“Are you ready for some snow?†was the question of the stewardess of the American Airline flight form Nashville to St. Louis. All of us “four” passengers on this domestic flight agreed that we were not ready for it yet. Therefore Laura, just licensed as a stewardess for 3 days, took good care of us 4 people, I guess - in retrospect to mentally prepare us of what was yet to come.
It took me about 6 hours of driving alongside Highway I-40 East to get from Memphis to Knoxville, Tennessee. A pretty scenic drive because of its hilly landscapes and lakes alongside the roadway, but also a place that was blooming during industrial revolution and left traces behind in the very same landscape.
<<Driving on Highway I-40 between Memphis and Knoxville, Tennessee>>
Knoxville, somehow off the borders of our geographic concept for Heartland, has a notorious specialty to offer: One of the few letterpress print shops of the country is located in downtown Knoxville. Julie Belcher and Kevin Bradley founded Yee-Haw Industries in 1996/1997. As trained designer and artists they created their own niche for reviving an outdated technology, a left behind product from the industrial age, the letterpress. With their liberal use of metallic inks, cutting-edge illustrations, avant-garde typography and unique choices of paper they are paying tribute to handcrafted editional pieces. Even if the letterpress technique is a time-consuming production in the age of digitalization, they have managed to push this artistic process, develop it further and created a unique signature for themselves. Bryan Baker, one of their designers was very welcoming and gave a tour on the entire history and production process of Yee-Haw (yes, it is referring to cowboy-style). Please take a look at their website to embrace the unique variety of their production: www.yeehawindustries.com.
The very next day I met up with Marina Pacini, chief curator, from The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in, which is located next to the Memphis College of Art. Her insight knowledge about artists and people from the Memphis area supported my current research on Ernest C. Withers (Memphis photographers who recently passed away) as well as generated some basic infrastructure for soon to be Memphis artist in residence Otto Berchem.
<<Kerstin Niemann and Marina Paccini at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art>>
 That same day I also met up with John Weeden, CODA Rhodes College. John himself is deeply routed in the art scene of Memphis and not to forget a passionate blog writer of http://weedenartswatch.blogspot.com , where he reports frequently about the scene and its development. Thanks to his contacts and initiative we eventually started facilitating a resident situation in Memphis in reference to Heartland. At the moment he is recruiting some students from Rhodes College to support Otto Berchem while he is living in Memphis.
It was a pleasure to be back in Memphis again. And yes it is NOT a walking city per se. Even though one can recommend a nice walk through Overton Park right by Memphis College of Art and the Brooks Museum of Memphis. There you can follow up on ELVIS history. Apparently the so-called “Shellâ€, a public park shell formed stage, came into fame, because Elvis performed here twice open air. It is now in the process of renovation, but the holy shell will be maintained.
<<2nd World War memorial, Overton Park, Memphis>>
On my mission to settle infrastructure and networks for our first artist in residence from Europe to go to the States beginning of next year, I successfully met up with Memphis College of Art Ken Strickland (Vice President of Academic Affairs) Jennifer Sargent (Associate Professor, Director of Exhibition and Lectures) as well as Howard Paine (Associate Professor and soon to be Director of the Graduate Program). The Memphis College of Art will provide a studio space in their Graduate Center for the Dutch/ American artist Otto Berchem, who will come into Memphis in February and stay for approximately two months. It was such a great pleasure to meet up and to discuss possibilities with the staff of the College as well as getting to know the facilities and environment - not to forget the excellent Peanut Soup that we all ate at the Brooks Museum café.
