This is a blog meant to document public art in Nashville. By public, I basically mean “outside.” While I am interested in “official” public art, like “Ghost Ballet for the East Bank Machineworks,” otherwise known as “that weird red thing down by the river,” I’m more interested in the “unofficial” art – murals on the side of auto body shops, posters slapped on walls, huge graffiti displays, some commissioned, some not. I am by trade an historian, and here I want to play the part of archivist, keeping a record of what is often ephemeral, and by definition fragile.

I’m not much of an artist myself (and the art I make stays very much in my own house) nor do I have much connections to the art world in Nashville. But I am fascinated by what I see every day in this town, and there seems always to be more and more. If I post once a day, I’ll never get to all of it. I’ve been posting on Pinterest and Instagram as theroncorse, and some of those photos will appear here as well. I’m very interested to talk to the artists involved, and am always on the lookout for new items.

I suppose it appropriate to start with a piece of art that is now gone, the old “Welcome to Nashville” mural that once graced the side of the building that now houses Eastside Cycles. Its loss and replacement have been a little controversial, and even resulted in vandalism of the new mural, but that’s the thing. Public art is always changing, always in danger, and always a thing of discussion.