Museum and Exhibitions

The Avery Research Center maintains several galleries and public program spaces. Each year, the Center develops exhibitions from its rich archival, art, and rare manuscript collections and hosts temporary art exhibitions featuring prominent and burgeoning artists from South Carolina and throughout the African diaspora whose work supports the Center’s mission. Topics covered on our tours include these areas as well as the history of the Avery Normal School, the establishment of the Avery Research Center, and the history and culture of African Americans in the Lowcountry. The Avery Research Center holds institutional membership with the National Association for Interpretation and has a full-time Certified Interpretive Guide on staff.

The Avery Research Center is a major partner of the Lowcountry Digital History Initiative (LDHI), a digital public history project hosted by the Lowcountry Digital Library (LCDL) at the College of Charleston. Funded through a pilot project grant from the Humanities Council of South Carolina and a major grant award from the Dorothy and Gaylord Donnelley Foundation, LDHI serves as a digital consultation service, scholarly editorial resource, and online platform for partner institutions and collaborative scholars to translate multi-institutional archival materials, historic landscape features and structures, and scholarly research into digital public history exhibition projects. A major goal within LDHI’s mission is to encourage projects that highlight underrepresented race, class, gender, and labor histories within the Lowcountry region, and in historically interconnected Atlantic World sites.

In 2022, the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture was included in the SCETV virtual reality tours of some of South Carolina’s most interesting historical sites. Some of the exhibits in the tour were temporary and are no longer installed.

The virtual tour can be accessed on your desktop computer or the Matterport App.

Link to SCETV Avery Research Center page

Link to access virtual tour

The Avery Research Center has permanent exhibitions, mostly on the second floor of the building.

1. Denmark Vesey case:  Discuss Vesey’s experiences during and after slavery and what led to his planning the Vesey Conspiracy 
2. Philip Simmons exhibit: Discuss Simmons and the impact of his ornamental artwork on the Charleston area 
3. Gullah Geechee exhibit case: Discuss the historical context for the development of the Gullah Geechee culture and African cultural retentions within the culture 
4. 19th Century Replica Classroom: Serves as a memorial to the school in observance of its enormous impact on the education and development of Black leadership in the Charleston community, state, and nation.
5. Walter Pantovic Slavery case: Discuss the institution of slavery with an emphasis on the unique history of slavery in Charleston 

The Avery Research Center develops our exhibitions from our collections, or we host exhibitions curated by community organizations, institutions, and artists. Changing exhibitions can be found in the first-floor community gallery,  second-floor changing gallery, Benjamin F. and Jeanette K. Cox Gallery (third floor), and McKinley Washington Auditorium (third floor).