Orazio de’ Ferrari skillfully captures one of the Old Testament’s most powerful stories.
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Christ, the Pantocrator
Pavel Ovchinnikov
Below the image, click play to listen.
Specialized Focus Tours (for adults)
Cultural Discovery Tours (for K-12 students)
The following tours are available for groups of at least 10 or more by reservation only according to scheduling availability. Tours are 45 minutes in length. Schedule at least two weeks in advance. Request tours HERE.
Fees:
Students (K5-12): educational discounts are available
Adults (College age and above): $5 per person
Note: There is a non-refundable reservation fee to book your tour.
Who Needs Shakespeare?
Gustafson Fine Arts Center, campus of Bob Jones University
For adults and students (6th-12th grade)
In a world of Broadway, YouTube, and Netflix who needs Shakespeare? The simple answer, of course, is we do! Simplicity aside, however, there is no writer past or present whose plots and characters more powerfully illuminate the human condition. Political intrigue, treachery, hypocrisy, selfless heroism, nobility, and beauty—are all poignantly framed and astonishingly “contemporary” (ripped from the headlines of a 24-hour news cycle). We need Shakespeare because in a culture numbed by constant distractions and irrelevant “noise,” he reminds us of our place in the world and our potential for good—or evil.
Request tour HERE or call for more information: (864) 770-1331
FREE Public Tour: Shakespeare Exhibition
Gustafson Fine Arts Center, campus of Bob Jones University
Join M&G’s Director of Education, Donnalynn Hess for a FREE guided tour through M&G’s focus exhibition, Who Needs Shakespeare? on Thursday, April 23 at 2PM–the day of Shakespeare’s birth and death. You’ll discover insights into the bard’s plots and characters through clever symbolism in paintings and engravings. Space is limited, and registration is required.
Registration will open January 2026.
Benjamin West: The Father of American Painting
War Memorial Chapel, campus of Bob Jones University
For adults and students (3rd-12th grade)
From an aspiring artist in rural Pennsylvania plucking the hairs of his cat’s tail for a home-made paintbrush to working as History Painter to the King of England during the Revolutionary War, Benjamin West led a remarkable life of influence, and his paintings detail his story of amazing opportunities! Tour this monumental collection of paintings commissioned by King George III and discover their significance in history.
Request tour HERE or call for more information: (864) 770-1331
FREE Public Tour: Benjamin West Collection
War Memorial Chapel, campus of Bob Jones University
On Good Friday, April 3 from 3-4PM, join M&G Executive Director, Erin Jones for a guided tour of Benjamin West’s monumental royal painting commission, The Progress of Revealed Religion. The tour is free, open to the public, and will conclude in time for guests to attend the 4:30PM Living Gallery program. There is no need to register.
Victorian England: Through the Looking Glass
Join us for an exploration of Victorian England—a golden age of dazzling personalities, painting styles, and techniques! Students (ages 5-14) will discover how Victorian artists shaped not only their world but our own. Each 75-minute lesson is interactive and includes a related art activity. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn and create. As Alice in Lewis Carroll’s classic says: “What is the good of a book (or a world) without pictures?”
Parent attendance is optional. Review our FAQs, which cover arrival and even co-op questions.
Registration: Register HERE.
Location: Mack Building (on the campus of Bob Jones University)
Fees per Lesson: Children–$10; adults–$3
Further your exploration of the era at home through M&G’s FREE electronic activity resource sheets HERE.
Event fees are non-refundable. Adults may choose either to attend with their child(ren) or leave after student check-in for the 75-minute lesson.
Elementary School Lessons (K5-5th grade)
Thursday at 9:30AM and 2PM (October Thursday sessions are FULL)
Friday at 9:30AM, Noon, and 2PM (All Friday sessions are FULL)
Middle School Lessons (6th-8th grade)
Friday at 9:30AM, Noon, and 2PM (ALL 9:30am and 2:00pm sessions are FULL; November 12PM session is FULL)
Fall Topics:
September 11-12, 2025
Discovering Who’s Who: Portrait Painting
- Franz Xaver Winterhalter: Family Portraits
- William Powell Frith and John Collier: Individual Portraits
- Augustus Mulready, William MacDuff, and Mary Gow: Children’s Portraits
October 9-10, 2025
Sharing Stories: Children’s Book Illustrators
- John Tenniel: Illustrator for Lewis Carroll
- Beatrix Potter: Anthropomorphic Storyteller
- Randolph Caldecott: Inspiration for the Caldecott Medal
- Arthur Rackham: Innovative Ink and Watercolor Artist
November 13-14, 2025
Furry Friends and Fearsome Beasts: Animal Painters
- Edwin Landseer: Favorite of the Queen
- Charles Burton Barber: Master of the Sentimental
- Briton Riviere: Master of the Majestic
Spring Topics:
Registration for Spring semester will open in December.
February 12-13, 2026
Enjoying a Laugh: Caricatures and Limericks
- Henry Furniss: The Art of Exaggeration
- Leslie Ward: The “Spy” of Vanity Fair
- Edward Lear: Painter, Poet, Humorist
March 12-13, 2026
Discovering Nature: Landscape and Still Life Paintings
- Thomas Creswick and John Crimshaw: A Distant View
- William Henry Hunt and Edward Ladell: A Closer Look
April 9-10, 2026
The Imaginative World: Prominent Women Artists
- Kate Bunce and Marie Spartali: The Enchanted World
- Emily Osbourne and Emma Brownlow: The Nameless and Friendless
- Adalaide Claxton: Invention and Imagination
Homeschool Days is part of Arts Encounter, M&G’s K-12 arts programming.
Old Master paintings can be overwhelming sometimes with their detailed beauty, serious palette, and historical roots. But they don’t have to be, which is why M&G created the EXPLORE pages—a diversion on our website to unfold some of the mystery and meaning in the art of the past. Watch, listen, read, and color your way through the world of Old Masters!
Click on the links below to investigate for yourself:
Procession to Calvary
Oil on Panel
Otto van Veen
Flemish, c. 1556–d. 1629
Otto van Veen was a classically trained humanist artist or pictor doctus, a concept created by the ancient writer Horace in his Ars Poetica signifying the attempt by artists to regain the social standing of the ancients. Otto van Veen succeeded. A renowned court painter to several rulers, he led the Antwerp art scene, diminishing only when his pupil Peter Paul Rubens returned from his travels in 1608. He paid tribute to Horace by creating two series of emblematic art which coupled Horatian proverbs with an illustrative image. A Romanist painter, he continued the traditions of the church through his work, including this one in M&G’s collection.
Using the usual cast of characters—Roman soldiers, weeping women, Simon of Cyrene, and a jeering mob—van Veen pictures the procession to Calvary just outside the city gate. A woman in the foreground holds up a piece of cloth to Christ who has stumbled under the cross and brought the procession to a momentary halt. St. Veronica offers her veil to Christ to wipe his brow. Traditionally, He accepts her kindness and a likeness of His face appears on the veil when it is returned to her. Scholars debate whether the woman is named Veronica or that the replication of Christ’s “true image”—vera icon—contributed to her name. She is part of a trio of women; the others have children with them, which reminds the viewer that Christ welcomed little children to come to Him. Just slightly behind these women are Mary with clasped hands in her usual blue robe and John, already attentive to her wellbeing.
Van Veen visually divides the scene with the positioning of the cross. On one side is the sympathetic crowd; on the other is the iron hand of Rome. The right side of the panel draws the viewer’s eye to the white horse ridden by a Roman soldier and the muscular figure pulling Christ up the hill with a rope. The dress of this man and the man behind the cross who whips Simon and Christ indicates that they are not part of the military structure of Rome. Instead, they seem to be commoners employed by Rome for the occasion. Combining this fact with the intense, backward gaze of the prominent soldier on horseback creates a personal interaction between the viewer and the scene. The sinfulness of every man compels an atonement be made for a restoration of relationship with God. In the foreground, the open area at this stopping point on the way to Golgotha provides room for the viewer to be included in the picture’s events and to consider which “side” of the scene he will be part of: sympathetic or condemnatory.
Dr. Karen Rowe Jones, M&G board member
Published 2025
Additional Resources:
For additional information on an etching by N. Muxel made after Otto van Veen’s Procession click here.
To see an image of Otto van Veen’s Christ Meeting St. Veronica from the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium click here.
Madonna and Child with Saints
Pietro Alemanno
Below the image, click play to listen.
The Museum & Gallery is a non-profit organization that depends on the financial support of individuals, businesses, and foundations. Your tax-deductible contribution helps M&G to continue transforming lives through our European Old Master Collection and outreach programs for students of all ages!
We’ve added this page to help you consider some of the most popular ways to give to M&G. You can learn about strategies for giving today and strategies for giving in the future. We’ve even included a few once-in-a lifetime strategies. Just click on the arrows below for further information.
We welcome the opportunity to equip you with additional information about any of these giving methods and to discuss with you the best strategies for you to consider. We’re also available to connect with your personal legal, tax and investment professionals. Contact us at contact@museumandgallery.org or 864-770-1331.
Giving Today
Giving Cash
Cash giving is your quickest and easiest way to invest in M&G’s mission of transforming lives through fine art. If you itemize rather than take the standard deduction on your federal income taxes, you can deduct cash gifts up to 60% of your adjusted gross income through 2025 and 50% thereafter. In fact, gifts of cash are one of the surest ways to make your itemized deductions exceed your standard deduction.
- Giving by check: make your check payable to Museum & Gallery, Inc. and mail to:
- Museum & Gallery, Inc.
1700 Wade Hampton Blvd.
Greenville, SC 29614
- Museum & Gallery, Inc.
- Giving online by debit card or credit card: please click here to use our secure form.
- Giving by phone: please call (864) 770-1331
- Giving by wire: please contact us for instructions at (864) 770-1331 or contact@museumandgallery.org.
Giving from Your Donor Advised Fund
If you have a donor-advised fund at the National Christian Foundation, South Carolina Christian Foundation, your local community foundation, or you utilize a gift fund with Fidelity, Vanguard, Schwab, or other investment firm, you can suggest gifts be made from your fund to M&G. Be sure to instruct the foundation or fund to share your identity with us so that we can thank you for your gift.
Giving from Your Investment Portfolio
When you give shares of appreciated stock, mutual funds, or bonds you’ve owned longer than 1 year directly to M&G, you make an easy, lower-cost, tax-effective gift.
Gifts from investments that have grown allow you:
- To make a generous gift today and not impact your cashflow from your other sources of income;
- To reduce the built-in capital gains tax bill that will eventually come with a portfolio increasing in value.
Plus, if you itemize, you’ll likely increase your deductions and pay less income tax. Your deduction amount would be for the value of the stock on the day the gift is received and not on the price you paid for it. You can deduct the value of the stock gift up to 30% of your adjusted gross income.
For gift of stock instructions, please contact us at (864) 770-1331 or contact@museumandgallery.org.
Giving through Your Employer’s Matching Gift Program
Your employer may offer a matching gift program to double the impact of your gift. To find out if your company has a matching gift policy, please contact your Human Resource department. If your gift is eligible, request a matching gift form from your employer, and send it completed and signed with your gift to M&G. We will do the rest!
Giving from Your IRA Now (QCDs)
If you are age 70½ or better, your traditional IRA may be the best source for your annual or special project giving.
Qualified Charitable Distributions—QCDs—allow you to give funds from your IRA directly to M&G. For 2024, you can give up to $105,000, and the gift counts toward your required minimum distributions which take effect once you reach age 72 (73 if you reach age 72 after Dec. 31, 2022).
This strategy could be a benefit if you would rather make a generous gift today than recognize the taxable income from some or all of your IRA distribution once you’re required to take distributions. For Planning Tips and simple instructions, download our QCD tip-sheet.
Giving in the Future
Giving through Your Will or Trust
You can give to M&G through your will or trust and know that you will be transforming lives through fine art for years to come. These gifts—known as bequests—are a great way to memorialize your legacy of giving to M&G or make a major gift without impacting your current cash flow or available assets.
Through your will or trust, you can give:
- A specific amount or a specific asset,
- A percentage of your estate (the most common!), or
- What’s left of your estate after gifts to other beneficiaries.
Additionally, your gift can be contingent on your spouse or other beneficiaries predeceasing you.
Giving through Your Life Insurance
The simplest way to give using a life insurance policy is to name M&G as a beneficiary of the policy. You can use the policy to benefit loved ones and M&G, M&G if your loved ones predecease you, or M&G exclusively.
You can also transfer ownership of the policy to M&G. If it’s permanent insurance, we can liquidate the policy and put the cash value to immediate use, or you can continue paying the premiums on the policy to M&G. The paying of the premiums to M&G create additional charitable deductions.
Giving through Your Retirement Plan or IRA
With a simple beneficiary designation form provided by your plan administrator, you can name M&G as a contingent, partial, or exclusive beneficiary of your unused retirement plan or IRA balance. This is a great way to make a significant gift in the future without impacting investment growth before retirement or cashflow during retirement.
If your retirement assets are funded pre-tax—like a traditional IRA or 401(k)—your loved ones will pay income tax on distributions to them at their tax rate. M&G will benefit from the total of any distribution without any tax reduction in the value of your gift. Additionally, naming M&G as a beneficiary may generate estate tax savings.
When making a future gift by beneficiary designation, please include the following information to ensure your gift is realized:
- Museum & Gallery, Inc.
1700 Wade Hampton Blvd.
Greenville, SC 29614 - M&G’s EIN: 57-0956189
The Museum & Gallery Legacy Society – We Want to Celebrate You!
If you have included a gift for M&G in your will or trust or by other beneficiary designation, please let us know. We would like to thank you and celebrate your gift. We can also prepare in advance to honor your wishes and preserve your legacy until Christ returns.
The memory of the righteous is a blessing.
Proverbs 10:7
Once-in-a Lifetime Legacy Opportunities
Giving Your Real Estate
Your primary residence, vacation home, vacant land, or commercial property are all assets that you could give M&G. If not for M&G’s own real estate needs, the property can be sold by M&G and the proceeds put to work in programming, art acquisition, or added to the endowment.
- Giving it Now: Real estate given during your lifetime can generate a significant charitable income tax deduction based on the fair market value of the real estate. Plus, you avoid paying capital gains tax on the sale of the property.
- Giving it Later: You can give your real estate to M&G after you’re done enjoying it either:
- Through your will or trust, or
- By transferring it now but keeping a life estate for your lifetime.
Giving of Your Business
If you’re an entrepreneur, whenever you first think about selling your business or are planning the transfer of your business to your children or partners, you have an opportunity to make a generous gift to M&G. You can often generate a significant charitable income tax deduction and reduce your capital gains tax.
Planning Tip: If you would like to explore making a gift for the sale of your business, the ownership interest or shares in your business must be transferred to M&G before you have a contract for sale of your business. Be sure to consult with your legal and tax advisors early.
We’re Here for You
If you have any questions or want to explore your personal options, please contact us at contact@museumandgallery.org or 864-770-1331.
Where we choose to store our treasures depends largely on where we think our home is.
Randy Alcorn
