Museum may move downtown

By Frank Ruggiero

The Appalachian State University Cultural Museum may not find its new home before Christmas, but the university administration has found a spot that could better accommodate the museum in downtown Boone.

Though he confirmed the most likely location was downtown, university provost Stan Aeschleman would not publicly reveal the specific building.

“We continue to work with local town and county officials, as well as some of the business leaders in town, to find a suitable location that would not only enhance the museum, but add some value to the area,” Aeschleman said. “The mayor-elect (Loretta Clawson) has been involved in the conversations, and we all feel that the ideal location would be somewhere in downtown Boone.”

He said the move would have to happen soon, and that a decision would need to be reached within a month. As such, the cultural museum would probably move out of University Hall by the end of January 2006.

The Appalachian Cultural Museum is moving to make room for the Institute of Health and Human Services, the administrative offices of which have already moved in to University Hall’s second floor. The first floor, which houses the museum, will be converted to clinical space, classrooms and meeting areas to accommodate the institute’s function, part of which is to place the university’s clinical-related academic facilities under one roof.

“That’s been established to bring six different departments together in a common location to better serve the students in those programs, and better serve the citizens in the region,” Aeschleman said, adding that the newly-created department of nursing will most likely be located on the second floor of University Hall.

University administration has been searching for an alternative site for more than a year, Aeschleman said, and a location search committee has been working on the case for two to three months.

“Obviously, it’s not been an easy choice and we continue to explore all options,” he continued. “We’re confident that, at some point, we’ll be able to find a better and more appropriate location for the museum.”

Holiday focus

In the meantime, the cultural museum is operating as usual, and even has its holiday exhibit up and running.

“It’s an exhibit of Christmas quilts, and this year’s theme, which is being curated by Glenda Arthur, an expert quilter, is ‘Home for the Holidays,’” museum curator Chuck Watkins said. “We have not only quilts that are geared up to the home theme, but we have some dollhouses on exhibit, as well as birdhouses.”

Volunteers Kay Bosworth and Shelby Lane have decked the general store exhibit with boughs of holly, if not literally, which the two have traditionally done for the past 10 years.

Aside from the pending move, the cultural museum has drawn plenty of press lately, having been mentioned in a New York Times article, in which writer Jeff Schlegel called it “a primer on western North Carolina’s mountain culture” for tourists.

Watkins also told how the museum is featured in “Our State” magazine for a chair it has on exhibit. The chair was made at the turn of the 20th century by Woody’s Chair Shop.

“They (Our State) focus on an object every month, and they picked up on this for December,” Watkins said. “And those things are really good for us, because it lets the administration know we have a reputation outside of Boone.”

Contrary to rumor

Rumor originally had it the museum would move by the first of the new year, but Watkins and staff agree there’s “no way that’s possible.”

“So, we’ll have to see what they’ll like us to do,” he said. “We obviously want to find a way we can move and be open as fast as possible for the public. The university administration, I think, really wants to find it a good home, and I think they’re sincere in those efforts.

“I know that not everybody is entirely trustful of what’s said, but I think in this particular case, there’s a strong effort being made to keep this as a regional institution of high quality. And after all, we need to maintain the quality because we’re talking about people’s heritage here.”

Watkins recalled talking with a university physical plant worker, who told him the university owes it to the people to keep an institution like the museum that recognizes the region’s culturally-rich history, considering how much the area has changed.

“He certainly said what was on my mind a lot better than I had said it to people,” Watkins mused.

The Appalachian Cultural Museum is located on University Hall Drive, just off Blowing Rock Road. For more information, call 262-3117 or visit www.museum.appstate.edu on the Web.

• Frank Ruggiero may be

contacted at ruggiero

@wataugademocrat.com.