Greenville County Museum of Art

In 1963, the South Carolina General Assembly established the Greenville County Museum Commission.[2] The art association acquired its first permanent home with the purchase of the Gassaway Mansion in 1958.[3] In 1974 GCMA moved into its modernist building. The new building is almost 90,000 square feet for spacious exhibition galleries, a museum shop, art storage, a 190-seat auditorium, and classrooms for studio instruction. In 1973 the American Association of Museums accredited GCMA and renewed accreditation in 1986 and 1998.[2] In 1985, the Museum refined its collections policy to focus on creating a comprehensive survey of American art using southern related examples. In 1995 the GCMA published a book, The Southern Collection, which includes 126 essays about 146 different works in the collection.[3] The Greenville County Museum of Art is one of 55 museums in South Carolina fully accredited by the Alliance of American Museums, a rigorous benchmark.[4] The American Alliance of Museums awarded accreditation to the Museum first in 1973 and subsequently renewed accreditation in 1986, 1998, and 2009.[3]

The museum is nationally known for three collections: the Southern Collection, a survey of American art using southern-related examples; Andrew Wyeth: The Greenville Collection; and a collection of contemporary art unrivaled in the state.[2]

The museum's “Southern Collection” explores the breadth of American art and history through the Southern experience from the colonial era to the present. Among the highlights are a group of pre-Civil War vessels created by African-American potter and poet David Drake, a collection of American Impressionism, and an array of works by 20th-century masters like Georgia O’Keeffe, Romare Bearden, Merton Simpson, and Andy Warhol.[5] The GCMA is home to an important collection of modernist works by South Carolina native African-American artist William H. Johnson.[6] The museum boasts individual works by such twentieth-century masters as George Bellows, Georgia O’Keeffe, Josef Albers, and Philip Guston. The collection includes 92 works by Jasper Johns, 68 by Stephen Scott Young, and 87 by Andrew Wyeth.[2]

The GCMA is home to the largest and most complete collection of Wyeth watercolors owned by any public museum in the world.[4] Andrew Wyeth himself wrote in a letter dated March 6, 1998, “The Greenville County Museum now has what I consider the very best collection of my watercolors in any public museum in this country”.[5] By virtue of a tax millage, GCMA operations are supported by Greenville County, while program support comes from private sources.[3][5]

In 2021, the museum sparked controversy when it deaccessioned the Alma Thomas painting Alma's Flower Garden, selling it in a private transaction to an unidentified buyer for $2.8 million. The museum had purchased the painting in 2008 for $135,000. Jonathan Walz, a curator of the upcoming national Alma Thomas exhibit in which the painting was to be included, said "It’s particularly important that Alma Thomas’ work, as the work of an African-American artist, be available for the public to see," and "If it has gone into a private collection, that’s devastating." Arts writer Lee Rosenbaum criticized the sale as opaque, and depicted it, with similar sales by other museums, as a "professionally misguided strateg[y] of selling important works—among their highest-valued, by price, popularity and/or art historical importance—to reap the most money for current spending priorities, while leaving big holes in their collections."[7][8]

Although Greenville County taxpayers support the museum's operations and building maintenance, no public funds are provided for art purchases.[5] The Greenville County Museum of Art is open Wednesday through Saturday.[2]

• List of museums in South Carolina