Howard W. Hewitt - Nashville, In. - A two-hour ride to Nashville Wednesday gave Mitch Brown ’10 and I time to reflect on this unique little town in the middle of southern Indiana. Everyone knows it as ‘Leaf Peepers Central’ in October and most realize it’s a substantial art colony known throughout the Midwest, country, and world.

Visiting Nashville is a bit like hitting a time warp on the interstate and fast forwarding to a small New England town. Nashville has many similarities in its eclectic restaurants, gift shops, tourist-related boutiques, and yes – art galleries galore.

Mitch was headed back again for his work on Nashville artists for the Present Indiana Program. It was his fourth or fifth trip and I tagged along. He conducted interviews at the Brown County Art Gallery in the early afternoon. Later, we paid a brief visit to his artist/mentor for the project – widely decorated artist Wayne Waldron.

In between, we stopped into the Hobnob which is the area’s most famous and probably oldest restaurant. The Hobnob looks like a Vermont Country store and much of the interior appears to date back decades, if not all the way to the late 1800s when the store was founded. The menu though is anything but burgers and fries, including a wine list with some interesting California reds and whites.

But observing Mitch work throughout the day was the really interesting part of going along on this trip. It was watching his new-found friends get excited along with Mitch when talking about the artists of Brown County. It was listening to the deep respect and admiration people in this small Southern Indiana town have for the Lilly Endowment, which funds the summer internship program.

It was also a rewarding trip in another way. Waldron has a small retail shop/gallery with his art on display. He works on his prized miniatures behind a small desk near the entrance. His paintings, which have earned more than 500 awards, are stunning.

His words have an even bigger impact.

“Mitch is doing a great job,” the artist told me. “He asks the right questions. He’s seeing the right people. He gets it.”

Waldron is Laura Vogler’s father. Laura is the Serials Manager at Lilly Library.

Visiting Waldron and hearing his praise was a real highlight. But in another way an even better moment happened back at the Brown County Art Gallery. Mitch had concluded an interview with author and Gallery foundation president Lyn Letsinger-Miller. I was milling about looking at the art. Letsinger-Miller asked Mitch if he had seen “the vault.”

Let’s let Mitch tell that story:†

“She asked me if I wanted to go into the vault in order to see some other works,” the Mooresville, In., native said. “I said yes and was curious even though I assumed that most of the works of famous artists were already being showcased. Once she opened the vault door I realized how wrong I was. When we walked inside we were surrounded by priceless paintings by Hoosier greats such as T.C. Steele and Will Vawter. One of the most impressive paintings we were shown was the "The Reader" by Ada Shulz which is valued at $150,000. After a few minutes looking around and seeing all of the famous names in the vault I realized we were standing in the midst of some of the most famous art in Indiana history. I fully realized the influence and the impact that Brown County has had on the art world.”

Around here, we call that quite a Wabash moment!