Gibbes Museum of Art

The Gibbes Museum of Art is home to the foremost collection of American art that incorporates the story of Charleston. The Museum connects the city and regions artistic past to a vibrant contemporary art scene. This is what we believe. Art is the reason. A bustling seaport in the 1700s, Charleston was a melting pot of cultures, religions, and traditions. Powered by the rice and indigo trade, and slavery, it was the 4th largest city in America in 1790 and the wealthiest. Like Philadelphia, Boston and New York, what distinguished Charleston then was art. While we were home to some of Americas earliest art, collectors, artists, who made the City both muse and subject and taken our turn as one of the nations richest cities in money and culture so were we also home to Americas original sin, slavery and a war that divided our nation. In 1888, when Charleston was financially and culturally on its knees, benefactor James Gibbes left a bequest to the City to build an art museum. ...