Monthaven Art and Cultural Center

Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center
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Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center
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MAJOR TOULOUSE-LAUTREC EXHIBIT OPENS AT MONTHAVEN ARTS AND CULTURAL CENTER IN HENDERSONVILLE, TENN.

Media Inquiries:

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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn (Feb. 17, 2026) – Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center is pleased to present From the Moulin Rouge to Music City: The Graphics of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The exhibit will feature approximately 50 works of the famed French artist, including a series of graphics and original drawings. The exhibit runs Feb. 21 to April 5, 2026.

“We are thrilled to introduce the lithographs of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec to our visitors at Monthaven,” says Cheryl Strichik, the MACC’s executive director. “Toulouse-Lautrec elevated poster art to something akin to fine art. We can appreciate that in Middle Tennessee, given the central role of posters in promoting Nashville’s music scene in the 20th century. Toulouse-Lautrec paved the way for Nashville’s Hatch Show Print and for so much more.”

In 1890, Toulouse-Lautrec secured a significant commercial poster commission that arguably altered the trajectory of art history. The young, aristocratic Frenchman was engaged to create a design that would extend the extraordinary popularity of Le Moulin Rouge, then the hottest cabaret in Paris. His lithograph was a sensation. Indeed, it dissolved the boundary between the fine art and advertising, making way for the Pop Art Movement that appeared 60 years later.

Toulouse-Lautrec took his cues from 18th-century Japanese woodblock prints. Parisians and collectors could not stop clamoring for more. And, because Lautrec was featuring his personal chums — like can-can dancers, bar owners, prostitutes, fellow patrons, waiters, and clowns — he was simultaneously transforming them into superstars. It lent his work an authenticity that could not be feigned. It also set the stage for the culture of celebrity worship that would come to the fore decades into the future.

The exhibit’s opening will include a Parisian-style cocktail party. That event will start at 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026.

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, visit www.monthavenarts.org or call (615) 822-0789.

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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. 
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