Southeast USA Museums and Culture

The North Carolina Museum of Art's collection spans more than 5,000 years, from ancient Egypt to the present. The ancient collection includes Egyptian funerary art and important examples of sculpture and vase painting from the Greek and Roman worlds. The collection of European paintings and sculpture from the Renaissance through impressionism is internationally celebrated with important works by Giotto, Sandro Botticelli, Raphael, Anthony van Dyck, Peter Paul Rubens, Antonio Canova and Claude Monet. American art of the 18th and 19th centuries features paintings by John Singleton Copley, Thomas Cole, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins and William Merritt Chase. Modern art includes major works by such American artists as Marsden Hartley, Georgia O'Keeffe, Franz Kline, Frank Stella, Jacob Lawrence, Elizabeth Murray and Joel Shapiro. Modern European masters include Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Delvaux, Henry Moore, Anselm Kiefer and Gerhard Richter. Galleries are also devoted to African, Ancient American and Oceanic Art, as well as Jewish ceremonial art.

The South Florida Museum, in accordance with its mission, endeavors to be a premier regional museum of natural and cultural history.The Museum's mission to preserve, interpret, and communicate – through collections, exhibitions, and educational programs – scientific and cultural knowledge of Florida, the world, and our universe.

The original impetus for the formation of the present Greenville Museum of Art was the first Women's Club Arts Festival in 1935. The enthusiastic community support of this venture inspired the festival leaders to develop an initial momentum that resulted in the formation of a permanent art facility in 1939. Rachel Maxwell Moore contacted the Federal Art Project in Raleigh, which authorized the establishment of a Federal Art Project's Gallery in Greenville.
Presently the Museum exists as a local attraction to the citizens of Greenville and Pitt County, although visitors from across the state visit the Museum regularly. Gallery talks and openings, tours, art classes and its numerous outreach programs generate a continued interest in the Museum. Participants and visitors range in age from young to old. Annually over 3,000 children participate in programs offered by the Museum and over 12,000 people visit the Museum.

The Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry (CML) is Charleston’s first hands-on learning environment designed just for children ages 3 months to 12 years and their families. Since opening its doors on September 21, 2003, more than 450,000 visitors have explored the museum’s eight interactive exhibits, ranging from a full-scale shrimp boat to an area just for infants and toddlers. CML is the perfect family destination—many parents seize the opportunity to be a kid again and discover the exhibits with their child(ren), and each exhibit offers something for children of any age.
The mission of the Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry is to spark the love of learning in all children of the tri-county area. Through hands-on, interactive experiences with the arts, sciences and humanities, children will develop creative thinking and problem solving skills and a belief in their own potential.

Displaying more than 30 authentic Winston Cup race cars, the Winston Cup Museum chronicles RJ Reynolds Tobacco's 33-year sponsorship of the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. The museum also displays a extensive variety of racing artifacts.

The Ritz Theatre & LaVilla Museum Celebrates the rich legacy of the African-American community that thrived in LaVilla for more than 100 years. The theatre and museum are revered as the premiere cultural institution in Jacksonville, Florida, showcasing art, music, drama, poetry, and African American history.
The stories and legends of LaVilla, known as the "Harlem of the South," live on within the walls of the refurbished museum and theatre. Ritz Theatre & LaVilla Museum is committed to reclaiming the past, celebrating the present, and embracing the future.

Dozens of fun, hands-on interactive exhibits based on scientific principles challenge visitors' ideas about science and technology. Interactive exhibits show you how to create clouds, generate electricity with a bike, marvel at optical illusions, and build and control your own robot!
Natural history exhibits feature "Suzie," a 22,000 year-old mastodon found in Palm Beach County. Also, authentic and reproduction skeletons of whales, sharks and dinosaurs bring history to life.
Native and exotic sea life from warm waters around the world populate the museum's aquariums, while an acre of naturally landscaped outdoor trails features over a dozen original interactive exhibits. Exciting laser shows and star shows thrill young and old alike in the Marvin Dekelboum Planetarium.

Nestled in picturesque Orlando Loch Haven Park, the Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) is one of Florida's cultural gems and a popular destination for visitors from all over the world. The collection focuses on American art from the 19th century to the present, African art and art of the ancient Americas. Outstanding temporary exhibitions are drawn from private collections and those of the world's great museums.

Come experience the thrill of riding the rails - see, hear, and feel a part of railroad history. The New Hope Valley Railway at the North Carolina Railroad Museum has operating days in season from May to December, with activities, themes, and events for visitors of all ages to enjoy. Purchase train ride tickets for our scheduled operating days or you can charter group train rides, schedule operate-a-loco, or have a birthday party in a historic caboose.

From a stately home on Peachtree Street to its current award-winning buildings in a spectacular setting, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta has grown to become the leading art museum in the Southeastern United States with its renowned collection of classic and contemporary art and renowned architecture by Richard Meier and Renzo Piano.

"The NEW World of Coca­Cola is the only place where visitors can explore the complete story—past, present and future—of the world's best-known brand! For over 120 years, we've been putting our secret formula into bottles. Now, we've put it all in one amazing place—the NEW World of Coca­Cola.
With 62,000 square feet of guest areas, the NEW World of Coca­Cola is approximately twice the size of the previous World of Coca­Cola.
We will feature more than 1,200 artifacts from around the world that have never been displayed to the public before. In fact, only about 50 artifacts from the previous World of Coca­Cola will be showcased at the NEW World of Coca­Cola.
A visit of the entire facility lasts an average of 90 minutes."

At the South Carolina Cotton Museum, we currently offer educational programs that both entertain and inform. Our programs are interactive: the student becomes involved!
Our educational programs are geared to various age levels. Teachers may also select from our library of video presentations to enhance the educational experience. Our younger visitors participate in the "From Seeds to Shirts" program, in which our staff describes how a cotton seed is magically transformed into a t-shirt.

In 2002, Jeff and Susan Lane established Lane Motor Museum. Jeff has been an automotive enthusiast since an early age. He began restoring his first car—a 1955 MG TF—when he was a teen. His personal collection was the donation that began the foundation. Lane Motor Museum unveiled its collection to the public in October of 2003. As director, Jeff Lane continues to search out cars for the collection that are technically significant or uniquely different. The goal of Lane Motor Museum is to share in the mission of collection and preserving automotive history for future generations.
The Museum is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization.

The KMA’s predecessor, the Dulin Gallery of Art, opened in 1961 in a beaux-arts mansion in West Knoxville. By the middle 1980s the Dulin had outgrown its quarters, and a major community effort raised $11 million for a new museum in downtown Knoxville at the site of the 1982 World’s Fair. The Knoxville Museum of Art opened in March 1990 in a state-of-the-art, 53,200 square-foot facility designed by renowned museum architect Edward Larrabee Barnes. The building, clad in Tennessee marble, is named in honor of local philanthropist Jim Clayton, the largest donor to the building fund.

EdVenture’s mission is to inspire children to experience the joy of learning and to create new generations of lifelong learners.

The beginnings of the Tennessee State Museum can be traced back to a museum opened on the Nashville public square in 1817 by a portrait artist, Ralph E.W. Earl. A young boy who visited that museum in 1823 wrote home that he had seen a life-size painting of then General Andrew Jackson. That same painting hangs today in the State Museum, now located at the corner of Fifth and Deaderick streets.
In 1937 the General Assembly created a state museum to house World War I mementoes and other collections from the state, the Tennessee Historical Society and other groups. This museum was located in the lower level of the War Memorial Building until it was moved into the new James K. Polk Center in 1981. The Tennessee State Museum currently occupies three floors, covering approximately 120,000 square feet with more than 60,000 square feet devoted to exhibits.

The science portion of the museum has fourteen different collections in Archaeology, Arthropod, Botany Herbarium, Economic Geology, Herpetology, Ichthyology, Invertebrate, Mammalogy, Mycological Herbarium, Ornithology, Paleontology, Pollen and Plant Microspore, Rocks and Minerals, and Zooarchaeology as well as more than 325,000 alcohol-preserved fish specimens. In addition, there are exhibits, archives, and entertainment for children.[4] Its more than four million objects makes it one of the largest museums in the Southeast. Source

The museum is an important component of The University of Tennessee, and participates in the implementation of the University's mission. The University of Tennessee is committed to the development of individuals and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit. This is to be accomplished through teaching, scholarship, artistic creation, public service, and professional practice.
The complementary mission of the Frank H. McClung Museum is to advance understanding and appreciation of the earth and its peoples through the collection, preservation, study, interpretation, and exhibition of objects and data. The Museum is dedicated to the support of the academic programs of The University and to the attraction and education of the broadest spectrum of participants.

Only at Fernbank Museum can you come face-to-face with the world’s largest dinosaurs, explore the development of life on Earth through the landscapes of present-day Georgia, connect with cultures from around the globe, engage in a variety of hands-on exhibitions and more! And you won’t want to miss stunning rotating special exhibitions or the incredible 5-story experience of an IMAX® film.