EXHIBITS
FEATURED EXHIBIT
Special exhibition – Healing Waters: A History of Cleveland County’s Mineral Springs
Exhibit Dates: March 11-December 27, 2025 Hearkening back to the first special exhibit held at the Earl Scruggs Center, Healing Waters tells the extraordinary story of the mineral springs that are the product of Cleveland County’s unique geology and their influential role in the history of tourism in the American South. Following the story of…
PERMANENT EXHIBITS
Rotunda Gallery
As guests enter the museum, they are welcomed with our central instrument display in the rotunda. This area showcases the “crown jewels” of the Earl Scruggs Center: instruments belonging to three generations of Scruggs family musicians, including the banjo on which Earl mastered his three-finger picking style.
In These Hills
The journey begins here- in the rolling hills and rushing rivers of the North Carolina Piedmont. In These Hills features a state of the art interactive table called Common Threads that provides an exciting and engaging opportunity for guests to have fun while exploring music styles, cultural traditions, musicians, significant milestones and social structures which…
Out of Carolina
Out of Carolina explores Earl’s time in the mills and his transition from the mills to the stage, his early years on the road through the moment he made history when he first played on the stage of the Ryman Auditorium. In the Land of Radio explores the impact of broadcasting and guests can listen…
The Turning Road
The Turning Road explores continuity and change throughout the region. People had to adapt to the changing times from the destruction of the boll weevil to the decline of the textile mills. The civil rights movement brought new social awareness for the equal rights of all Americans and the new electric music style brought diversity…