Levine Museum of the New South

Founded in Charlotte in 1991, the Levine Museum of the New South has spent more than 35 years doing something genuinely rare: telling the full, honest story of the American South - not a sanitized version, but the complicated, diverse, and often difficult history that actually shaped the region. Long before inclusive curation became standard practice, the museum pioneered exhibitions and programs created with, for, and about the communities it serves. Its landmark exhibition "Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers" traced Southern history from Reconstruction through the twentieth century. The work earned national acclaim: in 2005, Levine Museum received the National Awards for Museum and Library Service, the field's highest national honor, presented at the White House, and the American Association for State and Local History's most prestigious recognition for state and local history interpretation. Every year, the museum hosts free, festival-style Family Days honoring Dia de Muertos, Three Kings Day, Martin Luther King Day, Juneteenth, and HERstory — public celebrations drawing thousands of Charlotte families into the story of their community. Now building a permanent new home in Charlotte's South End, the museum enters its next chapter with the same animating purpose: to connect the past to the future and realize the promise of a New South.