Artiversary

One hundred years ago, impressionist painter T.C. Steele paid a visit to Nashville, Ind. \nHe so loved the light on the rolling hills and valleys of Brown County he decided to stay. And what’s more, he decided to invite all his friends.\nSteele was a member of the Hoosier Group, a coalition of Indiana impressionist painters, said Debbie Dunbar, marketing director for the Brown County visitors’ center. \n“When he came here to Brown County, he discovered the light was fantastic, he discovered the hills and loved them, so he invited all of these renowned artists to come and experience what he was experiencing. The result was many of them stayed in Brown County and established homes, and subsequently established what is known as the Art Colony,” she said. \nBrown County is celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the “Art Colony of the Midwest” by Steele. \nToday, there are about 250 artists living and working in Brown County, Dunbar said. \nMany of the artists have shops in or around Nashville and these shops are one of the main attractions to the many tourists that flock to Nashville.\nKathleen McGow is proprietor of Earth Dance, a shop that sells clothes, scarves and other items from the Salt Creek Weavers, a coalition of fiber artists. She said living in Brown County is helpful to artists because it is easier to network and get supplies. \nLike many of the artists living in Nashville today, McGow learned her craft from a parent. Her mother, who was the first to come to Nashville, taught her how to weave.\n“She’s been here since the 70s. The artist’s colony was part of the draw, as well as the terrain,” she said. \nUnlike McGow, John Mills of Brown County Pottery was the first of his family to learn to be a potter.\n“My father and mother learned it from me … we do everything backwards in my family,” he joked. \nWhen Mills moved to Nashville in 1968, there were no stoplights and only one four-way stop in Brown County. He said there were only 22 shops, and most were converted houses and not built to be shops. He said it’s easier to make a living today, but Nashville is very different from the quiet town he first moved to in 1968. \nMills said he was planning to be a teacher before he came to Nashville.\n“I was just finishing up graduate school at Indiana University, waiting for replies to applications for a college teaching job. I found this lovely little place to have a pottery shop and I couldn’t resist. So I forgot about the job applications – I thought I’d (sell pottery) briefly and then get serious, but I never got serious,” he said. \nAnother local artist, Grant Eversoll, uses music as his art. \nEversoll, who has been playing music professionally for 30 years, said he plays music outside every weekend during \ntourist season. \nHe encouraged students to come to Nashville this summer. \n“There’s always something going on,” he said. \nOne new activity Nashville is having is Downtown Saturdays in which shops stay open later and there are car shows and other activities to draw people to downtown, he said. He also said the Brown County Playhouse shows were excellent.\nMcGow said people who come to explore Nashville should look beyond the main drag. \n“Search out shops with locally made works,” she said. “Sometimes they’re not on the main street and you have to search them out.”\nMarsha Hall, an employee at Weed Patch Music Company, a store that sells instruments handmade in Indiana, said she thought part of the appeal of Nashville was its location. \n“It appeals to me because it’s out in the country,” she said.\nDunbar said one of the most unique things about Nashville was the For Bare Feet sock factory. The factory was created about 20 years ago by Sharon Rivenbark, a schoolteacher. The factory creates “literally thousands” of types of socks, according to the company brochure, and manufactures all the socks, headbands and wristbands for the NBA. \n“It’s something different and unique that people enjoy doing,” Dunbar said. \nBoth artists and shoppers return to Nashville because it has something special – something special that T.C. Steele noticed when he first paid a visit 100 years ago. \nHall said she thought Nashville’s activities invite return visits.\n“People come back year after year,” she said.