Callie and John Rainey Sculpture Pavilion
History of the Building
The Rainey Sculpture Pavilion, constructed in 1968, was the Visitors Pavilion for Brookgreen Gardens. It housed the museum shop/information desk and a permanent indoor gallery – the Jennewein Gallery – named for sculptor and Brookgreen trustee Carl Paul Jennewein. In 1994, after a new Welcome Center and museum shop were constructed and opened, the building was renovated as a temporary exhibition space featuring galleries named in memory of Paul Jennewein and Joseph Veach Noble, both former chairmen of the board of trustees.
These galleries opened in 1996 with a long-term exhibit, American Masters: Sculpture from Brookgreen Gardens. Since that time, the space has hosted numerous traveling exhibitions from the National Sculpture Society, Society of Animal Artists, and Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum’s Birds in Art, as well as various themed exhibits and retrospectives. The building is named in memory of Callie and John Rainey of Anderson, SC, by their family including children John S. Rainey, Nancy R. Crowley, Mary R. Belser, and Robert M. Rainey.
Exhibitions
One of the popular traveling exhibits is the National Sculpture Society’s Annual Awards Exhibition where, in addition to seeing which sculptures win the Society’s awards, visitors to Brookgreen Gardens vote for their favorites to win the Brookgreen People’s Choice Award. A group show of Brookgreen’s Sculptors in Residence is mounted every three years and often includes work created by the sculptors onsite. Another popular exhibit is the “Wild West” themed exhibit featuring sculpture, paintings, drawings, and prints by important contemporary and historic artists of the American West along with Native American basketry, pottery, jewelry, and beadwork. The annual holiday exhibit honors holidays past with showcases of model train displays, sculpture, paintings, Christmas trees, ornaments, and toys from the Victorian era to the present.