3 min read April 2024 — Invest: spoke with Ashley Howell, executive director of the Tennessee State Museum, to discuss the institution’s role in telling the story of Tennessee’s history, art and culture as a way of generating civic pride and offering unique experiences for visitors. “Whether it’s history, art, or music, visitors can sample different eras and genres to get a great sampling of what Tennessee is all about,” she said.
What is the Tennessee State Museum’s impact on the state?
We lead with our conviction and vision to serve the state of Tennessee through history, art and culture. We serve through our exhibitions and education programs, which reach all students in the state. This reach is bolstered by our online presence and the great stories we’re able to tell. Our exhibitions help put our expansive collection of Tennessee art and culture into context because looking through our past helps inform our future. We see this service continually grow and we’ve doubled down on how we serve, thinking of new ways to deliver our product to a greater number of constituents.
We are a free resource and don’t charge for admission or our programs. I’ve been encouraged by an instance where a local real estate firm has new agents visit the museum to get an overview of our history. That way, when they’re working with people who want to move here, the agents can give better context and background about what drives Tennessee and how we value our culture. People who move here want to learn and know more, and we are excited to provide that resource for them.
How does the museum plan out its exhibitions?
Planning is the fun part, especially with our temporary exhibitions. We develop these in a couple of different ways. One is in the strength of the collection, and we want to provide access to it in unique ways. But it isn’t always the collection that drives the story. Some of it might be a person or artifact that is timely or relevant, or something that we simply haven’t seen before. Back in 2020, we celebrated the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage and Tennessee was the 36th state to ratify and thus elicited the national ratification of the law. In this case, it was the story of voting rights that drove this exhibition.
Another example is our significant collection of Tennessee furniture, which hasn’t been surveyed in more than 20 years. It gives an ideal opportunity to revisit and understand not just the furniture, but the people who made and used it. There’s also something to say about the craftsmanship of these objects and what that means in a modern context. In a way, we let the collection speak to us.
We have the next four years sketched out in terms of exhibition topics and development. A part of that is the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, so we’re thinking about the national commemoration in terms of projects planned at the museum and how we can support engagement during what will be an extraordinarily special time.
What have been some of your most popular exhibits?
The great thing about the Tennessee State Museum is we have such a broad collection and mission. Whether it’s history, art or music, visitors can sample different eras and genres to get a great gauge of what Tennessee is all about. We also encourage the personal stories of our visitors. We had a quilt exhibition recently that really connected with people’s relationship with their own material culture. The same goes for our food exhibition, which really engages attendees’ own memories and traditions, and is among our most popular.
Music is always a popular theme, as Tennessee has a wonderful tradition in it. We just reopened our music gallery with The Tennessee Playlist, telling the history of music in the state while providing some awesome context. If someone is visiting 2nd Avenue or Lower Broadway, this gives them more background on the venues and genres so they get a deeper, more well-rounded experience with our fantastic music culture.
How are capital investments from the state helping cultural centers?
The appropriation grant, totaling $5 million and granted to 108 museums in 58 counties, was an important investment in our cultural institutions statewide. Through that application process, we saw a true need for capital investment in the infrastructure of the cultural community. Grants tend to be operational and support programs and sponsor exhibitions. Capital grants are far scarcer, so to make this investment in local history and culture is so important. These are institutions telling some of the untold stories of individuals and times and this investment enables us to keep that going.
What is next for the museum?
We are in a period of growth with some exciting projects ahead. We broke ground in April 2023 for a new storage and research facility to hold over 150,000 artifacts which will make them more accessible to researchers. It takes care to get these untold stories out, so we’re really excited for what this means for preserving more history of Tennessee. We’re also working on a new military museum and State Capitol visitors center scheduled to open in 2027, which will be in downtown Nashville. We’re also expanding our presence across the state through educational and digital means. We are truly focused on what our own capacity is to continue serving visitors on site and online.
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