Laurens County Museum to Host Grand Opening of New Exhibit Hall
December 22, 2021
The Laurens County Museum is starting a new era. On Sunday, January 2, 2022, from 2:00-5:00 pm, the Tony Harper Exhibit Hall at the new Laurens County Museum Witherspoon Building on the Historic Square in Laurens will open to the public. Refreshments will be served, and everyone is invited. This event is free.
The new Tony Harper Exhibit Hall will be open to the public for the very first time. Display areas in the museum include the First Nations Hall, the Witherspoon Room, four areas which highlight living, learning, serving, and working in Laurens County, plus a separate hall for traveling and rotating exhibits. All exhibits are designed to change to reflect different artifacts and research, and to be inclusive of all areas of the county.
With the direction and designs of Executive Director Laura Clifford Cook, who joined the museum in 2020, the Laurens County Museum is following American Alliance of Museum standards and is working to achieve accreditation, the same as the Smithsonian Institute.
In 2013, the Laurens County Museum Association (LCMA) took on the monumental task of raising funds for the renovation of a building in major disrepair on the Public Square in the center of Laurens County. Through gifts of generous private donors, fundraisers, grants, and memberships, an investment of $1.6 million has been acquired so Laurens County will now have a fantastic museum unique to the region.
Everyone from school children to seniors and history tourists to genealogists will benefit from the exhibits, research opportunities, educational classes and programs and outreach of the new museum.
Some upcoming programs and exhibits to look forward to include the monthly Revolutionary War Lecture Series (January 4, 2020), the Smithsonian Institute Exhibit “Voices and Votes, Democracy in America” (June, 2022), and the celebration and educational programs of the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026, among others.
The LCMA Board of Directors, volunteers, and Mrs. Clifford Cook are thrilled to announce the opening of the new Laurens County Museum. Please join us Sunday, January 2, 2022, between 2:00-5:00 PM, at the Laurens County Museum Witherspoon Building, 116 South Public Square, Laurens, SC.
For more information, please call the museum at (864)681-3678, or email Debbie Vaughn at [email protected].
