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 Mint Museum engages audiences at many learning levels, always striving to enhance the learner’s appreciation and understanding of the visual arts. Lectures and demonstrations provide a window into the themes, cultural history and techniques of art. Classes sharpen minds as well as skills in art and craft media. The Mint Museum welcomes families, children, adults and seniors, offering gallery guides, touchable objects, hands-on workshops and Family Days that enable participants to connect to art and to each other.

The Museum is a gathering place, a visitor attraction, a landmark, an anchor, a catalyst for change; we exist to educate and to deliver a message that will encourage people to think differently about their relationship to others and the world; a center of creativity, the Museum collects, displays and interprets all aspects of the visual arts, particularly women artists, in ways that relate to the past, to the present, and to the future. The Brevard Art Museum is a community cultural bridge.

Museum Park Miami is the City of Miami's official design vision for Bicentennial Park, an underused 29-acre, waterfront City-owned park on Biscayne Bay in Downtown Miami. MAM and Miami Science Museum worked with the City through its public design process to help create this vision. The bond issue approved by the City's electorate in 2001 provided the seed funds for the museums' projects. The Museum Park project will return this neglected park to the citizens of the City of Miami and Miami-Dade County.

"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."

The Children's Museum of Winston-Salem's mission is to create a compelling destination for our community to play and learn by experiencing literature, storytelling and the arts.

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.

The Museum is located on Bicentennial Plaza in downtown Raleigh between the Capitol and the Legislature Building, at the corner of Jones and Salisbury streets.

The African American Heritage Preservation Cultural Complex (AACC) originated in 1984,as a hobby, by Dr. and Mrs. E.B. Palmer, then opened in 1989 as the Black Heritage Park. The Palmers’ and George Barner incorporated AACC in 1994. The Palmers’ entered into a Lease Agreement in 1991 for $1.00 per year. The park occupies approximately 3 acres of the wooded land to the rear of the Palmer House at 119 Sunnybrook Road. The AACC was chartered and granted 501 (c)(3) tax status in October 1994. The AACC currently has 3Exhibit Houses located along a natural trail beside a creek, a Mini-Amphitheater, a Bird Sanctuary, Nature Preserve and a Picnic Area and Botanical Gardens. There is no admission fee, however, visitors and friends have donated small sums of money. Friends and organizations have also donated labor and artifacts.

The mission of the Carolina Art Association (the Gibbes Museum of Art) is to offer through collection, exhibition and interpretation a thorough knowledge of the visual culture of Charleston, the Lowcountry and the American South from the colonial era through today.

The Jacksonville Fire Museum serves as an educational Link between the past and the present. Through the years, thousands of school children have toured the museum, learning about fire safety and the rich history of the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department.
At the Jacksonville Fire Museum , you will see more than 500 items detailing the history of the fire service not only in Jacksonville, but the entire state of Florida. Some of the artifacts are on loan from private individuals while other artifacts are property of the Jacksonville Fire Museum .

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.

The Summerville-Dorchester Museum is located in the former Summerville Police station. It is a tribute to the vision of our Board of Directors, members and volunteers; and is a successful example of recycling an old building into a useful community facility.

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.

The Columbia Museum of Art seeks to inspire, educate and enrich the lives of the community, South Carolinians, tourists and visitors by collecting and preserving fine and decorative art from around the world, exhibiting highly regarded work from a broad range of cultures and providing dynamic educational and cultural programs.

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 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.

A non-profit, educational association and collects books, documents, artifacts, and other historical objects significant to General Maritime History of Jacksonville and Florida's First Coast; preserves their historical value; and interprets their meaning to the public by means of museum displays, educational programs, lectures and publications.
The founders of the JMMS have declared preserving the history of Jacksonville has laid the groundwork for establishing a rich collection of artifacts and manuscripts that relate to Jacksonville’s past, present, and future. The strength of the JMMS collection lies in its connections between artifacts and the people who owned, used, and learned from them.

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.

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

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 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.

Creative Discovery Museum is recognized as one of the premier hands-on children's museums in the region. Gather the young and young-at-heart and make plans now to visit us at Creative Discovery Museum. Whether it's for a couple of hours or a whole day, time spent at the Museum is sure to be worthwhile learning for the whole family.

This 80,000 square foot Museum opened in August 2003 with main galleries featuring contemporary Western American art. Other galleries feature Civil War art, Presidential portraits and letters, Western movie posters, and Western illustration. Sagebrush Ranch is an interactive gallery where children of all ages can learn about art and Western America. The Museum’s Special Exhibit Gallery hosts three to five temporary exhibits per year.
The Museum Store offers books on art and the West, as well as prints and other items featuring Western American art images. The Café offers light lunches to guests and members visiting the Museum. A multimedia theatre, with seating for 60, shows the orientation film “The American West” every 20 minutes.

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.