,
call the Museum at 803/777-7251 or at (www.cas.sc.edu/mcks/).
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