If Zeitgeist had done nothing more for Nashville’s art scene than provide representation for Alicia Henry — the best artist to ever call the city home, in my opinion — from 2001 until her death in 2024, it still would have been an indispensable institution. But Zeitgeist has provided generations of Nashvillians with great art for free, first at its original location in Cummins Station, then in Hillsboro Village, and finally in its Wedgewood-Houston location on Hagan Street, where it anchors a small but mighty art hub. When news broke in July that Zeitgeist would be shuttering at the end of the year, the community outcry had the same tenor — the same the-glory-days-are-over anguish — as during the closures of other formative Nashville spots like Lucy’s Record Shop and The Muse.
So thanks, Zeitgeist, for the many years of remarkable exhibitions. Thanks for that wild Brent Stewart and Willie Stewart collaboration, where they parked a muscle car inside the gallery and played Neil Young’s Zuma straight through on the car’s stereo. Thanks for the retrospective of artists from North Nashville’s In the Gallery — guest curated by the great Carlton Wilkinson — which brought stalwarts Samuel Dunson, Barbara Bullock and Myles Maillie together one last time. Thanks for giving space to hometown-boys-made-good Wayne White and Kurt Wagner. Thanks for Vesna Pavlović’s first big local photography installation, fresh from the Istanbul Biennial, which proved that slide projectors could still powerfully serve contemporary art. Thanks for introducing Alex Lockwood’s tortured plastic bodies, which had me writing about grief and pareidolia in an art review.
And of course, thanks for making space for Alicia Henry’s bold, uncomfortable, intimate and otherworldly art works. We’re all better because they were here.
—Laura Hutson Hunter
Arts Editor, Nashville Scene
Our notes of gratitude to the community advocates, health care workers and others who make Nashville special
