![]() ![]() “There are no halls there are no straight lines. Visitors are free to meander through the interconnected curving galleries at their own pace. “We wanted to give the history of cars, not just 10 Corvettes,” says Rippy. ![]() “Things that don’t really fit into the themes of any of our other galleries end up here.”īeyond that is the Transportation Gallery, which tells the story of the evolution of the car with pristine artifacts from automotive history. “We call this our cabinet of curiosities,” says Bondurant. A sign over the door reads, “Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit.” Inside are a variety of artifacts, including a reclining Thai Buddha statue and replicas of the Rosetta Stone and the Ark of the Covenant. The Natural History gallery traces the entire history of the planet, with an extensive gems and minerals collection, and a giant interactive globe that can display maps of not only our planet, but all of the planets in the Solar System.Ī wall-sized bookshelf with a “secret” door beacons toward the Enlightenment Gallery. A mastodon skeleton guards the entrance to the interactive exhibits, designed by New York museum designers Thinc. ![]() The thunder lizards occupy the largest open space inside the center, and form the backbone of the ground-floor Natural History gallery. My husband was on the natural history committee with two professors from UT Martin. Kirkland sent people all over the place to get information and find out things for their gallery. Where we didn’t have expertise, we borrowed professors. The nine permanent gallery exhibits inside the Center each had their own development committees. “I planned the original groundbreaking, when we turned over the first shovel of dirt.” “I was a volunteer chairman of the marketing committee,” she says. Like the CEO, Bondurant has been with Discovery Park since the inception. “In every gallery, there’s something you can do that’s hands-on.” “It’s very interactive, says marketing director Mary Nita Bondurant. The flowing structure boasts more than 70,000 square feet of exhibit space in nine galleries. The Center was designed by Verner Johnson, Inc., an architecture firm based out of Boston, Massachusetts, that specializes in museums. The 120-foot Observation Tower of the central Discovery Center is easily the most prominent structure in this town of 13,000. The Discovery Park of America sits on the outskirts of Union City. He said, “Think outside the box! Tell us anything you would like to see,” recalls Rippy. To their surprise, more than 250 people attended the meeting. To ensure it would be a true community project, Kirkland and Rippy called for volunteers to help flesh out the idea. I don’t want it to just be stuff on the wall.” I want it to be a place where people can touch it, get in it, feel it. So whatever we do, I don’t want it to be a stuffy place. ![]() Education first, entertainment second, and tourism third. “He didn’t want to call it a museum,” explains Rippy. Kirkland thought they could get it done for about $20 million. To travel without traveling, not have to go so far, and have it not be so expensive.” “He wanted to let people in this part of the world see things they would never get to see, to increase their knowledge of what the world really is like, not just what you are here. “Basically, his idea was that he wanted to bring to West Tennessee what people would not get an opportunity to directly see somewhere else, like New York or Washington,” Rippy says. One day, almost a decade ago, Kirkland called up his old friend Rippy to run a notion by him. His wife Jenny is a semi-retired philanthropist still living in the same small Obion County community - 120 miles straight up Highway 51 from downtown Memphis, just south of the Kentucky border - where Robert grew up. Robert Kirkland, who passed away in 2015, was the Union City, Tennessee, entrepreneur behind the Kirkland’s chain of home furnishing stores. “Still, to this day, I can’t believe it.” I was the first one who heard it,” says CEO Jim Rippy. Kirkland decided he wanted to do this, he came to me. ![]()
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