Met the Enemy, And It Ain’t Us Inspired a friend to observe,
My town of Cartersville, Georgia, is a smallish town just 45 minutes northwest of downtown Atlanta, in the last of the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. It’s a forested area with lakes and plentiful wildlife and we retired here several years ago from office jobs in Atlanta because, in my words: There’s nothing there. And I am delighted to admit, I was terribly wrong.
One of the most fabulous things, if not the most, is the collection of museums we enjoy. Without a doubt, we have a world-class museum of fine art of the American west in the Booth Western Art Museum. At around 120,000 square feet of exhibit space, it is the largest museum of western art anywhere. And the collection is stunning. In fact, to quote the museum’s website, the museum was honored as the “2020 & 2021 USA Today’s 10 Best Peoples’ Choice Award for best art museum in the country.” The museum is also an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution. And to top it all off, the museum is privately funded.
Our executive director dedicated himself and the staff to keeping the museum available throughout this pandemic nonsense. We were kept enriched by countless virtual programs including a virtual version of our annual fund raising gala and art auction. Tickets and art sales set a record for contributions. Early this year the museum opened its doors to physical visits. By making appointments, guests were spaced out so that close contact was minimized. Within the last month or so, advance tickets were no longer required and the doors are open to everyone.
It’s a point of pride that our museum is privately funded and I am proud to be a member. We really love our museum and do everything we can to ensure its success. It makes a real difference in this community and across all of northwest Georgia. The thousands of school children that in normal times come through the museum on school sponsored field trips are testament to the outstanding education programs the museum has developed.
Maybe the Booth Museum is not unique among museums in the efforts they and their members have taken to serve their communities over the past year and a half, but its approach seems a stark contrast to the actions of the Metropolitan Museum.
And to those of the many other institutions that have perfected the art of thieving from us.
2:35 pm on July 14, 2021
