Advisors

We’ve assembled a group of highly-qualified advisors, to ensure compelling storytelling and a high level of scholarship.

Susan W. Knowles, Ph.D. is an Independent Curator and Art Historian in Nashville, Tennessee. A longtime promoter of regional artists, she is considered an authority on historical and contemporary Tennessee art.

Over a twenty-year career in the museum field, she has organized numerous major exhibitions for various institutions. She has held curatorial positions at the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum, Cheekwood Museum of Art, and the Metro Nashville Arts Commission. Dr. Knowles has worked as an independent project curator for the Customs House Museum and Cultural Center, Fisk University, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, the Tennessee State Museum, and many others.

Alan LeQuire is a renowned sculptor based in Nashville, Tennessee. LeQuire is best known for his figurative sculptures Athena Parthenos, the largest indoor sculpture in the western hemisphere, and Musica, one of the largest bronze figure groups in the world. While LeQuire’s monumental works enrich the visual landscape of Nashville, many of his works are in institutions, including Vanderbilt University, Country Music Hall of Fame and Jack Daniel Distillery and private collections around the country.  Alan grew up surrounded by Edmondson’s sculptures in the family’s collection, and credits them as one of his earliest and most enduring inspirations.

Jennifer Marshall Ph.D. is Associate Professor of North American Art, Department of Art History at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Marshall specializes in the art and visual/material culture of the United States.   She is author of “Machine Art, 1934” (University of Chicago Press, 2012), in which she offers a critical history of the Museum of Modern Art’s landmark Machine Art show.  This book was awarded the Dedalus Foundation’s 2013 Robert Motherwell Book Award. Dr. Marshall is currently writing a book that focuses on the art of William Edmondson.

Carol Stein is a highly experienced Producer/Director whose recent credits include “Nashville 2.0”, a documentary film f or the PBS Fall Arts Festival 2013 about the exploding Americana music scene. Her film  “Women Who Rock”, a documentary about the history of women in rock and roll, premiered on PBS November, 2011. For WNET she created numerous segments for the American Masters “Picturing America” series. Stein’s credits includes “Midori and Friends”, a portrait of the violinist that aired nationally on PBS, and films on artist Jackson Pollack, the London band The Tiger Lillies, architect Philip Johnson, and artist Claude Monet.

Jochen Wierich, Ph.D. served as Curator of Art at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and Art Museum in Nashville Tennessee. Cheekwood houses one of the nation’s largest collections of  Edmondson sculptures and has hosted three major exhibitions of his work. Dr. Wierich received his Ph.D. in American Studies at the College of William & Mary in Virginia and has taught art history at Vanderbilt University and at Whitman College.

As a museum professional he has worked at the Terra Museum of American Art and the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture. He has published several journal articles on topics in nineteenth-century American art.

Susan Wittenberg is a media executive with over 25 years experience building and launching media businesses. She is an expert in arts programming and business strategy. She co-produced “Nashville 2.0” and “Women Who Rock” with Carol Stein. In 2011 she formed Ace Arts HD, a joint venture with Screenvision, to theatrically distribute event programming. Susan was part of the team that launched Ovation TV in 1993, and was ClassicalTV.com Senior VP of Programming when it launched in 2009. She is an award-winning independent producer/director of documentaries and shorts.