February 16, 2023

Artistic Hotel near Nashville Yards

As a guest of ours here at The Union Station Nashville Yards, you’re calling a work of art your home away from home in Music City.

After all, our grand Richardsonian-Romanesque building, erected in 1900 as a terminal along the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, ranks among the standout historic landmarks on Broadway. Its extraordinary grand lobby, for one, never fails to take the breath away.

Within our walls, lining our corridors and enhancing our bespoke Autograph Collection guest rooms and suites, you’ll also find a marvelous collection of artworks. It includes pieces by local and regional artists of national acclaim, which infuses The Union Station Nashville Yards not only with beautiful expressions of creativity and talent, but also a rich sense of place.

Nashville & Tennessee Artists Featured in the Art Collection of Our Autograph Collection Hotel on Broadway

Allow us to introduce you to some of the renowned artists whose works grace our historic Nashville hotel!

James Threalkill

Painter James Threalkill is a Nashville native who still calls Music City home. A gifted student athlete who earned a football scholarship from Vanderbilt University, Threalkill always nurtured a deep passion for art, one that blossomed into a painting career that’s also been complemented by community service and youth education.

We’re honored to have some of Threalkill’s vibrant Expressive Realism works as part of our hotel art collection here at The Union Station Nashville Yards.

Edie Maney

“Color intoxicates me,” reads painter Edie Maney’s Artist Statement. “It’s spontaneous. There is no resisting the call of paint to canvas. I feel free. I meditate. I explore.”

Born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and now living in Nashville, Maney earned a B.A. in social work from the University of Georgia and trained extensively in art, including via classes from Belmont University, Vanderbilt, and other institutions as well as six years studying under Anton Weiss.

From watercolor, collage work, and acrylics, Maney forayed into oil painting. Her Abstract Expressionist style has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions.

Michael Weintrob

Nashville-based photographer Michael Weintrob has had his dynamic works featured in many high-profile publications, from The New York Times to Rolling Stone and SPIN.

Widely known for his long-running InstrumentHead series, Weintrob has served as house photographer for such events and venues as the Newport Folk Festival, the Barcelona Jazz festival, and Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

Daryl Thetford

Daryl Thetford came of age on a 100-acre farm in Bradford, Tennessee, and his parents early on encouraged his artistic inclinations. He began oil-painting lessons as a nine-year-old. Now—living in Chattanooga with his wife (the writer and artist Dana Shavin)—Thetford pursues an intriguing form of what’s variously been called digital mixed mixed media or photo collage: Starting with an original edited photo, he layers over many other digital images—hundreds of them—to create a “full, cohesive composition.”

Thetford’s work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions at such venues as the Knoxville Museum of Art and the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles.

Michael Ray Nott

Also based in Music City, Michael Ray Nott, who kicked off his career as a graphic artist in Austin, Texas, specializes in Nashville street photography—seeking spontaneous, random moments and compositions while, of course, employing the practiced eye required to key into such everyday beauty and poignancy.

“I am impassioned by the unexpected, haphazard multitude of things that can pop up in a picture—neon signs, buildings, random people—all colliding in a rush of activity,” he says.

Another Haven for Art Lovers: The Frist Art Museum

Staying with us here at The Union Station Nashville Yards, you’ll find yourself just next door to the marvelous Frist Art Museum, which occupies a 1930s-era Art Deco building originally constructed to house Nashville’s post office.

The Frist opened in 2001, and, alongside the interactive Martin ArtQuest Gallery art-making space, presents an always-diverse and stimulating lineup of temporary exhibitions right on Broadway.

Current exhibitions at the Frist Art Museum include:

Matthew Richie—A Garden in the Flood (through March 5th): a collection of pieces by the transmedia artist Matthew Richie, anchored by a brand-new video work accompanied by a specially commissioned sound bed created by composer Hanna Benn alongside the late Dr. Paul T. Kwami and the Fisk Jubilee Singers.
Otobong Nkanga—Gently Basking in Debris (through April 23rd): works by the Nigerian-Belgian artist Otobong Nkanga, presented as part of the Tennessee Triennial for Contemporary Art, which “explores the theme of repair and healing, particularly with regards to the Global South and its colonial history.”
Jeffrey Gibson—The Body Electric (through April 23rd): sculptures, paintings, video pieces, and more by renowned Cherokee/Mississippi Band of Choctaw artist Jeffrey Gibson, including the site-specific mural titled THE LAND IS SPEAKING/ARE YOU LISTENING.

Upcoming exhibitions at the Frist Art Gallery include Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature (April 7th through September 17th), Guitar Town: Picturing Performance Today (April 21st through August 20th), and Storied Strings: The Guitar in American Art (May 26th through August 13th), among others.

Art Appreciation & Luxury Boutique Accommodations in the Heart of Music City at The Union Station Nashville Yards

From the galleries of the Frist Art Museum to our own hotel collection, art lovers have much to feast on as a guest of ours here at The Union Station Nashville Yards.

Our four-story lobby—with its barrel-vaulted stained-glass ceiling, its clock-tower sculpture of the Roman god Mercury, its bas-relief panels and figurines, and other striking components—is its own magnificent artistic creation. (You can learn more about the history of our hotel, as well as the Gilded Age architectural features that evoke it, right here.)

And we’re excited to unveil new renovations of our guest rooms, the redesigned features of which will summon the spirit and glamor of travel: an appropriate enough theme, given the backstory of The Union Station and the pride we take in showering Nashville visitors with the pinnacle of Music City hospitality.

We hope you’ll come experience that hospitality—and some engaging artwork—with a stay at our Marriott Autograph Collection hotel in the bustling Nashville Yards district right on the doorstep of downtown.