CHM’s Campaign for Deeper Understanding

Historic Brattonsville, McCelvey Center, Museum of Life and the Environment

For thousands of years, people have come to the banks of the Catawba River to live and trade.  Today, the ancient river that courses through the heart of our region still means health, happiness and livelihood for all who live near it.  

Yet some indicators suggest that our quality of life is threatened. The Catawba has been named an endangered river. The region’s air quality is suffering. Our freeways are classified as “congested.” Understanding the connections between people and place and how our choices address challenges such as urban sprawl, wildlife habitat and open space preservation, air and water quality, economic and environmental sustainability – will determine whether we prosper or perish.

With these and other critical issues as a backdrop, there is no better location and time than here and now to address the relationships between life and the environment.  Through its supporting Culture and Heritage Foundation, the Culture & Heritage Museums (CHM) has begun a capital campaign to fund its emerging system of cultural, historical and natural heritage sites to give visitors deeper understanding of human experience and practical plans for improving the future.

CHM's New Vision

Exhibits and interactive experiences in the future Museum of Life and the Environment (MLE) will reflect its location along a mile of riverfront on the Catawba. The environmental history museum will focus on three central themes: the river, crossroads and sustainability. A new kind of museum experience will actively bring natural and cutural history together. Visitors will learn how the site, donated to the Culture & Heritage Foundation by Jane Spratt McColl, had been an intersection of people and place thoughout history. Its setting makes the museum a prime location for exploring the dynamic relationship that have shaped our societies and our environment, and is representative of regional and global changes over time.

Site Renovations & Improvements

Historic Brattonsville
Plans for Historic Brattonsville include the expansion of authentic settings to focus the web of life lens on the rural Carolina Piedmont from the mid 18th through early 20th centuries – the period when the relationship between people, the land, and short staple cotton was the dominant socio-economic force in the region.  Named the Vales of Time, the expansion plans call for Brattonsville’s original structures to be renovated, including the magnificent Hightower Hall, an antebellum Italianate treasure that will become a community and small conference center on the site.

McCelvey Center
McCelvey Center will undergo renovations to create a regional culture and heritage center. Building on its successful record of presenting performances, exhibits, and other cultural programs, McCelvey will become the CHM’s curatorial support center. Its collections, archives, and libraries will be consolidated in a central location where scholars and the public can research regional cultural and natural history and genealogy using modern information technology.  Research facilities will include the Southern Revolutionary War Institute that will attract scholars and researchers from the nation and around the world.

We Need Your Support

Today, more than ever, we need new perspectives. This is the time for visionaries to show the way, to provide a model that transforms the way people encounter their surroundings and make choices about the way they live. At a time when many people are contemplating the future of our planet and rethinking their relationship with the earth, the CHM has taken on the challenge of creating a “culture” of deeper understanding that will transform those ideas into action.

We have a magnificent opportunity. Working together with the all the citizens of our region, we can preserve and share our history, promote conservation and the protection natural resources, and teach people what it means to be good citizens of the world.

The time is now. The place is here.

For information on how you can join us in this important undertaking, please click here>>

Campaign for Deeper Understanding Menu
(2006 Capital Campaign)
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> CH Foundation
> Vales of Time
> Hightower Hall Renovation
> McCelvey Expansion
> Musuem of Life and the Environment
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