Museum Town: Cartersville showcases art, science & automobiles
When They Run With Freedom artist Benjamin Jacob Nelson or Ahn-Hia-Ohm mixed media (Photo by Donna P. Williams)
Ranch, a hands-on experience and interactive children’s gallery. “The museum has become an important attraction since opening in Cartersville, being the world’s largest permanent exhibition space for Western art, and it is the largest museum of its kind in the Southeast,” said Grace Adams, director of marketing at Booth Western Art Museum. With 120,000 square feet of space, the Booth is a great size to see in a day, but offers more than enough to make additional trips worthwhile, Adams said. “Temporary exhibits are changed every three to four months in four
By Kathy Dean The Tellus Science Museum building winks through a cluster of tall trees along I-75 near Exit 293. It hits the eye like the prow of a proud ship. The building hints at the treasures displayed within it, and other treasures in Cartersville, a city less than an hour’s drive north of Atlanta that has collected a cluster of unusual museums. “Cartersville is home to … some of the Atlanta area’s most interesting museums,” said Meredith Dollevoet, sales and marketing manager at the CartersvilleBartow County Convention & Visitors Bureau. Things really started, Dollevoet said, when a group of local business owners got together and decided they needed a place to show artworks they had gathered to the public. “The Booth Museum was opened in 2003 as a way to share their art collections with the community and to provide educational opportunities,” she said. That was just the start. The group formed the non-profit Georgia Museums, Inc., and in 2009, opened the Tellus Science Museum as an expansion of a building then known as the Weinman Mineral Museum. Other museums followed, with Georgia Museums now responsible for the Bartow History Museum and a related entity that operates the Grand Theatre in downtown Cartersville. The latest addition to the group’s collection, the Savoy Automobile Museum, opened in December 2021. The gathering of museums draws tourists and attention to the city. In fact, Smithsonian Magazine included Cartersville as one of the 15 Best Small Towns to Visit in 2022. “In a nutshell, Cartersville became Georgia’s Museum City because a group of generous businessmen wanted to give back to the community through their love and appreciation of art, history, science, education, and now, cars,” Dollevoet said.
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Director of Marketing at the Tellus Science Museum. “The Weinman Museum was one of the few options teachers had for geology field trips for students,” she said. “However, the 9,000-square-foot museum could not accommodate the high demand for educational activities. Eventually the museum was turning away more students than they were able to serve and that’s when the decision was made to expand the museum and the services we offer.” It has grown to 120,000 square feet with four permanent galleries: The Weinman Mineral Gallery, The Fossil Gallery, Science in Motion and The Collins Family My Big Backyard. Some of the most popular exhibits are an 80-foot-long Brontosaurus and a replica 1903 Wright flyer. Tellus also houses three special exhibit galleries, a fossil dig, and gem-panning interactive exhibit, as well as a 120-seat digital planetarium and an observatory that features a state-of-the-art 20-inch telescope. “The museum became a Smithsonian Affiliate shortly after opening in January 2009,” Redd added. For more, visit tellusmuseum.org.
Savoy Automobile Museum
A 1955 Chevy Bel Air at the Savoy Automobile Museum.
Apollo I Replica, Credit Tellus Science Museum
Booth Western Art Museum The Booth Museum, named for Sam Booth, a friend and mentor to the founders, boasts a permanent collection of the art of the American west, Civil War art and presidential portraits and letters, allowing visitors to “See America’s Story” in paintings, sculpture, photography and artifacts. The Booth also features Sagebrush
galleries, resulting in 12 to 15 exhibitions per year, the most in any Georgia art museum,” she said. For more, visit boothmusesum.org.
Tellus Science Museum The Tellus Science Museum is an expansion of the former Weinman Mineral Museum, according to Shelly Redd,
Inside the 65,000-square-foot Savoy Automobile Museum, visitors are invited to roam a Great Hall and four exhibition galleries that showcase automobiles of different makes, models, and eras. There is also a state-of-the-art theatre with stadium seating for nearly 300 guests that includes an ultra hi-definition video panel wall, measuring 17 feet by 33 feet, and a turntable stage for rotating vehicles. The museum’s permanent collection rotates periodically; it includes a 1932 Rolls Royce 20/25, 1953 Kaiser Dragon and 1957 Chevrolet Corvette. The museum’s name seemed predetermined. “When developing the land, a 1954 Plymouth Savoy car with a tree growing out of it was unearthed. As if by fate, it was the only vehicle uncovered,” Dollevoet said. “This famous Savoy car is on permanent display outside the museum in all its rusted glory.” The Savoy has a 37-acre campus, and there are plans to build an outdoor pavilion for use with events on the showgrounds. Current and upcoming exhibitions include: “Pirelli: The Story of a Company,” through Sept. 4, with a collection of cars that don Pirelli tires, including Formula One, Ferrari and Lamborghini; “FrontRunners,” through Oct. 2, featuring record-breaking Indy roadsters from the 1950s and 1960s; and “Big Blocks,” Aug. 2-Dec. 4, showcasing “the big and bold from an iconic era in American automotive history.” In addition to exhibitions, the Savoy hosts events. On Aug. 13 at 2 p.m., the 1968 Steve McQueen film “Bullitt” will be shown at the Savoy’s theatre. For details, visit savoymuseum.org. At l a n t a I n t o w n Pa p e r. c o m
