New Charlotte museum plans range from a ‘Bridgerton’ party to Jane Goodall’s hologram
From popular returning programs to major national touring exhibits and imaginative events aimed at redefining what it means to be a museum, a trio of Charlotte-area cultural institutions offers packed calendars this fall and beyond.
Charlotte Museum of History
To appeal to people who don’t have the time to visit during the museum’s regular hours, the Charlotte Museum of History started offering Thursdays at the museum last year, with programs focusing on a rotating list of historic topics.
Last spring, the museum hosted an event centered on Scotch-Irish history in connection with the popular television series, “Outlander.” “Forty people showed up and really loved it, so we are planning everything for the rest of the year, thinking about how to make those nights fun and engaging,” said Charlotte Museum of History CEO Terri White.
Plans for Thursday evenings so far include a beer, wine, and cider tasting, a look at the museum’s core collection, paint-and-sip nights and trivia.
On Sept. 14, culinary historian and James Beard Award-winning author Michael Twitty will present free cooking demonstrations and samples from the newly reconstructed kitchen at the museum’s 1774 Rock House.
“People connect to things that they can relate to,” White said. “We find that food and beverages, music, clothing and fashion can introduce the less talked about aspects of history and connect people to the more traditional history museum topics.”
Fall brings the return of the Mad About Modern home tour on Sept. 28, with a kick-off event the evening before, to celebrate authentic mid-century and mid-century modern-inspired homes throughout the Charlotte region.
The 1774 Alexander Rock House, homesite of a small Revolutionary Era plantation, turns 250 this year. On Oct. 19, the museum will host a birthday party for the stone structure, once home to Hezekiah Alexander, a prominent figure in Mecklenburg County and North Carolina history.
In recent years, the museum has taken strides to educate about and celebrate the full story of the era through the Rock House.
“Hezekiah is part of the story, absolutely, but he’s not the only part,” said White. “We want to talk about his wife, his children, the Catawba who were displaced when he settled, and the African American experience at this time.”
From Feb. 20-22, 2025, the museum will host its African American Heritage Festival, “Black Country,” which it anticipates to be its largest event of the year.
This season’s theme examines what it means to be rural versus urban, and how we can unify across both. The Ebony Hillbillies, an African American string band, will perform, and there will be free activities, performances and speakers.
On Feb. 15, the dress-up gala Queen Charlotte’s Ball & Banquet will feature “Bridgerton” author Julia Quinn.
Her books on life around the crown in Regency era England in the early half of the 19th century spawned an immensely popular Netflix series of the same name, as well as a prequel series about Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III and the city of Charlotte’s namesake.
“I have personally committed to dressing up as Queen Charlotte,” White said. “It’s a massive cultural phenomenon. But the food, fashion, etiquette, and social mores between a royal house and back-country house” like Hezekian Alexander’s, which were both in the same time period.
Discovery Place
Discovery Place brings a major National Geographic touring exhibit to Charlotte this fall.
From Nov. 16 through next spring, Discovery Place Science uptown offers “Becoming Jane,” an exhibit that celebrates renowned primatologist Jane Goodall and her groundbreaking work with chimpanzees, plus her global conservation efforts.
This touring exhibition offers an engaging immersion into Goodall’s camps and other study sites. Visitors also will be able to engage with a life-sized hologram of Goodall.
Heather Norton, chief science officer at Discovery Place, works to develop all programming across the museum’s four locations.
”Our goal is to take very complex, hard-to-understand themes and explain them in a tangible, real world way,” she said. “We get to bring these incredible concepts to life in ways that people can touch, experience, and really connect with.”
A conservation pledge wall will allow visitors to leave their mark regarding how they can help the environment and nature.
“And you’ll be able to observe the chimps yourself and see what behaviors you can document,” said Norton, noting that the exhibit uses new technologies to immerse visitors into Goodall’s work. ”It’s very hands-on and real.”
As Discovery Place increases efforts to grow its adult audience, the museum will continue its monthly Science on the Rocks Friday night, kid-free programming. These 21-and-up events present live music, cocktails, science demos and hands-on workshops.
On Oct. 26, the museum again offers the Macabre Masquerade, a Halloween event with a science flair.
“We have a lot of things preserved, like liquid specimens and different creepy animals in liquids that you can explore,” Norton said. “We’ll have mixology and different ways to experiment with your sense of taste. It’s a fun take on the macabre.” The Ghouly Gala Halloween children’s event will return to Discovery Place Kids in Huntersville.
The IMAX theater will offer big-name films like Transformers One and Joker: Folie à Deux.
And one day a month, all locations offer a sensory day, when families can experience lower lighting and sound in an accessible environment.
Levine Museum of the New South
Energized by the reception to the museum’s current exhibition “Charlotte: Moving Forward, Looking Back,” which tells the story of Charlotte from Native and early European settlement to today, the Levine Museum of the New South offers a full docket of diverse, family-friendly programs this fall.
“Moving Forward, Looking Back” looks to examine the city through four big questions, the museum said: How did Charlotte grow from a trading village to an urban financial center; how have inequality and resistance shaped Charlotte; how is Charlotte becoming a more multicultural city?’ and what does it mean to be a New South city?
The museum’s Southern Accents event, ÚltimaNota Live Acoustic on Sept. 12, will offer live music and storytelling with Charlotte’s own Latin band.
“Many have been dancing over the years to ÚltimaNota’s covers of some of the most iconic Latin music songs. But after 2020 they have been creating original songs reflecting the experience of immigrants in Charlotte,” said Richard Cooper, museum president and CEO.
“This will be their first-ever acoustic performance, where the stories and lyrics of their new original songs take center stage.”
“Our Southern Accents program allows us to present contemporary work by experts, artists and researchers focused on Southern history and culture. So presenting ÚltimaNota is exciting for us because not only will we experience the art of Latin music, but the band will also share their history and personal stories reflecting on the immigrant experience here in Charlotte.”
’Charlotte is my city.’ Lifting up immigrants through Latin music, jazz and the symphony
On Nov. 2, the Festival Día de Muertos marks the traditional Mexican holiday, Day of the Dead. This family-day event is free and offers visitors the chance to dance, sing, create, eat and learn about Charlotte’s diverse community.
“We look forward to this celebration every year. It’s exciting to celebrate history and cultural traditions through these events, and it’s another opportunity to celebrate Charlotte as a multicultural city,” Cooper said.
“We encourage everyone to celebrate and explore cultures different from their own,” he added. “It is a chance to experience our city’s rich, multicultural tapestry and recognize how it enriches and enlivens Charlotte.”
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