Affordable Art & History in Nashville

We've just returned from Nashville and though we didn't do a ton of stuff, we did almost all the things on our list of must-dos. As always, I'm here to give you the tips on how to do places for less and make the most of your time and money. 

If you're short on time and/or on a tight budget while visiting Nashville, there are two places that I feel are an easy way to indulge in culture for not a ton of money. If you have a rental car, for $40 (and free parking!), you can visit 4 great places that will make you feel like a more well-rounded tourist of Music City:

The Tennessee State Museum

This free museum tells you the history of Tennessee through dioramas, videos, textiles, and artifacts. You can spend as much time as you want and there's free parking nearby. You can read more about it in my last post here.

Bicentennial Park

Directly across the street from the museum is one of the best parks in the city. It isn't overwhelming in space and sometimes there are festivals happening there. There is a wall that encircles the whole thing that spans a billion years of history with fun facts to learn about. Inside the park are memorials to veterans, civil rights activists, and slavery.

The organ that runs the carillon bells

At one end is an amphitheater and the other is the Carillon, a set of 50 bells that are played by an organ-like instrument. Within the park, you can also sit and enjoy some good weather, watch people walk their dogs, see pieces of the old Capitol building columns, or go across the street and get food from one of the international vendors at the Nashville Farmer's Market.

The Parthenon

For just $10 per person, you can gain entry to the only full-scale replication of the Greek Parthenon. This was built for the Centennial of Tennessee in 1897, where they held a huge Exhibition to celebrate their state. Since Nashville was often referred to as "the Athens of the South", they decided to make it official.

Inside the Parthenon, you'll find photos and items from the Centennial, along with plaques explaining everything, on this first level, there's also an art gallery, with a permanent exhibit hall and then a rotating one in the main room. In the back hallway, there are hands-on exhibits that explain the importance of replicas that will prepare you for what you'll see on the second floor.

The main floor was always meant to be a gallery, giving accessible art to everyone. There's a fun variety of paintings, and each one has a pretty good bio of the piece and artist, which I love.

I wasn't prepared for the second floor at all, because I'd only read about the roof construction and the columns. Upstairs are some of the largest doors you've ever seen (two sets done in bronze), but also, a 40' tall statue of Athena, complete with gold dress, a giant shield, and holding a 6'4" statue of Nike, the Angel of Victory. It's quite something to go up the stairs and turn the corner to see her on the other side of the many columns. Because of this, I don't want to spoil it for you.

In the room behind her are replicas of the replicas that sit outside on the top of the building, and the griffons that are also on the roof.

The Parthenon sits in the middle of Centennial Park. One of the largest parks, it has a lake, sunken gardens, a storybook trail, sculptures, and even a Taylor Swift bench. It was pouring on the day of our visit, so we made a quick trip across the bridge to see the gardens and lake, and then we got back in the car.

Cheekwood Estate

If you have time, the means to get there, and can spare 3-4 hours, I highly recommend Cheekwood Estate and Gardens. I heard about it through City Cast Nashville, and wanted to visit for the Harvest Festival. They do have live music and food trucks there on Thursday evenings and some weekends, but not while we were there.

What they did have was a fun scarecrow walk, pumpkins everywhere, Fall photo ops, and you could buy a variety of pumpkins and plants to take home.

You may not be visiting during this time, so I'll tell you what there is year-round: a Japanese garden, a sculpture garden, a color garden, a water garden, a ton of sitting areas, a children's garden, model trains (if it's not raining), an herb garden, and a great big house.

The house was the home of the Cheek family and was furnished with items that were brought over from Europe. They wanted an old world feel to it and they definitely got that. The first and second floor are set up as much as possible as the family would have had it, and you can learn more about it, and them, through an audio tour, or by talking to the docents and reading plaques in each room. We did a mix of those, because talking to knowledgeable people is always fun.

The third floor, where the bedrooms and studies would have been, is entirely art (except one study that has been left to view). All of the art is by American artists, but you'll find landscapes, impressionist, portraits, porcelain, statues, and glass pieces. These are all their permanent collection and almost better than some actual art museums I've visited.

You can make a whole day of visiting Cheekwood. We stopped into the café for a bite and were pretty happy with the food and espresso drinks we had. You can also bring your own food and dine on the property at one of the many shady spots with picnic tables. Now, you don't have to visit the house, but I highly recommend it.

An all-inclusive ticket will run you $30 per person, but I felt like we got our money's worth between the house tour, the art, the history, and the garden strolls. It's a little bit on the outskirts of Nashville to the south, but it's a lovely drive. We went on a Saturday morning and there weren't too many people there, but keep in mind it was drizzly weather, so if it's nicer out, you might want to visit on a weekday or go as soon as they open on the weekend.

This is certainly not the only museums or places to gain some affordable culture, but they are my picks for a budget-friendly visit. You can also walk around different neighborhoods to look at building art and murals. I've written about some of those in this post.

Tell me about your favorite affordable ways to see art and history when you travel.

Free Art in Nashville

While our trip to Nashville was interrupted by Hurricane Helene passing through (we just got heavy rains), we were still able to get some walking and outside time in. On our first day, we did our one and only mural tour, because it was the only day it was nice enough to do it when we had the time.

Luckily, there was plenty of art everywhere we went, so we saw it walking around and driving down the street. It always pays off to look up at buildings and down alleyways, because you are usually rewarded with some lovely things. 

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We headed to the 12South neighborhood and walked around with the help of a guide I found online that gave us some of the best murals to check out. This area of town was a bit upscale, had a lot of great shops, a farmers' market, and a variety of art on buildings. I'd love to go back and explore the neighborhood some more. 

If you are looking for an interesting place to eat, both The Nashville Farmers' Market and Assembly Food Hall have international food vendors and both have art in and outside. 

There are several cases of guitars from the Gibson Garage at baggage claim.

Street murals are not the only way to indulge in free art, though. In fact, right when you get off the plane at BNA, there is art in the airport, but once you leave, you can also hit up The Gulch neighborhood, the downtown area, or even the Tennessee State Museum for free art of all kinds.

The Tennessee State Museum has a "time tunnel", telling you all about how the state was formed, the indigenous people, the land itself, and then the history of the state through the Civil War, WWI and WWII, Women's Suffrage, the Civil Rights movement, and later, all through exhibits and artifacts. 

You then have two rotating exhibits. Right now, it's Tennessee Furniture and Tennessee Playlist (a quick history of Tennessee's music). We had some free time on our last day and decided to go back to see these two exhibits and eat at the Nashville Farmers' Market before we had to get to the airport.

You can easily spend an afternoon here, especially if it's a cold or rainy day. There's quite a lot to see. 

Right off Broadway, is the Ryman Theater. You can take a tour of the inside and learn about the musicians who got their start there and others that performed there throughout their careers, but if you're trying to save money, you can walk around the outside and learn some bite-size Nashville history while also enjoying statues of some Nashville icons. In fact, I think you should do this even if you take the tour. 

Even dogs have art in Nashville. We walked past this amazing little dog park that had this huge mural and was super clean. Not only that, but there were some fun training items in there as well, so you could teach your dog some agility while they're getting some socialization in.

By now, you know that most cities have free art if you are willing to look for it. I'd love to take a guided walking tour if/when we make it back to Nashville, so I can, hopefully, learn more about the street artists in the city.

What are some of your favorite places for free art?

The National Museum of African American Music

Though it's a mouthful, this museum might be one of my favorites that I've ever visited. When going to Nashville, people are going to recommend tours of The Grand Ole Opry, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Ryman Auditorium, and probably the Johnny Cash or Patsy Cline Museum (or both).

As someone who doesn't enjoy country music, for the most part, I was only mildly interested in the Johnny Cash Museum and even the Music Hall of Fame. The price tags for both seemed higher than I was willing to pay - $25+ per person, so I decided to visit a different, one-of-a-kind museum, showcasing African American music.

Part of my reasoning was that Black people created what we know as soul, bluegrass, and country, so if be getting a much more authentic experience than that at just ONE of the other music museums. I wasn't prepared for just how amazing this museum was though.

First of all, the NMAAM is on Broadway, or The Honky Tonk Highway. It's literally like Bourbon Street, but every bar has live, and loud, country music that, literally, everyone knows. You'll find honky tonks owned by Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, Jon Bon Jovi, Dierks Bentley, and more, with drunk people spilling out onto the street. That's absolutely not our vibe, but it's something to experience at least once, even if you don't go inside any of them to have overpriced mediocre food and drinks. I highly suggest Assembly Food Hall instead, or going somewhere else entirely.

This museum takes you from the roots of music during slavery, all the way to modern day hip hop and rap. You'll see and learn about the most influential people in music history and then those that came before and influenced them. Did I know about Koko Taylor before I visited? No, I did not, but now I do and know she was awesome.

Throughout the museum are music stations where you can create your own songs, beats, or listen to Black artists through history, see who their contemporaries were, who were their inspirations, and who were inspired by them. You can save all these playlists and interactions by purchasing a $5 wristband that gives you access to most of these interactive elements, including doing a rap battle with a friend and dancing to music through the decades.

Do you want to see outfits from influential musicians like Tina Turner, LL Cool J, and Whitney Houston? Or instruments from people like Louis Armstrong? An actual Grammy belonging to Ella Fitzgerald? Or see a truly wild quote from Jimi Hendrix? This museum has all that and more.

Learn who Elvis watched and listened to for some of his best songs, like Hound Dog, and moves. I know many people say he stole everything from the Black community, but he was always forthcoming about his inspirations and giving credit for the community who allowed him to thrive in the industry.

We probably spent a good 3 hours here and could have spent longer. It's not all feel good music, but it's interesting and beautiful and fun. If you love music, you should check it out. If you love history, you should check it out. If you love fashion, you should check it out. If you want to know more about production, you should check it out.

Helpful tips:

There is a parking garage under the block that houses Hattie B's, Tecovas, a bunch of other shops and restaurants, and the NMAAM, with an entrance on Broadway. It's expensive, but you can save $20 off the whole day by using the kiosk inside the museum (even if you aren't visiting the museum, but you should).

Go first thing when they open, so you don't have to fight to get to exhibits and interactive elements. Then, go eat, see more of what Nashville has to offer, and then go check out your playlist when it downloads (it might be the next day to be there in its entirety) and relive some of your favorite moments and artists.

Don't forget to watch the short movie at the beginning or your tour, check out the art gallery in the lobby, and visit the gift shop to see some other things not in the museum proper.

Have you been to a specialty museum or one that showcases a certain people? Tell us where it was and what you loved about it.