Second Generation Curator

Words by Anna McKeown

I stepped back and basked in the glow of my accomplishment. All of the artwork was hung, and each label which I had carefully written in collaboration with the artists, was adhered to the walls of the galleries.

As I took it all in, I thought, How lucky am I to get to be a curator full time?

Curation is the art form of the collection and presentation of things—a very real and technical term here meaning artworks, objects, songs, clothing, books, bugs, or toilets. Anything can be curated because the act of curation is to distill an idea or to tell a story through the exhibition of things. You are communicating how a group of items relate to one another and why they were chosen to be displayed together.

Because anything can be curated, there are many types of curators and a wide variety of definitions for the broad category of “curator.” I feel lucky to say that I am an art curator. 

Growing up in rural southern Illinois, it wasn’t typical for me to encounter visual art in the traditional gallery or museum setting. We had small examples of those institutions, thanks in large part to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois. The artwork I viewed in person as a child was often steeped in the history of the region and depicted autumn landscapes, migrating geese, and stoic deer. The region’s focus on fine craft was heavily influenced by the unique history of the area, the proximity of which to the convergence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers supplied a wide variety of political and social collisions, as well as a host of tragedies. 

As I learned more about visual art, I craved the larger historical context of art movements that couldn’t be easily satisfied in my rural hometown. I often resented the lack of what I considered compelling artwork in southern Illinois. But as I’ve grown and reflected on my upbringing, my perspective has changed. I have found that while I was not surrounded by classic historic paintings from major art movements or flashy contemporary artworks, I was introduced to the art of curation at a young age.

My grandmother, Linda Howerton, and the women in her family, have visual tastes that are strongly brewed like sun tea at the end of a hot summer day. Their love of American history and old handwoven baskets is so extreme that they have each masked their appliances with wood, and their homes smell of Murphy Oil Soap and rosemary. They have filled their homes with a careful assortment of butter churners, ceramic jugs, pewter, quilts, and hand-embroidered wall hangings. These items were a mixture of reproductions and legitimate antiques. My grandmother’s pregnant pause while turning an item over in her hand while thrifting, and then nodding her head and softly saying, “Oh, that’s old,” is truly a thrill. 

The drama of the sisters’ intense aesthetics is known by their communities. My great-aunt Anna, my namesake, painted her Victorian house black, and the neighborhood children have been terrified of the home and its inhabitants for half a century. As a child, I shared this fear of her home, which had a display of antique dolls in its bay windows and a room that was full of only spinning wheels. Her kitchen is paneled in a rustic, gray wood, and there is not a cushion to be found throughout the house. 

My grandmother’s home, originally a post office built in the mid 1800s, is a bit warmer in tone as every surface is draped with a miniature hand-tufted rug, a blanket, or a quilt. When you flip on the light switch, the incandescent light bounces off of the golden red wood paneling on the walls, and for a moment the room feels as though it is vibrating with energy. The tables and cabinets are accessorized with precious items collected over many years of building the world which is her home, and she knows the story of every item, how it came to be in her possession, and its historical context. A tray of marbles she found at an antique store in Kentucky, a dough bowl from New England, a stack of books that belonged to her father, a feather she found in their yard. Her cat naps on a 138-year-old woven blanket that depicts a design celebrating America's centennial. Every object has a story. 

My grandmother owned a shop where she sold items that also matched this “primitive” aesthetic and it was like an extension of her home, which was on the same property. She meticulously selected the items for this shop, and my siblings and I enjoyed spending time with her there, smelling candles, getting splinters, and seeing ghosts. 

I left southern Illinois for the big city of Nashville in fall of 2009 and received a Bachelor of Fine Art in Studio Art from Belmont University in 2013. My grandmother’s influence has continued to bolster my creativity and has given direction to my artistic and curatorial ambitions. I curated my first art show at Watkins College of Art, Design, and Film while working in the Community Education department. It was a small art exhibition that coincided with a book arts festival called “Handmade & Bound.” The exhibition incorporated book arts and interactive book binding elements. I designed the exhibition to feel like a home and brought in my kitchen table, my curio cabinet, and a comfy chair. I thought of how my grandmother arranges her treasures in her home, inviting people to gaze in wonder at them or carefully pick them up. I continued to search for opportunities to curate artwork in unconventional spaces and did at schools, on websites, in homes, and in art residencies. 

Now I am curating a very unconventional space—a hotel in downtown Nashville!

This new hotel concept, currently titled The Bankers Alley Hotel, is a celebration of creativity and a bastion of authenticity in the rhinestone streets of Broadway. We are currently undergoing a renovation and will announce our new look and new name in early 2025. 

We have two large galleries which will rotate exhibitions every six months. These galleries will feature the incredible artistic talent that The American South has to offer, with special attention given to Nashville’s burgeoning visual arts community. 

As the hotel’s curator, I select all of the artwork exhibited across our property. This fall, we have work by talented local artists such as Caroline Allison, Shabazz Larkin, Ashley Larkin, Omari Booker, Donna Woodley, Destiny Powell, Duncan McDaniel, and Zoe Nichols. Each of these artists has shared the deeper meanings of their artwork, and I am proud to share the context of each piece with our guests. As I select work for our galleries, storytelling is always at the front of my mind. 

It is such a privilege to tell the stories of the artists of the South, to explore the depth of our culture, and to share that with our guests. The next time you’re in Nashville, come visit us, and I’ll tell you a story or two.