This fall, the Florence County Museum will be celebrating 100 years of cultural stewardship for the region and 10 years in their new location. As part of this celebration, ArtFields will present the exhibition, A Moment Captured: Portraits and Representations from the Wright Collection of Southern Art. In its entirety, the Wright Collection of Southern Art features 141 works collected over 45 years by former Florence pathologist, Dr. Louis Wright. Though Florence County Museum stood as a lone titan for a majority of that 100 years, in the last 15 years, ArtFields has defined the region as a cultural destination for contemporary Southeastern art. Hosting the collection in Lake City was inspired by similarities between the origin stories of ArtFields and The Wright Collection. The Wright Collection started as an act of love between Ann and Louis Wright, collectors based in Florence, SC. A present to celebrate their first wedding anniversary in 1959 transformed into an expansive collection of portraits and landscapes, now housed at the Florence County Museum. ArtFields started as an act of love to ignite new prosperity in the once-thriving Lake City, and has transformed into a year-round destination for culture and inspiration.
The exhibition is a collaboration between Florence County Museum and ArtFields to celebrate 100 years of cultural development in the Pee Dee. Featuring works by Leo Twiggs, Mary Whyte, Stephen Scott Young, Elizabeth O. Verner and many others, this will be an important survey of the moments captured by southern artists in the last 100 years.
The Wright Collection will be on display Tuesday-Saturday from 11am-5pm in the Jones-Carter Gallery through December 28th - for FREE!
About the Wright Collection:
In its entirety, the Wright Collection of Southern Art features 141 works collected over 45 years by former Florence pathologist, Dr. Louis Wright. The collection was developed around the recognition of Southern Art as a viable facet of American expression and cultural development. It encompasses art produced over a 153-year period, from 1852 to 2005. At its center is work by noted artists like Thomas Hart Benton, Alfred Hutty, Helen Hyde, Florence native artist, William Henry Johnson, Alice Huger Smith, Anna Heyward Taylor, Elizabeth O’Neill Verner, Palmer Schoppe, Mary Whyte and Stephen Scott Young. About the Florence County Museum: Florence County Museum mission: The mission of the Florence County Museum is to provide a dynamic sanctuary for the preservation, interpretation and exhibition of objects o f scientific, historic and artistic significance that are unique or of special interest to the people of Florence County and the Pee Dee region of South Carolina. The vision of the Florence County Museum is to stimulate imaginations and create experiences that transform lives by broadening people’s perspectives, attitudes and knowledge of themselves and the world.
