Mad Century Studios and the House of the Improbable

Just a few minutes from Greenville, South Carolina, is a unique attraction, a little slice of weird fun in the South. Mad Century Studios and the House of the Improbable is an unexpected and unique piece of Greenville strangeness. This residential backyard contains an oddities museum, a working art studio, a public folk art environment, a fairy garden, a moss garden, and more.

When you approach Mad Century Studios you can’t help but notice the “Space Chicken” coop on the side of the house and the found object “Not-Deer” decorating the front. From the moment you arrive, it’s clear that this place is something out of the ordinary. There is a painted pillar overgrown with creeping vines. It’s labeled “My name is Post Malone” and past it you can see the rest of the property. Walking further in you encounter the Lawn Chair, a throne of real growing grass.

The studio and museum are in a detached garage built by a previous owner, who used it as auto garage in the 1950s. Now, it contains several small collections of oddities. There is an impressive collection of trench art, creative projects made by soldiers in war. There is also a large collection of preserved animals and other biological specimens, many of them created by local artists. They have collections of old carnival mirrors and local artifacts like chips from the allegedly haunted Old Charleston Jail.

There is Russian bone music, which is American music pressed into old X-ray films created in the former USSR when popular music from the West was illegal to import. These are presented next to a recycled chunk of Russian tank armor from the Ukraine war and a chunk of the Berlin Wall. Real oddities, historical artifacts, and sideshow gaffs are shown together in displays with pop culture items and works of folk art made by the studio’s owners and guests. 

The studio and grounds provide opportunities to create art of your own, which you can take home or leave to become a part of the environment. You can paint a stepping stone, create a bottle to hang in the fairy forest, or even paint a panel of the studio building itself. They have created a sculpture called the Ziet-guy which is a found object sculpture that the public is welcome to add to. The studio is loaded with bins of found and donated objects which can be used to make art.

The chickens who live in the space-themed enclosure are more than tame, they love to be held.