Cheekwood Gardens and Art is located southwest of Nashville in the upscale suburb of Belle Meade, which was once a single plantation of 5,400 acres. Cheekwood was the home of the Cheek family, who made their fortune with Maxwell House coffee.  Incidentally, the Maxwell House was a hotel in Nashville where they served Cheek’s unique coffee blend, which Teddy Roosevelt supposedly called “good the the last drop” – thus the well known slogan.

Cheekwood is now a botanical garden and art museum housing antiques and contemporary art.  This summer and fall they were hosting an unusual kind of exhibit, LIGHT, by Bruce Munro. We arrived just before sunset, and parked very close to the Visitor’s Center.  On our way out, about two hours later, we saw cars parked much, much farther away, on either side of the entry driveway all the way to the road. Our early arrival was a great idea.

We strolled through the gardens, waiting for darkness and the illumination of the exhibit.  This is what the section called “Field of Lights” looked like before dark. 

We took the Carell Woodland Sculpture Trail through the woods and saw about eight permanent large sculptures before emerging at the Japanese Garden where we saw Munro’s “Candelight” against a back drop of golden gingko trees…

…”Blue Moon” in the Japanese dry lake

…and “Fireflies” in the bamboo forest.