Well, from soaring above the city, to diving deep into its history, Charlotte is filled with entertainment choices, especially when it comes to museums.

"Carolina Impact's" Jason Terzis tells us about one local attraction currently in limbo.

- Looking for a museum?

Charlotte certainly has a lot of them.

There's the Museum of History, the Carolina Raptor Center, Discovery Place, ImaginOn, the Sullengerber Aviation Museum, the Harvey Gantt Center for African American Arts and Culture, the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, The MIT Museum actually has two locations.

There's Uptown and Randolph.

And there's also the Levine Museum of the New South, which is temporarily off the grid.

(screen whooshing) - So these are some of our artifacts that document Charlotte's banking history.

(gentle music) - [Jason] Senior Director of History and Exhibitions, Keri Petersen shows us just some of the artifacts the Levine Museum of the New South has in its collection.

- [Keri] His wife Billy Graham and Ruth Graham.

This was a congressional gold medal that was awarded to them in 1996.

- [Jason] But it's a collection the public can't see in person.

Not now at least, because the museum, well, doesn't currently have a home.

- Home is community.

And so even though we don't have a formal building, because we are rooted in community, we are home.

- [Jason] Since May, all of the museum's possessions have been in storage, leaving it in a temporary state of limbo.

- I would say, we're operating just like we normally would be in a building.

- [Jason] Ironically enough, Levine was not originally intended to be a traditional collections museum.

- We started as a museum without walls, where we were out in the community, and fully engaging.

- [Jason] During its first few years, what was then known simply as the Museum of the New South hosted pop-up mini exhibits in places like bank lobbies.

- So we're coming up on our 35th anniversary.

So we were incorporated in 1991, started by an incredible group of civic leaders here.

- [Jason] In 2001, it transitioned into more of a traditional museum, with the opening of its Uptown Seventh Street location and renamed in honor of museum patron and Family Dollar founder, Leon Levine.

The goal, tell the stories of the diverse people who helped shape the region.

One of its more popular exhibits was called Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers.

- So what makes our museum different than the other museums in town is, and I would say across the nation, this museum has always centered the stories of everyone and inclusion at the heart of the work we do.

- It represents Charlotte growing after the Civil War.

So from the agrarian times, all the way through industrial growth, and then into becoming a banking center that it is today, but it also represents personal stories.

- [Jason] But after two decades on Seventh Street, the winds of change came calling.

- Our original location on Seventh Street was an incredible experience for us.

Helped us really take the museum to the next level.

We made the decision, prior to COVID, and then really after COVID, to sell the building, which we felt as an organization was gonna give us the best opportunity to really become a hub.

(upbeat music) - [Jason] Selling its Seventh Street building for a reported 10.75 million, the museum moved to a donated space by Wells Fargo on South Tryon, where it had free admission and prioritized digital exhibits and walking tours.

- We've always been rooted in the idea that everyone that we want to engage with will not necessarily walk through our doors, but we have an opportunity and a responsibility to meet people where they are.

- [Jason] During this time, the museum went to more of an online experience, introducing things like augmented reality.

With the app, KnowCLT, users can go to certain spots around uptown Second Ward and see what used to be there in the old historic Brooklyn neighborhood.

- And this one's really incredible, because you can see the preexisting buildings here.

- [Jason] But with their lease up this past spring, and a new location yet to be identified, the museum had no choice, but to box up all 3000-plus artifacts, and put it all into storage.

- People know to look for us, but they don't always know where to find us.

And so we have to do a really intentional job of letting people know where to find us.

- So just 'cause you can't come in and look at our in-person exhibitions, you can still go online.

We have a lot of great information about the city.

- Although we don't have a physical building, we do have things for people to see and engage with and we're working diligently to figure out ways to bring these stories to life.

- [Jason] Instead of viewing this time and situation as a negative, employees at Levine are trying to take advantage of it.

- So in some ways it broke down the barriers of thinking inside four walls, and really allowed for us to think that the community is our playground.

- We've been working really hard on the collection since we moved into this storage space.

We've had a lot of time to really go through every single artifact, paper, photo that the museum owns.

We've been able to update our database, and all of our records.

- This transition allowed for us to remember to get back to our roots, to engaging with the community.

But it also really allowed us to think more broadly about what the potential was for our 21st modern day museum.

- [Jason] So what's next for the Levine Museum of the New South?

And how much longer will it technically be homeless?

- We are in the process of finishing due diligence on a, we're honing in on a specific property and opportunity.

We are continuing to evaluate different locations around the city.

What I can promise is that this is going to be a space that the community is going to be excited about.

- Okay, Jason, what's the timetable for the new location?

- Well, it's coming soon.

Officials representing Levine tell me they are making progress on a new building, but they likely won't have anything to share publicly until sometime next month in November.

But they're excited, so they're just, they've been taking advantage of this time and they're ready, looking forward to the future.

- They do such good work, and I loved when they had their permanent exhibit.

So I look forward to seeing the new permanent exhibit.

- Absolutely.

Should be good.

- Thanks, Jason.