The world has discovered what locals knew all along: Nashville isn’t just a country music mecca — it’s a multifaceted jewel of great food, warm weather, affordable living and music that spans multiple genres.
“A big city that feels like a small town”: These days, that once-common local refrain is heard less frequently, but Nashville’s down-home Southern heart can still be found, especially in its neighborhoods.
Frist Art Museum
Host to several exhibitions each year, The Frist Art Museum is the heart of the Nashville art community and no two visits to the stunning art deco building are alike. The museum is housed in a white marble building that was built in the 1930s to serve as Nashville’s main post office. Designed by Marr & Holman Architects, it was built in 1933-34 for .5 million. Its location near Union Station was convenient for mail distribution, since most mail at that time was moved by train. As a non-collecting museum, the Frist does not have a permanent collection; rather, the center focuses on creating exhibitions as well as securing traveling exhibitions from around the country and the world.
Nashville is also home to more than 75 art galleries including Tinney Contemporary, Rymer Gallery, and Cheekwood Estate. During the monthly First Saturday Art Crawl, dozens of venues host free open houses with entertainment and drinks.
Cheekwood Estate & Gardens
Cheekwood’s American art collection includes 600 paintings and 5,000 prints, drawings and photographs. The collection, assembled in the 1980s and early 1990s through a multimillion-dollar bequest, spans the history of American art. Other strengths include the world’s largest collection of sculptures of William Edmondson, photographs by Louise Dahl-Wolfe, and a vast variety of post-Second World War prints. Recently, the Museum has pursued a consciously focused acquisition process, having added paintings by James Hamilton, William Bradford, and new contemporary sculpture for the Trail.
The Parthenon
The Parthenon in Centennial Park, in Nashville, Tennessee, is a full-scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens. It was designed by architect William Crawford Smith and built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition.
Today the Parthenon, which functions as an art museum, stands as the centerpiece of Centennial Park, a large public park just west of downtown Nashville. Alan LeQuire’s 1990 re-creation of the Athena Parthenos statue in the naos (the east room of the main hall) is the focus of the Parthenon just as it was in ancient Greece. Since the building is complete and its decorations were polychromed (painted in colors) as close to the presumed original as possible, this replica of the original Parthenon in Athens serves as a monument to what is considered the pinnacle of classical architecture.
The Nashville music scene is so much more than country — and it’s a lot more accessible than people realize.
The Station Inn
The Parthenon is located in Centennial Park, approximately two miles west of downtown Nashville across West End Avenue from the campus of Vanderbilt. The Parthenon, Lake Watauga, and the Rose Arbor are all current park features that date back to the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition. Conceived to celebrate Tennessee’s 100th anniversary of statehood, the Exposition incorporated 20 temporary buildings on a 200-acre site. Previously a racetrack, the property began to take the form of the park we are familiar with today. The Exposition ran from May 1, 1897 to October 31, 1897, and in those six months 1.8 million people visited.
Nashville is also a great city to experience the performing arts. The Nashville Ballet, Nashville Opera, and a number of Broadway productions perform in the beautiful Tennessee Performing Arts Center. Schermerhorn Symphony Center is home to the Grammy-award-winning Nashville Symphony.
The Bluebird Café
| Belcourt Theater | Hillsboro Village | belcourt.org |
| Nashville Symphony | Downtown | nashvillesymphony.org |
| Ryman Auditorium | Downtown | rymanarts.org |