Local museums join together for weekend event

Published 3:41 pm Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Old Depot Museum director Beth Spivey moves a historic bicycle through a room at the museum Monday morning. (Jay Sowers | Times-Journal)

Old Depot Museum director Beth Spivey moves a historic bicycle through a room at the museum Monday morning. (Jay Sowers | Times-Journal)

Seven area museums are coming together to share their wealth of treasures with the community at a discounted price this Saturday.

For the price of a $7 ticket, community members can visit the Old Depot Museum, Selma Interpretive Center, Sturdivant Hall Museum, Vaughan-Smitherman Museum, National Voting Rights Museum and Ancient Africa, Enslavement and Civil War Museum from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 12.

Participants will be given a passport when they purchase their tickets. After the passports are stamped at each museum, they will be entered to win a gift basket filled with items from the museums and Mark’s Mart.

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People who visit every museum will also be eligible to participate in a wagon tour of Old Cahawba on Sunday, July 13.

Ashley Mason, Tourism Director for the Selma-Dallas County Chamber of Commerce, said she created the idea for the event after seeing a lack of communication between museums in the community.

“I think the people at the different museums are really excited about it, because it’s giving them a chance to reconnect with each other,” Mason said. “It’s very important to me to have the museums communicating and working together. We have so much history in Selma, and we need to celebrate that.”

Tickets for the event are available at the Chamber’s Centre for Commerce, 912 Selma Avenue, through Friday, and will also be available Saturday at the participating museums.

Along with improving communication and cooperation between the area’s museums, Mason said she hoped the event would make the public more aware of the variety of museums located in Selma and Dallas County.

“I know there are a lot of people in Selma who don’t know about all the museums we have here in town,” Mason said. “I wanted to bring awareness to the fact we have museums, and we have a lot of them.”

Originally from Mobile, Mason said she was impressed by the variety of museums in the area when she moved here last year.

“I was very impressed when I moved here,” Mason said. “All the museums here are well put together and very professional. Each of them offers something special.”

Beth Spivey, Director at the Old Depot Museum, said she is excited about the idea of bringing the different museums together for one event this weekend.

“I love the idea of getting the museums together for something like this,” Spivey said. “If we are going to get along as a city, we are going to have to get along as businesses, too,” Spivey said. “I know I always try to help out the other museums. When visitors come through the Old Depot, I’m always telling them about the other museums in and around Selma.”

Spivey said she hopes the event attracts a large crowd to not only the Old Depot, but also all of the participating museums.

“All it takes is for someone to come to any of these museums one time, and they are just overwhelmed,” Spivey said. “It’s an unbelievable deal.”

For more information, contact Mason at 875-7241.