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OUTside the Loop: Booth Western Art Museum
By Diane Kirkland
Cartersville boasts what might be the most unusual museum in the state, the Booth Western Art Museum. The museum houses a huge permanent collection of contemporary paintings and sculptures reflecting the natural beauty of the Western landscape, plus artworks depicting the culture of an exciting heroic era in American history – the cowboys.
This 80,000-square-foot museum is the only one of its kind in the Southeast, and it represents the finest Western artists of the 20th century. In addition to the permanent American Western Art collection, the museum also has a “War Is Hell” Civil War art display and a Presidential Gallery, which features a portrait of each of our 41 presidents (including several photographic portraits by the late acclaimed Turkish-born Canadian photographer Yousuf Kart), plus an original signed letter or document from every president.
The museum was launched with a collection of Western art gathered by a local family that prefers to remain anonymous. The museum is fully funded by a private foundation. It was named for Sam Booth, a friend and mentor to several of the museum board members.
Kids have their own special room called the Sagebrush Ranch, which is an interactive gallery featuring a rocking stagecoach ride. They can dress in Western wear and saddle-up on a life-sized model horse, learn to cook in a chuck wagon, have a puppet show and learn how to brand a cow.
There are also lots of authentic Western movie posters and sculptures of movie heroes such as John Wayne, as well as a theater showing The American West, a cafe, and the museum shop.
March 8 through 11 is the “Fourth Annual Southeastern Cowboy Gathering” celebration, which includes an open fiddle, mandolin and banjo competition; poetry and song-writing workshops; a chuck wagon, Dutch-oven cooking contest; and art and history lectures.
March also features two photographic exhibits: Gone: Photographs of Abandonment on the High Plains, which depicts abandoned buildings and their artifacts by Steven Fitch, and Making a Hand: Ranch Children of New Mexico by photographer Gene Peach. Every month the Booth holds two regularly scheduled lectures or demonstrations by various historians and artists: Art for Lunch is on the first Wednesday of every month (12:15 – 1 p.m.), and evening lectures are held on the third Thursday of each month (7 p.m.).
Visit www.boothmuseum.org. To get to the Booth Museum, take I-75 north to exit 288 (Cartersville/Main Street.); turn west and travel 2.2 miles to Museum Drive; turn right and go two blocks; museum will be on your right. www.boothmuseum.org
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