Nashville's many pikes connect communities throughout Middle Tennessee, but they also connect Nashville's present to its past: Some of these roadways were likely Native American trails before European settlers arrived. In the 1800s, decades before interstate highways, they were privately-owned toll roads.

Like spokes of a wheel, the major pikes stretch out from downtown and run through some of Nashville's busiest and most diverse neighborhoods. The Pikes Project pictures them as they're experienced today by busy commuters and pedestrians who might discover unexpected beauty in the pikes' chromatic, crisp and chaotic, visual rhythms and rhymes.

Pikes Project I is a multimedia art exhibition curated by Joe Nolan to celebrate Nashville's pikes and the communities they connect. The show includes photographs by Joe Nolan, paintings by Zeitgeist artist Brady Haston and a pike-centric video installation by Those Drones (Brian Siskind). The exhibition also features a digital display where gallerygoers can swipe through all of the #pikesproject images @PikesProject on Instagram before stepping outside onto Gallatin Pike to instantaneously add images of their own.

This exhibition and the #pikesproject campaign are an extension of the original Pikes Project photo essays and poetry broadcasts for WPLN Nashville Public Radio. The Instagram campaign and exhibition are funded in part by a THRIVE Award from Metro Nashville Arts Commission.