Trail of Tears Exhibit at Rennaisance Center through June 15th

The Cultural Arts Division of the City of Kingsport in cooperation with the Museum of the Cherokee, presents ‘The Cherokee Trail of Tears’ exhibit in the 2nd floor Atrium Gallery of the Renaissance Center, 1200 East Center Street. In conjunction with the exhibit, Dr. Duane King will present a lecture on Thursday, May 7 at 7:00PM. The “Trail of Tears” exhibit features 50 photographs of contemporary sites along the Trail of Tears. Photographs for the exhibit are by David G. Fitzgerald.  The text for the exhibit and accompanying book are by Duane King, Ph.D. Dr. King is vice-president of museum affairs and director of the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Previously he served as executive director of the Southwest Museum of the American Indian/Autry national Center in Los Angeles as well as assistant director for the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of the American Indian. Among his many degrees and accomplishments, from the University of Georgia and University of Tennessee, Dr. King is also a graduate of Dobyns-Bennett High School in Kingsport, TN. The exhibit is funded, in part, through a grant from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation and the City of Kingsport, TN.

From the Introduction to The Cherokee Trail of Tears, Dr. King states, “Between June 6 and December 5, 1838, more than fifteen thousand Cherokees in seventeen detachments were forcibly removed from their ancestral homeland in the southern Appalachians to the Indian Territory on a journey that would later become known as the “Trail of Tears.” … More than a century and a half after the event, we are still struggling to understand why it happened, how it affected the people involved, and how it changed the future of American political thought and justice.”

Principal Chief Chadwick Smith of the Cherokee Nation provides the Forward to the The Cherokee Trail of Tears and notes, “Societies, governments, and a familiar way of life can turn upside down within a decade. So it happened with the Cherokees… This often-overlooked lesson of history is critical for this country’s survival, because the Trail of Tears was a stark violation of the fundamental principles this country was purportedly based on: fairness, justice, equality… People should understand that the Trail of Tears is not an episode of defeat and that the strength, character, and the power of the story of the Trail of Tears is that it evidences in very real and graphic terms the great Cherokee legacy: We are a people who have faced adversity, survived, adapted, and now prosper and excel.”

The exhibit is free and open to the public Monday – Saturday 8 AM – 8 PM and on Sunday afternoons until 5 PM. (The Renaissance Center is closed Easter Sunday).

A short 12 minute film from Chattanooga’s Ross’ Landing accompanies the exhibit. One Road documents the process and building of “The Passage”. “The Passage at Ross’ Landing in Chattanooga, Tennessee is the largest and most significant public art installation of contemporary Southeastern native American art in the United States. Created by a team of five Cherokee artists in Oklahoma, the art in The Passage teaches important lessons about how public art can create places of meaning, memories, healing, joy and wonder. One Road is an independently produced documentary short that tells the story of how the artists symbolically returned to their ancestral homeland in the Tennessee valley, and how a city came to terms with its past by creating a powerful interpretation of the history of Ross’ Landing.” Writer and producer: Ann Coulter www.oneroadmovie.com.

The Renaissance Center is located at 1200 East Center Street in Kingsport. The 3-story building features an art gallery, 345-seat theatre and meeting rooms available for the community. The facility is also home to various arts organizations as well as the community’s senior center.