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August Issue 2005
South Carolina State Museum in Columbia, SC, Features Works from Charleston, SC'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 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).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing
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