Story by Karen Parr-Moody
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – History, with all of its drama, violence and beauty, can still be a dull study for many. But the stylish new exhibit, “Becoming Clarksville,” revives history through digital interactivity, oversized photos and little-known facts.
The new Customs House Museum exhibit dives deep into Clarksville’s past, unveiling what some may not know about the city, from its financial foundations in tobacco to its roots in health, governance and education.
The exhibit was artfully designed by Healy Kohler Design of Takoma Park, Maryland, a firm that specializes in the creation of museum exhibits (it also designed the Fort Defiance Interpretive Center here). A local firm, BLF Marketing, created the content and selected the photos.
The museum exhibit came into being due to a $500,000 donation from the now-defunct Clarksville Jaycees. Because of such generous funding, Healy Kohler Design could apply the bells and whistles of modern museum design. Touch screen exhibits let guests explore various topics and a large video screen plays five films.
Alan Robison, the museum’s executive director, said that museum exhibits are always limited by a building’s square footage, yet this “groundbreaking” exhibit adds layers of information.
“You can only do so much with static, standard presentations that we all know and love at museums – graphics, object cases, those sorts of things,” Robison said. “With technology delivering your content through computer-based platforms, you suddenly find yourself in a position where you can tell all kinds of stories in many, many different ways.”
One tabletop touchscreen presents Clarksville as the ever-evolving entity that any city is, and features questions such as “What types of programs should Clarksville and Fort Campbell coordinate together?” and “What will the city’s business community be like in 10 years?” Guests’ answers are left for others to read. Such appeals keep the exhibit perpetually unfolding.
BLF Marketing did an excellent job of sprinkling lesser-known facts into the big picture. There is some interesting trivia about A.H. Patch, who invented the “Black Hawk” corn sheller, and Dr. Robert Tecumseh Burt, an African American doctor who opened the Burt Home Infirmary in 1906. (It was Clarksville’s first and only hospital until 1916 saw the debut of the Barbara Louise Hospital, which was founded by a group of women, another interesting factoid).
Viewers learn about political leaders, the founding of Fort Campbell, famous area artists and natural disasters. There is some evidence of the exhibit’s benefactor, as the Jaycees are featured in portions of the exhibit. But this is tastefully contained.
In summary, this is an exhibit that will keep guests intrigued for at least an hour and leave them more informed than when they stepped in the door.
Karen Parr-Moody began a career as a New York journalist, working as a fashion reporter for Women’s Wear Daily, a beauty editor for Young Miss and a beauty and fashion writer for both In Style and People magazines. Regionally, she has been a writer at The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper and currently writes about arts and culture for Nashville Arts magazine each month.