The University is South Carolina will renovate the McKissick Museum building as part of a major update to the historic core of campus that is creating more shared learning spaces for students. To prepare for this renovation, the McKissick Museum will temporarily close beginning December 8, 2025, to move our collections.
About the Renovation
In August 2024, USC adopted USC Next, a master plan for ongoing growth on campus. An important cornerstone of this plan is to reinvigorate our historic campus core. This includes a renovation on the McKissick Museum building, originally built in 1940. Renovation work is expected to begin as soon as Fall 2026.
The renovation will enliven the building with more space for study and teaching. By embedding exhibition space in a hub for the student experience.
Moving McKissick
The McKissick Museum collections include thousands of items: rocks and gems, historic textiles, sculptures, paintings, ceramics, silver, and more. Taking care of these items during the renovation requires careful attention as we move them to another facility.
During the spring and summer of 2026, McKissick Museum staff will re-catalog each item as we prepare it for moving. The collections will be professionally moved into a university facility that has the necessary climate control to store the collection safely.
Research and Education Access
We will continue to provide access to the museum collections for research and education during this process, although most items in the collection will be unavailable during the cataloging and move.
At other times during the renovation, USC faculty and students as well as members of the public will be able to request information about the collections and arrange for opportunities to view items from the collection for research and teaching.
We also will work with faculty to provide students with opportunities for experiential learning. From holding geological specimens to curating an exhibition, generations of USC students have enjoyed learning about the world and about the management of museums at McKissick, and we want to continue the tradition.
Strategic Planning for McKissick
When the McKissick Museum building reopens, it will include classroom space as well as study lounges for student use, making it a hub of campus activity.
The building also will include a classroom uniquely designed for studying items from the museum’s collection as well as McKissick display space. Embedding the museum in this hub will make McKissick collections more visible to students than ever before. In the future, countless USC undergraduates will see our exhibitions as they study or attend class.
McKissick Museum will work with university leadership to develop a long-term, strategic plan to enhance the museum’s contribution to USC’s research agenda and experiential learning initiatives. This planning will address needs for collections storage and additional exhibition space. We look forward to partnering with the community as that plan moves forward.