SC State Museum Volunteers Visit the new Florence County Museum!

By Pam Borawski, Volunteer Scheduler

SC State Museum volunteers met early on the morning of September 26th to head to Florence, SC to visit the new Florence County Museum. The new museum building opened on October 12, 2014 and is located at 111 West Cheves Street in Florence. It only took us about an hour and a half to reach it from Columbia and admission is free.

The building itself was something to behold before we’d even entered through the front doors! Modern and sleek, we were already excited as Kimberly Groom, curator of education, opened the front doors for us. Jeff Powley, SC State Museum Volunteer Manager, said he was “astounded by the physical beauty of the new museum building,” especially the large glass wall that separated the lobby from a beautiful garden. State Museum volunteer Kathy Hart started her docent career at the Florence Museum, and she was impressed by the contrast of the old museum compared to the new one.

Kimberly Groom, Curator of Education

We were given two tours of their art galleries. Curator Kimberly Groom gave the first tour focused on the life and artwork of celebrated 20th century African-American artist, and Florence, SC native, William H. Johnson. It was fascinating traveling through Johnson’s life as we were shown the progression of his art style from talented art student painting still life, to the style he is most known for, his American style.

State Museum staff person, Hilary Brannock, saw Johnson’s artwork on exhibit at the Smithsonian but thought it was neat to see the same works in Florence. Unfortunately, that exhibit ended October 5th, but don’t fret, they have several William H. Johnson paintings in their permanent collection!

Stephen Motte, Curator of Collections and Interpretations gives State Museum volunteers a tour.

Our second art tour was upstairs in the Wright Collection of Southern Art. The Curator of Collections and Interpretations, Stephen Motte, showed us various paintings all pertaining to South Carolina in one way or another as we walked through this gallery.