To spot the Columbia Museum of Art, just look straight ahead for a tall, modern building with a grand entrance framed by big white beams and brick-a bold sign above glass doors reads “Columbia Museum of Art.”
Welcome to the cultural heart of Columbia! Imagine stepping through history’s own front door, because you’re standing before a museum that’s transformed more times than a chameleon at a paint store. Back in 1950, the Columbia Museum of Art began life in a fancy old house-the Taylor family’s 1908 residence, just a few blocks from here. Picture big oak trees, creaky wooden floors, and, for almost 50 years, a planetarium plopped in the backyard. Space and Renaissance paintings, all under one Southern roof! Now that’s one way to keep your parties interesting.
Inside those first walls, the museum showcased treasures gifted by local collectors, and ten very serious, very old “Old Master” paintings. Imagine the ghost of Juan de Pareja rolling his eyes at the noise when a school trip came through. But things really got wild in 1954, when the Samuel H. Kress Foundation picked Columbia as a regional art haven, and over the next two decades, the museum scored nearly 80 masterpieces from the glittering Renaissance and fancy Baroque periods. Suddenly, this was the place to see golden halos, swirling gowns, and suspiciously chubby cherubs.
The Taylor House wore its “museum and science” hat for decades, but by the 1990s, the collection had outgrown the original house-imagine trying to fit a Jackson Pollock mural into your grandma’s living room. The museum needed a new home. Here’s where things get delightfully dramatic: the museum took over a pair of deserted department stores on Main Street-Belk and Macy’s. The Belk store was partly demolished to create Boyd Plaza, the sculpture-filled courtyard in front of you. The Macy’s skeleton now forms the sturdy framework of this stylish modern museum, clinging to its past with red-brick veneer and a portico inspired by its Taylor House ancestor.
If you listen closely at the doors, you might hear echoes of clattering construction from 1998, when the new museum was unveiled, boasting over 20,000 square feet of gallery space and room to grow. Step inside, and you’re greeted by sunlight pouring through a two-story atrium roof and-get this-a 14-foot glass chandelier that looks like a dragon sneezed jewels! That neon splash of red, orange, and gold is a creation by Dale Chihuly, a favorite with the museum’s professional crowd-no hard hats required for this one.
Upstairs, wander through art from ancient Greece, touchable only with your eyes, and Roman marble heads that-true story-are missing every possible body part they could misplace. You’ll find Greek vases, glass from Roman times, and even the mysterious headless statue of Hygeia. Slide through centuries of European and American paintings, then duck into galleries lined with furniture from the likes of Duncan Phyfe and Tiffany Studios’ shimmering stained glass.
But it’s not all dusty old masters and ancient marbles. The museum swings modern too. In recent years, you could have glimpsed a 20-foot Pollock mural, Roy Lichtenstein’s comic-book colors, Warhol’s bold pop art, and even charcoal drawings by Georgia O’Keeffe, who cruised through Columbia back in 1915. Jasper Johns, a South Carolina native, brought a splash of rebellious creativity, and the museum loves to host family programs in honor of his Aunt Gladys-the world’s only children’s art club named after a lady on Lake Murray!
So, the Columbia Museum of Art is more than four sturdy walls. It’s an ever-changing treasure chest-one that’s been lifted up by community spirit, surprise donations, and the simple belief that everyone in Columbia deserves to walk among masterpieces. And just remember, if you hear squeaky shoes behind you, it’s probably just one of those cherubs coming to admire their own portrait.
