Clarksville’s Customs House Museum May 2024 Exhibits, Activities

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 May at the Museum include Flying High Signatures, Cindy Billingsley: The Wonderous Beauty of Birds, The Beerakudas: Art of Bill Henig, Triumphs and Treasures: Celebrating 40 Years, Wood, Paper, Paint: Collecting Art for 40 Years, History on the Rocks @ Old Glory Restaurant & Silo Park, Inside Baseball with Ryne Harper and Phil Wood.

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Custom House Museum’s Flying High unveils Signature Artwork, Kitty Harvill’s Painting “Peg’s Pony”

Clarksville, TN – Every year for Flying High, the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center’s largest fundraising gala, one local artist is commissioned to be the “Signature Artist” to produce a unique and original work of art to be sold as the highlight of the event’s live auction.

This year, recently-returned Clarksvillian Kitty Harvill has provided an emotionally-charged watercolor that makes a lasting impression, while also paying homage to her mother’s legacy with the Museum.

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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 Customs House Museum August 2021 Exhibits, Activities

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 July at the Museum are Select Works from the Reliant Bank Collection, C. Douglas Charlton: Out of Darkness, Start Your Engines!, Customs House Museum Ice Cream Social, Touching History, Museum Discovery Quest.

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Customs House Museum Celebrates 36th Anniversary and Joins Nationwide Program, Museums for All

Clarksville, TN – The Customs House Museum reopened to the public on June 2nd, 2020m, and in an effort to include and welcome all members of the community, the Museum has joined Museums for All, a nationwide program that supports those receiving food assistance (SNAP) benefits.

The program offers visitors reduced admission fees with a presentation of the SNAP Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card.

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Austin Peay State University names 2019 alumni award winners

Clarksville, TN – This November, during Austin Peay State University’s 2019 Homecoming celebration, the University will honor six distinguished individuals with this year’s APSU Alumni Awards.

The 2019 honorees are Outstanding Service Award recipients Dee Boaz and Shan Smith (’78); Outstanding Young Alumni Award recipients Catie Clinard (’11) and Bryan Johnson (’04); and Outstanding Alumni Award recipients Khandra Smalley (’05) and Richard Bibb (’65).

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Clarksville’s Customs House Museum June 2019 Exhibits and Activities

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 May at the Museum are: Remembering D-Day: 75th Anniversary, Batter Up! Celebrating America’s Pastime, Here Comes the Bride, Annual Staff Art Show, Bold Strokes: The Art of Sandy Spain and Flying High.

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Clarksville’s Customs House Museum May 2019 Exhibits and Activities

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 May at the Museum are:The Infamous Captain Weems, Remembering D-Day: 75th Anniversary, Sharon Rusch Shaver: The Way I See It, Here Comes the Bride, Annual Staff Art and Flying High.

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Old Glory Distilling Company creates Spirits as well as Seasonal Events

Old Glory Distilling Company

Clarksville, TN – When Old Glory Distilling Company opened its doors in Clarksville in November 2016, the community didn’t realize a beautiful venue and tons of new events were part of the deal.

The 23,000 square foot facility includes a 7,000 sq. ft. multi-level event space that is privately booked most weekends for weddings and receptions, along with Distillery seasonal events like Dueling Pianos and a Craftsmen’s Fair. But, it’s also played host to community events like the Go Commando Half Marathon, the Customs House Museum’s Flying High, and the inaugural Bacon & Bourbon Festival planned for August 24th, 2018.

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Customs House Museum to hold Flying High fundraiser Saturday, May 19th

Customs House Museum and Cultural Center

Clarksville, TN – The Customs House Museum & Cultural Center’s annual Flying High fundraiser takes place Saturday, May 19th, 2018 at the Clarksville Country Club. The theme to this 35^th annual event is “Southern Soirée”, inspired by the beauty of Charleston and the low country of South Carolina.

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