Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Art Museum
Nashville, Tennessee
After selling their interest in the Maxwell House coffee company, Nashville residents Leslie and Mabel Cheek built Cheekwood, a country estate on the outskirts of the city. They moved into the home in 1932, but it was their daughter Huldah and her husband, Walter Sharp, who were instrumental in transforming the mansion into an art museum.
“There was an existing Nashville Museum of Art, but it didn’t have a good home,” said curator Jochen Wierich. “Walter Sharp had good connections with the people who were running that museum. So in the late 1950s, they decided it was time for Cheekwood to become a museum and garden to better serve the needs of the community.”
The project involved converting the mansion into an exhibit space that would showcase the existing collection from the Nashville Museum of Art. Sharp acted as the first director of the museum and began acquiring more art, with numerous contributions from the community.
Today, the museum has a collection of some 8,000 objects.
“We have an encyclopedic collection, but the strength is in American art: paintings, works on paper and some photography,” Wierich said. “Beyond that, we have a pretty good decorative arts collection. One of our strengths is our Worcester porcelain collection. We also have some nice American art pottery and nice silver.”
A visit to the museum gives visitors a taste of both the art collection and the historic mansion. Galleries on the main level of the museum are set among rooms that retain original doors, chandeliers, bookcases and fireplaces, as well as some original and period furnishings. Other floors have been outfitted into more modern gallery space.
Groups that visit Cheekwood should allow time to explore the 55 acres of gardens at the estate or to tour the Woodland Sculpture Trail.
“Our director in the late 1990s commissioned major sculptures by internationally known artists,” Wierich said. “It includes a ‘Skyspace’ sculpture by James Turrell that is considered one of the prototypes of his work.”
Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library
Winterthur, Delaware
Art, architecture and history blend together in a unique way at Winterthur, a Delaware museum that is recognized as one of the preeminent decorative arts museums in the country.
“It was founded by Henry Francis du Pont, and opened to the public more than 60 years ago,” said Ellen Hughes, manager of museum gallery and estate tours. “This was his childhood home.”
Winterthur began as a 12-room house built in 1937. Du Pont grew up there and later inherited the home, adding a new wing and dramatically expanding the structure. Today, the estate has 175 rooms and is set amid 1,000 acres of gardens.
Du Pont opened Winterthur to the public in 1951, inviting them to come see his collection of decorative art objects made and used in America between 1640 and 1860. He also collected architectural elements from homes of that period and installed them as showpieces in the museum.
“Many times these homes were falling into disrepair and were going to be torn down,” Hughes said. “So he would often buy components — or occasionally an entire room — from these various homes in the 13 original Colonies. Those were used as the backdrop for his collection of American-made furniture, ceramics, textiles, etc.”
A number of tours are available at Winterthur, showcasing historic, architectural and artistic treasures. Highlights include a rare collection of six silver tankards made by Paul Revere and a Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington. The tours also take visitors to family bedrooms and guest rooms, which were outfitted with valuable arts and antiques during du Pont’s time.
Groups can combine tours of the museum with tram rides through the estate’s extensive gardens that include a 60-acre naturalist garden, a formal garden with a reflecting pool, a children’s garden and an azalea display that blooms in late April and May.
