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Columbia Museum of Art to celebrate plaza renovations

Staff Report //March 6, 2019//

Columbia Museum of Art to celebrate plaza renovations

Staff Report //March 6, 2019//

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The Columbia Museum of Art will celebrate the final stages of its Boyd Plaza renovation on Thursday during First Thursday on Main festivities.

The renovation, with a preliminary budget of $2.8 million, began last spring and is almost finished, according to a news release from the museum. The plaza was gifted to Columbia by late Columbia developer Darnall Boyd and serves as a popular downtown gathering spot. It played host to the city’s winter ice rink before renovations moved the rink to Harbison.

The plaza’s signature fountain has been redesigned and two pavilions added for additional seating, among other changes.  

The renovated Boyd Plaza at the Columbia Musuem of Art includes a reconfigured fountain and additional seating options. (Photo/Melinda Waldrop)George Bailey, president of the Darnall W. and Susan F. Boyd Foundation Inc., said in December 2017 that the plaza “was looking pretty tired and needed to have a major facelift.”

Last month, the Central Carolina Community Foundation awarded the museum one of its annual Connected Communities grants to present a year of programming showcasing the new plaza and emphasizing the museum’s tradition of community engagement.

“The CMA is so grateful to the Boyd Foundation for this beautiful new plaza and excited about its potential,” CMA executive director Della Watkins said in the release. “We’ve been meeting with dozens of partners new and old to brainstorm how to best activate this space for our communities.”

As part of the city’s monthly First Thursday event, the museum will offer music, do-it-yourself art projects, free refreshments while supplies last and a cash bar courtesy of The Whig. The plaza gates open at 5 p.m., with the celebration beginning at 6 p.m. The museum will be open with free admission until 8 p.m.

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