The Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia, South Carolina, is unveiling newly reconfigured collection galleries to cap its 75th anniversary and culminate a yearlong renovation. While the institution is currently hosting “Keith Haring: Radiant Vision”—a traveling exhibition that previously visited the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, the Long Beach Museum of Art in California, and venues in Italy, Israel, and elsewhere—the museum will reopen its collection galleries following a gala on January 16, presenting a newly conceived display across 20 galleries.
“Over the past 75 years, the CMA collection has grown in exciting and dynamic ways,” senior curator Michael Neumeister said in a press release. “We are delighted to reconnect with our community by freshly presenting art in our world-class galleries, with new perspectives and experiences.”
The reinstalled galleries draw from the museum’s American, Asian, European, and modern and contemporary holdings. Highlights include Italian Renaissance works from the CMA’s Kress Collection and an Asian gallery anchored by Chinese art from the Tang dynasty, gifted by the late Dr. Robert Y. Turner. Other galleries are organized around themes—such as landscape, still life, and the relationship between art and architecture—or focus on artists with ties to South Carolina, among them Jasper Johns, Afrofuturist sculptor Winston Wingo, and photographer Richard Samuel Roberts.
One gallery is anchored by a newly gifted collection of Georgian porcelain, presented alongside period-faithful wallpaper and decorative objects dating to late 18th- and early 19th-century England. Elsewhere, the museum is showcasing recent acquisitions by Audrey Flack, Roberto Lugo, and Marguerite Zorach, as well as works from the National Academy of Design in New York on long-term loan through the Art Bridges Partner Loan Network.
The renovation, which began in January 2025, included the installation of new lighting and ceilings, reinforced walls, and conservation work on pieces by Sam Gilliam, Teiji Takai, and Benjamin Wilson.
“As the cultural heartbeat of South Carolina, the Columbia Museum of Art continues to inspire creativity and connection across our community and throughout the state,” said executive director Della Watkins. “Now, the CMA embarks on a thrilling new chapter with the debut of its reimagined collection galleries—an experience not to be missed, offering audiences bold new ways to see, feel, and engage with the power of art.”
