A second source has confirmed that the grand-daddy of antiques shows has ceased operations. The Heart of Country Antiques Show in Nashville celebrated its 32nd anniversary this year. A letter received by dealers doesn't provide any details on the "why" and but we've heard a few perspectives and have a call into the show's promoter.
At both the Tailgate-Music Valley Antique Show and the Heart of Country Antiques Show, dealers were finding ways to discount the effect of information explosion. In many cases, the items were so unique that you can hardly describe them in a few words, not to mention to find catalogues for comp. The term “one of the kinds” has gone to a new degree of dimension.
This summer the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville will present two exhibitions exploring parallels between folk and self-taught artists of the American South. Creation Story: Gee's Bend Quilts and the Art of Thornton Dial includes 44 works--20 quilts by the women of Gee's Bend and 24 paintings and assemblages by Thornton Dial--drawn … Continue reading Frist Center Presents Acclaimed Folk and Self-taught Alabama Artists
In 1934,during the Great Depression, the WPA workers built the main Post Office on Broadway in Nashville. The impressive Art Deco building on Broadway, flanked by the old Customs House and the Estes Kefauver Federal Courthouse on one side, and the Union Station on the other, went largely unappreciated by the residents. Ten years ago, … Continue reading Pop Art on the Bible Belt
Murfreesboro is more than football games and walking horses. Every July, the world descends upon Rutherford County, Tennessee. It is too early for Middle Tennessee State University football, too late for basketball or baseball. The county fair won’t be for another few week. The third week in July, MTSU plays host to a wonderful Antiques … Continue reading Report from the 44th Annual Murfreesboro, Tennessee Antiques Show
On July 2, 2011, Nashville, Tennessee welcomed her newest business: Antique Archaeology. Owner Mike Wolfe of History Channel’s American Pickers, has long had a relationship with Nashville, with antique dealers, designers, sellers and private customers. Wolfe has owned the parent store of Antique Archeology in LaClaire, Iowa for about five years. Since the debut of … Continue reading American Pickers and Antique Archaeology Come to Nashville
Antiques at Music Valley had a totally different feel than the Heart of the Country Show. The State Fairgrounds provides ample yet unassuming space for the show. Neither show would be mistaken by visitors for the shows as high-end as the Winter Antiques Show in which “price upon request” in some cases means “price you … Continue reading The Place to Shop — Antiques at Music Valley
Since the show's beginnings in the early 1980s, the Heart of Country show has been one of the premiere destinations for fans of Americana in the Country. This year dealer Bettianne Sweeney, who promotes her own Americana-themed show the weekend after Thanksgiving in Virginia, was crossing having a booth at the Heart of Country off … Continue reading A Visit to the Grand-daddy of Antiques Shows
Moderating a presentation at the Heart of Country Antiques Show in Nashville, veteran painting, and furniture dealer Woody Straub commented the slump in the current market was actually the third such dramatic decline in his lifetime. If you walked over to a table along a side wall and picked up a complimentary issue of Maine … Continue reading Current Slump in Furniture Prices Not the First
This year, Antiques Week in Nashville was kicked off by the Antiques and Garden Show, Elements, at the Nashville Convention Center to benefit both Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and The Exchange Club. Nashville had resembled a Currier & Ives print for most of the month of February, with five inches of snow on top of an … Continue reading Elements: The World Comes to Nashville
Urban Art & Antiques 