Museums & Galleries in Gaffney

Culture & Heritage Museums safeguard the Carolina Piedmont's historical treasures and educate residents and visitors about the region's unique past. Instituted in the 1950's, York County's group of affiliated museums and attractions forms a multi-campus network encompassing a wealth of educational opportunities across various disciplines.

Each year, museumgoers view antique documents and photographs at the Historical Center located inside the McCelvey Center. They can get to know more than 1,500 natural specimens at the hands-on Naturalist Center inside the Museum of York County, and march through Historic Brattonsville's 775-acre Revolutionary War site. Locals can volunteer at the museums in fascinating roles, such as specimen preparers, who beautify avian exhibits by helping with taxidermy and surgical beak-lifts.

What began as fewer than 30 paintings hanging in two rooms has since grown into the Bob Jones University Museum & Gallery, a collection of more than 400 baroque paintings displayed in 30 galleries. The paintings—works by Rubens, van Dyck, and Murillo that date from the 14th through 19th centuries—are thoughtfully displayed in context, surrounded by furniture, sculptures, tapestries, and popular emoticons from their respective time periods. Architectural elements also add texture to the various galleries, flooding them in colorful light from stained-glass windows or framing their walls with the carved corners of fireplace mantels.

At Heritage Green, a satellite location boasts special exhibits of works pulled from the main galleries or on loan from private and public collections. Up on the second floor, interactive exhibits educate visitors of all ages on works by the old masters.