Columbia art museum’s big (free!) summer is building a downtown hot spot. How to enjoy it

The Columbia Museum of Art’s Boyd Plaza has become a vibrant, city-center hot spot.

Thanks to two new grants, the museum is able to host a multitude of free events in the plaza in addition to offering free access to the museum all summer for South Carolina residents.

“One of the goals of our organization is to be deeply community centered,” said Joelle Ryan-Cooke, the museum’s deputy director. “Making the Main Street District very vibrant and the Midlands very vibrant.”

It’s safe to say there’s something for everybody in the community.

This summer, the museum is ramping up the amount and type of free events it’s hosting to draw people in, ranging from silent book clubs to morning and evening yoga classes to “Plaza Pop-Ins,” which are family events that include story time, a scavenger hunt and make-and-take art projects for children.

Each event is held sporadically throughout the summer, and specific dates and times can be found on the museum’s website, www.columbiamuseum.org/events .

Starting in July, the museum will host monthly “plein air” outdoor drawing and painting opportunities, along with monthly morning Tai Chi classes.

“Morning Blend” was a coffee and jazz event on Wednesday mornings in June that will pick back up in October, once the weather has cooled back down.

All events are a collaborative effort with different businesses and artists in the area.

“It’s really about showing what the community can do together,” Ryan-Cooke said.

For example, Curiosity Coffee and Drake’s Duck-In were two local food and drink vendors at “Morning Blend,” and each week a different local band performed the live jazz music.

The events have been a success with solid turnout.

One week in June, “we had at least 85 people come by Wednesday morning just between 7:30 and 10:30 for Morning Blend,” said Wilson Bame, associate director of engagement at the museum.

The grant supporting these free community events is from the Knight Foundation, and the grant supporting free admission to the museum is from the Art Bridges Foundation, called Access for All, which is eligible to all South Carolinians during regular public hours this summer and for the next two summers.

“The Knight Foundation grant was a specific grant to take the work week and to create a lot of strong activity to make it really desirable to be at work, live and play downtown,” said Ryan-Cooke. “It’s about activating this public space – Boyd Plaza – that is our front porch.”

The free events are designed to catch commuters on their way to work and college students living in the area, but they also are designed to draw folks who might not normally come to Main Street.

“It brings so much good energy to downtown,” said Columbia resident Sylvia Shealy. “I feel like it’s really great for the area.”

Sign Up for The State, This Week