Beautiful Brookgreen Southern Light Show

Brookgreen Gardens is located in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. However it’s not just a garden, it’s where you can visit botanical gardens, American sculptures, Lowcountry history plus a Lowcountry zoo. https://www.brookgreen.org/

When Archer Huntington and noted sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington, his wife, purchased property in South Carolina in 1930, the original idea was to build a retreat from the world while Anna, who had been diagnosed with tuberculosis, recovered her strength. However, 18 months later, on July 13, 1931, the property was incorporated under the laws of South Carolina as a private, not-for-profit corporation entitled “Brookgreen Gardens, A Society for Southeastern Flora and Fauna.”

From its inception, Brookgreen had a three-pronged purpose: first, to collect, exhibit, and preserve American figurative sculpture; second, to collect, exhibit, and preserve the plants of the Southeast; and third, to collect, exhibit, and preserve the animals of the Southeast. Collecting and exhibiting, it became the first public sculpture garden in America. Today it is the finest outdoor museum of its type in the world. (source: Robin R. Salmon, Brookgreen Gardens, Arcadia Press, 2006, p. 7)

• 

Today I’m sharing the breathtaking Brookgreen Southern Light Show by Bruce Munro, a British artist best known for immersive large-scale light-based installations. The exhibit consists of 7 designs in different sections of the gardens. https://www.brucemunro.co.uk/about/

• 

1. Water-Towers in the Visionaries garden.

2. Time and Again on the Pegasus lawn.

3. Hive in the old Bell Tower.

4. Okonjima Choral Society behind the garden wall at the Rosen Carolina Terrace.

5. Fireflies along Live Oak Allee.

6. Field of Light covering the Arboretum.

7. Reflections along the Welcome Center Plaza arcade.

Water-Towers

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

These are the water-towers made from over 200 stacked recyclable water bottles with animated light and sound. They are amazing to watch as the colors change to the music. The close-up shows all the intricate lighting wires.

Time and Again

• 

• 

• 

Time and Again on the Pegasus lawn displays 37 stainless steel lilies forming a convex dom shimmering with radial star bursts of light.

Hive in the old Bell Tower

• 

The music from the Hive in the old Bell Tower sounded like thousands of bees working in their hive! There are 1448 glowing “bees” who appear to have come home for the evening.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

More beautiful lights and gorgeous flowers. Lia loved the all!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Walking along the paths we saw eerie but beautiful mossy oak trees. I love these two sculptures, when walking past them you can almost hear them playing their instruments.

Field of Light

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

These pictures don’t even show the beauty of the Field of Light. The entire field was filled with colorful lights. There were 11,700 stems of fiber optic flowers in changing colors that bloom at night. If you look way down the path in the third picture you can just make out a figure. That’s Alexandra with Lia somewhere ahead of her walking down the long path through the Field of Light.

Reflections

• 

• 

At the end of the show were large circles made by animation projections. The patterns and colors changed. Lia is in the spotlight on one of them!

• 

The beautiful Brookgreen Southern Light Show was awesome and it’s something seeing all the beautiful sculptures along with the light show. The topic of the Cornerstone Content Blog Challenge is something that is highly seasonal and this show fits the topic fairly well since it was here only for a limited time. If you are every in the Myrtle Beach area, these gardens are worth the short drive to Murrells Inlet any time. We’re looking forward to visiting during the day so we can take Lia to the Children’s Garden and the Lowcountry Zoo. Definitely a great way to spend a day!