Today, Sharon and I visited Rockwell’s America: Celebrating the Art of Norman Rockwell, a traveling exhibit making its first appearance at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville. It will be in Nashville through mid-September.\

The exhibit is a hoot — well worth the money, and not at all what I was expecting. There are few actual paintings in the exhibit, mostly well-preserved issues of the Saturday Evening Post. But the covers are just the jumping-off point. There are wonderful little dioramas and exhibits re-creating some of Rockwell’s best-known paintings — and, unlike most art exhibits, these are definitely hands-on. You can sit on a stool at a diner and play with the jukebox. You can sit in the seat of a Model T. In one room, a live telephone operator with a 30′s-era switchboard hands you her headset so that you can “eavesdrop” on various telephone conversations! In a schoolroom, you can open the students’ flip-top desks to see what’s inside. There are also little video displays and other cultural artifacts.

This is a wonderfully interactive, fun, and yet surprisingly moving and informative exhibit, one which makes you think about how we as Americans see ourselves. I can’t recommend it highly enough. See it when it comes to your town.