The Sparta Teapot Museum of Craft and Design was a museum in Sparta, North Carolina, USA. It closed in January 2010.[1]
It contained approximately 30,000 square feet (2,800 m2) devoted to the history of tea and teapots and to the display of teapots from all cultures and all eras.
The museum drew mainly from the teapot collection of Gloria and Sonny Kamm. The Kamm Collection, comprising more than 6,000 teapots, is the largest teapot collection in the USA and arguably the world. [2]
The Sparta Teapot Museum received its official 501(c)(3) status from the Internal Revenue Service in November 2005. This designation made the Museum a charity organization.
In 2006, Congress controversially appropriated nearly $500,000 in federal funding for construction of a new building for the Teapot Museum, but the project was canceled before any of the money left federal hands.[3] [4]