10th Anniversary Celebration

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Dancing for the Arts

Birthday Party

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We're celebrating our 10th Anniversary with a variety of events, including live entertainment and arts activities for both adults and children.  “In our first ten years, we feel the Museum has established itself as a major piece of the Grand Strand's cultural life,” said Pat Goodwin, Museum executive director. “With our new, improved facility and the momentum we've established, we're going to be ready and able to continue that role for many, many years to come.”

The Art Museum would like to thank the following companies and individuals for their support of the Art Museum’s 10th Anniversary sponsorship initiative.

The Art Museum’s very special Elite 10 Sponsors are:

Thank you Elite 10 for your most generous support.

Art Museum’s 10th Anniversary Gala: Dancing for the Arts
Thursday, June 7, 2007, 7 to 11pm

Members: $125 per person

Non-Members: $150 per person

RSVP by May 31, 2007
The Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum will celebrate its 10th Anniversary with a festive evening filled with the art of Jasper Johns, music, dancing and sumptuous food and drink in the Art Museum’s beautiful ocean front deco-era building. Cocktails will be served on the Museum’s Tea Porch. Guests will have the opportunity to stroll the galleries and enjoy Jasper Johns: 41 Years of Prints, our 10th anniversary exhibition.

Myrtle Beach’s own Dan O’Reilly and his jazz band U ‘n I will complement the atmosphere. Dinner and dancing will take place in a colorfully decorated tent on the front lawn of the Museum. In the spirit of Dancing for the Arts, guests will dance to the sounds of The Fabulous Kays while Juan Gonzalez and other dancers from the Fred Astaire Dance Studio provide instruction.  Dress is "Creative Coat and Tie" and valet parking is available.

Dancing for the Arts is generously sponsored by the Bellamy Law Firm, Carolyn Burroughs, GS Magazine, and The Wachovia Foundation.

Birthday Party for the Art Museum!

Saturday, June 9, 2007, 11:00am - 3:00pm

Celebrate the Art Museum’s 10th Anniversary with a community picnic featuring art workshops, games, music, dance, food and more. Activities will take place throughout the Museum and also on the front lawn. Free to the public.

Events include:
-Cupcake decorating (and eating!)
-Games for all ages
-Magic
-Face painting and caricatures
-Shag dancing
-Music by U “n” I
-Create your own birthday card and birthday hat

• -Jasper Johns-inspired treasure hunt and mural

Be part of creating a Myrtle Beach Memory Community Art Project.
Bring bits & pieces of Myrtle Beach or Art Museum memories (photos, postcards, menus, placemats, tickets, programs, small 3D objects) and the Art Museum will create – and then exhibit – a Community Art Project using all of your special things.

Museum Closed for Renovations December 2006

The Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum closed November 26, 2006 for some much-needed renovations – just in time for the launching of a yearlong 10th anniversary celebration in January. Known as Springmaid Villa, the facility housing the Museum dates to 1923, when it originally stood next to the historic Ocean Forest Hotel.

When the hotel was razed in 1974, the Villa nearly met the same fate, until a group of local preservationists raised the funds to save the structure. The Burroughs & Chapin Co. donated the land where the Museum now stands, near Springmaid Pier, and the Villa was moved to the site. “Time and again, we hear from visitors that the building is as much an attraction as the art inside. It's a wonderful, intimate setting that makes our art exhibits so much more accessible,” said Jim Watson, the Museum's treasurer. “With so few historic structures remaining from the early days of Myrtle Beach, we felt the building was a treasure that needed to be preserved.”

The facility's conversion from family home to art museum included one alteration, however, that would come to be regretted. In order to create more interior wall space for the hanging of artwork, as well as to protect the art from ultraviolet rays, most of the building's exterior windows needed to be closed off. But to avoid substantially changing the building's appearance, a decision was made to close off the openings with plywood – uninsulated and painted black – while installing modern aluminum windows on the outside. Over time, that would prove to be the source of numerous problems. Particularly in summer, the black painted surfaces behind the windows absorbed solar heat that wrought havoc with the building's heating and cooling system.

Eventually the heat buildup even warped the window frames, allowing humidity and windblown rain – both enemies of fine art works – to penetrate into the interior. The Museum's board of directors commissioned LS3P, a Charleston architectural firm to find a solution to the building's woes. Their recommendations were presented to the Myrtle Beach Council, and following approval by the city's Community Appearance Board, the Council appropriated $100,000 to undertake renovations. The architects' solution was deceptively simple: Remove the existing windows, close and insulate the openings, and then install fixed, closed shutters (painted “Charleston green”) surrounded by faux window frames. The result is the illusion of windows where there are none, thus preserving the look of the original structure while providing a sturdy, weatherproof shell to protect the building's contents.

Following completion of the heavy construction. new wall carpet will be installed on all interior walls. Three windows on the top floor of the building, located in a storage area, will be replaced but remain operable windows. Construction is expected to be completed in time for a grand reopening and the launching of a yearlong celebration of the Museum's 10th anniversary, which actually occurs in June.