Topic: Customs House Museum

Tree-mendous Arbor Day celebration

By Beth Robinson | March 4, 2008 |

Bring the family to A Tree-mendous Arbor Day Celebration at the Customs House Museum this Saturday, March 8 from 10:30 am - 12:30 pm. This event is sponsored by the Clarksville Tree Board. There will be kids’ activities, a presentation for adults in the auditorium & free seedlings. The Customs House will also be waiving admission fees all day.

Help is needed to bag seedlings at the Museum on Thursday, March 6th, from 3 to 5 pm to prepare for the Seedling Give-a-Way.

Then on March 15, an Official Arbor Day Ceremony will be held at Barkers Mill Elementary School from 1-4 pm . Bring your shovels, rakes, gloves & wheel-barrows and volunteer for tree planting & mulching.

For more information or to volunteer contact Dottie Mann, the Tree Board Chair at DotMannClarks@aol.com

Sections: Arts and Leisure, Events | No Comments

Clarksville City Council meets in executive session

By Bill Larson | December 28, 2007 |

The Clarksville, Tennessee City Council met yesterday in an executive session that was led by Mayor pro tem Barbara Johnson. The meeting covered a variety of topics ranging from flood plain issues, zoning and even touched on eminent domain while not specifically addressing the recent blight declaration controversy. Some agenda items did not generate discussion and these are not covered in this report.

To view the full agenda, please see: The City Council’s agenda page.

«Read the rest of this article»

Sections: News, Politics | No Comments

Folk, fiddling and down-home music

By Christine Anne Piesyk | November 19, 2007 |

In an intimate setting at the Customs House Museum Saturday night, The Cantrells delivered a toe-tapping concert performance of many of their unique blend of folk, fiddling and down-home music.

While the audience was small, enthusiasm for these performers was deservedly huge. The repertoire ranged from a rendition of Fats Waller’s Honeysuckle Rose to a striking cover of Autumn Leaves, from a step in Appalachian Spring to This Quilt, a story song of a quilt and the “threads of time.”

Al and Emily Cantrell

Al and Emily Cantrell (above), simply dressed (but with a splash of glittery buttons on Emily’s dress) did what they do best: make music. No back up bands, no yards high stacks of speakers, just a guitar, a fiddle, mandolin, guitar and great voices. Nothing else was needed. «Read the rest of this article»

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Cantrells in concert at Customs House

By Christine Anne Piesyk | November 15, 2007 |

The Cantrells, who were featured in the Robert Redford film, A River Runs Through It (pictured left), will bring their unique blend of music and song to the Customs House Museum Saturday, November 17 for a free workshop at 3 p.m. and a concert performance at 7 p.m. Concert tickets are $5.00.

The Cantrells will share explore Tennessee’s history of fiddling, share stories and play classic Tennessee tunes during the workshop, which does not require musical experience, just a love of the sound and the songs.

Al and Emily Cantrell cast a magical spell with their airy, joyful acoustic songs. Emily uses her voice as an instrument on soaring vocals like a country Joni Mitchell, while AL plays off her Martin guitar with spirited fiddling and a dazzling mandolin technique–his music weaves through her words as if the two were locked in an intuitive dance. «Read the rest of this article»

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Ending our boycott against the Customs House Museum

By Bill Larson | September 30, 2007 |

When government actively fosters a marketplace of ideas by providing funding to the arts, it may not exercise certain artistic visions simply because public officials dislike them,” - The American Civil Liberties Union

Just in time for banned books week I have an update on the boycott I called for last November of the Customs House Museum. I became offended when Executive Director Ned Couch used his personal judgment that an artist’s exhibit might offend some museum patrons as justification for requiring the artist to remove portions of it, all done in the name of protecting community sensibilities.

These same justifications have been used throughout history to justify the suppression of peoples freedom of speech, press, religion, and association. Our founding fathers found this so reprehensible that they specifically prohibited the government of this country from engaging in those very actives in the very first amendment to our Constitution. The only requirement for censorship is that someone in a position of power disagrees with something someone else was doing, then uses their position and authority to stop them, and that the public acquiesce.

The executive director at the time, Ned Couch, has announced he is stepping down. So today I am ending the boycott called 10 months ago. Don’t get me wrong; I seriously doubt that my boycott is behind his imminent departure, but in the aftermath of his censorship I asked that he leave, and leave he has. You take your victories where you can find them.

The primary result of all this is that you can expect to see greater and more detailed coverage of future Museum events, exhibitions, news, and activities very soon on Clarksville Online! «Read the rest of this article»

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Customs House stages world-class exhibit with Olen Bryant retrospective

By Christine Anne Piesyk | September 16, 2007 |

Hundreds of friends and fans came to the Customs House Museum Saturday evening for the opening celebration of Olen Bryant: A Retrospective, a world class exhibit of ceramic, wood and stone sculpture, a sampling of Bryant’s work from the early 1950’s to the present.

A Tennessee native and Professor Emeritus of Art at Austin Peay State University, Bryant was introduced to Saturday’s crowd as “an educator, mentor and humanitarian of the first order,” one who has guided and prodded his students to “find their voices” even as he continued his quest to develop and expand his own.

Meandering through the crowds, one could hear the comments of friends, of art lovers, watch them inhaling in awe at the beauty and substance of this work. In an era where art is displayed but art lovers are kept at safe distances, the Customs House exhibit was presented in a manner that invited touch, that invited close inspection of the most minute detail of each piece, be it a small “sleeping stone” or a majestic chair with outstretched arms. The art itself invited it. «Read the rest of this article»

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Trench Art Gallery Tour

By Debbie Boen | July 10, 2007 |

Trench Art: From War to Remembrance. Decorated Shell Casings: The Raymond White Collection - Bruner and Orgain Galleries through August 24.

On Tuesday July 10th at 7 pm at the Customs House Museum, Raymond D. White will be on hand for the The Trench Art Gallery Tour. It is free & open to the public. He will lead visitors on a tour of the exhibit “Trench Art: From War to Remembrance” to discuss his personal interest in the artwork and to explain the historical significance of the inscribed dates, places and symbols. «Read the rest of this article»

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Censorship! When will they learn?

By Bill Larson | November 16, 2006 |

Small-minded people often tout the many blessings of using censorship to protect society, the children. The government tried it with COPA, which was then promptly blocked by the federal courts, due to the likelihood that the plaintiffs would prevail in their lawsuit against the government. The FCC is still doing it to broadcast television, and they want to expand their reach to cable TV, satellite TV, and satellite radio. Guess Howard Stern didn’t run far enough away for them. Some Christians love the idea of burning books and other cultural material that they find ideologically unacceptable. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Arts and Leisure, Issues, Opinion | 4 Comments