Second Sunday on King Street is the brainchild of Susan Lucas of the King Street Marketing Group. If you haven’t come downtown for one of these events, you are missing out! With the streets closed off to traffic, King Street is transformed into a European city where strolling is a time honored tradition. Second Sunday draws tourists, locals, children, and even dogs who stroll in and out of delightful boutiques, stop for lunch at some of Charleston’s favorite restaurants, and of course, visit the Gibbes Museum.
The Gibbes offers three Free-Admission Sundays throughout the year. We have waived admission on select days for many years because it’s a way for us to open our doors and give back to the community. This is the first year that we have partnered with Second Sunday, and we want to encouraging strollers to continue down King Street, through the Gateway Walk next to the Charleston Library Society, and come into the museum.
This Sunday, July 14, visitors will have the rare opportunity to experience the stunning watercolor series, A Carolina Rice Plantation of the Fifties, by Alice Ravenel Huger Smith. This collection is not often on display because of the fragile nature of the watercolors. Curator of Exhibitions Pam Wall wrote an earlier post “A Commitment to Conservation” about the museum’s efforts to restore and preserve the vibrant colors of the watercolor series. In the recent article, “The Quandry of Alice Ravenel Huger Smith” Post and Courier Arts Editor Adam Parker writes, “Smith was a master manipulator of watercolor, creating images, landscapes mostly, influenced by Japanese printmaking and woodblocks and romantic English art that transformed the objects of nature into symbol, myth and memory.” This exhibition will close on Sunday so the free admission day gives visitors a final chance to see the works as a whole.
The Spoleto Watercolors of Stephen Mueller and Carl Palazzolo From the Collection of David and Carol Rawle is on display in the Rotunda galleries, and People’s Choice: A Community – Curated Exhibition is on view in the Main Gallery.
This Sunday we are also excited to offer visitors the chance to meet Monica Karales, widow of award winning photographer James Karales. Come to the Museum Store from 1 – 4pm for a special book signing as Ms. Karales celebrates the release of the book documenting the life of her late husband, Controversy and Hope: The Civil Rights Photographs of James Karales, by Julian Cox with Rebekah Jacob and Monica Karales. Stunning photographs chronicling the Civil Rights Movement were on view at the Gibbes in the recent exhibition Witness to History: Civil Rights Era Photographs by James Karales.
So this Sunday, take advantage of our free admission and stroll through the museum. One of the best parts about my job is that I get to do that on a daily basis. On my way into the office I am greeted by the Veiled Lady. On my way to lunch I walk past Ms. Johnson (Estelle) and on my way home at the end of the day, I pass Persephone bathing in the courtyard garden. I am so grateful to have this opportunity to surround myself with art, and am excited that our free admission days will give visitors that same opportunity. Stroll down King Street this weekend, and come say hello to Ms. Johnson.
—Amy Mercer, Marketing and Communications Manager, Gibbes Museum of Art
Upcoming Free Admission Days:
Saturday, September 28, 10am – 5pm: Smithsonian Museum Day Live! Must present pass, available on smithsonianmag.com, to be eligible for free admission.
Sunday, October 13, 1 – 5pm: Second Sunday Free Admission Day
February 9, 2014, 1 – 5pm: Second Sunday Free Admission Day
Published July 11, 2013