Bo Bartlett Center, Columbus, GA, Guía del visitante y qué hacer cerca

The Bo Bartlett Center is a gallery, archive and teaching space for Columbus State University, set in a converted red-brick textile warehouse on Front Avenue in Columbus, Georgia. It holds a collection of large-scale paintings by the artist Bo Bartlett, and it shows how an old mill-town building can take on a new purpose.

The story behind it

Columbus grew into a mill town because of where it sits on the Fall Line, the point where the Chattahoochee River drops out of the hills. The falling water powered textile mills, and warehouses like this one held the cloth and cotton that passed through them. This red-brick building began life in that trade.

Architect Tom Kundig reworked the warehouse into an 18,425-square-foot space for Columbus State University. Inside hangs the Scarborough Collection, fourteen monumental paintings by Bo Bartlett. The center also keeps his archive of sketchbooks, journals, letters, recordings and photographs, and it rotates roughly six to eight exhibitions a year. The building still stores things, only now it is images and memories rather than bales of cloth.

What to look for

• Look at the red brick of the exterior first, since it is the clearest sign that this was a working textile warehouse before it was a gallery.
• Notice how the old industrial shell has been adapted for art, a contrast between a rugged mill-era structure and the careful design of Tom Kundig.
• Inside, take in the sheer scale of the paintings in the Scarborough Collection, where the figures are large enough to feel like they are looking back at you.
• Think about the Fall Line as you stand outside, because the river that shaped this part of town is the reason a building like this exists here.

Tips for your visit

• Allow about an hour if you plan to go inside and look closely at the paintings, and a few minutes if you only want to see the building from the street.
• Check current opening hours and any admission details before you go, since they can change.
• Because the exhibitions rotate several times a year, the temporary shows may differ from one visit to the next.
• The center is in downtown Columbus, so it combines easily with a walk toward the Chattahoochee riverfront and the nearby streets.

See it on a quest

On Ghost Hunt in Columbus, GA, the Bo Bartlett Center is one stop on a longer on-foot route through the area. The app tells you about each place as you arrive and sets a puzzle based on what is in front of you, so you look at the old brick far more closely than you otherwise would. One ticket covers the whole group.

Columbus, GA Detective Mystery: Infiltrate a Secret Society. also passes the center as part of a walk through downtown Columbus. You reach it on foot, hear its story on the spot and solve a puzzle there, and you can start whenever you like with no guide and no group to join. One ticket covers the whole group.