An internationally recognized artist is opening downtown Rock Hill’s next museum
An artist known for crafting some of the world’s most iconic characters is bringing his talents to downtown Rock Hill. He’ll also bring his collection.
Jim Shore, 75, a York County native known worldwide for his Heartwood Creek folk art figurines and brand partnerships with companies like Disney, will open a museum and gift shop next year at 109 Hampton St. The 22,000-square-foot space will include a gallery for other artists and rotating displays for more than 30,000 pieces of Shore’s crafted art, paintings or drawings.
The project is a “several million-dollar investment,” Shore said, that he would like to open about this time next year, ahead of the Christmas season.
Shore’s work includes a wide range of characters from Disney to The Grinch, Peanuts, Harry Potter and other popular brands. His unique, folksy take on Santa figurines led to prominent lines of angels and Christmas scenes.
Shore grew up in York and lives on Lake Wylie. He has an office studio in Lake Wylie and a studio in Fort Lawn, near where he spent many of his early years as an artist. Shore has deep ties to Rock Hill. He helped paint original displays at the Museum of York County when it moved to its current Mount Gallant Road location in 1965, including the African room.
Shore has had opportunities to open a museum dedicated to his work at several high-tourism sites nationwide, but never did. He knew he wanted it to be in the Carolinas.
“I would just not feel at home anywhere else,” Shore said.
The new space will include three buildings, just off Main Street. Downstairs will have gallery and gift shop. The museum will go upstairs, taking guests through seasonal villages. It will have video immersion experiences and themed collections.
Mayor John Gettys largely remembers the Hampton Street space as an office furniture sales site. It will be a siginificant addition to the city’s downtown arts scene, he said. Along with the Arts Council of York County headquarters and the Main Street Children’s Museum, downtown has the Comporium Telephone Museum, murals and more public art coming with Storyline Park. There are plans for the Marlie Center, the city’s first large performing arts venue.
Gettys looks at the Jim Shore Museum Experience and Gift Shop in a similar light.
“Five years from now this will be the foundational piece that things will grow from,” Gettys said. “This will really bring a lot of people to learn who we are and what makes us special.”
Shore was drawn to the museum site largely because it would save the building there. Rock Hill was a sleepy Southern town when Shore was young, he said. One of the city’s great accomplishments is to reuse properties rather than demolishing them, he said.
“You had the good sense not to tear things down and replace them with stainless steel and glass,” Shore said. “But you recognized what you had historically.”
Areas in and just off downtown Rock Hill have become a wide mix of restaurants, entertainment, retail and apartments in buildings that for decades served as factories, warehouses, power and water plants. Shore wants to see new life in his space on Hampton Street, too.
“You’ve got a magnificent starting point for an elegant example of a Southern town, done the right way,” he said.
