NASHVILLE – For more than 30 years, the Tennessee State Museum has huddled in a cramped basement of a state office building under the Tennessee Performing Arts Center and 24 floors of offices.
But this spring, nudged by Gov. Bill Haslam, state lawmakers approved $120 million to build a new museum on the state’s Bicentennial Capitol Mall, to be bolstered by a $40 million private fundraising campaign.
The dream is for more space, better displays and easier access to the tens of thousands of Tennessee schoolchildren and other visitors who flock annually to the institution. When the museum’s oversight commission meets Monday, members will get their first briefing on plans for the new structure from Haslam Chief of Staff Mark Cate.
The path to this point, however, is proving to be as colorful as some of the Volunteer State’s history, including controversies over whether the museum’s longtime director engineered the removal of two board members critical of her; whether staff violated acquisition policies or failed to vet a hire later suspected of embezzling $62,000; even the timing of a planned traveling exhibit last year on Lamar Alexander.
Former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe, a member of the museum board since its creation in 2010 and its former chairman, is among those who have raised questions about the museum’s operations.