Feature Articles

November Issue 2002

Carousel Exhibit a Holiday Tradition at Brookgreen Gardens in Pawleys Island, SC

From Nov. 17 through Jan. 5, 2003, a festive display of carved carousel animals will be on exhibit in the Rainey Sculpture Pavilion at Brookgreen Gardens in Pawleys Island, SC. The exhibit entitled, Round & Round: American Carousel Figures, is a collection of six different carving shops that arose in the late 19th century and continued until the late 1920s.

Twelve colorful and elaborately-carved animals will be on display, including two new ones and several returning from previous years. Carousel horses, lions and tigers, zebra, giraffe and more - even an adorable, saddled frog! - are featured. The animals are all on loan from the Tuttle collection.

New this year are daily tours of the carousel exhibit that will be conducted by exhibit curator Charlene Winkler and Brookgreen docents. The carousel exhibition is made possible in part by a generous gift from Burroughs & Chapin Co, Inc.

The Jennewein Gallery, located in Brookgreen's Rainey Sculpture Pavilion, will be transformed into a setting that creates an authentic carousel atmosphere. The figures are displayed in the tradiational carousel circle, with a tree of poinsettas festivly deocrating the middle. Visitors are treated to audio and visual delights as well, with a revolving mirror ball hung from the ceiling and music playing throughout the gallery.

"Everyone, the young and the old alike, will enjoy this collection, especially during the holiday season when we all like to take the time to remember or to relive childhood memories," says Robin Salmon, vice president and curator of sculpture. "There is even the possibility that people will find a figure from a park that they went to, or that they took their children to."

The exhibit was designed under the direction of Winkler, an artist herself, and a practitioner in the art of the carousel. It will feature carousel figures carved as early as 1902 and displays both the Philadelphia shop style - elegantly carved realistic animals used mostly for carousels in the nation's city park pavilions, and the Coney Island styles of carving - wild looking bejeweled animals for the newer, glitzy amusement parks in the northeast. The third style represented in the exhibit is Country Fair, the smaller animals transported around the country from fair to fair.

This delightful exhibit is complimentary and will be open to the public from 9:30am to 5pm, Tue. through Sun. Brookgreen will close on Mon. during the winter season from Nov. 18 through Mar. 8, 2003.

For more information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call 843/235-6000 or on the web at (www.brookgreen.org).

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