Dolly’s Life of Many Colors Museum Is a Love Letter

Dolly Parton dreamt up the brand-new SongTeller Hotel as her love letter to Nashville — and a home base for Dolly’s Life of Many Colors Museum. Three years in the making, the interactive museum features never-before-seen artifacts and video messages from Parton herself, exploring the singer’s life in her own words. 

Few are as qualified to bring this vision to life as Rebecca Seaver, the museum’s executive director and Parton’s niece. “The entire project was her dream: the hotel, the museum, the location, all of it,” Seaver says. “When she starts something, she has a complete vision for it. And the museum was no different.” 

Seaver began her career in wardrobe and production and later established the official Parton Archive. She’s told her aunt’s story through major exhibitions at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Dollywood, the Grand Ole Opry, the Grammy Museum and more. And in 2023, she released the New York Times bestseller Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones. 

But Dolly’s Life of Many Colors Museum is the most expansive project Seaver has ever completed — and it also happens to be the largest Parton exhibit in the world. 

The museum took on an even deeper meaning after Parton’s death in August, with Seaver calling it the most challenging thing she’s ever done without her aunt. “We were closer than you can imagine, and losing her is earth-shattering,” Seaver says. “But I have a responsibility to her to finish it perfectly, because that is the only thing fitting for her.”

Seaver collaborated closely with Parton’s sister Rachel Parton George, creative director Steve Summers and an archive team throughout the curation process. Together, they discussed what they wanted to see, what they felt fans would love and which pieces to display. 

As with all her projects, Parton signed off on every aspect of the museum — and Seaver says their meetings to go over updates will remain some of her most cherished memories. “She had been saving things for her museum for decades,” she says. “She and I went over every little detail: the photos, the footage, the paint colors, the carpet samples and the light fixtures.” 

The space’s design is vibrant, joyful and glitzy — a fitting representation of Parton’s personality. Installations will make guests feel like they’re experiencing Parton’s journey alongside her. 

Each chapter of her story is assigned a color, making the museum feel experiential and cohesive from start to finish. “It’s unlike anything we have ever done before,” Seaver says. “You can stand in the laundromat where she would meet her soulmate — it also smells a bit like laundry detergent in there.”

Many artifacts — like family heirlooms, pictures of Parton and Carl Dean before they were married, and Bob Mackie gowns — are on display for the first time. “We are so lucky that she kept up with so many little pieces of her story, as well as the major ones,” Seaver says. “Everything is a part of her history, and every bit of it is so special, especially now.”

One of Seaver’s favorite elements is a writing room with a bay window modeled after Parton’s Brentwood home. “It feels like ‘Light of a Clear Blue Morning’ in there,” Seaver says. “I hope people enjoy those special little details just as much as the big, snazzy ones.” 

Any true Parton fan knows she wasn’t just a songwriter and performer, but also a philanthropist who continually found ways to better people in her community and beyond. 

“She’s known as an entertainer, but her connections to the people she loved, her family, her community, her country, her fellow humans, are just as big a part of her as the artistry is — maybe more now than ever,” Seaver says. 

The museum dedicated an entire room to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which has provided free books to children since 1995. The library space was designed as a place for kids to have fun and cultivate their love of reading. There’s an interactive feature in which Parton reads stories to children, and kids can pick which one they’d like to hear. 

Next door, there’s an entire gallery dedicated to Parton’s philanthropic work, which Seaver hopes will be a space where people talk passionately about her aunt’s lasting impact. “As a member of her family, I am proud to continue that work in her name for as long as I am here,” Seaver says. “It is simply who she and my mom, her sister, raised me to be.” 

To thank fans for their continued support, Parton and her team created an installation called the Artbreak Express. “Dolly saved fan art, poems and all kinds of trinkets that her fans sent her, and we finally have a beautiful exhibit to display some of it,” Seaver says. “She and I laughed and laughed looking at some of the wild stuff people had sent over the years.” 

The oldest items the archive team found were a chalk drawing from 1969 and a painting from 1971. “I hope guests know that she really loved them,” Seaver says. 

Seaver hopes visitors leave the museum with a deeper understanding of Parton’s story — and feel closer to her than ever before.

“If the hotel is her love letter to Nashville, this museum is my love letter to her,” she says.