Clarksville-Montgomery County Arts and Heritage Development presents Lifetime Achievement Awards to Dan Hanley, Mark Holleman

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.

Then working with a number of generous donors, Holleman raised funds and provided the creative vision for the Frank Sutton statue that is such a popular photo spot on Franklin Street. Holleman is quick to point out that the creation and installation of these three sculptures commemorating Clarksville’s past citizens and events resulted from the work and donations of many. AHDC recognized his persistence in moving them forward.

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.

Clarksville’s First Thursday Art Walk to be held October 4th, 2019

Clarksville, TN – Produced by The Downtown Clarksville Association, 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.

[Read more]

Clarksville’s First Thursday Art Walk to be held September 5th, 2019

Clarksville, TN – Produced by The Downtown Clarksville Association, 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.

[Read more]

Clarksville’s First Thursday Art Walk to be held March 7th, 2018

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.

[Read more]

Clarksville’s First Thursday Art Walk to be held October 4th, 2018

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.

[Read more]

New Austin Peay State University exhibit honors legacy of late artist Tom Malone

Clarksville, TN – The artist Tom Malone, who passed away in 1998, had the uncanny ability to make people think. Coming across one of his celebrated faces in a gallery, viewers would often pause and stare deeply into the eyes. “Who is this woman?” they might ask. Or, “Why do I feel that I know her?”

“The intense styling of the eyes marks a signature style for Malone,” Terri Jordan, a Clarksville artist and exhibits curator for the Customs House Museum, said. “His faces look back at the viewer, unapologetic and familiar. Whether simple line drawings or vivid impressionistic pastels, each face Malone drew leaves the onlooker curious to learn her secrets…and that is talent.”

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Clarksville Beginnings – Part 4: Is Sevier Station Really Sevier Station?

Clarksville, TN – If you look hard enough, it is not difficult to find a rather cynical analysis of recorded history. For example, “The past actually happened. History is what someone took the time to write down,” says writer and comedian, Whitney A. Brown.

Or there is American writer and Civil War veteran, Ambrose Bierce, who chimed in with, “God alone knows the future, but only a historian can alter the past.”

Yet, despite these opinions and the imperfections they reveal concerning the whole endeavor of unearthing information about the past, it is a still considered a noble one.

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Customs House Museum to Host 29th Annual Flying High Fundraiser

Clarksville, TN – Held the first Saturday of June each year, Flying High is an evening celebrating artists and the works of art of the region.

Flying High is Customs House Museum’s preeminent fundraiser of the year, supporting educational and exhibit programming of the Museum. [Read more]

Downtown Artwalk, Thursday July 1st

Downtown Artists Co-op located at 96 Franklin St. will open its July exhibit with a New Members’ Show starting at 5:00pm on July 1st. Leah Foote, Dan Hanley, Elaine Purvis, Carolann Haggard and Dorothy Thomason will be participating with water colors, oil paintings, sculpture and handcrafted jewelry.

ARTifacts Emporium will be featuring Peggy Jennings & Relative Collections. Relative Collections is made up of 3 sisters who are creative each in their own way. Three Christmas’ ago, they collected photographs of the downtown Clarksville architectural alphabet. They’re now selling these photos at ARTifacts, you can special order a print spelling something like your name, or just collect your favorites. [Read more]

Doughboy re-dedication kicks off the 2010 Rivers and Spires Festival

The 8^th Annual Rivers and Spires kicked off today with the unveiling the refurbished Doughboy statue honoring World War vets. The Statue was rededicated in a ceremony in front of the Clarksville Transit Station on Legion Street where the statue will remain on display.

The Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle led the drive to raise the funds needed to renovate the badly damaged statue. Current publisher Andrew Oppmann welcomed the crowd to the ceremony, then after the posting of the colors and the playing of the national anthem, former publisher Gene Washer took over at the podium.

Washer said “I made the initial inquiries about restoring the statue, and that was the quickest way to be given the job.” to which the crowd laughed.

[Read more]