Aaron Hardin appointed new director of Carnegie Center for Arts and History

JACKSON, Tenn. — A local museum welcomes a new face to Jackson’s downtown area.

“Becky Fly and Roger Jowers really welcomed me warmly. They know so much about the musical history in Jackson. They are incredible resources and I learn from them everyday so, if you haven’t met Becky or Roger, I would really encourage you to come by and meet them,” said Aaron Hardin, new director for the Carnegie Center of Arts and History.

For the past 20 years, Hardin has lived in Jackson as an educator, journalist and freelance artist.

“Kind of incredible to have the opportunity to be someone that then champions great art, great stories, great history, great musicians in a way that I hope gives our community a richness and lets us see the richness in our community,” said Hardin.

Hardin encourages residents of all ages to stop by and not only learn the history of Jackson, but of the center.

“I’ve talked to many people in the community that checked out their first book here, so we want to do that in a different way. We want to make someone’s life rich in a different way. Whether that’s through exhibitions or programming or coming to meet our staff,” said Hardin.

Along with that important history, he shares that Carnegie has a stage theater in the basement that he hopes to utilize over the years.

“One great thing about the space is that it can be scaled to accommodate for different art forms and different performance arts. We want to start working towards that so we can provide a service to the artists a service to the community to enjoy those art forms,” said Hardin.

He also hopes this can become a field trip stop for educators.

“We are already reaching out to local schools to have some programming to bring local schools in–to teach them about the some of the music history in Jackson,” said Hardin.

Hardin says recently the Carnegie Center received a grant to make improvements around the center.

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