SC’s Brookgreen Gardens undergoing major $20 million overhaul. Here’s what’s planned
Brookgreen Gardens might be 90 years old, but it’s always looking to try something new.
Sometimes that means bringing in new animals to help preserve protected breeds and species, like the adorable Lowcountry goats in Brookgreen’s zoo that just got a new home. Other times, that means taking the spectacular winter wonderland of “Night of a Thousand Candles” and bringing it to the warmer months as “Summer Light: Art by Night,” which the Brookgreen is now putting on for its second year.
Beyond that, Brookgreen is working on its biggest evolution in decades, and it shared an exclusive preview of its plans with The Sun News.
What’s next? A $20 million overhaul to create more space for art, more space for teaching, a new welcome center replete with a butterfly garden and, yes, more cute animals — Red Wolves
Upgrading the gardens for the next generation
More than 350,000 people visit Brookgreen each year. Many are locals, some are visitors to Myrtle Beach while others drive in from Charleston or other parts of the Carolinas.
Many visitors, though, are like Dick Rosen, who has gone to the gardens hundreds of times. Rosen, a longtime Brookgreen donor, was recruited to chair the campaign to raise the $20 million the gardens need for the upgrades.
His work has paid off. Brookgreen has received $16 million in financial commitments, some in the form of donations already sent to the gardens while others will be paid out over several years.
The fundraising campaign began several years ago, and simply came out of what CEO Page Kiniry described as realizing, “We need to do what we do already, but better.” Every part of the gardens’ overhaul is to better serve the different groups of people who visit each year.
“There are people who have mobility issues, and our (local) population is aging,” she said. “We wanted to improve our accessibility, not taking away from the trails and the walking that can be done, but adding to them.”
What’s already here and what’s to come
Here’s a breakdown of how the $20 million will be allocated.
Supporting the arts ($3 million):
▪ The Simpson Art Building, near the gardens’ entrance, will feature a new studio and space for sculpture conservation. Until now, most sculpture caretaking had to happen outdoors. Now, the gardens have a space to safely bring in the art and care for them when needed.
▪ This funding also supported the creation of the Rosen Galleries, next door to what was the welcome center, a major expansion of the gardens’ indoor art space. (Completed)
“We’ll have our first conservation lab,” Kiniry said. “But typically it happens in a parking lot ... and the collection is aging. We have pieces that are 100 years old, and there’s water intrusion and there’s environmental issues. Being able to treat that sculpture in a laboratory setting is going to be really essential for the future.”
Upgrades to history and education programs ($1 million):
▪ The Leonard Pavilion, which is used for teaching classes. (Completed)
▪ The Gullah Geechee Garden, which features oral histories and written narratives from Georgetown’s Gullah Geechee people. (Completed)
▪ New goat barn for the heritage species breeding program. (Completed)
A new welcome center and conservatory ($10 million):
▪ The new welcome center will be located behind the Simpson Art Building in currently unused space. “Guests will enjoy an accessible, year-round garden to explore tropical biomes, including a butterfly garden to educate children and families,” the gardens said in a statement.
▪ The conservatory will also include indoor garden space, allowing Brookgreen to expand its horticulture study programs, including researching orchids and carnivorous plants.
▪ Finally, the welcome center will be used for indoor events, such as weddings. In the past, Brookgreen has not been able to fully accommodate large indoor events, especially in cases of bad weather.
“The whole education and event space is so subject to weather here,” Kiniry said. Now, Brookgreen will have an indoor backup.
A new zoo exhibit ($1 million):
▪ An expansion of Brookgreen’s Lowcountry Zoo to include red wolves, the most endangered wolf species in the world, and a breeding program for them. (Part of the money has already been used to build a new entrance to the Lowcountry Zoo area of the gardens.)
The gardens are already close to the Alligator River Wildlife Refuge, where red wolves live in the wild. “We’ll be able to help foster pups or contribute to that breeding program to save the species,” Kiniry said.
The final $5 million will be used as a supporting endowment to support Brookgreen in the years to come.
A place for memories
When Rosen was asked how long he’s been visiting the gardens, he had a simple answer.
“Longer than your parents have been alive,” he chuckled.
Having visited Brookgreen for the last 81 years, Rosen has seen every decade of the gardens’ life and has watched it evolve. Growing up, he was more interested in visiting the animals at the gardens: the horses stationed near the front, panthers and, of course, the bears, his favorite animal.
As he grew older, he finally started noticing everything else — beautiful art that surrounds visitors on every path and an expansive natural paradise that never seems to stop growing.
Rosen grew up near the gardens in Georgetown and now lives in Myrtle Beach. Noting that Myrtle Beach doesn’t have much in the way of art museums, he said Brookgreen offers a connection to life and culture in a way little else in Myrtle Beach does.
“The beach is great and the golf courses are great and I certainly enjoy it,” he said. “But it’s different. Most people that grew up here, including myself, wouldn’t have been exposed to anything like that if it were not for Brookgreen. They certainly have gardens and things in Charleston, but when I was growing up, that was a long way off.”
Rosen, like many guests, has brought multiple generations of his family to the gardens.
“We’ve taken our kids and grandchildren ourselves,” he said. “We have one great grandchild that’s only three months old, not sure he would have appreciated it, but maybe he will someday.”
Not only has Brookgreen changed over his many years of visiting — it has grown its focus on environmental and animal conservation, as well as teaching art — but Rosen’s perspective on the gardens has changed, too.
He’s excited to see the gardens to continue to grow and change in the coming years. The next step in that change, however, is finishing up the fundraising campaign. There’s $4 million left to raise. Rosen hopes he can find more donors who will love the gardens so much they are willing to put their money toward supporting it.
“I think we’re very fortunate, and I’m personally very fortunate to have it here,” he said. “But the community is really fortunate as well.”
This story was originally published April 27, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
