You know a community takes its reputation as a quaint artists’ colony seriously when they actually trademark it (Art Colony of the Midwest™). Technically the line applies to all of Brown County, IN, but since the Nashville community is the heart of it, it doesn’t really matter. We stopped in Nashville just before Christmas a few years ago. It was bitterly cold—but not frigid enough to deter the strolling carolers and hordes of Christmas shoppers. It’s a fun place any time of the year, but I think it’s especially enjoyable during the holiday season.
Located about an hour south of Indianapolis, Nashville is within easy reach—even for a day trip from western Michigan. Better yet, make a weekend of it. There are plenty of places to stay, including motels, inns, B&Bs and cabins. There are also good dining choices and lots of shopping. It doesn’t matter if your tastes run to original art, craft items or antiques and collectibles. You’ll find it all in Nashville and the surrounding area.
Brown County has been long been a scenic tourist magnet. It also has a rep as the land of covered bridges. Not so. Yes, it does have a couple of covered bridges, but it is surrounded by Indiana counties with far more of them. In fact the counties of Rush, Fayette, Franklin, Decatur, Dearborn, Ripley, Jennings, Jackson, Lawrence and Bartholomew have about two dozen, several of them on the National Register of Historic Places. East of Indy is quaint Parke County, which has several bridges of its own and hosts an annual Covered Bridge Festival.
The “Little Nashville” moniker comes from The Little Nashville Opry, established in 1975. It hosts county artists from early March through November on Friday and Saturday nights. Nashville is also home to the Wedding Loft Wedding Chapel, the Pine Box Theatre, the Brown County Indiana Art Guild, the Old Time Flea Market, Nashville Follies, Melchior Marionettes, Bean Blossom Jamboree, the Brown County Playhouse and the Brown County Art Gallery.
For more information, visit Indiana Traveler. The Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau is located at 10 North Van Buren Street, Nashville, IN 47448. You can also call for further information: 1-800-753-3255.
If you think you’d like to make a weekend of it, here’s something else to round out your time in south central Indiana. Nashville is located on Indiana highway 46. It would be a right turn to the west at the I-65 exit. If you turn to the east, you’ll find another—but very different—Indiana gem just three miles down the road: Columbus, IN.
What’s the big deal about Columbus? “Columbus, Indiana (population 39,000) is ranked 6th in the nation for architectural innovation and design by the American Institute of Architects on a list that includes the much larger cities of Chicago, New York, Boston, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.,” says the homepage of the city’s Web site. Smithsonian Magazine has called Columbus a “veritable museum of modern architecture,” and visitors here can see more than 70 buildings and pieces of public art by internationally noted architects and artists. How did this happen in this little Indiana community? Visit the Columbus website to find out.
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