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MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: NED & JACQUELINE CROUCH
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: NED & JACQUELINE CROUCH
BY BECKY WOOD, MANAGING EDITOR
Ned and Jacqueline have dedicated their lives to the collection, preservation and exhibition of folk and outsider art.
Ned Crouch first arrived in Clarksville in 1967 “in a Volkswagen Bug packed with a stereo and some art books.” In the decades that followed, he and his wife Jacqueline wove themselves through Tennessee’s arts community, at the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center and beyond.
Ned was born into an artistic family, and trained as a sculptor at Austin Peay State University under Olen Bryant and at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. He went on to establish a career as an artist, preservationist and curator, while Jacqueline taught art in the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System. Growing up, Ned’s father was the director of The Children's Museum of Nashville, which is now the Adventure Science Center. As longtime collectors of outsider and folk art and allies of local artists, the Crouches were early supporters of the Museum.
Ned joined the Museum Board of Trustees in 1987, serving two terms before taking over as interim executive director when Bob Patterson left in 1998. "It was Bob who told Ned that he was the one person on the Board with the connection and understanding for this job,” explained Jacqueline. “He said it would only be two or three months...”
Those few months grew into nearly ten years, and Ned served as the Museum’s director until 2007. “It grew around me, and I grew around it,” said Ned. “It was like Mickey Rooney putting on a show – we'd sit in my office and scheme up exhibits and other projects.”
Ned guided the Museum through many of its most significant defining moments, like the 1999 tornado. When he got the phone call about the storm on that January night, he immediately went downtown to assess the damage.
“We lost all the air conditioners on the roof, the cupola was damaged,” said Ned. “Everything else around the Museum was leveled.” With all the windows blown out, the Museum was in a vulnerable state. There were numerous exhibits on display at the time, including a large collection of Dr. Benjamin Caldwell's presidential silver. Ned slept at the Museum on a cot with a sidearm and a flashlight, guarding the building for a week.
The Crouches’ extensive art collection fills their eclectic Glenwood home, complete with works by local artists like Olen Bryant.
The Crouches’ extensive art collection fills their eclectic Glenwood home, complete with works by local artists like Olen Bryant.
From the beginnings of the Boehm porcelain collection to some of the Museum’s biggest blockbuster exhibits, the Crouches were central to the organization’s growth. The still-buzzed-about exhibit Reelfoot Lake: Tradition, Mystery & Lore was a massive undertaking that also included a commemorative magazine and the Museum’s first film.
“Every weekend, we drove to Reelfoot and stayed on the banks of the lake,” said Ned. Jacqueline, who assisted with various Museum projects during her summer breaks from teaching, played a major role in developing the Reelfoot exhibit. What started as an idea for a small show quickly grew into one of the Museum’s biggest, thanks to a trip to the local library.
“I found just one book – but in that book, I realized there were all these other stories,” said Jacqueline. “I told Ned, ‘There are layers to this place that you might want to explore.’” She spent her summer vacation in Exhibits Curator Terri Jordan’s office, doing research and making phone calls. That exhibit brought about 600 people into the Museum for its opening reception, complete with Reelfoot eagles and hunting dogs.
There is not enough room in this particular text to fully explore Ned and Jacqueline Crouch's impact on the arts in this area. One could go on for pages about the couple’s extensive personal collection of folk art, or Ned’s dedication to preserving and restoring the works of E.T. Wickham. In the midst of all their artistic and philanthropic endeavors, their influence on the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center is clear.
In 1992, Ned stood in what is now the Museum’s courtyard with Bob Patterson, Frank Lott and Gene Washer, and the four of them dreamed up a plan to expand the Museum. They traveled to Nashville to meet with Riley Darnell, Tennessee Secretary of State under Governor Ned McWherter. After a pitch in the middle of Swett’s Restaurant on Clifton Avenue, they came back with a commitment of a million dollars. In addition to being loyal members, Ned and Jacqueline have been a key part of developing the Museum into what it is today.
The 2005 exhibit Reelfoot Lake: Tradition, Mystery & Lore is still talked about today by long-time Museum members and staff, along with its corresponding magazine and documentary film. Jacqueline Crouch poses with the Man with Rooster banner in the Museum courtyard.
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ON THE COVER:
Jacqueline Crouch poses with the Man with Rooster banner in the Museum courtyard.
Max Hochstetler and Ned Crouch both joined Austin Peay State University’s art department in 1967 – Max as a young professor, and Ned as an enthusiastic undergraduate. Max taught at Austin Peay for 32 years, serving as chair of the department from 1989 to 1993, and was awarded emeritus status in 1999. Ned credits APSU professors like Max, Olen Bryant and Charles Young as key guides to his growth as a student, and many of those teachers grew from mentors to friends.
When Ned and Jacqueline married in 1969, Max gifted them Man with Rooster, an oil on Masonite piece that he painted two years prior. The Crouches have donated over 60 works of art to the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center’s collection over the years, and this piece joined the list in 2020. Man with Rooster now welcomes visitors to the Museum with a prominent display in our courtyard.
Look out for a feature all about Max Hochstetler in a future issue of Second & Commerce.
