Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
South Carolina State Museum asks for recurring rent, staffing funds and $20 million for renovation phases
Summary
Museum leaders told the House subcommittee they need increased recurring rent to expand into vacated Department of Administration space, funding to restore staff levels, and capital dollars for phased renovations and safety upgrades.
South Carolina State Museum Executive Director Amy Bartomellia told the Public Education and Special Schools Subcommittee the museum is seeking a mix of recurring and nonrecurring funding to support expanded public programming, finishing renovation phases, and safety and technology improvements.
Bartomellia said the museum has seen a recovery since the pandemic: "We are up in all areas, revenue across the board," and noted that "our school group visitation in December was up 216% from the previous year." The museum reported a collection of about 1,100,000 objects, of which roughly a million are natural-history specimens they want digitized for wider research and classroom use.
Why it matters: The museum is asking the Legislature to support a one-time capital push and several recurring increases so it can use newly available space as the Department of Health and Environmental Control vacates part of the Columbia Mills building, expand education programming across the state, and finish remaining renovation phases that organizers say are necessary to make…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
