Are you ready to do your spring house cleaning? The Living Heritage Museum Guild’s Annual Trash and Treasure Sale is coming up April 17th-21st in the old CVS Drug Store building located in the same strip mall as the McMinn County Courthouse Annex. Guild members will be receiving your tax-deductible items from April 12th through April 14th, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm at that location. If you would like to donate your items earlier, please contact the Living Heritage Museum at 423-745-0329 to make an appointment.
The Guild is looking for your gently used quality items to donate to this good cause. This is one of the biggest fundraisers for the Museum Guild and all proceeds are donated to fund the operating costs of the Living Heritage Museum and help the Museum reach over 22,000 visitors annually including several thousand area school children with our programs and exhibits. In the past items have included linens in good condition, books, cooking utensils, sporting goods, toys, crystal, china, silver, holiday decorations and camping equipment. There are some items that will not be accepted such as computer monitors, clothes and shoes, mattresses, any liquids such as paint, etc., large appliances or things that do not work.
There are a few new exciting changes in store for this years Trash and Treasure Sale. First, tickets for the opening preview night will be reduced to $5.00, as food will not be served this year. Secondly, the Guild will be adding the new “Treasure Hunt” to the opening night. If you find a specially marked item to purchase, you’ll receive a discount on your purchases that night. There other surprises scheduled for opening night that you don’t want to miss along with the silent auction.
The sale continues through the week and the hours are Wednesday, April 13th through Friday April 20th from 9:30 am to 6:00 pm. The sale hours for Saturday are 9:00 am to 4:00 pm.
For more information contact the Living Heritage Museum at 423-745-0329.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Living Heritage Museum Offers Free Day to Area Girl Scouts
The McMinn County Living Heritage Museum in Athens, Tennessee honors area Girl Scouts March 17, 2007 when Girl Scouts can tour the Living Heritage Museum for free! Girl Scouts has been making a difference in the lives of girls for over 90 years. Just as membership has grown (from 18 to nearly 4 million!), so has their place in history and their role as innovative and committed advocates for girls everywhere. In 2003 the Girl Scouts of the USA proudly announced passage of Senate Resolution 79, declaring the week of March 9th to 15th as National Girl Scout Week. The resolution passed the U.S. Senate by unanimous consent. Each year Girl Scout Week commemorates the 1912 founding of Girl Scouting in the United States by Juliette Gordon Low. In the 91 years since, the organization has helped shape the lives of more than 50 million women.
The Museum will also have information that will be available about the new Girl Scout Badge Program that will available this spring that is sponsored in part by a grant from Volunteer Electric. This is your chance to be one of the first to see the new Living Heritage Museum Badge. Admission is free to Scouts but we do ask that Scout Leaders call in advance to let us know they are coming and to encourage their Scouts to wear their uniform. If you have any questions, or if you would like to be placed on our emailing list to receive updates on Scouting programs, please contact the Living Heritage Museum at 423-745-0329. Can’t make it on Saturday? Call today to find out how you can reschedule your free Scout Tour!
Museum Hours: Monday-Friday 10:00 AM-5:00 PM, Saturday 10:00 AM-4:00 PM Closed on major holidays.
The Museum will also have information that will be available about the new Girl Scout Badge Program that will available this spring that is sponsored in part by a grant from Volunteer Electric. This is your chance to be one of the first to see the new Living Heritage Museum Badge. Admission is free to Scouts but we do ask that Scout Leaders call in advance to let us know they are coming and to encourage their Scouts to wear their uniform. If you have any questions, or if you would like to be placed on our emailing list to receive updates on Scouting programs, please contact the Living Heritage Museum at 423-745-0329. Can’t make it on Saturday? Call today to find out how you can reschedule your free Scout Tour!
Museum Hours: Monday-Friday 10:00 AM-5:00 PM, Saturday 10:00 AM-4:00 PM Closed on major holidays.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Kofi and Rebekah Mawuko Perform
Kofi and Rebekah Mawuko. Kofi, a native of Ghana who now lives in Chattanooga where he has a band, dance studio and drumming classes, performed traditional African dance. Rebekah, a professional storyteller who also teaches dance, also performed with her husband Kofi.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Museum Offers Needlepoint Program
There’s still time to register for the “Common Threads” Sampler Symposium workshops sponsored by the Tennessee Arts Commission on February 23rd and 24th, 2007 at the Living Heritage Museum in Athens, Tennessee. The cost is just $35 and includes a series of lectures starting at 10 am and concludes with the keynote address by Kathleen Staples at 7 pm. Dana Anderson, a certified appraiser specializing in samplers on February 23rd, will also conduct Sampler consultations and a trunk show and boutique will be at the Museum on February 24th. Registration begins at 9:30 February 23rd. For more information, contact the Living Heritage Museum at 423-745-0329. Symposium agenda includes:
Friday, February 23, 2007
10:00 AM
“An Introduction to Samplers”
Darlene Lara
11:00 PM
“Antique Samplers and Their Role in Genealogical Research”
Dana Andrews
Genealogical research is being conducted everyday on the Internet and while it is a great source for research it is not the only place. Many people thank that if it’s not on paper or online it can tell little about the historic record, but they are mistaken. Dana Andrews will briefly highlight how objects can be used to determine family histories, then delve into the use of samplers as keys to unlocking those histories.
1:00 AM
“A Beautiful Mourning: Mourning Art and Embroidery”
Janet Hasson
Ms. Hasson will discuss the cult of mourning, which began with George Washington’s death in 1799. The cult of mourning was manifested in costume, the arts, etiquette and décor. Examples of mourning art from many genres will be shown in the slide lecture, with a special emphasis on embroidery and Tennessee examples Janet will provide a historical context fro this national obsession, which lasted from 1799 until after the Civil War.
2:00 PM
“Know Your Needle Arts”
Annelle Ferguson
Annelle has been involved with miniatures since 1978. Like so many, she built a dollhouse for her then three-year-old daughter. While building that first dollhouse, she learned to do needlepoint in order to furnish the house with rugs and carpets beginning her research of the hundred of charming antique design and interest in adapting the originals into 1/12 scale. Her favorite periods are 18th century English and American designs for samplers and chair covers and panels for fire screens and embroider stands. Today, Annelle serves as US Representative for the Miniature Needlework Society, organized in England in 1997 to encourage all forms of miniature work with needle and thread.
3:00 PM
“Textile Tour of Tennessee”
Jennifer Core
Jennifer Core will present the most recent samplers the Tennessee Sampler Survey has documented. Beginning in East Tennessee with the early settlers, she will trace the development of samplers as the move to Middle Tennessee and West Tennessee. Approximately 80 slides of previously unseen samplers will be shown.
4:00 PM
Sampler Walking Tour
Darlene Lara
7:00 PM Keynote Address
“Sampler Making: The Southern Experience”
Kathleen Staples
In contrast to 18th- and early 19th-century New England, where little girls stitched recognizable styles of samplers in a disciplined classroom governed by a teacher who probably distributed the same pattern to everyone in the class, the colonial and antebellum South adopted and adapted a variety of practices for girlhood education. This lecture is an introduction to those practices as they applied to sampler making and to the girls, African-American and American Indian as well as those of European descent, who created these important cultural artifacts
Saturday, February 24, 2007
9:00-12:00 AM
Alison Smith Workshop
Ackworth Style Medallion
Medallion samplers from Ackworth School were similar, yet each one was unique. Schoolgirls used a variety of motifs, which from one sampler to the next were in different placements, and often had variations in actual stitches in the motif. This makes it easy to disguise "mistakes" since you can just call it your own variation of a motif! Get the chart, linen and silks for an Ackworth-style medallion sampler. Done in cross-stitch, with the option of adding initials in cross or eyelet stitch, you will use the provided design to personalize your own Ackworth sampler, just as girls at Ackworth school did (though they most probably used stitched examples, not paper patterns).
In addition to the chart, you will receive the charted motifs as color medallions to cut out and rearrange to create and personalize your own sampler. Additional motifs will be provided that you can add to the base design elements, plus an alphabet to use for personalizing and/or adding initials (family, friends, other loved ones) throughout. Supplemental information about Ackworth School and the Ackworth needlework will also be provided, as well as some hints for how to unlock that personal creativity. And, of course, stitching the chart exactly as provided is always an option.
11:30 AM
“The Scottish Presence in Southern Samplers”
Kathleen StaplesIn the 18th century, in parts of Scotland, girls made crewel-on-linen samplers that are especially distinctive for their color scheme: red and green. In the 19th century girls from North Carolina and central Tennessee also worked samplers of red and green crewel yarn on linen. Join Kathleen Staples as she discusses this idiosyncratic sampler feature and what it says about immigration, settlement pattern, and the transference of aesthetic preference by a culture over time and space.
Friday, February 23, 2007
10:00 AM
“An Introduction to Samplers”
Darlene Lara
11:00 PM
“Antique Samplers and Their Role in Genealogical Research”
Dana Andrews
Genealogical research is being conducted everyday on the Internet and while it is a great source for research it is not the only place. Many people thank that if it’s not on paper or online it can tell little about the historic record, but they are mistaken. Dana Andrews will briefly highlight how objects can be used to determine family histories, then delve into the use of samplers as keys to unlocking those histories.
1:00 AM
“A Beautiful Mourning: Mourning Art and Embroidery”
Janet Hasson
Ms. Hasson will discuss the cult of mourning, which began with George Washington’s death in 1799. The cult of mourning was manifested in costume, the arts, etiquette and décor. Examples of mourning art from many genres will be shown in the slide lecture, with a special emphasis on embroidery and Tennessee examples Janet will provide a historical context fro this national obsession, which lasted from 1799 until after the Civil War.
2:00 PM
“Know Your Needle Arts”
Annelle Ferguson
Annelle has been involved with miniatures since 1978. Like so many, she built a dollhouse for her then three-year-old daughter. While building that first dollhouse, she learned to do needlepoint in order to furnish the house with rugs and carpets beginning her research of the hundred of charming antique design and interest in adapting the originals into 1/12 scale. Her favorite periods are 18th century English and American designs for samplers and chair covers and panels for fire screens and embroider stands. Today, Annelle serves as US Representative for the Miniature Needlework Society, organized in England in 1997 to encourage all forms of miniature work with needle and thread.
3:00 PM
“Textile Tour of Tennessee”
Jennifer Core
Jennifer Core will present the most recent samplers the Tennessee Sampler Survey has documented. Beginning in East Tennessee with the early settlers, she will trace the development of samplers as the move to Middle Tennessee and West Tennessee. Approximately 80 slides of previously unseen samplers will be shown.
4:00 PM
Sampler Walking Tour
Darlene Lara
7:00 PM Keynote Address
“Sampler Making: The Southern Experience”
Kathleen Staples
In contrast to 18th- and early 19th-century New England, where little girls stitched recognizable styles of samplers in a disciplined classroom governed by a teacher who probably distributed the same pattern to everyone in the class, the colonial and antebellum South adopted and adapted a variety of practices for girlhood education. This lecture is an introduction to those practices as they applied to sampler making and to the girls, African-American and American Indian as well as those of European descent, who created these important cultural artifacts
Saturday, February 24, 2007
9:00-12:00 AM
Alison Smith Workshop
Ackworth Style Medallion
Medallion samplers from Ackworth School were similar, yet each one was unique. Schoolgirls used a variety of motifs, which from one sampler to the next were in different placements, and often had variations in actual stitches in the motif. This makes it easy to disguise "mistakes" since you can just call it your own variation of a motif! Get the chart, linen and silks for an Ackworth-style medallion sampler. Done in cross-stitch, with the option of adding initials in cross or eyelet stitch, you will use the provided design to personalize your own Ackworth sampler, just as girls at Ackworth school did (though they most probably used stitched examples, not paper patterns).
In addition to the chart, you will receive the charted motifs as color medallions to cut out and rearrange to create and personalize your own sampler. Additional motifs will be provided that you can add to the base design elements, plus an alphabet to use for personalizing and/or adding initials (family, friends, other loved ones) throughout. Supplemental information about Ackworth School and the Ackworth needlework will also be provided, as well as some hints for how to unlock that personal creativity. And, of course, stitching the chart exactly as provided is always an option.
11:30 AM
“The Scottish Presence in Southern Samplers”
Kathleen StaplesIn the 18th century, in parts of Scotland, girls made crewel-on-linen samplers that are especially distinctive for their color scheme: red and green. In the 19th century girls from North Carolina and central Tennessee also worked samplers of red and green crewel yarn on linen. Join Kathleen Staples as she discusses this idiosyncratic sampler feature and what it says about immigration, settlement pattern, and the transference of aesthetic preference by a culture over time and space.
- Diane Hutsell, Executive Director
History Comes Alive
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The Living Heritage Museums school programs give students a lesson in McMinn County heritage they can't get out of any textbook, because here at the Museum, history lessons come alive.
The Living Heritage Museum celebrated Black History Month February 8th and 9th, 2007. Area school children heard from individuals in first person representations of important figures in black history as well as those in our community who experienced segregation and life in McMinn County first hand. Guest artists Kofi and Rebekah Mawuko also performed for the students.
Zelma McClure, an Athens native will speak about her experiences with Prof. Nash and the hardships Mr. Nash faced and the importance of his struggle and the founding of Cook High.
Ruth Malone will speak about segregation and life in McMinn County.
Travis Haun spoke about famous African American inventors including George Crum the inventor of the potato chip in 1853.
Students watched and participated dances from Ghana, Kofi’s native land. Students also got the opportunity to watch Kofi, a master drummer with Kyirem Cultural Troupe, a Ghanaian-based performing company, perform. Visitors to the Museum also got to see Rebekah, a professional storyteller who also teaches dance, will be performing with her husband Kofi.
The McMinn County Living Heritage Museum sincerely appreciates the East Tennessee Foundation for support for this program.
- Diane Hutsell, Executive Director
Show Off Your Support of the Living Heritage Museum
Here’s your chance to show your support of the Living Heritage Museum where everyone can see! Order your very own Living Heritage Museum T-Shirt today! Shirts are made of 100% cotton, are a light gray and will have the Museum logo on the left breast pocket area in navy blue. Be stylish and support the Museum at the same time. Proceeds from t-shirt sales will go to Living Heritage Museum’s new “Kid’s Initiative” and give area youth the opportunity to participate in the Museum’s new Junior Docent Program after school and during school breaks. Area youth between the ages of 11-18 will be trained to participate in a variety ways such as leading tours, welcoming visitors, helping customers in the gift shop, supporting staff in research, hosting special events and assisting with hands-on projects.Please send a check for $10.00 for each short sleeve t-shirt and $16.00 for each long sleeve t-shirt you like made out the Living Heritage Museum. Please add $3.00 for shipping if you want us to mail your shirt to you. Shirts will be available in adult and youth sizes. Make checks payable to Living Heritage Museum. Sorry, no credit cards. You may drop off your order at the Museum or mail to the Living Heritage Museum; PO Box 889; Athens, TN 37371. The Museum will be taking orders through March 12, 2007. We will contact you when your shirts are ready. For more information contact the Living Heritage Museum at 745-0329.
- Diane Hutsell, Executive Director
Museum Junior Docent Program-Orientation March 1st!
The McMinn County Living Heritage Museum in Athens, Tennessee has begun a Junior Docent Program for students between the ages of 12 and 18. In a recent effort to recruit new volunteers at the Living Heritage Museum, several of our area youth have expressed an interest in volunteering. To fill this need, the Living Heritage Museum has developed a Junior Docent Program.
There’s more to being a Junior Docent than just being a tour guide. From helping in the gift shop to doing research to helping develop exhibits there’s sure to be something to stir your interest. Students are trained to participate in a variety of educational programming such as leading tours, welcoming visitors, helping customers in the gift shop, supporting staff in research, hosting special events and assisting with hands-on projects.
The Museum asks its volunteers for a commitment of time and effort, enthusiasm, and a positive and supportive attitude. In return, we offer the benefits of interacting with artists, scholars and museum staff; developing and expanding public speaking skills; broadening your knowledge of history; a sense of achievement in working with the public and the rewards of working in a warm and friendly environment. No formal background is required and no experience is necessary. We seek dependable, friendly, enthusiastic and committed people who enjoy working with diverse groups of people, learning through doing, and examining the world through its artifacts.
Join us for a fun filled evening Thursday, March 1, 2007 for the Junior Docent and Parent Orientation. This informal get-together will be held in the Guild Room of the McMinn County Living Heritage Museum, located on the bottom floor of the Museum. Class begins at 6:00 pm and end at 7:30 pm. And don’t worry, dinner’s on us!
This is your opportunity to meet the Museum staff, get a “Behind the Scenes” tour of the Museum and find out what the guidelines and expectations are for the Docent Program. Docents will also receive their official Junior Docent Handbook full of important information. This is also the perfect time to come with any questions you may have about the Program.
Please have your Junior Docent Applications returned to the Museum by February 26, 2007. If you would like a copy of the application forms, stop by the Museum between 8:30 am and 5:00 pm, call 745-0329 or go online at http://www.livingheritagemuseum.com/. Docents should be between the ages of 12 and 18.
There’s more to being a Junior Docent than just being a tour guide. From helping in the gift shop to doing research to helping develop exhibits there’s sure to be something to stir your interest. Students are trained to participate in a variety of educational programming such as leading tours, welcoming visitors, helping customers in the gift shop, supporting staff in research, hosting special events and assisting with hands-on projects.
The Museum asks its volunteers for a commitment of time and effort, enthusiasm, and a positive and supportive attitude. In return, we offer the benefits of interacting with artists, scholars and museum staff; developing and expanding public speaking skills; broadening your knowledge of history; a sense of achievement in working with the public and the rewards of working in a warm and friendly environment. No formal background is required and no experience is necessary. We seek dependable, friendly, enthusiastic and committed people who enjoy working with diverse groups of people, learning through doing, and examining the world through its artifacts.
Join us for a fun filled evening Thursday, March 1, 2007 for the Junior Docent and Parent Orientation. This informal get-together will be held in the Guild Room of the McMinn County Living Heritage Museum, located on the bottom floor of the Museum. Class begins at 6:00 pm and end at 7:30 pm. And don’t worry, dinner’s on us!
This is your opportunity to meet the Museum staff, get a “Behind the Scenes” tour of the Museum and find out what the guidelines and expectations are for the Docent Program. Docents will also receive their official Junior Docent Handbook full of important information. This is also the perfect time to come with any questions you may have about the Program.
Please have your Junior Docent Applications returned to the Museum by February 26, 2007. If you would like a copy of the application forms, stop by the Museum between 8:30 am and 5:00 pm, call 745-0329 or go online at http://www.livingheritagemuseum.com/. Docents should be between the ages of 12 and 18.
- Diane Hutsell, Executive Director
Celebrating History and Families
It's an exciting time at the McMinn County Living Heritage Museum. The year 2007 marks the 25th Anniversary of the Museum and is the catalyst for several new and exciting changes that will take place as we celebrate our anniversary and next generation of Museum visitors.
The Living Heritage Museum is all about visitors and we’re striving to make everyone not only feel welcome once they have entered our doors, but feel able and eager to take those first few steps towards them. Museums often have the stereotype of being a highbrow place that are fine for kids to visit as long as they’re quiet and touch nothing. However, if we curtail their unfiltered attraction to history as a child, how can we demand they appreciate it as an adult?While we have always welcomed families, we are working hard at the promotion of family-friendly policies, attitudes and exhibitions with our new “Kids Initiative.” We will provide the tools parents need to help themselves and their kids interact with history with several new components sure to spark kids, and parents, interest, including a Kid’s Club, a Passport to History Program, a Junior Docent Program, a Junior Board of Directors to get ideas from kid’s themselves and a Boy/Girl Scout badge program. And that’s not all! Kids Club members will receive newsletters full of fun information and games. Every exhibit and program that is offered will include something that visitors of all ages are sure to find enjoyable and engaging.We’ll still continue with the great annual exhibits and shows that have made the Living Heritage Museum a success. The 25th Annual Quilt Show will take place May 5 – June 30, 2007 and will include several new programs to help celebrate the anniversary of the Museum and the quilt show.
So make your plans to visit the Living Heritage Museum throughout 2007. You'll never know what you'll find when you get here. And be sure to come back to our new blog, Museum Pieces, every day. Museum staff and volunteers will be contributing to the website on a daily basis so you can keep current with what's new at the Museum.
- Diane Hutsell, Executive Director
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