Fisk University is the cultural heart of historically Black Nashville: founded in 1866 to educate the recently emancipated, the university gave the world the Fisk Jubilee Singers, whose 1870s concerts of spirituals introduced the form to Europe and the United States. Jubilee Hall, the 1876 Victorian Gothic landmark, was funded by their tours and is the oldest permanent structure built for the education of Black Americans in the country.
The Carl Van Vechten Gallery in the historic Fisk Library holds half of the famous Stieglitz Collection — Picasso, Renoir, Cézanne, O'Keeffe — and is open to the public on weekdays. Check ahead for opening hours. The campus is small but rewarding; visit on the same trip as the Ryman, which is less than two miles south-east.