Area Attractions Plan Family-Friendly Summer Promotion

Release Date: 5/1/2002. Expired: 8/1/2002

Twelve Nashville area cultural and historic institutions are partnering together this summer in a family-friendly promotional effort to encourage local residents to “take a family vacation in your own backyard.”

The program, entitled the “2002 Summer Passport,” is a child-friendly publication that provides information about the region’s diverse cultural organizations, their special programs and admission fees. As families “travel to” the different sites, their passports will be stamped, marking another stop in exploring the local cultural and historic riches of Middle Tennessee.

Summer Passports will be distributed beginning in May to all Metro Public School students, grades kindergarten through fourth. The Passports will also be available free-of-charge through Metro art teachers and media specialists, as well as participating organizations.

The program culminates at the end of the summer during the Mayor’s First Day celebration on August 12 at the Gaylord Entertainment Center. As a part of the First Day festivities, entry forms, which are available inside the Summer Passports, may be completed and turned in for a drawing. Prizes include a computer and supporting software, admissions passes, family memberships, art materials, etc.

Area attractions participating in the program, entitled “2002 Summer Passport,” include Belle Meade Plantation, Cheekwood, Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Cumberland Science Museum and Sudekum Planetarium, Fisk University Galleries, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, The Hermitage, Historic Mansker’s Station Frontier Life Center, Nashville Public Library, The Parthenon, The Renaissance Center and the Tennessee State Museum.

The program was developed through the Museum Advocates group, an informal organization of educators from local cultural and historic institutions. Summer Passport targets families in Davidson and surrounding counties with school-aged children, according to Mary Grissim, director of education at Cheekwood, Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, who has provided leadership for the advocates group.

The goals of the Summer Passport program are to increase the community’s awareness of the high quality cultural programming available to Davidson County and Middle Tennessee residents; provide Metropolitan Nashville Public School students with educational activities during the summer months; and to extend these cultural institutions’ services to family audiences in Middle Tennessee, according to Grissim.

In addition to the institutions listed above, Passports will also be available from these other Museum Advocates institutions: Carnton House, Hartzer-Towner Multi-Cultural Museum at Scarrit Bennet Center, Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, Nashville Children’s Theatre, Nashville Zoo, Sam Davis Home, The Foxtrot Carousel, Travelers Rest and the Warner Park Nature Center.

This program is partially funded through a grant of $10,250 from the Metro Nashville Arts Commission, with the participating institutions providing the remainder of the costs.

Many of the institutions have developed special educational programs for 2002 Summer Passport. For more information, visit the following web sites, or call the institution directly:
www.nashville.org/parks/wpnc
www.countrymusichalloffame.com
www.thehermitage.com
www.tnmuseum.org
www.fristcenter.org
www.csmisfun.com
www.cheekwood.org
www.bellemeadeplantation.com
www.fisk.edu
www.scarrittbennett.org
www.nashville.org/parthenon

For information about The Renaissance Center’s role in the Museum Advocates Passport program, call Bob Kucher at (615)740-5565.