Saturday, August 28, 2010

Fearless in Nashville

"Reflections of Nashville" photo by Joe Fizer


Everything is off the charts in the world today. The heat is up. The economy is down. The floods keep coming. People are in desperate straits worldwide. Everyone is digging in.

At The Arts Company in Nashville, we remain drawn to the arts as a constant source to help make sense of good times and bad times. We remain dedicated to the idea that the business of art in the marketplace matters, perhaps even more in grim times than in good times.

Nashville's unspoken civic and business credo is to aspire to a life of creative enterprise. At The Arts Company, our self-imposed mandate is to do our part. Our unwavering commitment is to bring compelling and unexpected artwork to the center of the marketplace of goods, services, and ideas--artwork that communicates part of what the Nashville experience is all about--creativity, new ways of doing business, fresh perspectives.

"Spirit of Nashville" Bluebird Cafe Poster by Joel Anderson

Partly, it's the "Nashville effect" that makes us tend toward hopeful rather than fearful. Nashville at this point in history is an uncanny and unlikely melting pot of creativity and invention, pairing bankers with musicians, attracting poets, artists, and health care entrepreneurs. No matter how bad times are, there are songwriters by the dozens who can help make sense of it. Venture capitalists and entrepreneurs define Nashville's business successes. The arts are equally enterprising and savvy, mirroring the innovative civic and business style that prevails. In Nashville, we speak openly and shamelessly of commerce and business enterprise in partnership with art and artistic enterprise.

However, like all businesses worldwide, our gallery business is facing the new realities of the marketplace. It's not an option to pursue business as usual. Turns out that's a relief. We will now be able to change the dull habits of our business and redefine ourselves as an art business of now--not what we did last year or the year before, but what we plan to do now. We are committed to presenting art as part of everyday necessity. We want to continue to be an active part of keeping ourselves and our city fresh, original, contemporary, inventive, and fearless.

Our goal is modest: to make each new piece of art we bring to the marketplace as exciting as the latest shoe fashion, as necessary as the next carton of milk, and as rewarding as winning the lottery. Well, that may be stretching it, but you get the idea.

Our real job is to ferret out neat and interesting artwork; to find interesting ways to present it; and to engage customers with it. Our approach is to create for our customers a comfortable and welcoming distinctly Nashville experience with art, one on one.