CHEEKWOOD ANNOUNCES FREE ADMISSION IN CELEBRATION OF 50th ANNIVERSARY

NASHVILLE, TN – Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art is celebrating 50 years as a Nashville cultural treasure with a special birthday party for everyone. On Saturday, May 1, Cheekwood will open its gates free to the public with a full day of art, gardens and celebratory activities. Join us for birthday treats, and plan for an extended Saturday AM in Botanic Hall, where kids of all ages can create something festive for the party.

“We are delighted to be able to invite the public to our 50th birthday celebration,” said Allison Reid, Vice President, Exhibitions and Programs. “We encourage everyone to bring their families, and invite friends and neighbors to help us commemorate Cheekwood’s extraordinary half-century in Nashville.”

Guests are invited to explore Cheekwood indoors and out. Exhibitions and events include:

• The American Impressionists in the Garden, a stunning exhibition exploring the tended and natural garden settings that inspired many artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Featuring forty paintings and four sculptures, this is the perfect exhibition to celebrate the botanical splendor of Cheekwood.

• Temporary Contemporary, Virginia Overton sculpts space using found, forgotten and overlooked materials. By highlighting “unskilled skills,” like driving a truck or stacking chairs, Overton rearranges our environment so that we might see it with more poetic eyes.

• Video Installation Galleries, Soaps, Flukes & Follies. Generationally, nationally, and culturally diverse, this disparate group of artists all share a love of humor as a means of teasing out the absurdities of social convention, the need for love and comfort, daily rituals and contemporary communication.

• Courtyard Gallery, Abstract Visions: 20th Century American Art, features paintings and works on paper selected from Cheekwood’s art collection Joseph Albers, Lee Krasner, Perle Fine, Robert Ryman, and other artists included in this exhibition developed different approaches to representing the world in abstract visual terms.

• Saturday AM, From 10:00 am – 2:00 pm families can stop by Botanic Hall to create a special piece of art for the birthday party.

• William Edmondson: The Hand and the Spirit, This outstanding exhibition features selections from Cheekwood's collection, the largest public collection of William Edmondson's work. Born to former slaves on a plantation south of Nashville, Edmondson (1874-1951) taught himself to carve tombstones and became one of the most celebrated African-American sculptors of the 20th Century.

• The Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation Collection of Fabergé, Among the world’s most significant compilation of Fabergé pieces, the Collection includes over 50 rare pieces highlighted by three Russian Imperial Easter eggs, and a number of important functional items, fantasy items and floral works.

• The Carell Woodland Sculpture Trail, a unique attraction among American art museums – the Carell Woodland Sculpture Trail is a place where contemporary sculpture by internationally recognized artists is integrated into reclaimed woodland. Its paths are rugged and stretch more than one mile.