Museum group in Cartersville gets broader exposure
The Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville has gained exposure far and wide this year.
The museum was recently rated by USA Today as the top art museum in the country. It had to pivot to an online platform in the spring after the COVID-19 pandemic shut its doors for nearly three months.
Executive Director Seth Hopkins spoke to the Rome Rotary Club Thursday afternoon He called the Booth a “life- long learning educational institution.” He said the museum, and its siblings do as much or more programming for adults as it does for kids.
Booth Western Art Museum opened as an 80,000 square foot structure in downtown Cartersville in 2003. A 40,000 square foot addition came online in 2009, making it the second largest museum in Georgia, behind only the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.
The Booth and its siblings — Tellus science museum,
Bartow History Museum and the Savoy Automobile Museum under construction — were all developed by an anonymous benefactor in Cartersville.
Hopkins said the founder and his wife looked at his early life as being somewhat wasted in that he had never been involved in the arts and didn’t have a cultured background.
“They started exposing themselves to different parts of culture, ballet, opera, orchestra music. And after having done that for a while, they decided what they really liked was Broadway plays and Western art,” Hopkins said.
“These museums are somewhat a result of that, and wanting to give others the opportunities they didn’t have growing up in Chatsworth and Carterville,” he added. “And that these facilities needed to be here in Cartersville and not Atlanta ... He collects everything but dust.”
The pandemic forced the museum to reassess its operations and they made a concerted effort to take Booth
to a new level online. That effort has exposed the museum to thousands upon thousands of new fans across the country.
“That means we essentially have two museums,” Hopkins said.
Physical attendance this year is down 65% but membership revenues are up 6%.
He said that even as the pandemic plays out, he’s confident the Booth will not abandon its online format, which includes 3- D trips through the various galleries.
The new Savoy Automobile Museum is slated to open in the fall of 2021. It’s being constructed near the intersection of Ga. 20 and
U. S. 411 near the Georgia Highlands College campus in Cartersville.
“The buzz about this museum is way over the top compared to anything we ever heard before we built the Booth, or Tellus for that matter,” Hopkins said.
He said a lot of automotive museums are basically car warehouses. The plan for the Savoy includes rotating themed exhibitions with a small permanent collection gallery.
Hopkins said that the Booth is once again open for visitors but people should call ahead, at 770-387-1300, to make an appointment since capacity is still being limited.