Monthaven Art and Cultural Center

Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center
Edit Content
Click on the Edit Content button to edit/add the content.
  • (615) 822-0789
Facebook Youtube Instagram Jki-envelope1-light
Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center
DONATE

Five Questions for Robin Willis About the MACC’s Close Ties with the Daniels Center at MTSU

Robin Willis wears a lot of different hats at Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center. In addition to being the MACC’s arts outreach director and healing arts coordinator, she also serves as exhibition and events manager.

Robin Willis

These seemingly disconnected tasks converge like a Venn diagram at the Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center on the campus of MTSU in Murfreesboro, Tenn. As exhibition manager and healing arts coordinator, Robin helps stage occasional military-themed exhibits at the Daniels Center. Often, these shows relate to the MACC’s Between the Lines healing arts program for military veterans.

The MACC’s current exhibition at MTSU is called Dreams Heal. It’s on display through Nov. 16, 2025. We asked Robin a few questions about the exhibit and about the MACC’s ongoing relationship with the Daniels Center.

1. Tell us about Monthaven’s current exhibit at MTSU?

Robin Willis: The current exhibit showcases 10 pieces from Tennessee artist Don Olea, who is a watercolorist specializing in the creation of historic military art. For the past month, Don’s military-themed art has also been on display at Monthaven, where he’s been the featured artist for our Seventh Annual Veterans Art Exhibition. His exhibition at Monthaven is arranged around specific time periods and wars. His paintings depicting scenes from World War I, World War II, Vietnam and other conflicts are arranged together, telling the story of the American military in a narrative fashion. His exhibit at MTSU is smaller and serves more as a sampler of his work. The MTSU show does include some of his newest pieces. His paining of the Red Baron’s Fokker triplane is so fresh I think the paint was still drying when we sent it.

2. Why is the exhibit called “Dreams Heal?

RW: The title relates to our Between the Lines healing arts program for military veterans suffering from PTSD and other disorders. The Daniels Center supports military families, and we share our art with them to provide comfort and pleasure to the military and other people at the Center who see it. The art is not therapy. It functions more like a pathway toward a better life.

3. What’s Monthaven’s relationship with the Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center?

RW: Monthaven has been forging close ties with the Daniels Center for at least the past six years. Cheryl Strichik, the MACC’s executive director, has developed an important friendship with Hazel Daniels, which has been a great benefit for our veterans programming. Hazel has become a big supporter of our Between the Lines healing arts program. She helped connect us with the Veterans Recovery Center in Murfreesboro, which is now a staple of our healing arts program. And she’s helped us cultivate a relationship with the Charlie Daniels Journey Home Project, which provides us with funding. The art exhibits we now show at the Daniels Center flow naturally from a relationship between our two organizations that continues to grow stronger.

4. You mentioned the Veterans Recovery Center. What other groups do we work with in Murfreesboro?

RW: Of course, the Veterans Recovery Center is our flagship program in Murfreesboro. We provide a couple of healings arts classes there. Our Healing Arts Facilitator Breanna King-Butterworth does a very popular and successful songwriting class there. And our Healing Arts Director Val Adams teaches art- and journal-based classes. We also work closely in Murfreesboro with Doors of Hope, which is a nonprofit that empowers women to break the cycle of addiction, incarceration, and homelessness.

5. Finally, could you tell us a little bit about your background and your role here at the MACC?

RW: Well, my educational background is in architecture and entrepreneurship. So, in my professional life, I’ve spent a lot of time working as a project manager. In my personal life, I’ve spent a lot of time in the arts and healing arts. I’m an artist myself and have explored writing, mixed media abstract painting, alternative process photography, collage, and book arts and binding. In addition, I hold several healing modalities certificates. These backgrounds all come together at the MACC. As exhibits and events manager, I oversee the logistics of all our shows. I’m the person who collects all the data.  My background in the arts and healing arts has been invaluable in helping me work with our teachers, facilitators and community partners. I’ve been influenced by John Muir’s quote, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” This thinking influences a lot of what I do at Monthaven.

“Dreams Heal,” the military art of Don Olea is on display through Nov. 16, 2025 at the Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center. The Center is located inside the Keathley University Center (KUC) 124/316 1301 East Main Street, Murfreesboro, TN 37132. The Center is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Art on display at the Center includes a depiction of Manfred von Richthofen’s red Fokker triplane, seen below. For more information, call (615) 904-8347.

 

“The Red Baron” by Don Olea.

 

“North Africa Campaign” by Don Olea.

 

“The Viper’s Den” by Don Olea.

Tagged

Robin Willis

HEALING ARTS COORDINATOR

Robin Willis is the MACC’s Healing Arts Coordinator. She also works as the Exhibition and Events Manager and Director of Outreach. Robin has a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Clemson University with a minor in Entrepreneurship. She is a multi-discipline artist with emphasis in writing, mixed media abstract painting, alternative process photography, collage, and book arts and binding. In addition to her art practices, she holds several healing modalities certificates, such as extensive kundalini yoga teacher training and education, Reiki master, systemic family constellation facilitator, and depth psychology-based therapy trainings. As an avid learner, she explores and encourages others in their exploration in art, psyche, and our relationship to the micro and macro worlds within and around us. Influenced by John Muir’s quote, When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe, she fuses art, healing, and organization throughout her work and personal life as a creative-scientist minded person.

Kaylin Warden

Creative Design and Operations Manager

Kaylin Warden serves as the MACC’s Creative Design and Operations Manager. In this post, she oversees the organization’s graphic design work for exhibitions, events and special projects. She also coordinates the MACC’s arts outreach activities and assists with bookkeeping, among other duties. Kaylin, above all, is passionate about the arts. It comes as no surprise, then, that she is now pursuing a master’s degree in art history. When she’s not at the MACC, you can find her reading her favorite books (especially ones dealing with maritime mysteries), cooking, gardening, playing with her cat and two dogs, and cheering for the Nashville Predators.

Ruth Chase

Regional Arts Director
Ruth Chase is the Regional Arts Director of Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center, joining the team in 2023. For Ruth, the job is all about community, bringing people together to uplift and educate artists and art lovers alike. Her role at Monthaven is to strengthen the local artist community and build connections that will enrich Hendersonville and our surrounding communities through art exhibitions, art education, and opportunities for regional artists.
 
Prior to joining Monthaven, Ruth worked in the arts for over 30 years and is a multimedia artist and graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute. Her artistic practice is inquiry-based and engages in community bridge-building. She was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from the City of Los Angeles, curated and juried exhibitions, and has taught at the Crocker Art Museum.
 
Ruth was awarded an Artist-in-Residence for Artist Activating Communities through a grant from the California Arts Council for three consecutive years. Her film Belonging screened at both the 18th Annual Nevada City Film Festival and Wild & Scenic Film Festival. She has received the Legendary Female Artist of Venice award, and she has exhibited in The Crocker Kingsley, the Museum of Northern California Art, and the Diego Rivera Gallery at the San Francisco Art Institute. Ruth also continues her work as a Curatorial Consultant and Art director for the Californian Indigenous Research Project, where she has worked with the local tribe since 2018. 
Skip to content