Discover Middle Tennessee's Artistic Wonders in Downtown Franklin

For years, Franklin’s Art Crawl, presented by the Arts Council of Williamson County, has drawn hundreds of artists and art lovers to downtown Franklin on the first Friday of each month, serving as the go-to event to find your next perfect piece.

Murfreesboro painter Erin Lynn displayed a variety of fine oil-based landscapes, images constructed in a mashup from photographs in the style of tonalism, behind the sundrenched stained glass windows of the Historic Franklin Presbyterian Church during April’s art crawl.

“I started doing oils about two years ago, and then last summer, I just fell in love with landscapes and just couldn’t stop painting them, quit my job, started selling them, and it’s been going pretty good,” Lynn says. “My pieces are really calm and moody. A lot of people say they kind of have, like a melancholy, sad feeling, which I feel like is accurate, but not in a bad way. It still is pleasant to look at in a place you would want to be, but I think [it] is that solitude that a lot of people crave in nature.”

April was the third time that Lynn has shown in the Franklin Art Crawl.

“I think it’s really good for newer artists,” Lynn says. “It was easy to get into, and … my work does pretty well in Franklin. My first show was amazing. It was the best I’d ever done at a show before.”

First-time art crawl participant and Spring Hill painter Kara Hammer says, “Franklin’s doing an absolutely amazing job promoting people from within the community. It’s so special and near-and-dear to me, especially as a newer artist, to be able to have an opportunity to come do something like this.”

Jocelyn Hofferber was named as April’s featured artist in what was her third art crawl, displaying her paintings in Stonebridge Art Gallery inside of The Factory at Franklin.

“To be able to be in the action is really huge for me. And being around people who see it and know that I am an artist and who I am, and passing my cards out, I had a lot of word-of-mouth commission pieces, and so it’s been really helpful for me,” Hofferber says.

Stonebridge Art Gallery co-owner Don Metzger tells the Williamson Scene about working with local artists.

“We love working with the art crawl and supporting one of the featured artists from the local Williamson County area every month,” Don Metzger says.

Stonebridge co-owner and artist Colleen Metzger, also Don’s wife, added, “we love making art more accessible to our community on a regular basis. Sometimes people that aren’t even planning to view art come in and enjoy our art.”

Stonebridge represents more than 80 artists from around the world, with abstract pieces, landscapes, cyanotypes, still lifes and more.

“It’s nice to really key in on our local artists and give back to the community.” Colleen Metzger says.

Don Metzger says, “we’re trying to be approachable. We want people to not be intimidated. We want to be kind of the un-gallery, so to speak to where it’s approachable, where it’s about what you love. You don’t have to know why you like it, but you just like it and so people have really resonated with that.”

But just as art isn’t restricted to simply paint on a canvas, neither is the representation at the art crawl.

Just outside of Stonebridge Art Gallery in the halls of The Factory another artist could be seen (and heard) in the form of distorted synthesized whizzes, hums and buzzes.

Billy Prosise, an Oak View Elementary School music teacher, modifies retro toys, such as Nintendo Game Boys, transforming them into unique musical instruments. He manipulates their sound with knobs and buttons-a process called circuit bending. Other creations are made from resin and electronic components, or are 3D printed.

“Often, it’s Goodwill first, and there’s a certain era of toys — ‘90s through 2010ish — that are the good ones that are modifiable, and then I just stare at it for a while and if I stare at it long enough, I’ll have some kind of idea for it, and if I don’t, I’ll just try something either mess it up or not.”

John Beckman, a Franklin woodworker, displayed his handcrafted cremation urns made from a variety of woods at the April art crawl, his first as a displaying artist.

One of Beckman’s pieces, a walnut urn, was made from walnut salvaged from his wife’s grandmother’s ornate carved bed, which he converted from a double to a queen bed.

“That bed rail was used by a very loving couple for over 15 years of marriage. “So these are meaningful blocks of walnut and a relatively unique design,” Beckman says.

That meaning is key to the personal pieces that a family cherishes in a time of grief.

“I’ve been woodworking all my life, and as I got older, I needed to start working on smaller things and so boxes became a thing,” Beckman says. “Some good friends of ours were in need of one, and so I made them, and in that case, I had him help make them and delivered two of them, one for him and one for his wife. Unfortunately, within a year, the first one was used — his wife passed — and that was a real emotional connection that you have to be able to provide that to people that you know.”

Whether it’s a unique and sentimental item, a piece of visual art that speaks through color, or a toy converted to a musical instrument, anyone can find what they need on a stroll through the different locations of the art crawl each month.