The New Museum

M&G envisions a 21st-century museum with accessible, yet beautiful galleries and fresh means of telling stories from the art through integrated technology—all providing visitors with a gateway to immerse themselves in experiencing 45 centuries of the past from England to Russia and as far south as Egypt.
The new M&G will create engaging educational experiences, provide public spaces for school and community groups, and implement state-of-the-art safeguards to preserve the centuries-old works of beauty for generations to come. M&G will serve as a cornerstone of cultural and community experience in Greenville and throughout the Southeast as the Collection welcomes and serves local, national, and international visitors.
The new M&G will nearly double the size of the original Museum & Gallery and include:
  • Spacious re-imagined galleries
  • Interactive experiences
  • Dedicated exhibition space
  • Refreshed immersive galleries
  • Educational classroom/studios
  • Lecture hall
  • Security & “back of house”
  • Museum store

M&G’s board and administration worked with Greenville stakeholders to move downtown on the Reedy River from 2018 until the City of Greenville determined a different direction in late 2025. Since then, M&G has been considering other locations within the city limits.

The Campaign

Now at a pivotal moment in M&G’s story, the Museum & Gallery board and administration would like to increase the cultural influence of the Collection by making it more visible and accessible, increasing the opportunities for its use and enjoyment, and expanding the impact of its educational programming. M&G has served thousands of people through its nearly 75-year history, and moving to a new location will allow M&G to reach its mission of transforming lives through fine art with even more people.

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

The 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.
Expanded
Gallery
Spaces
Increased
Educational
Spaces
Enhanced
Museum
Experience
Improved
Sustainability
(Endowment)
Upgraded
Safeguards &
Preservation

Beauty Matters

Beauty is vanishing from our world because we live as though it does not matter.

Beauty matters.

-Roger Scruton

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.

Beauty at Risk

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.

Beauty Matters for Children

Today, with well over 2500 objects of art and antiquity, the Collection has been a source of enjoyment, learning, and enrichment for nearly 70 years. Since M&G's inception, the staff have shared with students of all ages the stories and secrets of these works once owned by tsars, emperors, nobility, and churches.

A new M&G will provide increased opportunities for more robust field trips, tours, Kids Create! summer camps, Homeschool Days, and art classes for K-12 students.

Beauty Matters for Business

While M&G’s world-class collection complements the cultural amenities Greenville enjoys, a new M&G will also provide economic benefits to the residents of Greenville and the state of South Carolina. The new location will draw tourists to Greenville and will add to the experiences and activities business and leisure travelers find waiting for them. Access to the Museum’s offerings will be strengthened and pay dividends to the community for generations.

Building on M&G’s core purpose of transforming lives through fine art, the new museum will serve as employer, tourism asset, educator, venue, and contributor to the Greenville brand. M&G will join the economic engine and be a driving force for the region, for South Carolina, and for Greenville.
(Yeah, that Greenville!)

It is a rare and special opportunity to see art of this period and caliber outside New York City, Washington, D.C., or the major capitals of Europe. Beauty Matters for Business
- Susan H. Edwards, Ph.D.
Executive Director and CEO
FRIST Center for the Visual Arts

The Collection

It’s one of the largest and most interesting collections of European paintings in this country.

– Susan Donahue Kuretsky, Vassar College

Timeless Beauty

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.

In Good Company

Every year select paintings and objects from the Collection are requested to participate in exhibitions. M&G has loaned as close as the Greenville County Museum of Art and as far away as The National Museum of Western Art in Japan.

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

  • The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
  • The High Museum 
  • Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy
  • Louvre
  • Detroit Institute of Art
  • Philadelphia Museum of Art
  • Frist Center of Visual Art
  • Georgia Museum of Art
  • Los Angeles County Museum of Art 
  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • Notre Dame  
  • National Gallery, Washington, DC
  • Muscarelle Museum of Art, College of William & Mary
  • Museum of the Bible, Washington, DC
  • Musea Nacional de San Carlos, Mexico
  • National Gallery of Art, Canada
  • The Hague
  • The National Gallery, London
  • Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center for the Arts, Wofford
  • Other Museums in Italy, Spain, Belgium, Germany, and Japan

Ways to Give

You can ensure that the collection has a fresh, state-of-the-art new home that is designed to create the cultural experiences needed for both current and future generations.
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.

Giving Now for the New Museum

Giving from Your Portfolio

Stock and Mutual Funds Gift Advantages:

  • One of the lowest cost gifts
  • Available income tax deduction for the current value of the stock or mutual fund shares
  • No capital gains tax paid on the transfer
  • Virtually immediately available to the charity

Contact us and we’ll send you and/or your broker our transfer instructions.

Giving from Your IRA Now

QCD/IRA Rollover Gift Advantages:

  • For Donors 70 1/2 and older
  • Reduces your taxable income
  • Counts as part of your annual, required minimum distribution
  • Great for non-itemizers
  • Saves heirs potential income taxes
  • Simple

Giving Cash

If you're a non-itemizer, you can deduct up to a $1,000 (Up to $2,000 for married couples filing jointly).

Generally, itemizers can deduct cash gifts that exceed 5% of their adjusted gross income. (Cash gifts are capped at 60% of your AGI.)

Check by Mail:
Museum & Gallery, Inc.
1700 Wade Hampton Blvd.
Greenville, SC 29614

Give Online Now:

Giving from Your Donor Advised Fund

Donor Advised Fund Grant advantages

  • Simple
  • Ability to remain completely anonymous if desired
  • Ability to schedule or spread out your giving

Giving Real Estate Now

Real Estate Gift Advantages:

  • Can be home, vacation home, investment/commercial property, farm or vacant land
  • Income tax deduction based on qualified appraised value
  • No capital gains tax paid on the transfer

Giving Later for the Endowment

Giving through Your Will or Trust

Bequest Advantages:

  • No immediate cash flow impact
  • Preserves access to assets just in case
  • Changeable before death
  • Can give a specific asset or a % of your net estate
  • Can be conditional
  • May save estate taxes

Giving from Your Retirement Plan

Beneficiary Designation Advantages:

  • Simple to establish
  • No immediate cash flow impact
  • Changeable before death
  • Preserves access to assets just in case
  • Changeable before death
  • Can give a specific amount or a % of the account
  • Can be conditional
  • Saves heirs potential income taxes

Giving with Life Insurance

Beneficiary Designation Advantages:

  • Simple to establish
  • No immediate cash flow impact
  • Changeable before death
  • Preserves access to assets just in case
  • Changeable before death
  • Can give a specific amount or a % of the account
  • Can be conditional
  • Saves heirs potential income taxes

Giving Real Estate and Keeping It

Life Estate Advantages:

  • Removes the home or farm from the estate
  • Immediate, partial income tax deduction
  • No capital gains on the transfer
  • You can continue to live in or use during your lifetime

Mail Your Gift To:

Museum & Gallery
1700 Wade Hampton Blvd.
Greenville, SC 29614

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