Levine Museum Of The New South Launches ‘50 Places In Charlotte’ Digital Project

Online project will reveal important places in Charlotte history over 50 weeks,
furthering museum goal of making history accessible to all 

CHARLOTTE, NC — Do you know Charlotte? Like really, really know Charlotte? 

Levine Museum of the New South is here to help. A new digital experience that will help shore up the historical knowledge of what shaped the Queen City — “50 Places in Charlotte” — debuted this week on the Levine Museum of the New South website.

Through the project, collaboratively created by Levine Museum Digital Projects Manager Cliff Whitfield, M.A.; Levine Museum Director of Programs and Digital Production Alexander Piñeres, and Levine Museum Chief Content Strategist Franky Abbott, a composite map of Charlotte, its communities, and the ways it has changed over the centuries was created. 

“Charlotte’s history is rich, important, and too often buried. We wanted to help people learn how places have helped shape Charlotte’s history, and how the people who built and used those places interacted with them,” Whitfield says.

Supported by a generous grant from the Knight Foundation and The Infusion Fund, the team used a combination of internal research of significant places, staff suggestions, and public feedback from the museum’s Charlotte by Charlotte survey to compile the 50 places. 

“‘50 Places in Charlotte’ is a digital history project that tells the city’s story through a glimpse of 50 places throughout the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area,” Abbot says. “‘Places’ represent the past and the present through existing sites and long-demolished structures, and travel through time from Charlotte’s early history to today.”  

The places will be revealed one by one over the course of 50 weeks, meaning the public won’t know what places are included in the project until all are revealed. Each week, a new story of a Charlotte place will be told through narrative and multimedia.

“This project is another way we can make history accessible for everyone, and to share everyone’s stories and show how significant places and the people behind them shaped and continue to shape the city and region,” Piñeres says. “We anticipate revealing new information about some favorite places in Charlotte, and creating an opportunity for all to discover new histories through places that might be unfamiliar to many.”

Those interested can follow the project’s progress on the Levine Museum website, social media pages, and sign up to get a weekly email when each new place is published.

Levine Museum continues to build upon its rich legacy of telling the stories of the diverse people who have shaped and been shaped by this region through exhibitions, dialogue, and robust digital programming.

The “50 Places In Charlotte” project is the latest digital innovation from The Levine Museum of the New South, mirroring the efforts reflected in a recent study by Cuseum: At the time of the COVID-19 lockdowns, one-third of museums reported having no digital strategy whatsoever. By early 2021, 92% of museums had begun offering some form of digital programming to cater to a global public in lockdown. 

Between October 2022-September 2023, Levine Museum of the New South engaged more than 70,000 attendees with LMNS experiences at 401 S. Tryon St., locations across the city, and digitally.