The new M&G will be occupy 60,000 square feet—nearly double the size of the original Museum & Gallery—and include:

The new home for M&G will be built along the banks of the Reedy River in downtown Greenville within view of the Peace Center and Main Street. M&G’s board and administration are grateful for the generosity and vision of developers Phil Hughes and Bo Aughtry for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Placing the Collection in such a visible and accessible location will allow M&G to serve more broadly the community we love.

You’re invited to help M&G move to this new beginning.

The $22.5 million Beauty Matters comprehensive campaign will provide a fitting home for the Collection and ensure M&G’s presence in the heart of Greenville for years to come.

The Museum & Gallery provides our community, region and nation with a generous encounter with beauty, not only in the elements and composition of art as revealed in the Collection’s paintings, but also in the universal messages and people of the past. Renowned British philosopher, Roger Scruton reminds us, “Beauty is vanishing from our world because we live as though it does not matter. Beauty matters. It is not just a subjective thing but a universal need of human beings. If we ignore this need we find ourselves in a spiritual desert.”

Exposure to a collection like M&G’s softens the hard edges of our current culture, which pushes us toward utilitarianism, hurry, stinginess toward one another, and homogenization. Beauty, however, is regenerative and as such it is invaluable—not tangential. Artist Makoto Fujimura notes that “a culture that downplays its pursuit of beauty also loses its appetite for truth and goodness.” M&G’s mission is to highlight these qualities by using the Collection to nourish the hearts, minds, and souls of those at home and abroad.

Too often the link between the beautiful, the true and the good has been abandoned. Beauty is both scarce and scarcely appreciated due to society’s preoccupations.

The Collection serves as a way back to embracing beauty. It is immersive and deeply personal. While one can learn of historical events by viewing art, the Old Masters desired that viewers would see themselves in the art—to experience the scene in such a way that they were personally impacted by the truth and relevance of the subject.

M&G’s founder stated that the beauty of the Collection would “help your soul grow and stretch.” He spoke of its ability to develop character and bring richness into the lives of those who encounter it and walk boldly through the spiritual truths it lays before them.

The Collection includes works by the greats such as Peter Paul Rubens, Sandro Botticelli, Tintoretto, Reni, Cranach, Honthorst, and Van Dyck as well as notable students of da Vinci and Rembrandt.

Because of the vision of M&G’s founder, Dr. Bob Jones Jr., you and others can explore the significance and depth of meaning in and form a heartfelt connection with works of beauty, including:

• 420 European paintings representing art from the 14th through the 19th centuries. The oldest painting—by a Sicilian painter—in the Collection is dated circa 1330.
• Over 1000 antiquities spanning 37 centuries and representing Egyptian, Roman, Mesopotamian, Iranian, Greek, Persian, and Jewish cultures. The oldest object is an Egyptian cylindrical jar which dates to 3200 BC.
• A rare collection of more than 50 Russian and Greek icons from the 14th through early 20th centuries that represents the schools of Novgorod, Moscow, Suzdal, and Yaroslav, and the workshops of the Stroganov family and Pavel Ovchinnikov, Fabergé’s chief competitor. Many icons in the collection were once owned by the Romanov Tsars and other members of the last royal family.
• More than 125 pieces of European furniture crafted in the 15th through 18th centuries and called “the finest in America” by Joseph Aronson.
• Period textiles (more than 50 in the collection including tapestries and vestments) and decorative arts (more than 175 objects such as period sculpture, ceramics, candelabras, sconces, room paneling, and mantels);
• Seven paintings that constitute the largest assemblage today of Benjamin West’s series, called The Progress of Revealed Religion, commissioned by King George III of England.

 The following are venues where M&G has loaned paintings and objects in past years:

You can ensure that the collection has:

• A fresh, new home that is designed to create the cultural experience needed for both current and future generations; and

• A strong endowment that will sustain M&G and enable it to continue transforming lives through fine art both today and into the future.

Join us in securing timeless Beauty for Greenville, for South Carolina, for the country–and for you!

All gifts will be celebrated and commemorated inside the new museum. Naming opportunities are available to commemorate leadership and major gifts. Multi-year pledges are welcome. Many choose to give over 2-4 years.