The Burroughs and Chapin Art Museum was originally the Springmaid Museum in Myrtle Beach. It started as Springmaid Villa, which, was then owned by the Cannons as a beach retreat for family and friends. At that time the only access to Myrtle Beach was by ferry. Later with the construction boom the Cannons finally gave Springmaid to Cox Construction in exchange for a new home. Cox Construction never did anything with the home and it was abandoned until Gaye Fisher, who was the president of the Waccamaw Arts and Crafts Guild, envisioned creating a museum for the visual arts in Myrtle Beach. In 1984 when the Burroughs and Chapin Art Museum was only a dream, interest in the arts or in the Spring Maid Villa, one of the areas few remaining examples of pre-hurricane Hazel Architecture was very limited. Gaye Fisher and others interested in art made the public aware and sparked interests in the villa and the arts over the next 13 years. Due to their diligence and the generosity of Burroughs and Chapin we now have what is known as the Burroughs and Chapin Art Museum. In June of 1997 the museum housed in the resurrected Springmaid Villa opened its doors to the arts in Myrtle Beach.

The biggest influence in bringing the arts to Myrtle Beach has been the Waccamaw Arts and Crafts Guild. It was founded in 1969, with a group of about sixteen local artists who wished to encourage art in the Myrtle Beach area. The guild is still thriving in Myrtle Beach and is known not only for its work in bringing us our museum, but also for contributing generously to the actual art housed in the museum itself. They have brought us Art in the Park, a bi-annual festival, for many years and also at least two other art shows.

Art shows and art festivals thrive in Myrtle Beach today. From the more than a quarter of a century old Art in the Park Festival at Chapin Park which gives local artists an opportunity to display and sell their work to the art shows in the convention center and a wooden boat show held every fall in Georgetown, SC. In almost every area of the Grand Strand there is at least one or more annual visual art events.

Pawley's Island and Litchfield, Grand Strand areas just a bit further south are known for their various art galleries. These include South Wind Gallery, The Gray Man Gallery, Cheryl M. Newby Gallery, and The Art Box and Art Works at Litchfield Exchange. In these galleries many of which are housed in examples of the finer and more historic architecture of the Litchfield and Pawley's Island homes and shops, you can find works of many of the areas notable artists. They afford an eclectic array of styles and mediums to choose from. The works vary from charming and quaint to dramatic or serene much like the Eastern Seaboard itself. Some of the area's artist that you may want to keep your eye open for are Jan Carter, Helena McGrath, Hal Moore, Betty Robinson, Tatiana Ganina (formerly of the Soviet Union and former curator of The Hermitage) and Steven Jordan.

Myrtle Beach is definitely a great place for an art lover to treasure hunt.