Brentwood, TN

Local artists' work gets some high-traffic exposure at Brentwood businesses and other popular places around the community. The idea is to support local talent while beautifying public spaces, and the trend seems to be catching on.

Making art a part of the community has long been a tradition at the Brentwood Library. Paintings, sculptures and other works from regional artists can be found on the gallery wall and in a glass display case.

The space is booked solid for the next two years, says Joan Lawler, who, along with Mary Lou Montague, co-chairs the arts committee on behalf of the Friends of the Brentwood Library.

“We are able to exhibit two- and three-dimensional art, and we book the wall and the display case separately so we can get more artwork in,” Lawler says. “Most of the time we have a single artist’s works on the wall, but in the showcase we often have much more of a mixed bag because it can hold so many different types of artwork.”

The exhibits rotate out every month, and the committee limits its focus to local artists’ work most of the time.

The goal is to present as many types of art as possible, knowing all the while that one person’s favorite abstract will look like paint smears to someone else. And that’s OK with Lawler, an artist who exhibits her own work at City Café and other spots around Williamson County.

“We don’t want to have the same mediums and styles all the time,” Lawler says. “We want to show people, especially the children, that there’s always another way to do something with the materials that are around them – something unique and interesting. We want to pique everyone’s interest and create curiosity.”

Other places that feature local artwork include Brentwood Academy, FiftyForward Martin Center and Pinnacle Financial Partners. Several local businesses exhibit art and buy it to form a permanent collection. That has always been part of the business plan at Pinnacle Financial Partners, which has collected more than 500 original works since opening its doors in downtown Nashville in 2001.

According to Brad Dunn, area executive, Pinnacle purposefully selects some of those pieces from Williamson County artists so it can support the community. The Brentwood office also partners with various local galleries for nine annual exhibits that are rotated among its different locations, and Dunn says it also uses local artwork for holiday cards and other correspondence sent to clients.