Conversation and Book Signing with Joe Nolan and Guests
Joe Nolan
Joe Nolan is a Nashville-based visual artist, art critic, curator, author, and musician. For nearly two decades, he has documented and participated in Nashville’s contemporary art scene, writing for publications ranging from the alternative weekly Nashville Scene to national platforms including Art in America, Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art, and Outland. His criticism and cultural reporting have established him as one of the primary voices chronicling the American South’s evolving visual arts landscape.
Nolan’s first book, Nowville: The Untold History of Nashville’s Contemporary Art Scene (Vanderbilt University Press, 2024), is an oral history featuring the voices of 76 artists, curators, and critics who built the city’s contemporary art infrastructure from 1990 to 2015. The book documents how a city with minimal institutional support for contemporary art became a nationally recognized visual arts destination through artist-led organizing, DIY space-making, and collaborative community building.
As a visual artist, Nolan has exhibited throughout the Southeast, screened his experimental short films nationally, and performed his music under the name Mighty Joe Nolan in venues across the United States and Europe. He’s curated photography and painting exhibitions, contributed critical essays to institutional exhibition catalogs, and published his poetry in journals and literary collections. His work can be found in Nashville Metro Arts Permanent Public Art Collection, Vanderbilt University Library’s Special Collections and private collections in the U.S. and Europe. He lives and works in a 100-year-old house in a lake community suburb of Nashville.
Jon Sewell
A native Nashvillian, Jon Sewell built and manages The Packing Plant, a community arts hub that provides space for small galleries, a poetry library, and community-run non-profit radio station, WXNA. As former editor of the Southern arts journal, Number:Inc, and local irreverent bi-monthly zine, Salt Weekly, Sewell continues to participate in the local independent publishing community in Nashville, with its long history of influential publishing practices, primarily where arts and printed matter intersect. Academically, Jon is currently a PhD student in Public History at MTSU, and works in the Center for Popular Music, an archive, research, and programming center. As founder of the Nashville Underground Music Archive, he researches the interplay of locally homegrown musical communities with the dominant recording industry, through his database, thenashvilleunderground.org.
Katie Shaw
Katie Shaw, Gallerist, leads Red Arrow, a contemporary art gallery known for its museum quality exhibitions and career artist program. With nearly 20 years of experience working with visual artists including hundreds of curated exhibitions, Katie is dedicated to supporting and managing visual artists careers and continuing to grow her community. Under her leadership, Red Arrow is a vital platform for artists, showcasing their work locally and at global art fairs.
