“Decomposers Glow,” an art installation with larger-than-life glowing snails and mushrooms, is the centerpiece for the museum’s summer programming and events

ROCK HILL, S.C. - Nature, art, and technology come together for “Decomposers Glow,” an awe-inspiring larger-than-life landscape of illuminated snails and mushrooms. Created by Meredith Connelly, a Charlotte, N.C. based and award-winning multidisciplinary artist, the site-specific installation portrays the agents of decomposition through an interplay of light and technology. A curving path leads visitors through a soft glowing, otherworldly environment to observe over one hundred hand-constructed and 3D printed sculptures. Decomposers Glow is open from May 10 – Nov. 10, 2024.
Leading viewers into Connelly’s “Decomposers Glow,” a concurrent exhibit highlights the variety and importance of nature’s agents of decomposition. “Return to Earth” features photographs of actual fungi by Mike Hammer, painted mushroom models, a Carolina Piedmont snail shell collection, and two-dimensional cut paper works by Meredith Connelly that reference nature’s microscopic structures. “Return to Earth” on exhibit at Museum of York County from May 4 – Dec. 15, 2024.
More of Mike Hammer’s photography is on exhibit in the museum’s Nature Nook Gallery. “Endless Trail” features the natural settings of the Carolina Piedmont and beyond, capturing the uniquely beautiful moments of each season. “Endless Trail” opens at Museum of York County on May 18, 2024.