While Nashville is known as one of the country’s best cities for music, the art scene here is no less alive. Many of the city’s painters’, sculptors’ and photographers’ work is on display the first Saturday of every month as galleries around the city participate in the Nashville Downtown Art Crawl.

What began as an effort to get fellow artists together to display their work and enjoy an evening with enthusiasts has grown exponentially in participants, galleries, collectors and admirers. The Downtown Art Crawl’s roots are found in one particular art lover, Anne Brown, and her gallery on 5th Avenue, The Arts Company. The event’s humble beginnings were simply to gather friends and celebrate their work, but as the city grew and changed, so did the art scene.

As more galleries began opening around 5th Avenue, a few of them including The Arts Company, Twist Gallery, and what is now Tinney Contemporary, decided that an organized monthly celebration of art was a necessity for the expanding community. As Nashville evolves, Brown stresses that the art crawl will as well, “our plans for the future are even more dramatic,” she says.

The Downtown Art Crawl is free to the public with shuttles available to transport visitors between galleries. A map and gallery listing can be found online.

Mixing art, environmental education and cultural commentary, photographer Jeff Rich wants you to see his work and be inspired, but he also hopes you take away a different view of sustainability and progress. In his upcoming exhibit Watershed, on display February 3 to March 17 at the Jennifer Schwartz Gallery, Rich will present 16 images from an upcoming 40-photo monograph that surveys the French Broad River.

Rich started the project when he was living in Asheville and the area experienced one of the worst floods in more than a century. “I began documenting the flood, but then I began reading about the history of this river that flows from North Carolina to Tennessee and how it was one of the most polluted in the South. It was brown back in the 50s and 60s and then had a rebirth in the 80s and 90s, and now has started to slip again. This exhibit is about showing people how interconnected it all is – the land, water, man, how we live.”

Often misunderstood, a watershed is mostly influenced by the surrounding land that drains water to a collecting place. Human impact on the land – good or bad – eventually makes its way into the watershed.

Growing up in Florida and now living in Savannah, Rich has been around water all his life. “Whether it is a lazy stream or a powerful river, the state of our water doesn’t just happen. I want people to see my work and take away an understanding of everything that makes up a watershed and how it takes people working hard to keep it beautiful.”

To kick-off the opening of the exhibit, the gallery is hosting a cocktail reception with Jeff Rich on Friday, February 3 from 6 to 9 p.m. His book, Watershed: A Survey of The French Broad River Basin will be released later in the month.

Jennifer Schwartz Gallery is located at 1000 Marietta Street, Suite 112, Atlanta 30318.

Change knows many paths. Revolutions and wars have made their grand inscriptions on the course of history. But so have subtle and simple moments, methods and people. Fifty years ago in Nashville an African-American student walked up to a white-only lunch counter and sat down. The quiet, intentional gesture would have loud repercussions.

These non-violent protests of the early 1960s became known as the Tennessee Sit-Ins and were a key component of demonstrations that led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Students from Fisk University, Tennessee A&I, and the American Baptist Theological Seminary, organized by religious leaders Kelly Miller Smith and James Lawson, began a series of sit-ins at the counters of segregated diners in downtown Nashville. Some of these students, such as Marion Barry, John Lewis and Diane Nash, went on to become great leaders in the Civil Rights Movement.

While organized as nonviolent actions, the protesters were often met with forceful opposition. Serving as a model and inspiration for the cause, the acts were recognized by Civil Rights leaders across the country, and even prompted Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to visit them.

To recognize these sit-in demonstrations and economic boycotts, the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center is hosting an exhibit called We Shall Not Be Moved: The 50th Anniversary of the Tennessee Sit-ins from now until January 22. Also, a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Convocation will be held at Tennessee State University’s Gentry Complex on January 16 at noon.

While most of us prepare to take a few days off work, feast on lavish holiday meals and exchange gifts with family and friends, it’s hard to imagine that 1 billion people still struggle everyday to get one of the most basic elements of life: clean water.

“Given all that we have here, it’s shocking that so much of the developing world doesn’t have access to such an essential need…and so many other problems then stem from the lack of access to clean water,” said Scott Harrison, founder of the non-profit Charity: Water. “Water changes everything. Without it there is no life.”

We first met Scott several years ago after he launched the global charity, and we have been inspired watching their progress and impact. What started as an idea on a volunteer trip to Africa has, so far, helped 2 million people gain access to clean water. “I’m overwhelmed by the response we’ve received and by people’s generosity, but our sights are set on eradicating this crisis.”

Water is critical because it touches so many elements of society – health and sanitation, economic impact, education and stability of communities and families. Some people walk 3 hours a day to the closest river, which is contaminated. This is time not spent getting an education or working. By providing water filtration systems or wells in a local village, a safe water solution means less disease, less money spent on medicine and it restores hours to a person’s life.

Out of all of our excess here in the United States, Charity: Water sees opportunities. This Christmas embrace the spirit of the season and give the gift of water in the name of one of your loved ones. $20 will provide one person clean, safe drinking water and 100% of every dollar you give will directly fund water projects for people in need (other donors take care of the organization’s operating costs).

For some, the word farmer conjures up stereotypical images of either an uneducated, old man in overalls or someone that oversees an industrial system of machinery and chemicals. Upending both perceptions, a new documentary reveals a youthful, intelligent and diverse movement embracing a sustainable agrarian way of life.

Grow, a film by Christine Anthony and Owen Masterson, captures college graduates shunning the corporate ladder to solve a seriously flawed food system. Filmed during a full growing season on 12 Georgia farms, the documentary follows 20 (9 women and 11 men) passionate farmers ages 23-38 in search of meaning and better health for all of us.

“There is a long agricultural history in this country and these young farmers and others like them in this movement are the next chapter,” the filmmakers told us. “When you speak of modern-day farmers, people tend to think of the huge operations that are mono-cropping, using chemical fertilizers, pesticides and genetically modified seeds. We wanted to show a new breed of farmers that are taking responsible actions to steward the land and provide food for their communities.”

After moving from Los Angeles to Atlanta in 2005, Anthony-Masterson began photographing farmers for Georgia Organics. Since then they developed strong relationships with many young farmers who impressed and inspired them. “We decided to make Grow to highlight their work and give people insight into their world; both their joys and hardships and what it really takes to grow food sustainably. A few years back there were several alarming movies about the environment and our food system. We wanted to make a solutions-style film without scientists and experts, just these beautiful young people who were taking charge of their lives and making the world a better place.”

As seen in the film, Anthony-Masterson present three things about this food movement that need to be in balance. “We want to encourage more young people to take up farming, they will need land and resources from people that have them and then the consumers have to be there too, both with their purchases and their votes.”

The next Atlanta screening will take place at the Patagonia store on November 10 at 7:15 p.m. Click here to register. For additional screenings, check the official Grow website.