Culturally Speaking 02-14-07

A few months ago, I was having a meeting with Rick Nahm, President of the Cranbrook Education Community. During our discussion, he was looking through the Arts League of Michigan’s catalogue for the Rock My Soul: The Black Legacy of Rock and Roll exhibition. He was immediately struck by the work of artist Ivan Stewart and indicated that he might like to commission him to create a very special work.

“I saw a place that was significant in my life, Nancy’s Tea Room in Bowling Green, KY, being capture in a painting by Ivan”, Nahm recently told me. And so began a three month collaboration between the artist and the client. The goal: to create an artwork that depicted Nancy’s Tea Room.

When first contacted by Nahm, Stewart was apprehensive about the project. “I wondered if I could do it and do a good job of it”, he told me. Ivan is known for his detailed portrayal of historic events and people. He has works in collections throughout the nation and his art has regularly been included in Arts League exhibitions and museum level shows. According to Stewart, “the beauty in his art is the opportunity it gives him to record events that have been left out of history books.”

The process began with Nahm explaining to Stewart how the Tea Room became such an important part of his life. As a youngster, when not listening to St. Louis Cardinals baseball game on his transistor radio, Nahm was checking out WLAC out of Nashville, TN. “I heard this incredible music. Something that I had not heard before.”

He decided that he had to have the record “Think” by the Five Royals. So off he went to the local Woolworth’s to buy his first 45. He was told “we don’t carry that music. That’s Colored music!” As a ten year old, “I did not understand what that meant”, Nahm says. They told me they sold “those records” at Nancy’s Tea Room. So off he went to the Tea Room. “While telling me his story, he said that was the first time he had knowingly faced White racism”, Stewart said.

Nahm found Nancy’s Tea Room, but he did not find any tea in the room. “He noticed the store served multiple purposes. It was a billiard room, a restaurant, beer garden, plus music could be bought there,” states Stewart. He found a place that over the next several years would open up his mind, his ears and his world. It also began a habit of buying and now collecting more than 5000 R & B records. Nahm wanted the Nancy’s Tea Room to be a documented part of his collection.

In their first meeting, Stewart listened to the story. He listened to some of the music, including “Think”, that has been collected. Nahm described the experience in the place. And described the people. Stewart followed that meeting with his own research and discovery. He studied pool tables of the era and juke boxes. At a subsequent meeting they discussed skin tones and clothing and the atmosphere in the room. On the third trip to Stewart’s studio, Nahm said “the pencil sketches were pretty close”. They needed just a few small changes.

On the day after Thanksgiving, Nahm was to see the finished product. Stewart had a hard time keeping it under wraps. Everyone at his house for Thanksgiving dinner wanted the piece. “I could have sold it five times,” Stewart says.

Then the moment came when Nahm saw Nancy’s Tea Room for the first time, again. “I broke out in tears. He hit it out of the park. I felt transported to 45 years ago. The many songs I had heard at Nancy’s for the first time flashed through my mind. It was like the day when a new view of the world opened for me.”

Artists like Ivan Stewart are innovators, educators, social scientists and historians. Long gone, thanks to Rick Nahm and Ivan Stewart, Nancy’s Tea Room is now a documented part of history. Click here to see Nancy’s Tea Room through their eyes.