McKinney Center

The Town of Jonesborough understands the value of the arts in improving academic achievement in youth, enhancing understanding, and self-esteem, as well as building relationships and community. The mission of the McKinney Center at Booker T. Washington School is to provide quality multicultural art opportunities to the community. The McKinney Center serves as a preserver of its historic building and is committed to documenting and interpreting the history and stories from the Booker T. Washington School. The McKinney Center is a devoted community space intended to welcome, engage, and bring together all members of the community. In addition, Jonesborough’s Mary B. Martin Program for the Arts is committed to inspiring the people of our area through both the appreciation of and participation in the arts as a form of personal and collective expression. Located in the McKinney Center at the historic Booker T. Washington School, the objective of the program is to bring the community at large closer together and show as an example to other communities the creative influence that the arts can bring to their quality of life. The program implements the various forms of art (visual, theatre, dance, music) using multicultural influences as a means of demonstrating the many avenues through which ideas can be expressed. The McKinney Center is in the renovated building that was once the Black grade-school in Jonesborough that served much of Washington County. The building was built in 1940 and served as the Black school until integration in 1964.