Big changes for Levine Museum, as it weighs move and rethinks use of its uptown site
The Levine Museum of the New South is exploring a sale or redevelopment of its property amid a shift in the museum’s programming, a move that would add to a slew of changes in the northern portion of uptown.
Kathryn Hill, president and CEO of the museum, said the board has been studying options for the site, which comprises 0.7 acres at the corner of 7th and North College streets, for several years.
Hill said there’s no timeline yet for when the museum might decide on a plan. She said the discussions around what to do with the property are being driven by its efforts to reach more people with its content.
If the museum does sell the property and relocate, it would try to find new space elsewhere in uptown, Hill said. The Charlotte Ledger business newsletter first reported the news Monday.
The museum’s current facility opened in 2001, although the organization had a presence in the building for several years before that.
The building and land it sits on are worth about $7.7 million, according to county real estate records. There’s no room to expand the footprint of the existing building, Hill said, but they are considering renovating the interior.
The museum is also looking into selling the land, and either purchasing or leasing space in a new building that would be built on the site.
Other redevelopment
It would be the latest redevelopment in a series of plans slated for the area.
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The Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is overhauling its main branch in uptown, replacing it with a modern structure and a smaller footprint that is expected to debut in late 2024.
And county and city leaders recently approved a partnership with a developer to build an office tower, mixed-use building, retail and other features at Seventh and Tryon streets, despite a feud over affordable housing.
A block over from that project, renovations are underway at the historic Carolina Theatre, as part of a plan that also calls for a 250-room Intercontinental Hotel and six-floors of civic space to rise above it.
Rethinking a museum
Technology is changing the museum experience, Hill said, and the transition was accelerated by the novel coronavirus. While she said the museum still plans to have a physical space, the goal is for its material to extend beyond one facility.
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The nonprofit Levine Museum also has been in discussions with other cultural institutions about partnering for programming, Hill said.
“Closing our doors actually catapulted us forward in exploring the use of digital technology and reaching people through that media,” she said. “All of that thinking actually begs questions about what does the 21st century museum look like, what does it need and how does it serve people?”
The most important components of the Levine’s new space will be flexibility, Hill said, and an ability to respond to current events.
Technology lends itself to that, and allows the museum to reach more people.
“It is incumbent upon us to stop thinking of ourselves as so facilities bound,” she said. “It is on-demand technology that brings history alive in the places where history happens.”
Hill pointed to the protests that erupted after a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer shot Keith Lamont Scott in 2016. The museum worked at breakneck speed after the unrest to unveil an exhibit examining the issue of police shootings several months later.
“It was the Levine museum that provided the context around criminal justice and school segregation and housing discrimination,” she said.
Now, in the wake of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, the Levine has hosted a number of virtual conversations about racial inequity.
“Our history is there whether we acknowledge it or not, and it informs who we are,” she said. “And understanding that helps us understand each other. It fosters empathy.”
This story was originally published August 12, 2020 at 6:15 AM.
