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

ARTISTS POLLY COOK AND SOMERS RANDOLPH CELEBRATE LOVE AT MONTHAVEN ARTS AND CULTURAL CENTER IN HENDERSONVILLE, TENN.

Media Inquiries:

Cheryl Strichik: Cheryl@monthavenarts.org
(615) 293-3767

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (Jan. 13, 2026) – Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center is celebrating Valentine’s Day early with an exhibit showcasing the works of two prominent contemporary artists. The exhibition, titled The Art of Love, will feature the romantic paintings and ceramics of Polly Cook along with the sculptural hearts of Somers Randolph. The exhibit runs Jan. 17 to Feb. 15, 2026.

“We can’t think of a better way to celebrate Valentine’s than with the art of Polly Cook and Somers Randolph,” says Cheryl Strichik, the MACC’s executive director. “Themes of desire, joy and love run throughout all of Polly’s colorful pieces, and Somers’ perfectly polished stone hearts are filled with romance. This exhibit is guaranteed to get people in the mood for love.”

Cook is well-known for her ceramics and large paintings on canvas. Her colorful works merge storytelling, memory and the unconscious, usually incorporating the theme of love. Growing up in Nashville, Tennessee, she developed an early love for the romantic poets Byron, Shelley and Keats, as well as an interest in pre-Raphaelite artists. She also became fascinated with German Expressionism and the German Realists of the 1920s. Both movements would exert an influence on her style and a penchant for romantic themes.

Randolph creates his one-of-a-kind sculptures from stone found in every continent. Marble, granite, alabaster, onyx, and even lapis, have yielded unique shapes, with personalities that shift and change as they interact with light. Light bounces off the surface of an opaque sculpture, highlighting and drawing out hidden details, but penetrates deeply in translucent material, making the work glow and come alive.

An opening reception for The Art of Love takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, January 17, 2025 at the MACC. Cook will be on hand to greet visitors and discuss her art.

Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center (MACC) is a jewel-box art museum and education facility housed in one of Tennessee’s most spectacular antebellum mansions. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the MACC has staged exhibitions featuring everything from the ceramic art of Pablo Picasso to the evening gowns of Princess Diana. The artwork of local artists and military veterans are also on frequent display. As an art school, the MACC offers classes to more than 1,000 children and adults each year. The MACC also provides free arts outreach and healing arts to underserved children, families and military veterans. For more information, visitwww.monthavenarts.org or call (615) 822-0789.

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