Offner Sculpture Learning and Research Center

Offner CenterThe catalyst for the Elliot and Rosemary Offner Sculpture Learning and Research Center was the bequest of sculptor Richard McDermott Miller (1922-2004), who left the contents of his studio in New York City to Brookgreen Gardens. Encompassing more than 400 works in bronze, plaster, wax, and terra cotta, this body of work was the largest single gift to Brookgreen since the era of its founders, Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington. In order to utilize the vast collection, a visible storage facility was created that would allow Brookgreen to display not only the work of Richard McDermott Miller, but other work from the collection that was currently in storage.

In early 2006, George Dean Johnson and his wife, Susan Phifer Johnson, a Brookgreen trustee, provided the funds to make the project a reality and requested the new center be named in honor of another Brookgreen trustee, Elliot Offner, and his wife, Rosemary. Elliot Offner holds BFA and MFA degrees from Yale University and is a Life Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge University. His artwork - both sculpture and graphic arts - is found in many museum, public, and private collections in this country and abroad.

By opening the Offner Center in 2007, Brookgreen Gardens has made its hidden treasures available to the American public. The Offner Center also provides the means to allow visitors to research these works and others in the collection via the onsite computer database.