Monthaven Art and Cultural Center

Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center
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Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center
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Veterans Art at the MACC

For those who served

Exhibitions and Fundraisers

A deep and abiding commitment to military veterans. 

Salute To Our Veterans

Annual Veterans Art Exhibition and Fundraiser

The MACC has long been devoted to art by and for military veterans, in part because Monthaven is so steeped in the region’s military history. During the Civil War, the mansion was converted into a field hospital. Both Union and Confederate soldiers were treated in the home.

 

Today, Monthaven is a place where members of the armed services and their families are celebrated through the arts. Since 2018, the MACC’s Annual Veterans Art Exhibition has displayed the art of more than 30 military veterans.

 

The featured artist for the MACC’s 7th Annual Veterans Art Exhibition was Gallatin resident Don Olea, an award-winning illustrator, photographer, digital and watercolor painter. He is currently a board member of the Nashville Artist Guild, a member of the Tennessee Watercolor Society, and a juried member of the prestigious American Society of Aviation Artists. As an Airborne Army veteran (1983-86), and military history buff, he has been inspired through his watercolor and digital paintings, to honor and tell the story of those who came before him serving with honor and distinction. His realism style serves the historical military art genre well and helps to tell their story to fellow veterans, family members and enthusiasts. His goal is to eventually have at least one painting representing every major military conflict from the Revolutionary War to the present.

 

Every Veterans Art Exhibition includes a Boots and BBQ Fundraiser, which supports Between the Lines. The program empowers military veterans in Middle Tennessee who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and major depressive disorder. The 2025 fundraiser on August 2, 2025 was at the Bagsby Ranch in Gallatin. The event was interactive, with attendees participating in art projects led by the MACC’s healing arts facilitators. Grammy Award-winning country artist John Berry provided the entertainment. 

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on the road

Vietnam Art Exhibition

Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center is now touring an exhibition titled Vietnam 2 Soldiers. 2 Artists. 2 Journeys. Then & Now, featuring the artwork of renowned artists (and Vietnam veterans) David Wright and Chuck Creasy.

The exhibit includes many of the sketches of American soldiers and Vietnamese civilians that Wright drew in-country in 1965. Creasy, who served as a forward artillery observer in 1968, returned to Vietnam as a visitor exactly 50 years after his deployment. The experience inspired him to create a series of colorful expressive watercolors of the Vietnamese people and countryside. Together, Wright’s and Creasy’s colorful, remarkably sensitive artwork serves as a lasting testament to the healing power of art.

The exhibition’s 2022-23 touring schedule includes stops at the Customs House in Clarksville, Tenn., Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Va., Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Ashland City Library in Ashland, Kan.

If your museum, gallery or organization is interested in hosting Vietnam 2 Soldiers. 2 Artists. 2 Journeys. Then & Now, please contact Executive Director Cheryl Strichik at cheryl@monthavenarts.org.

Event Album

A collection from past events.

Join Us

For more information on Veterans Arts and upcoming event dates, contact us.

Contact Monthaven

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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