Schedule a Tour
Adult Learning
We welcome lifelong learners who are young at heart. The guided museum group tour is offered at no cost. Please complete the form below to submit your tour request.
Student Learning
Aligned with noted grade level standards, activities reach multiple cross-curricular opportunities for learning and educational advancement among all ages. Each visit includes a gallery tour, studio activity paired with content covered and is equipped with a SC ELA State Standards enrichment activity to complete in the classroom or at home. We look forward to working with you and your students!
Pre-K: Searching for Shapes
What makes a shape a shape? Do all shapes have names? Do all shapes have sides? How can an artist use shapes to make a work of art? Explore the ways that artists create with shapes through a hands-on gallery experience and story time. Search the galleries for organic and geometric shapes and put shapes together to make an original work of art in the Museum’s art studio.
Gallery Tour: Focus Gallery or Special Exhibit Gallery
Studio Activity: Shape Collage
State Standards by Discipline
Visual Arts:
Artistic Processes: Creating - I can make artwork using a variety of materials, techniques, and processes.
Anchor Standard 1: I can use the elements and principles of art to create artwork.
Indicator VA.CR AH.1.1 I can use some elements of art to communicate a story about a familiar place or object.
Pre-K: Creating with Color
How do artists use color to make paintings? What colors can you mix together to get new colors? Can you find the colors of the rainbow in the Museum’s Focus Gallery? Learn about primary and secondary colors through a hands-on gallery experience and story time. Search the gallery for colors and mix it up in the art studio by making a creative color
Gallery Tour: Focus Gallery or Special Exhibit Gallery
Studio Activity: Color Wheel Creation
State Standards by Discipline
SC Visual Arts Standards:
Artistic Processes: Creating - I can make artwork using a variety of materials, techniques, and processes.
Anchor Standard 1: I can use the elements and principles of art to create artwork.
Indicator VA.CR AH.1.1 I can use some elements of art to communicate a story about a familiar place or object.
The Art of William Henry Johnson
*Available until November 29, 2024
Elementary
Who was William Henry Johnson? Why did he choose to paint the way he did? How do his paintings help us connect to Pee Dee History? Learn about Johnson’s experiences growing up as an African American in Florence, South Carolina in the early 1900’s through a hands-on gallery experience. Explore his paintings that tell stories about everyday life in the rural south and tell your own story through a printmaking activity in the Museum’s art studio for 5th grade.
Gallery Tour: Pee Dee History Road (Special Note on Miller’s Store) and Focus Gallery (Art of WHJ)
Studio Activity: Art Classroom: WHJ Printmaking Activity
State Standards by Discipline
Visual Arts:
Artistic Processes: Responding - I can evaluate and communicate about the meaning in my artwork and the artwork of others.
Anchor Standard 5: I can interpret (read) and evaluate the meaning of an artwork.
5th Grade Social Studies
Standard 2: Demonstrate an understanding of how international events and conditions during the early 20th Century (i.e., 1910–1940) affected the United States and South Carolina. Enduring Understanding: In the early 20th Century, the economies of the United States and South Carolina experienced a boom-and-bust period. This situation led to significant government intervention in order to stimulate the economy.
The student will:
5.2.CX Contextualize the post-war economic climate on the cultural landscape throughout the United States and South Carolina. This indicator was developed to promote inquiry into post World War I changes in the U.S., including the “Roaring Twenties,” the Harlem Renaissance, the role of women outside of the home, and cultural changes for African Americans. (William H. Johnson)
5.2.E: Evaluate multiple perspectives from the period including the economic, political and social impacts of World War I, the 1920s, the Great Depression, and the New Deal using primary and secondary sources.
Middle School
30 student limit for this tour offering
Who was William Henry Johnson? Why did he choose to paint the way he did? How do his paintings help us connect to Pee Dee History? Learn about Johnson’s experiences growing up as an African American in Florence, South Carolina in the early 1900’s through a hands-on gallery experience. Explore his paintings that tell stories about everyday life in the rural south and create your own William H. Johnson inspired still-life in the studio.
Gallery Tour: Focus Gallery (Art of WHJ)
Studio Activity: Art Classroom: WHJ Inspire Watercolor Still Life
State Standards by Discipline
Visual Arts:
Artistic Processes: Responding- I can evaluate and communicate about the meaning in my artwork and the artwork of others.
Anchor Standard 5: I can interpret (read) and evaluate the meaning of an artwork.
High School
30 student limit for this tour offering
Who was William Henry Johnson? Why did he choose to paint the way he did? How do his paintings help us connect to Pee Dee History? Learn about Johnson’s experiences growing up as an African American in Florence, South Carolina in the early 1900’s through a hands-on gallery experience. Explore his paintings that tell stories about everyday life in the rural south and create your own portrait in the style of William H. Johnson.
Gallery Tour: Pee Dee History Gallery Road (Special Note on Miller’s Store and Girl in the Green Dress) and Focus Gallery (Art of WHJ)
Studio Activity: WHJ Inspired Portrait
State Standards by Discipline
Visual Arts:
Artistic Processes: Connecting: I can relate artistic ideas and work with personal meaning and external context Benchmark VA.C.NH. 6 I can identify and use different artistic styles, from various cultures and time periods.
Edward Gay: An American Landscape Painter
August 6, 2024 - February 23, 2025
Observe the atmospheric landscapes by Edward Gay (1837–1928) in the Special Exhibitions Gallery on the first floor of the museum. Explore the artist's stylistic developments through a guided tour. Create your own landscape in the museum’s studio classroom using a horizon line, shapes and symmetry.
Gallery Tour: Special Exhibition Gallery
Studio Activity: Landscape Creation
SC College and Career Ready Standards for Visual Arts Proficiency - Creating
Artistic Processes: Creating - I can make artwork using a variety of materials, techniques, and processes.
Anchor Standard 2: I can use different materials, techniques, and processes to make art.
Indicator VA.CR NH.2.2I can make art by combining two or more art materials.
Artistic Processes: Responding - I can evaluate and communicate about the meaning in my artwork and the artwork of others.
Anchor Standard 5: I can interpret (read) and evaluate the meaning of an artwork.
Indicator VA.R NL.5.1 I can identify an object that is the subject or main idea of an artwork.
Indicator VA.R NH.5.2 I can describe the organization of an artwork using art vocabulary.
Design a Dinosaur City with Your Classmates
Exploring visual literacy through collage, imagination, and collaboration. Students will work individually or in small groups to analyze what a dinosaur needs and wants. What natural landmarks does it need? If a dinosaur lived in a city, what would it want?
Gallery Tour: Pee Dee History Gallery - River
Studio Activity: Dinosaur City Collage
State Standards by Discipline
Social Studies:
Standard 3: Utilize the college and career skills of an economist to understand how economic decisions affect one’s personal community.
Enduring Understanding: Fundamental economic concepts introduced in kindergarten are developed throughout social studies education and impact one’s everyday choices.
The student will: K.E.1 Identify and compare wants and needs. This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into the differences between wants and needs and that different individuals have different wants and needs.
Science:
K-LS1-1. Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive. K-ESS3-1. Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants or animals (including humans) and the places they live.
Visual Arts:
Artistic Processes: Creating - I can make artwork using a variety of materials, techniques, and processes.
Anchor Standard 1: I can use the elements and principles of art to create artwork.
Indicator VA.CR AH.1.1 I can use some elements of art to communicate a story about a familiar place or object.
Early Works in Clay and Poetry in Pottery
Explore artifacts left behind. Why were they made and what were they used for? How did creations in clay change over time? What do they tell us about the people who made them?
Gallery Tour: Pee Dee History Gallery - River
Studio Activity: Pinch Pot Creation
State Standards by Discipline
Social Studies:
Standard 1: Utilize the college and career skills of a historian to study continuity and change over time in South Carolina.
Enduring Understanding: The similarities and differences within South Carolina, and the exploration of associated patterns between them, allow students to develop the foundational understanding that history involves continuities and changes in people from all backgrounds, and that patterns of history develop over time.
The student will:
1.H.3 Evaluate different sources of evidence used in historical inquiry, such as art, artifacts, digital sources, graphs, maps, oral histories, photographs/images, and texts.
Visual Arts:
Artistic Processes: Connecting - I can relate artistic ideas and work with personal meaning and external context.
Anchor Standard 6: I can identify and examine the role of visual arts through history and world cultures.
Benchmark VA.C NL.6 I can recognize differences in artworks from some cultures and time periods.
Indicator VA.C NL.6.1I can recognize that all cultures create art and explore elements specific to that culture/form.
The Secret Language of Trees
What can trees tell us and how do they? Students will consider the needs of what plants need and how trees can tell us if they received what they needed during their life.
Gallery Tour: Pee Dee History Gallery - River
Studio Activity: Tree Ring Art
State Standards by Discipline
Social Studies:
Standard 2: Utilize the college and career skills of a geographer to apply map skills and draw conclusions about the United States.
Enduring Understanding: The availability of resources and the physical features associated with them vary in different locations around the U. S. Students will connect these resources with various economic activities.
The student will:
2.G.2 Describe and compare various landforms over time within the U.S. through the use of primary and secondary sources
Science:
2-LS2-1. Plan and conduct an investigation to determine what plants need to grow.
2-ESS1-1. Use information from several sources to provide evidence that Earth events can occur rapidly or slowly.
2-ESS3-1. Design solutions to address human impacts on natural resources in the local environment.
Visual Arts:
Artistic Processes: Creating - I can make artwork using a variety of materials, techniques, and processes. Anchor Standard 1: I can use the elements and principles of art to create artwork.
Benchmark VA.CR NL.1I can name and use some of the elements of art to express ideas. (line)
Indicator VA.CR NL.1.1 I can use some elements of art to communicate a story about a familiar place or object.
Fantastic Fossils
What is a fossil? How are fossils formed? What plants and animals lived in the Pee Dee region thousands or even millions of years ago? Explore fossils from animals and plants that lived in the Pee Dee region through a hands-on gallery experience. Dig deep into how fossils are made by creating an imprint and cast fossil in the Museum’s art studio.
Gallery Tour: Pee Dee History Gallery - River
Studio Activity: Fossil Imprints or Casts
State Standards by Discipline
Science:
Standard 3.L.5: The student will demonstrate an understanding of how the characteristics and changes in environments and habitats affect the diversity of organisms.
3.L.5B. Conceptual Understanding: When the environment or habitat changes, some plants and animals survive and reproduce, some move to new locations, and some die. Fossils can be used to infer characteristics of environments from long ago.
Colonial Pee Dee
Who were the people that lived in the Pee Dee during the Colonial Times? What was life like? How do we know? What do archeological finds tell us about this time in history? Compare and contrast yesterday in the Pee Dee to today. During your visit make your own colonial era inspired artifact.
Gallery Tour: Pee Dee History Gallery - River
Studio Activity: Colonial Era Artifact Creation
State Standards by Discipline
Social Studies:
Standard 1: Demonstrate an understanding of the settlement and colonization of North America, including South Carolina, between 1600–1730.
Indicator 4.1.CO: Compare the interactions among cultural groups as a result of European colonization. This indicator was developed to promote inquiry into how European colonization impacted the interaction among African, European, and Native American cultural groups
Native Americans of the Pee Dee
Who were the first humans to live in the Pee Dee Region? How were their lives different their ours? What clues about their lives have they left behind? Discover how archeologists find artifacts and what they can tell us. Look closer at how Native American Pottery patterns and Projectile Points assist in time frame identification.
Gallery Tour: Pee Dee History Gallery - River
Studio Activity: Coil Pot Creation
State Standards by Discipline
Visual Arts:
Artistic Processes: Connecting - I can relate artistic ideas and work with personal meaning and external context.
Anchor Standard 6: I can identify and examine the role of visual arts through history and world cultures.
Benchmark VA.C NL.6 I can recognize differences in artworks from some cultures and time periods.
Indicator VA.C NL.6.1I can recognize that all cultures create art and explore elements specific to that culture/form.
It’s Not Easy Being Green
Explore the history & complexities of South Carolina's agrarian society through an analytical tour of the Pee Dee History Gallery. What is indigo and how did it come to South Carolina? Students will observe first-hand the effect oxidation has on the indigo dyeing process through a dip & dye activity.
Gallery Tour: Pee Dee History Gallery - River
Studio Activity: Indigo Dip & Dye
State Standards by Discipline
Social Studies:
Standard 1: Demonstrate an understanding of the development of South Carolina during the settlement and colonization of North America in the period of 1500–1756.
Enduring Understanding: The Carolina colony was composed of indigenous, immigrant, and enslaved populations. Various factors across North America and the Carolina colony facilitated the eventual emergence of an American national identity.
Indicator 8.1.CE: Analyze the factors that contributed to the development of South Carolina’s economic system and the subsequent impacts on different populations within the colony.
Indicator 8.1.E: Utilize a variety of primary and secondary sources to examine multiple perspectives and influences of the economic, political, and social effects of South Carolina’s settlement and colonization on the development of various forms of government across the colonies.
Gallery Sketch Sessions with Optional Writing Session
What does observation teach us? How does it shape and/or influence our own work? Observe & learn from this closer look by creating sketches based off the work of other painters within the Museum's Collection. Optional personal artist statement writing session.
Gallery Tour: Focus Gallery or Special Exhibits Gallery Studio Activity: Gallery Sketch Session following Tour
State Standards by Discipline
Visual Arts:
Artistic Processes: Responding- I can evaluate and communicate about the meaning in my artwork and the artwork of others.
Anchor Standard 5: I can interpret (read) and evaluate the meaning of an artwork.
World Language Gallery Visits
Is language limited to the classroom? Or can it be used in other settings to describe or express opinions? Explore new spaces in which to put your language skills to use. Gallery tours will allow time for teacher facilitated pair share session in the target language utilizing vocabulary related to identifying objects, colors, expressing opinions and describing.
Gallery Tour: Focus Gallery or Special Exhibits Gallery
Studio Activity: Color wheel creation, labeled in target language
State Standards by Discipline
Modern World Language:
I can communicate in spontaneous spoken, written, or signed conversations on both very familiar and everyday topics, using a variety of practiced or memorized words, phrases, simple sentences, and questions.
NOVICE LOW: I can express basic preferences or feelings, using practiced or memorized words and phrases, with the help of gestures or visuals.
NOVICE MID: I can express my own preferences or feelings and react to those of others, using a mixture of practiced or memorized words, phrases, and questions.
NOVICE HIGH: I can express, ask about, and react to preferences, feelings, or opinions on familiar topics, using simple sentences most of the time and asking questions to keep the conversation on topic.
The Civil Rights Movement in Florence
What constitutes a civil right? What is a civil liberty? Explore these definitions through examples in Florence’s history.
Gallery Tour: Pee Dee History Road
Studio Activity: Create your own button visually depicting a civil right protected by the Constitution
SC US Government Standards:
Standard 4: Demonstrate an understanding of the rights and responsibilities associated with citizenship in the US
Indicator USG.4.IN: Distinguish between various economic, personal and political rights of citizens in the US and how these rights can sometimes conflict with one another.
Fighters for Freedom: William H. Johnson Picturing Justice
*This tour will be available beginning March 1, 2025.
Explore the biographies portrayed in William Henry Johnson’s (1901-19070) iconic Fighters for Freedom series. Who were they? Why did Johnson choose to paint them? How does his visual interpretation of history influence our understanding? Take a guided tour of the exhibition, hear stories of local Florence Freedom Fighters and complete a reflective scrapbook activity in which to explore your own story in relation to those found in Johnson’s Freedom Fighters series.
Transportation reimbursement is available for this tour, through the generosity of the ArtBridges Foundation.
Gallery Tour: Focus Gallery & Educational Gallery
Studio Activity: William Henry Johnson Inspired Scrapbook Activity
SC Social Studies College and Career Ready Standards
Standard 5: Demonstrate an understanding of the impact of world events on South Carolina and the United States from 1929 to present.Enduring Understanding: As a result of new perspectives on national security following World War I, South Carolina continues to benefit from and contribute to national and global communities. Additionally, civic participation and social change altered South Carolina’s social standing and political alignment.
Indicator 8.5.E: Utilize a variety of primary and secondary sources to analyze multiple perspectives on the cultural changes in South Carolina and the U.S.
SC College and Career Ready Standards for Visual Arts Proficiency - Connecting
Standard 6: I can identify the role of visual arts through history and world cultures.
Standard 7: I can relate visual arts to other arts disciplines, content areas and careers.
South Carolina College- and Career-Ready English Language Arts Standards and IndicatorsInquiry-Based Literacy Standards (I)
Standard 3: Construct knowledge, applying disciplinary concepts and tools, to build deeper understanding of the world through exploration, collaboration, and analysis.
3.3 Gather information from a variety of primary and secondary sources and evaluate sources for perspective, validity, and bias
