Monthaven Art and Cultural Center

Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center
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Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center
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NASHVILLE ARTIST NADINE SHILLINGFORD CELEBRATES BLACK HISTORY WITH EXHIBIT AT MONTHAVEN ARTS AND CULTURAL CENTER

Media Inquiries:

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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (Jan. 13, 2026) – One of Nashville’s best-known portrait artists will showcase her works in a major exhibition at Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center. La Femme Fatale: Lineage, Memory, Cultural Identity (Jan. 14, 2026 to Feb. 15, 2026) features 20 deeply expressive charcoal-on-paper portraits by artist Nadine Shillingford. The exhibit is part of the MACC’s Black history celebration.

“Our visitors were thrilled to see Nadine’s work at the MACC last year, when it was included in our 2025 Black Vibrations,” says Cheryl Strichik, the MACC’s executive director. “It’s an honor to have her back this year with her own exhibit. I can’t think of another artist who’s more adept at capturing the spirit of her subjects.”

As a Nashville artist, Shillingford certainly has an unconventional background. She was born into an academic family on the Caribbean island of Dominica, and as a young woman pursued science and mathematics instead of art. Indeed, she went on to earn a PhD in computer science from the University of Notre Dame, and she now works as a cybersecurity engineer. As a visual artist, she is completely self-taught and only took up drawing seriously about seven years ago. But as soon as she put pen to paper, it was apparent that she possessed a genius for portraiture. Shillingford is at her best in the medium of charcoal on paper. Her art captures people in everyday situations and evokes their spirit by highlighting their facial expressions. It’s a whimsical approach that gives vitality to her work.

For her exhibition at the MACC, Shillingford has created a series of portraits that play off the stock character of the femme fatale. In fiction, these beautiful and seductive women bring disaster to men with whom they become romantically involved. To be sure, Shillingford depicts the femme fatale as a powerful, independent and sometimes mysterious female character. But her nuanced and expressive renderings also address cultural perspectives and historical anxieties surrounding Black female agency and sexuality.

Shillingford will join MACC Executive Director Cheryl Strichik for an artist talk from 2 to 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. An opening reception for the exhibit follows from 3 to 5 p.m. Admission to these events is free with a suggested $10 donation.

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 1,200 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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