The Downtown Presbyterian Church has long been a cornerstone of Nashville’s contemporary art scene: The church’s artists-in-residence have included some of the city’s best and most recognizable artists, from Jodi Hays to Herb Williams; the artists-in-residence-curated The Browsing Room gallery has established itself as a don’t-miss downtown art spot; and the church’s art studio program turns 30 years old in 2025. Now a new cohort of artists and curators is bringing a developing series of multimedia exhibitions and performances to the church’s historical spaces. Nashville Pantheon wants to create an “avant-garde Ryman Auditorium” experience downtown, renewing and reinvigorating the Downtown Presbyterian Church’s unique and longstanding conversation with the city’s most daring creatives.

The Nashville Pantheon feels like an “Avengers assemble” moment in the city’s creative scene — a talented group of artists and curators from across Nashville joining forces to double down on the downtown arts district and establish a sacred space for weirdness and wonder, just blocks from the blasted bridesmaids on Broadway. The Pantheon’s Shevy Smith is a multimedia artist who recently moved back to Nashville from Los Angeles, and she’s the newest artist-in-residence at the Downtown Presbyterian Church. Joining her are Ashley Layendecker, the gallery director at Red Arrow in East Nashville, and Joshua Edward Bennett, the gallery manager and curator at Tinney Contemporary, which is just a few blocks north of the church, on the section of Rep. John Lewis Way known as the Avenue of the Arts.

The group’s first order of business was to take over the programming of The Browsing Room for the first two months of the year. Nashville Pantheon opened Divine Lite on Jan. 5 during the downtown Art Crawl. The show pulled in about twice the amount of gawkers the gallery usually gets on First Saturday, and that response bodes well for the curatorial concern’s future plans. 

Divine Lite hosts a number of local art faves — along with other Tinney Contemporary and Red Arrow alums — for a display of works that touch on notions of spirituality: David Onri Anderson’s “Baby II” features a meditative arrangement of flickering pink candles against a green background, while Julian Rogers’ “On the Polished Palace Floor” is an otherworldly painting of candy-colored clouds evoking the Romantic sentiments about the awe-inducing beauty of natural forms. Joshua Edward Bennett’s own “Ekvilibra” is one of the artist’s signature abstract wall sculptures. Bennett combines acrylic, faux leather, vinyl, MDF and paint into a dizzying formalist assemblage of surfaces and textures. Divine Lite also includes work from Sophia Belkin, Heather Hartman, Esther Ruiz, Calli Moore, Benjy Russell and Karen Seapker.

To correspond with Divine Lite, Shevy Smith has created an immersive site-specific installation in the church’s gorgeous chapel space. “Symposia” includes two small church pews sourced from actual church pews. Smith has cut the full-sized pews down to chairs that angle up, so viewers can stare directly into the chapel’s dome while listening to a musical audio collage on headphones. Smith wrote music and sourced sounds from around the church, and she’s currently inviting collaborators to record various audio performances in the chapel. Those elements will be added to the display’s evolving soundtrack.

There are other decorative elements completing the space, along with an illuminated clock tower that tells time via the dotted faces of domino designs. Smith is a professional composer and music producer, but her art and design chops are just as noteworthy — “Symposia” is tasteful, well-executed and sharply conceptual. The installation envelops viewers/listeners in an experience that captures the overall theme of Nashville Pantheon’s ongoing program: utilizing the ritual capacities of contemporary art and music to creatively activate the church’s sacred spaces.

Nashville Pantheon will host a closing event for Divine Lite on Saturday, Jan. 27. “Symposia” will continue through the end of February in the church’s chapel, and Nashville Pantheon will open a show by Nashville artist Jesse Hale in The Browsing Room during the downtown Art Crawl on Feb. 3. The curators are planning on more programming in the church’s chapel to continue throughout 2024. Most of the displays will be accessible during First Saturday each month, but the group is also planning some ambitious ticketed events that will transform the space into a multimedia theater featuring everything from film, performance and live music to projection mapping and sound art — sometimes all at once.