Spacing Out at Spartanburg’s Museums
Spartanburg’s many outdoor recreational offerings – like our gorgeous waterways and miles of trails – provide plenty of space to, well, space out.
But if you’re looking to space out during our colder months, Spartanburg’s museums offer a pleasant alternative. There’s plenty of room to indulge in unique art, trips back in time and family-friendly fun.
Spartanburg Art Museum
The Spartanburg Art Museum, housed inside the Chapman Cultural Center, showcases rotating exhibitions and a permanent collection on display year-round.
While it touts itself as a ‘Small Museum with Big Art,’ there’s a surprising amount of space to stand back and spread out in this fresh, airy gallery. White walls are accompanied by soft lighting that gives the museum the feel of a more-approachable high-end art gallery in a big city.
Diverse, contemporary exhibits bring this museum to life, featuring a level of local and regional art you’d be surprised to find in a city our size.
The Children’s Museum of the Upstate – Spartanburg
Note: To ensure a safe environment, you’ll need to book an entry-time ticket to access the museum. Get yours here.
The Children’s Museum of the Upstate offers exhibits developed on a smaller scale to meet the needs of early-learners, children age 5 and under.
Included in the areas specifically for toddlers are a market designed to teach healthy lifestyle choices, a Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System area with child-size hospital and equipment and a Duke Energy Treehouse featuring the state’s native species.
On the museums’ lower level are the Go Go Spartanburg exhibit, where children can explore the city and its forms of transportation, block play to inspire building and creativity, and the Spartanburg Water Table, showcasing the area’s rivers and the importance of its blueways through play.
Because the Children’s Museum of the Upstate’s Spartanburg location is geared toward younger children, traffic is easier to manage, making each visit more fun and education for you and the developing learner in your life.
Walnut Grove Plantation
Although not a traditional museum, Walnut Grove takes visitors back to how the free and enslaved people of South Carolina lived during the Revolutionary War.
The plantation, built in 1767, was home to the Moore family, and enslaved African-Americans, during the fight for American independence. Over the years, it has become a living history museum of sorts with indoor and outdoor offerings, letting visitors explore how life was in the past, walk the plantation’s nature trail or enjoy a picnic at the pavilion.
Each building on the space features original wood work and era-appropriate furniture, as well as artifacts that would have been common at the time, things like wood-burning stoves and cast iron utensils, among many other Colonial-era features.