Dinner Theatre Returns to Booth Museum as Part of Summer Entertainment Series

Booth Western Art Museum is pleased to announce the return of the dinner theatre Summer Entertainment Series in the beautiful Booth Ballroom. Held the third Thursday in June, July and August, at 7 p.m., visitors enjoy a live show and a delicious buffet dinner for just $25 for Booth members and $30 for non-members. A cash bar will also be available.

“Last year was the first year for our dinner theatre Summer Entertainment Series, and it was a wonderful success,” said Booth Museum Executive Director Seth Hopkins. “This year’s Summer Entertainment Series is sure to be educational and entertaining for audiences young and old. Additionally, our food and beverage manager has three delicious meals planned that will no doubt satisfy taste buds.”

The first in the series will feature Luther’s Mountain, a five-piece bluegrass and gospel band, on Thursday, June 16. Based out of Polk and Paulding Counties, Luther’s Mountain was formed in 2007 and has played at numerous venues around Northwest Georgia. Comprised of fiddle, mandolin, guitar, banjo and bass players, the group plays and sings many well-known songs including, I’ll Fly Away, Rocky Top, Dixie and many more.

On July 21, theatrical performers from Buttonwillow Church Civil War Dinner Theatre in Whitwell, TN, will present their dinner theatre show, Granddaddy’s Watch. This performance will highlight some of the many misconceptions about the Civil War, inform attendees about the various battle flags created during the war, and will give an overview of the thoughts and actions by both the Confederacy and Union.

Closing out the summer on August 18, will be Little Big Mountain, a Southern Plains Comanche, appearing with his Comanche captive, played by Laura Alcorn of Montana’s Blackfoot Tribe. Little Big Mountain is a familiar face to many Booth visitors. He is a regular at the Booth’s annual Festival & Symposium each October. Titled GoNativeNow Presents: Once Upon a Time, this show will take attendees on a journey from the 1600s, through the 1800s, eventually arriving in the present time. This will be both an educational and humorous journey that will leave the audience with a better understanding of Native Peoples and their cultures.

For additional information about the Summer Entertainment Series, visit www.boothmuseum.org or to order tickets call 770.387.1300.

Civil War Comes Alive!

In conjunction with Bartow History Museum, Booth Museum is pleased to announce Civil War Comes Alive! Presented to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, this event is meant to teach visitors about all aspects of the war - from what life was like on the home front, to the music, and everything in between.

Held on the Booth Museum festival grounds in downtown Cartersville, Georgia, Saturday, April 30, from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, visitors will be able to visit various stations set up on the grounds demonstrating the various aspects of the war. Stations include a medical/hospital tent, blacksmith, music, signaling, life on the home-front, Confederate and Union Infantry camps, a sutler, and Cavalry Camp. An Artillery Camp will also be set up on the Booth Museum grounds and will demonstrate cannon firings at 10:30 am, 11:30 am, 12:30 pm, 1:30 pm, 2:30 pm, 3:30 pm and 4:30 pm.

When visitors are not walking around to the various stations, they may sit back, relax and enjoy entertainment provided on stage at the festival grounds. The Georgia 8th Regiment Band will play music from both the Confederate and Union armies at 11:00 am, 1:30 pm and 3:30 pm. At 10:30 am, 12:30 pm and 2:30 pm, guests may listen to Abraham Lincoln recite the Gettysburg Address. Additionally, attendees are encouraged to tour the Booth Museum’s Civil War art gallery, War is Hell, as well as Mort Künstler’s Civil War Art: For us the Living, which will be on view in the Special Exhibition Gallery, and visit Bartow History Museum to see their Civil War exhibit which features local ties to the War.

Admission to Civil War Comes Alive! is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, $7 for students, $3 for children 12 and under, and free for Booth Museum members, Bartow History Museum members, and active military with ID. Prices include access to the Booth Museum festival grounds, as well as admission to Booth Museum and Bartow History Museum.

For more information about Civil War Comes Alive!, including details about the school program which will be offered on Friday, April 29, please visit http://www.boothmuseum.orgor www.bartowhistorymuseum.org, or call 770-387-1300.

8th Annual Southeastern Cowboy Gathering

The annual Cowboy Gathering is just around the corner! Be sure to join us March 10-13 at Booth Western Art Museum for chuck wagon and Dutch oven cooking contests, cowboy poetry, musical entertainment by Asleep at the Wheel, and to meet featured artist Ed Mell. For more information, including a complete schedule and prices, click here.

Annual Cowboy Festival & Symposium Just Around the Corner!

For the eighth consecutive year, the Booth Western Art Museum will host the Southeastern Cowboy Festival & Symposium, October 21-24, 2010. A visitor favorite, the annual event offers a wide range of activities the entire family can enjoy including two concerts by Riders in the Sky, gunfight reenactments, children’s activities, living history encampments, Native American dancing, arts and crafts, pioneer demonstrations and so much more! Featured artist for this year’s event is sculptor John Coleman, who will present a lecture and a workshop.

Thursday, October 21, visitors can meet featured artist John Coleman, and listen to Doc Stovall and the Tumbleweed Cowboy Band perform in the Museum atrium from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Coleman, considered one of the leading sculptors of today, will present a lecture on his artistic style and career highlights in the Booth Theatre beginning at 7:00 p.m.

On Friday, October 22, the symposium portion of the event takes place with lectures on a variety of historical and artistic topics from 10:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. in the Booth Theatre.

10:30 am – Karl Bodmer: An Artist’s Perspective
Andrew Peters, noted landscape artist, Omaha, NE

11:30 am – Ansel Adams and His Legacy
Shannon Perich, Associate Curator of Photography, Smithsonian National Museum of American History

12:30 pm – Lunch Break (Museum Café open)

1:30 pm – New Frontiers: Collecting the West in the East
Sheila K. Hoffman, Curator of Collections, Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY

2:30 pm – The Bison: Western Art Icon
Robert B. Pickering, PhD, Senior Curator, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK

Also on the 22nd, the Booth Art Academy will host a sculpture workshop for artists by featured artist John Coleman. For registration information and costs, please call 770-607-3686.

Friday evening, guests are invited to attend the Western Concert in the Booth Ballroom at 7:00 pm, featuring Belinda Gail and Jim Jones. Known as “America’s Western Sweetheart,” Gail has been honored by the Western Music Association and the Academy of Western Artists as female Performer of the Year and as Entertainer of the Year several times over the course of her career. Jim Jones is a gifted songwriter, instrumentalist and producer. He has been named the Western Music Association’s Male Vocalist of the Year and is in much demand at festivals and gatherings throughout the West. Tickets are $15 for not-yet members, $12 for Booth Museum members and $10 for students.

Two Saturday concerts at the Grand Theatre feature the internationally famous Riders in the Sky, who will be celebrating 6,000 career performances during the Festival & Symposium. Made up of Ranger Doug, Woody Paul, Too Slim and Joey, Riders in the Sky has been entertaining audiences since 1977. In 1982, they became the first exclusively Western music artist to join the Grand Ole Opry. The group has also provided music for several Walt Disney/Pixar albums, most notably “Woody’s Roundup Featuring Riders in the Sky” which was released as a companion album to “Toy Story 2."

Tickets for the 2:00 p.m. matinee are $25 for not-yet members, $20 for Booth Museum members and $5 for children 16 and younger. Tickets for the 7:00 p.m. evening performance are $25 for not-yet members and $20 for Booth Museum members.

During the day Saturday, October 23, an array of events for the entire family will be offered in the Cowboy Festival and Western Marketplace on the museum grounds. Entertainment includes re-enactments of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Western music and poetry throughout the day on two stages, fast draw competitions, humorous Western skits, demonstrations of traditional Indian dances, chuck wagon cooking, children’s activities and a living history encampment with demonstrations of pioneer skills from bygone days.

Food vendors at the event will offer homemade root beer, barbecue, hot dogs and other favorite festival food items. Activities will take place between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.

Admission to the festival grounds, including Booth Museum galleries, is $10 for not-yet members, $8 for seniors, $7 for students, $3 for children and free for active military and Booth members.

The weekend wraps up Sunday, October 24, beginning with Cowboy Church at 11:00 a.m. This non-denominational church service features cowboy prayers and Western spiritual music and is free for everyone. After the service, visit the Cowboy Festival and Western Marketplace between Noon and 5:00 p.m. on the grounds of the Museum, with the same activities as listed for Saturday taking place.

For more information about the 8th Annual Southeastern Cowboy Festival & Symposium call 770.387.1300 or visit http://www.boothmuseum.org/.

Ansel Adams Arrives!

After much anticipation and excitement, Ansel Adams: A Legacy officially opened at the Booth Museum on Saturday, September 25. Occupying two galleries, this is the largest temporary exhibition ever held at the Museum, as well as the largest Ansel Adams collection ever displayed in Georgia.
The works in A Legacy, originally printed by the artist himself in his California darkroom, were given to his organization, The Friends of Photography, and initially displayed as an exhibition in China. The Booth Museum exhibition showcases these works in the intimate scale Adams intended, and also includes educational components unique to the Museum including a 20th Century darkroom replica, a walk-in camera structure with footage of Adams, and a baby grand player piano representing Adams' early career as a concert pianist.

To kick-off the exciting five months of Ansel Adams, award winning photographer John Mariana presented a lecture on Thursday, September 16. Speaking in the words of Adams, Mariana shared how Adams' childhood influenced the man he became, how he became interested in photography, and the process he went through in creating his photographs.

On the Opening Day, September 25, photo-historian and curator Susan Todd-Raque presented two lectures on the life and career of Ansel Adams.

Additional speakers will also share insights into the world of Ansel Adams throughout the run of the exhibition, including Shannon Perich, Associate Curator of Photography at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Perich will present Ansel Adams: Building the Legacy, during the Booth Museum's annual Cowboy Festival & Symposium on Friday, October 22, at 11:30 am.

Ansel Adams: A Legacy will be on display at the Booth Museum from now through February 20, 2011.

**Thanks to Howard Pousner at the Atlanta Journal Constitution for the great article he wrote about Ansel Adams: A Legacy**

Hopkins Receives Flourish Award

Booth Museum Executive Director Seth Hopkins recently received the Flourish Award as Arts Leader of the Year. Kennesaw State University College of the Arts presented Hopkins with his award at the Third Annual Flourish Luncheon at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.

Executive Director Seth Hopkins receives the Flourish Award as Arts Leader of the Year from Joseph Meeks, dean of the College of Arts at Kennesaw State University

The Flourish Awards honor those who have helped the arts flourish in Georgia, and Hopkins received Arts Leader of the Year for his many accomplishments over the past 10 years. When he assumed his position in 2000, he was hiring and training staff, developing operating procedures, consulting with the design team on building plans and construction, and directing the organization of the galleries and initial art installation. Hopkins then shifted his attention to fundraising, programs and exhibitions. In the past seven years, the Museum has mounted nearly 100 temporary art exhibitions, many of which were curated or co-curated by him. He has also served as an arts lecturer, writer, scholar and juror. His writings have appeared in several national art magazines.

Said Hopkins on receiving the award, "Winning this award was a great honor. While it is an individual award, I view it as recognition for all that the entire staff at the Booth Museum has accomplished over the past 10 years. It is like winning the Heisman trophy; you can’t win it unless you are on a great team with outstanding players at the other positions. It was also doubly nice to be recognized by the University where I first began studying art."

Congratulations to Seth Hopkins and this wonderful recognition!

What's the Story?

The Booth Western Art Museum offers an array of educational field trips for groups of all ages. Most recently, the education department, along with five contracted teachers, developed and implemented What's the Story? Connecting Art and Literacy. This program uses the artwork in the Museum's collection to help students in Kindergarten through 4th grade enhance their literacy skills.

The idea behind What's the Story was initiated based on statistics that an alarming number of Georgia students lack the basic literacy skills they need to succeed in life. The Workforce Investment Act defines literacy as "an individual's ability to read, write, and speak English, compute, and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job, in the family, and in society." The Booth Museum believes there is a natural correlation between language arts, literacy skills, and the Museum's collection of narrative works. Thus, formulation of What's the Story was developed with those beliefs in mind. Five classroom teachers were contracted to assist in writing the program and represented Cobb, Bartow and Cartersville City schools. These teachers, along with the Booth Museum's education department, met three times per month from April to July to create programs matched to the Georgia Performance Standards for each grade level.

If you are looking for a fun way to connect art and literacy, call today to book What's the Story? Connecting Art & Literacy at 770-387-3849.