Clarksville-Montgomery County Arts and Heritage Development presents Lifetime Achievement Awards to Dan Hanley, Mark Holleman
August 24, 2021
Clarksville, TN – The Clarksville-Montgomery County Arts and Heritage Development Council (AHDC) presented lifetime achievement awards to two Clarksvillians who have made outstanding contributions to the community’s artistic and historic heritage.
During Saturday’s Flying High celebration for Customs House Museum and Cultural Center, AHDC presented the lifetime achievement in art award posthumously to Dan Hanley and the lifetime achievement in heritage award to Mark Holleman. Jodi Hanley received the award for her husband, who had been notified earlier of the honor.
Dan Hanley’s Artistic Achievements
Dan Hanley steadily applied his creative abilities over many years as a designer and builder of homes and residential communities. In recent years, he turned his full attention to his life-long interest in painting—an interest he had kept alive and active for some 40 years since he graduated college with a degree in art & business administration.
Hanley’s work is represented in many private and corporate collections. His paintings and home designs have received a number of professional awards. His original artworks have brought prices in excess of $20,000.
Hanley served on Clarksville’s Public Arts Commission and worked regularly in support of the Customs House Museum and Cultural Center. Following the devastating 1999 tornado that struck Clarksville, he served on the Mayor’s Recovery Task Force, chairing the Design Review Board and the Design Standards Development Committee.
His community contributions continued his family heritage, going back to his great grandfather’s emigration from Ireland to Clarksville in the late 1860s. His great grandfather, grandfather, father, and Dan Hanley himself have all left their mark on many of Clarksville’s architectural treasures.
Hanley lived what he called a “Tom Sawyer” boyhood in his parent’s home near the Cumberland River. He often drew from this background for his subjects, describing his paintings as representations of “… a neighborhood of ordinary folks, unaware that they were living extraordinary lives, in extraordinary times—unwittingly heroic in their struggles to provide for families and build a community, making themselves matter.”
Mark Holleman’s Heritage Contributions
While Hanley’s family was influential in shaping Clarksville’s architectural landscape, Mark Holleman has been busy preserving and enhancing it. It is evident that Holleman loves Clarksville’s heritage. And he has used this love to keep the city’s history alive in a number of creative ways.
He has used public art to bring our history into the present. Holleman worked with Main Street Clarksville to spearhead the creation and installation of a statue of “John Montgomery,” who, in 1784, purchased land at the confluence of the Cumberland and Red rivers and is credited with founding Clarksville. That group, along with the Leaf-Chronicle, commissioned the “Morning After” sculpture to remember the devastating tornado that swept through downtown in 1999.
Holleman has made sure we will remember the streetcar days of Clarksville when he purchased a trolley car to take folks around town. He even preserved some of the streetcar track that was being removed from Franklin Street and installed it in his Riverside office.
Holleman and his wife Ricki have preserved one of the lovely homes that date from the 1920s and ’30s and line Madison Street. He takes photos to mark Clarksville’s current history and shares them with many folks around town. Visitors to the St. Bethlehem Coldwell Bankers office can see many of his photos along with artifacts from the Courthouse, Arlington Hotel, the Roxy, and Baker and Dowdy Barbershop.
Volunteers use social distancing to ‘Plant the Campus Red’ at APSU
May 11, 2020
Clarksville, TN – The Austin Peay State University (APSU) Plant the Campus Red had its genesis following a natural disaster – the 1999 January tornado that tore through campus.
APSU’s WAPX-FM celebrates 35 years as campus radio station
November 7, 2019
Clarksville, TN – The national anthem was missing. Inside a small, dilapidated building on the Austin Peay State University (APSU) campus, three students frantically searched through vinyl albums and beneath heavy reel-to-reel tapes for the record.
It was the early 1980s, and the clock inside the University’s new radio station, WAPX-FM, was about to hit midnight.
Austin Peay State University student newspaper earns two national awards for “Rebuild, Reflect”
April 10, 2019
Austin Peay State University (APSU)
Clarksville, TN – The All State student newspaper at Austin Peay State University (APSU) recently earned two national Apple Awards at the Spring National College Media Convention hosted in New York City in March.
Both awards honored a special edition called “Rebuild, Reflect” commemorating the 20-year anniversary of the tornado that hit APSU and Downtown Clarksville.
Clarksville’s First Thursday Art Walk to be held April 4th, 2018
April 2, 2019
Clarksville’s First Thursday Art Walk
Clarksville, TN – Produced by The Downtown Clarksville Association, Clarksville’s First Thursday Art Walk is a free, self-guided tour spanning a 5-block radius that combines visual art, live music, engaging events and more in the heart of Downtown Clarksville.
With 10+ venues, bars and businesses participating each month, the First Thursday Art Walk in Clarksville is the ultimate opportunity to savor and support local creative talent.
Clarksville’s Customs House Museum April 2019 Exhibits and Activities
March 22, 2019
Clarksville’s Customs House Museum
Clarksville, TN – The Customs House Museum and Cultural Center is located in historic downtown Clarksville, Tennessee. Come explore an entire city block featuring large gallery spaces filled with fine art, science and history.
Some of the events in March at the Museum are: Twentieth Anniversary of the Tornado, Mike Andrews: A New Vision, First Responders, 15 Over 50: A Women’s History Month Exhibition, Create a Sculpture out of Soap, Meet the Artist: Marilyn Murphy.
APSU celebrates 20th anniversary of Plant the Campus Red
March 20, 2019
Austin Peay State University (APSU)
Clarksville, TN – In the spring of 1999, an army of volunteers moved across the Austin Peay State University (APSU) campus, planting trees, shrubs and flowers to replace the ones recently destroyed by a powerful EF4 tornado.
Clarksville’s First Thursday Art Walk to be held March 7th, 2018
March 7, 2019
Clarksville’s First Thursday Art Walk
Clarksville, TN – Produced by The Downtown Clarksville Association, Clarksville’s First Thursday Art Walk is a free, self-guided tour spanning a 5-block radius that combines visual art, live music, engaging events and more in the heart of Downtown Clarksville.
With 10+ venues, bars and businesses participating each month, the First Thursday Art Walk in Clarksville is the ultimate opportunity to savor and support local creative talent.
Clarksville’s Customs House Museum March 2019 Exhibits and Activities
February 18, 2019
Clarksville’s Customs House Museum
Clarksville, TN – The Customs House Museum and Cultural Center is located in historic downtown Clarksville, Tennessee. Come explore an entire city block featuring large gallery spaces filled with fine art, science and history.
Some of the events in March at the Museum are: H.N. James: The Urban Goddesses, Bold Strokes: The Art of Sandy Spain, Lynn Garwood: My View, Twentieth Anniversary of the Tornado, First Responders and Hands-on Activities: Rainbow Science.
Clarksville’s First Thursday Art Walk to be held February 7th, 2018
February 1, 2019
Clarksville’s First Thursday Art Walk
Clarksville, TN – Produced by The Downtown Clarksville Association, Clarksville’s First Thursday Art Walk is a free, self-guided tour spanning a 5-block radius that combines visual art, live music, engaging events and more in the heart of Downtown Clarksville.
With 10+ venues, bars and businesses participating each month, the First Thursday Art Walk in Clarksville is the ultimate opportunity to savor and support local creative talent.