Events

There are some artists that fall outside of the definition of fine art. Sometimes referred to as folk, outsider, visionary or memory artists, most are driven to create something that has a special meaning to them. Some use objects from their own backyard, or illustrate personal visions or cultural history, while others use art to cope with life. Some are celebrated locally, while the work of others goes unseen until their deaths. One thing they have in common is that they are destined to leave their impression on this world through their work. This film takes a look at some of South Carolina’s unique self-taught artists including Maxi McConnell Eades, Reverend Johnnie Simmons, L.C. Carson, Sam Doyle, Ernest Lee, and Margaret Robbins.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, June 25th, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2025. For a list of films, visit our website at www.horrycountymuseum.org. For more information, call the Horry County Museum at 843-915-5320 or e-mail hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov.

Join Ben Burroughs, the Director of the Horry County Archives Center at Coastal Carolina University, on Saturday, June 28th, as he discusses the history of Conway’s City Hall. This lecture will feature the building’s origins and evolution over the past 200 years, along with some interesting anecdotes associated with the building.
Ben is the director of the Horry County Archives Center, established at Coastal Carolina University by the Horry County Higher Education Commission in 2006. The center focuses on researching the history of Horry County and surrounding counties, including the history of Coastal Carolina University. The center works with local history-minded groups to find significant historical material, preserve it and make it accessible to the public via digitization.
The program will begin at 1:00 pm in the McCown Auditorium located at 805 Main Street, Conway S.C. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 843-915-5320 or email hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov. To view a full list of programs, visit our website at www.horrycountymuseum.org.

The 2025 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with the locally produced film, Birth of a Nation: The Making of the Declaration of Independence. Produced and narrated by historian Rod Gragg, this film chronicles the creation of one of the most important documents in American history.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, July 2nd, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2025. For a list of films, visit our website at www.horrycountymuseum.org. For more information, call the Horry County Museum at 843-915-5320 or e-mail hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov.

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The 2025 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with Beach Break: A History of Surfing in South Carolina, part of the Carolina Stories Series by SCETV. Relive the life and times of South Carolina surfers as they share their amazing stories of salty days in the Atlantic. Take a look at the industry that has developed from the sport of surfing: the surf shop. What began with surfboards, a bar of wax and maybe some cheese sandwiches has evolved into a radical, fiercely competitive, new game that includes high-tech, brand-name clothing, cutting-edge videos and locally made custom surfboards.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, July 9th, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2025. For a list of films, visit our website at www.horrycountymuseum.org. For more information, call the Horry County Museum at 843-915-5320 or e-mail hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov.

The Horry County Museum presents a free, family friendly, event to learn about the variety of fossils and shells that can be found throughout South Carolina! Join us from 9 AM to 4 PM on Saturday, July 12, 2025 for a variety of exhibitors, presentations, and hands on activities. Presentations will be given by Jim Knight, retired Natural History Curator of the South Carolina State Museum, and Frank Morning, Mid-State Geological Research Team. Exhibitors include: Burnt & Sandy Boat Charters, EdVenture Children’s Museum Myrtle Beach, Grand Strand Shell Club, Jared Shuler, Mid-State Geological Research Team, Myrtle Beach & Huntington Beach State Parks, Myrtle Beach Shark Tooth Adventures, North Myrtle Beach Area Historical Museum, Palmetto Fossils, Ripley’s Aquarium, and the Mace Brown Museum of Natural History.
This event will be held at the Horry County Museum located at 805 Main Street, Conway, S.C. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 843-915-5320 or email hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov. For more information about our programs, visit the museum website at www.horrycountymuseum.org.

The 2025 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with Born to Rebel, Driven to Excel. Part of the Carolina Stories Series by SCETV, this 30 minute film biography tells the story of South Carolinian, Dr. Benjamin Mays.
Benjamin Mays, from Epworth, South Carolina, saw the racism and forced segregation of life around him and decided to challenge it with education and religion. Against the advice of his father, Mays pursued a formal education and rose to the top of his class, becoming Dean of Religion at Howard University, and later earned a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Chicago. He became president of Morehouse College in 1940, and his influence on civil rights and education for the next three decades reached far and wide. He met with Mahatma Gandhi, led Atlanta’s desegregation effort, and convinced Gone with the Wind author Margaret Mitchell to (secretly) sponsor students. He was mentor and spiritual father to Martin Luther King, Jr., who credited him as his inspiration for entering the ministry. King selected Mays to give his eulogy in the event of his death, a task Mays fulfilled. Interviewees include Andrew Young, Hank Aaron, Mays’ great niece Dr. Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp, and Dr. Robert Franklin.
The film is free to the public and will be shown at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, July 16th, at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street in Conway.
The Horry County Museum Documentary Film Matinees will continue throughout 2025. For a list of films, visit our website at www.horrycountymuseum.org. For more information, call the Horry County Museum at 843-915-5320 or e-mail hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov.

For the past 15 years, Joe McGill has been sleeping in former slave dwellings throughout the United States. His adventures are now chronicled in the book Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery. Join us at the Horry County Museum at 1 PM on Saturday, July 19th as McGill discusses why this simple act is still being requested by historic sites of enslavement.
Joseph McGill, Jr., is the founder of the Slave Dwelling Project. By arranging for people to sleep in extant slave dwellings, this project has brought much needed attention to these often-neglected structures that are vitally important to the American built environment. He has conducted over 250 overnights in approximately 150 different sites in 25 states and the District of Columbia. He has interacted with the descendants of both the enslaved communities and of the enslavers associated with antebellum historic sites. He speaks with school children and college students, with historical societies, community groups, and members of the public.
Since 2016, McGill has expanded the Slave Dwelling Project to offer a program of living history called “Inalienable Rights: Living History Through the Eyes of the Enslaved.” The Project has conducted 7 conferences since 2013. Mr. McGill was a field officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, working to revitalize the Sweet Auburn commercial district in Atlanta, GA and to develop a management plan for the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area.
Mr. McGill served as the Executive Director of the African American Museum located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He is also the former Director of History and Culture at Penn Center, St. Helena Island, South Carolina. Penn School was the first school built during the Civil War for the education of recently freed slaves.
Mr. McGill appears in the book Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz. He is also a member of the South Carolina Humanities Council Speakers Bureau.
This event will be held at the Horry County Museum located at 805 Main Street, Conway, S.C. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 843-915-5320 or email hcg.museum@horrycountysc.gov. For more information about our programs, visit the museum website at www.horrycountymuseum.org.