About the center

The Arts Center features an art gallery and gift shop. Contact the Center by calling 931-455-1234.

Tullahoma Fine Arts Center is located at 401 South Jackson Street in Tullahoma, Tennessee.

Baillet House

The Baillet House, which serves as part of the Tullahoma Fine Arts Center, is reportedly the oldest building in Tullahoma, Tennessee. Part of the structure dates to the founding of the city in 1852. Oral tradition holds that the building was used as a hospital by both the Confederate and Union forces during the American Civil War.

The Baillet family built a home at the site using bricks from the Lupher brickyard in 1868. The house, located at 401 South Jackson Street, sits across from land that the Tullahoma founders had originally planned as the town's square. The town's center actually developed several blocks north of the area, where three of the Baillet sisters owned and operated a millinery shop.

One hundred years later the Baillet home was restored by volunteers interested in preserving the historic building as a center for the arts.

A new wing, the Regional Museum of Art, was added in 1992. It brought a modern art gallery to the center and expanded the Tullahoma Fine Arts Center's classroom, office and storage space.

Art Funding

The Tullahoma Fine Arts Center serves as the Tennessee Arts Commission's designated Arts Build Communities agency for the following counties: Bedford, Coffee, Franklin, Giles, Hickman, Lawrence, Lewis, Lincoln, Marshall, Maury, Moore, Perry and Wayne.

Tullahoma Fine Arts Center

Art Festival

Each May the Tullahoma Fine Arts Center hosts a two-day fine art and craft fair. The juried festival is held on the grounds of the South Jackson Civic Center across from the Tullahoma Fine Arts Center.

Winners of the Tullahoma Art Festival

Best of Show

Best of Show - Jan Tittle of Birmingham, Alabama (art category - stained glass)
Leo Martin of Florence, Alabama (art category - acrylic) - First Place
Babara Coffelt of Estill Springs, Tennessee (art category - stained glass) - First Place
John Smedley Jr. of Cleveland, Tennessee (art category - wood) - First Place
Ann Ford of Tullahoma, Tennessee (art category - oil) - First Place
Charlie Doggett of Nashville, Tennessee (art category - photography) - First Place
Kerri Latil of Ooltewah, Tennessee (art category - jewelry) - First Place
Michael Kelley of Beechgrove, Tennessee art category - (pottery) - First Place

Dedication of Summer Song by Russell Faxon

The Tullahoma Arts Center paid homage to a part of Tullahoma's history with the unveiling of a bronze statue on October 17, 1999. The statue was financed with a $5,000 grant through the Tennessee Arts Commission and with public donations.

Bell Buckle artist Russell Faxon created the piece, entitled Summer Song. Faxon is well known for his realistic bronze sculpture, such as the Korean War Memorial at the Tennessee Legislative Plaza and the statues of Minnie Pearl and Roy Acuff at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Center director Lucy Hollis said it was Faxon's style of work and reputation that made him the ideal choice to create a piece of art which would capture the attention of the public, while focusing on a link with the center's past.

Russell Faxon's website: www.russfaxon.com

Art Centers & Theatres

Baillet Sisters

During the aftermath of the Civil War, Jennie, Emma and Affa Baillet accompanied their parents on a journey from Cattaraugus County, New York, to their new home in Tullahoma.

When the sisters arrived in 1868, Tullahoma was a small southern town in the midst of Reconstruction. Founded in 1852 on the Nashville-Chattanooga Railroad, it had been a strategic location during the war and served as the headquarters and main supply depot for the Army of Tennessee in 1863. It was later occupied by Northern forces and placed under military law.

The Baillet sisters quickly adapted to their new surroundings, became prominent members of the community and opened a millinery shop, one of the first businesses in town owned by women. Accomplished artists, the sisters also assisted the family in creating a striking Italianate home with many unique interior design features. Located near the railroad at 401 South Jackson Street, the two-story brick house is one of the oldest structures in Tullahoma.

Art played a vital role in the Baillet sisters’ lives, being one of the few acceptable activities for women in the nineteenth century. Their original art works were often given to friends as gifts. Some of these paintings are part of center's permanent collection. In addition to art, according to contemporary newspaper accounts, the sisters were deeply involved in “political affairs, public reforms and progressive movements of all kinds.” And they were well respected for their “many deeds of charity.” Among the many causes championed by the Baillets were those of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and the Equal Suffrage League. Never marrying, the sisters lived together in the Baillet home until the last sister’s death in 1934.

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