COLUMBIA, SC—Despite a depressed economy and multiple budget cuts, the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum logged a 24 percent increase in attendance to set a new yearly visitation record in 2008-09.
The record growth is a consistent trend at the museum, which has seen attendance double to more than 22,000 since moving to its new facility in the Columbia Mills Building five years ago. Director Allen Roberson attributes the growth to “staff efforts over the past few years to create engaging exhibits and programs, the museum’s expansion in 2007, increased school tours, and more effective marketing and advertising.”
In the 2008-09 year, the museum offered five exhibits (in addition to the main gallery) and several special programs for visitors to enjoy. Two of these exhibits are still on display: “Forgotten Stories: SC Fights the Great War,” and “No Holier Spot of Ground: Confederate Memory in South Carolina’s Cemeteries, Monuments, and Museums.”
With several exciting exhibits planned for the 2009-10 year, including “World War I in 3D” and a Vietnam photography exhibit, Roberson says he “fully expects visitation to set a new record again next year regardless of the economy and that the museum will continue to move forward in its mission as the state’s military history museum.”
Founded in 1896, the SC Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum is the oldest museum in the Columbia area. The museum focuses on South Carolina’s military history from the Revolutionary War to the present War on Terror.
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