Charlotte residents are getting an unusually direct say in what the Levine Museum of the New South looks like next. The museum is inviting the public to a hands-on design session Thursday night, asking neighbors to weigh in on proposed plans for its new South End home as it transitions from temporary spaces to a permanent campus.
The interactive open house runs Thursday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the VAPA Center on N. Tryon and will feature eight stations highlighting options for exhibitions, education and community spaces, plus a youth activity for children, as reported by The Charlotte Observer. Attendees can move from station to station, leave feedback and review proposed layouts that museum staff say will guide the next round of planning.
New South End campus plans
The museum says it has agreed to acquire the 0.57-acre site at 1800 South Boulevard, which includes two buildings totaling roughly 10,000 square feet, and has selected Pickard Chilton as the design architect, according to the Levine Museum of the New South. Public records and reporting place the sale at about $7.5 million, according to Axios Charlotte.
Recent history
The Levine Museum sold its longtime Uptown home at 200 E. Seventh St. in 2022 as part of a strategy to shift to a smaller, more mobile footprint. Local reporting put that sale at roughly $10.7 million, and the museum then operated a temporary 6,000-square-foot location at Three Wells Fargo Center before vacating that space in May 2025 while staging pop-ups and walking tours, per QCity Metro and WFAE.
What to expect at the open house
Thursday’s session is set up like a walk-through workshop. Visitors will circulate through stations that present different gallery and program layouts, weigh in on classroom and meeting room concepts and check out a youth activity aimed at children, The Charlotte Observer reports. Staff will collect that feedback and fold it into both exhibition ideas and community spaces as design work continues.
Why South End matters
Plans call for a historic brick church to be woven into a contemporary campus, an approach the museum says is meant to create a civic gathering place rather than just another attraction. "This new campus represents a bold step forward for the Museum and for Charlotte," Levine Museum CEO Dr. Richard Cooper said in the Levine Museum of the New South. The building’s long history in the neighborhood, including its ties to a young Billy Graham, has helped shape coverage about preservation and adaptive reuse around the project, according to Axios Charlotte.
Next steps
Museum leaders say the community feedback gathered this week will influence layouts, programming and timeline decisions as the design team moves forward. While those plans advance, the museum will continue pop-ups, walking tours and other community programs across Charlotte, per WFAE.
How to take part
The public session runs Thursday evening from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the VAPA Center. Residents looking for more details can visit the Levine Museum of the New South website for event updates, programming information, attendance details and accessibility notes.
