REPOST-SOUND ON! WE Fest 2025-it was an amazing and uplifting day featuring Nashville's diverse culture of visual artists, plus music, kids activities, and food. Thanks to all who who attended, exhibited, performed, partnered, and volunteered. WE Fest celebrates the legacy of trailblazing artist #WilliamEdmondsonSculptor at the Nashville site where he created his masterpieces. See you next year! @im_loso@poweredbymojo@kivanoir #wefestnashville2025
Who is William Edmondson and why should we care? This trailblazing Black sculptor is a Nashville historic treasure, and we honor him October 25 with an arts and culture fest in his name!
Happy Mother's day! Mothers were a recurring theme of Willliam 's work. As a young man at the dmondson's turn of the 20th Century, William and his mother, brothers and sisters moved into the Edgehill neighborhood, seeking jobs and opportunities not offered by the plantation where the family had subsisted as sharecroppers in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Their father Orange had died ten years or so prior, and the children collectively vowed to support their mother Jane, so that she would no longer have to work the difficult and often demeaning jobs available to Black women.
Jane moved into a house on 14th Avenue South with son Orange Jr. and his wife and children, along with William, his sister, and the children of another sister who had also died.
Down the block were the households of two of Jane's other sons. Jane held the honored position of matriarch in this protective family cluster until her death in 1914.
This was years before William Edmondson took up limestone sculpting. But when he did begin carving stone, strong and respected women, including teachers, brides, mothers with their children, and the revered "mothers" of the church, were frequent subjects of his tombstone ornaments and garden figures.
#williamedmondsonsculptor #williamedmondsonhomesite #blackartists #blackartmatters🎨
William Edmonson’s inspired artistic mission included grave markers to honor his departed Edgehill neighbors. At his former homesite, now a public greenspace, we continue to honor this sacred space. The dove illustration reproduces one of his headstone sculptures.
A beautiful day in theCommunity Garden at the Edmondson Homesite yesterday. First harvest (radishes!) and spring planting with volunteers and gardeners. #volunteers #volunteersmakeadifference
Last Thursday, we joined Vanderbilt Institute for Spacial Research (VISR) and other Community Partners for a symposium. VISR is partnered with us to build an online interactive Storymap website highlighting William Edmondson and his Edgehill neighborhood history.
It will feature 3D-scans of several of Edmondson's sculptures that can be manipulated on pad, phone, or computer, as well as a 3D reconstruction of his house and workshop, which can be interactively moved around and through. This virtual model will, in the near future, be turned into an Augmented Reality experience for visitors to the historic site.
The Storymap will launch this summer.
Another @bluehousecreativesnashville exhibit is ready to hang. This popup is part of the @friendsofwilliamedmondson video screening and mixer organized by @mudslingerart . It’s this Thursday 4/23 at 6pm at NKA Gallery (915 Buchanan St). The show will be hung by @curated_by_erooseveltbrown and features work by the artists of Blue House Creatives Nashville. In keeping with our color-themed shows, the theme for Thursday night’s @bluehousecreativesnashville show is Black - open to interpretation. Food and drinks! Come see us and support our artists by purchasing great art.
