Nashville

Nashville, Tennessee calls itself Music City USA, and is best known for its recording studios and institutions like the Ryman Auditorium and the Grand Ole Opry. But Nashville is more than Music City, for it has a rich cultural heritage and a variety of regional points of interest. A few Nashville facts:

• Nashville was settled in 1779.
• It became the state capital first from 1812 to 1815, and has been the state capital permanently since 1843.
• Land area: 533 square miles
• Population: 529,700 (Nashville city), 1,082,600 (metropolitan area).
• Fall Climate (Sept. - Nov.): Average temperature 60.3, Average High 71.5, Low 49.1. Fall is an extremely pleasant time in Tennessee; peak colors of the Fall foliage change occurs in mid-October. Days are warm and pleasant; evenings require a sweater or light jacket. Layered clothing is a good idea to accommodate sunny days and cooler nights.
• Principal industries include Tourism, Printing and Publishing, Music Production, Higher Education, Automobile Technology, and Health Care Management. (Nashville is home to the corporate headquarters of HCA/Columbia).

The Arts are well represented in Nashville. It is home to:

• The Tennessee Performing Arts Center
• The Nashville Symphony, Nashville Ballet, Nashville Opera Company, Tennessee Dance Theater and Tennessee Repertory Theater.
• Major Galleries, including:
• The Aaron Douglas Gallery which features a large portion of Fisk University's African art collection, including masks, musical instruments, games, figures and ceremonial objects plus more than 200 drawings by Cyrus Baldridge.
• The Cheekwood Botanical Gardens & Museum of Art, a 55 acre botanical garden and center for the arts which houses American works of the 19th and 20th centuries, with a special emphasis on the work of the region's leading artists.
• The Parthenon, a full size replica of an Athenian temple in Centennial Park (across from Vanderbilt University) houses the Cowan Collection featuring 63 works which include oil paintings by American artists, traveling exhibits and exquisite statuary including Athena, the 42-foot statue of the goddess of wisdom.
• The Tennessee State Museum in the Tennessee Performing Arts Center has more than 60,000 square feet of exhibit space tracing the history of Tennessee and the nation from prehistoric Indians through the early 1900's.
• The Van Vechten Gallery, Fisk University, houses the Stieglitz collection, donated by Georgia O'Keeffe. The collection has more than 100 works of 20th century artists such as O'Keeffe, Cezanne, Picasso, Renoir, Stieglitz and others.
• The Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery presents five exhibitions each year, most consisting of thematic selections from the Vanderbilt Art Collection which contains work from more than 40 cultures and countries.
• The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum has exhibits tracing the history of this uniquely American musical art form, and memorabilia such as Elvis Presley's gold piano and Cadillac convertible.

Historical Sites in and near Nashville include:

• The Hermitage, home of President Andrew Jackson, seventh U.S. President. This Greek Revival house is a national historic landmark and contains furnishings used by Jackson and his family.
• Belle Meade Plantation, a 5,300 acre plantation which served as a nursery and thoroughbred race horse breeding farm in the 19th Century. Tours of the restored mansion are conducted daily.
• Belmont Mansion, built in 1850 as an Italian-style villa built on the campus of Belmont University. It was occupied by Union forces during the Civil War and was long a focal point of Nashville culture and social life.
• The Oaklands Historic House Museum
• The Tennessee State Capitol building, completed in 1845 from marble and limestone. The tomb of James Polk, eleventh President of the U.S. is on the capitol grounds.
• Travellers Rest Historic House and Grounds.

Information about these and other points of interest in and around Nashville is available from the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau website. Call them at 615-259-4730 and ask them to mail you a free Music City Vacation Guide, and make the most of your Nashville visit during the AMIA 1997 Fall Symposium!