Spartanburg County Museum of Art

Located on South Spring Street in Spartanburg, the Spartanburg County Museum of Art was founded in 1907 with the acquisition of The Girl with Red Hair, an oil on canvas by the Ashcan school artist Robert Henri. Two Spartanburg artists and former students of Henri, Margaret M. Law and Josephine Sibley Couper, organized an exhibition in Spartanburg of leading American contemporary artists. Henri’s painting was chosen as the first piece of a permanent collection for the city, which has now grown to more than 250 pieces of fine art and sculpture. Many well-known artists with ties to the upstate are represented in the collection, including August Cook, Margaret Law, Josephine Sibley Couper, and Grace DuPre. Contemporary artists in the collection include Carl Blair, MacArthur Goodwin, Daniel Cromer, and David Benson.

The museum offers a changing series of local, regional, and national artists every eight weeks. Other programs include the Museum Art School, the Art Lecture series, the annual Sidewalk Art Show, the biennial Hub City Art Competition, and the museum gift shop, which features fine arts and crafts by local artists. The museum also offers the Colors Program, a free after-school art studio program for at-risk youths.