The South Carolina State Museum, located in Columbia’s historic 1894 Columbia Mills building, is the largest museum in the state and a Smithsonian Affiliate. The Museum features four floors of exhibits in art, cultural history, natural history, and science and technology. Our mission is to provide educational experiences that inspire, entertain, and enrich visitors through engaging exhibits and innovative programming.

Highlights of the museum include the Lipscomb Art Gallery, a 55-foot digital dome planetarium, the Boeing Observatory with a historic Alvan Clark telescope, and South Carolina’s only permanent 4D interactive theater. Its extensive collection includes over one million objects, such as fine art, fossils, cultural artifacts, and science exhibits. Notable exhibitions explore topics like World War II, South Carolina’s role in space exploration, and the science of sound.

The museum offers educational programs, field trips, and discounted access through the “Museums for All” program. General admission is affordable, with special pricing for children, seniors, and groups. Visitors can enjoy the Crescent Café and shop for locally made items in the museum store, one of the largest museum gift shops in the country.

Blending history, art, science, and culture, the South Carolina State Museum offers a dynamic and inclusive experience for learners and explorers of all ages.

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The Asheville Art Museum was founded in 1948 by a group of artists to champion the creativity of Western North Carolina (WNC), bring art of national significance to the community, and encourage dialogue. Through generations of experienced and dedicated volunteer and professional leadership, the Museum continues to realize its mission: to engage, enlighten, and inspire individuals and enrich community through dynamic experiences in American art of the 20th and 21st centuries.

The Collection houses over 8,500 works in all media, including regionally and nationally significant paintings and drawings, prints, photography, sculpture, craft and decorative arts, and focal collections of works by members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Appalachian artists, Black Mountain College artists, traditional and studio craft, and regional architecture. The Museum has been particularly active in collecting historic and contemporary craft and studio glass with a focus on the Southeast and WNC.

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The Rockwell Museum, in association with the Smithsonian Institution, tells the story of the evolving American experience through the work of American artists. Founded in 1976, The Rockwell is a community hub showcasing the diversity of American experience through compelling exhibitions and imaginative programs. The collection includes a mix of contemporary Native American art with traditional bronze sculptures, landscape paintings, and other works that embody America. Housed in the restored 19th-century Old City Hall building, The Rockwell is active in the local community and holds special events and educational programming with area schools. The Rockwell provokes curiosity, engagement, and reflection about art and the American experience.

The Museum’s campus includes the KIDS ROCKWELL Art Lab, located around the corner at 36 E. Market Street, featuring family-friendly activities, games, and hands-on projects connected to our exciting special exhibitions and collection of American artworks.

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The Corning Museum of Glass is an independent, not-for-profit museum dedicated to the exploration and exhibition of glass.

Since its founding in 1951, the museum has grown to steward the world’s most comprehensive and important collection of glass objects, including: contemporary sculptural marvels from artists like Dale Chihuly, Lino Tagliapietra, and Toots Zynsky; groundbreaking scientific innovations like the 200-inch telescope lens casting; and 35 centuries of glass and glassmaking.

The Museum welcomes over 300,000 annual visitors, offering daily live demonstrations and glassmaking experiences for all ages.

The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass uses state-of-the-art glassmaking spaces to advance glassmaking education and support new ideas, forwarding the world of glass art, and the Rakow Research Library maintains and grows a record of glass history while supporting today’s researchers.

The museum strives in all aspects to achieve its mission of inspiring people to see glass in a new light. 

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Founded in 1921 by Castine summer resident and geologist Dr. J. Howard Wilson, the Wilson Museum invites you to forge connections across history, places, and cultures.

From million-year old fossils to Bagaduce River horseshoe crabs, from the tools of early humans to Castine’s local history, from the shores of Penobscot Bay to people around the world, the collections, exhibits, and programs at the Wilson Museum feed curiosity and provide multi-sensory, immersive learning experiences.

Visitors of all ages can tour an early Castine home, watch craftspeople and artisans demonstrate traditional skills and tools, and engage in hands-on learning.

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Founded in 1799, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, is the country’s oldest continuously operating museum. PEM provides thought-provoking experiences of the arts, humanities and sciences to celebrate the creative achievements and potential of people across time, place and culture. By connecting people through inquiry, empathy and dialogue, PEM encourages an understanding of our shared humanity and fosters a sense of belonging in a complex, ever-changing world. We build, steward and share our superlative collection, which includes African, American, Asian Export, Chinese, contemporary, Japanese, Korean, maritime, Native American, Oceanic and South Asian art, as well as architecture, fashion and textiles, photography, natural history and one of the nation’s most important museum-based collections of rare books and manuscripts. PEM offers a varied and unique visitor experience, with hands-on creativity zones, interactive opportunities and performance spaces. The museum’s campus, which offers numerous gardens and green spaces, is an accredited arboretum and features more than a dozen noted historic structures, including Yin Yu Tang, a 200-year-old Chinese home that is the only example of Chinese domestic architecture in the United States.

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The only liberal arts college art museum in the Northwest, the the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University is located near the Oregon State Capitol in the heart of Salem, Oregon. The museum is a leader in the research on the art of the Northwest, with one of the most significant collections of Northwest art and a history of important publications and exhibitions. The museum’s collections reflect the rich Pacific Northwest culture and explore the history of art around the world.

In 2021, the collection of the former Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland was transferred to the Hallie Ford Museum of Art. It is now part of the museum’s permanent collection.  This collection of over 1300 objects is one of the oldest craft collections in the country.

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The Huntington Beach Art Center creates opportunities for local, regional, and national artists and the community to share in a climate of experimentation, education, and experience. HBAC is a public/private partnership with the City of Huntington Beach and the Huntington Beach Art Center Foundation, a non-profit private corporation. The Art Center is operated through the City of Huntington Beach Community Services Department, Cultural Services Division.

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Visions Museum of Textile Art (VMOTA) began as Quilt San Diego, a non-profit arts organization founded in 1985 to promote contemporary quilt making as fine art. The organization’s mission was to present the prestigious, international, juried Quilt Visions biennial which was hosted at various museums in the San Diego area. In 2007, volunteers organized a community build and created our permanent location in the arts district at Liberty Station in San Diego, California.

VMOTA now features 20 exhibitions per year including online exhibitions, Member Challenges, and the Quilt Visions and Interpretations biennials. The museum also presents lectures and workshops by noted quilt and textile artists.

Visions Museum of Textile Art celebrates and advances contemporary quilting and textile art through exhibitions that explore cultural traditions, contemporary relevance, and innovative creativity. By fostering connection, dialogue, and inspiration, we empower individuals to appreciate, engage with, and contribute to the rich legacy and evolving practice of textile art, building a community that values diversity, creativity, and shared experiences.

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Scandinavia House: The Nordic Center in America is the leading center for Nordic culture in the United States, offering a wide range of programs that illuminate the culture and vitality of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. It is the home of the American-Scandinavian Foundation (ASF), an American non-profit organization offering fellowships, grants, intern/trainee sponsorship, publishing and memberships.

ASF is the organizer of “Nordic Echoes — Tradition in Contemporary Art,” the first major traveling exhibition of contemporary Nordic folk arts and cultural traditions from the Upper Midwest. On view at Scandinavia House in 2025, the exhibition will travel to the South Dakota Museum of Art in Brookings, SD (October 2025-January 2026), the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, MN (February-June 2026), and Vesterheim in Decorah, IA (October 2026-January 2027), and other locations in 2027.

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The Mint Museum welcomes all to be inspired and transformed through the power of art and creativity. Among the most significant public institutions in Charlotte, the museum holds a permanent collection of nearly 35,000 objects, one of the largest in the Southeast, spanning art, craft, and design from around the world.
Widely recognized as an invaluable cultural and educational resource, The Mint is committed not only to the growth and quality of its collections but also to nurturing appreciation of the vital role the arts play in our lives.

Each year, the museum celebrates this mission through programs and events such as the annual Potters Market, which showcases exceptional ceramic artistry and supports both artists and the community.
The next Potters Market will be held on September 27, 2025. Guided by values of inclusivity, innovation, collaboration, and empathy, the museum engages communities in lifelong relationships with art, enhancing lives and creating a more connected and welcoming world.

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At the Red Mill Museum Village, our vision is to connect current generations to the past as well as to one another. We uphold our mission of preserving, maintaining and presenting the social, agricultural, and industrial heritage of the area through hands-on experiences that turn visitors into makers. By preserving tools as living teaching objects and telling the stories of those who made, used and collected them, we highlight how creativity and skill once sustained daily life through community.

The museum’s centerpiece is the 1810 Red Mill, originally built as a woolen mill. The 12 historic buildings on our 10-acre site include limekilns, a limestone quarry, schoolhouse, log cabin, two-family Tenant House and operational blacksmith shop.

Throughout the year, the museum offers a variety of educational exhibits, and immersive programming designed to keep the enduring value of skilled handwork and shared heritage alive.

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Built around 1680, the Paul Revere House is a rare example of 17^th-century urban architecture.  One room interprets the 1680s, while three other rooms contain artifacts from Revere’s era, including select Revere family furniture. Paul Revere purchased the home in 1770 and lived here with his family when he made his famous messenger ride on the night of April 18-19, 1775.

Today the site includes a Visitor Center with exhibits highlighting Revere’s skilled craftsmanship; silver made in Revere’s shop is always on display. Regular public events feature the talents of musicians, artisans, and craftspeople who are keeping alive the traditional trades of the 18^th century.

Visit our self-guided site year-round!

Summer:

April 15 – October 31: 10:00 AM to 5:15 PM

Open daily

Winter:

November 1 – April 14: 10:00 AM to 4:15 PM

Closed on Mondays during January, February, and March

Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day

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San Diego’s Mingei International Museum celebrates folk art, craft, and design from all eras and cultures of the world. The Japanese word mingei means “art of the people”  and the museum collects, conserves, and exhibits arts of daily use made by contemporary and historic designers, artists, and craftspeople, known and unknown.

Established in 1978, Mingei’s inaugural exhibition was Dolls and Folk Toys of the World. Since then, the Museum has shared over 183 exhibitions covering a diverse range of cultures, themes, and media. Recent exhibitions include Across the Spooniverse,  Blue Gold: The Art and Science of Indigo, African by Design, and Fashioning an Icon: The Virgin of Guadalupe in Textile Design.  Upcoming exhibitions explore subjects such as mid-century modern design, Indigenous works in glass, DIY skateboard culture, sustainable fishing, feedsack quilts, Japanese shrine paintings, and global percussion.  

Mingei champions artists and craftspeople, and we envision a world where people find joy, beauty, and inspiration in our shared human creativity.

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