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As Nashville expands into a globally recognized city, it's easy to forget that a global feel canand shouldboomerang back the other way. Brooke Morgan is helping to bring an intentional, international effort to life with Nomad Collective, a global marketplace and a platform on which creative pairings can happen with just a little assistance.
The collective's online marketplace, which also sells locally at Wilder, features everything from wooden bowls handmade in Tanzania to kilim pillows out of Turkey. There are also Navajo rugs, art from French artists, and malachite jewelry from Peru. All of these items add up to what Morgan considers a home to be: 'a place to rest, to love, to create, and to be free”and a 'sanctuary as a storyteller.”
Morgan, who came to Nashville as a student athlete at Belmont University, planned to pursue social work but also always wanted to continue the legacy of her creative family (her mother is an artist). With this new retail outlet, she is able to connect the two.
'I found that I can be creative and help others simultaneously,” she says. 'I love working with creative people and connecting those who might otherwise be worlds apart. Nomad is a global collective that seeks to connect artists and artisans worldwide to the modern marketplace. We strive to promote collaborative efforts.”
Case in point: Morgan, whose light-filled, clean-lined, and minimal live/work space is located in East Nashville, connected Holly Powell of clothier JandHP with an artist who is handmaking textiles in Burkina Fasosomething that couldn't have been possible without modern technology. The balance between artisanal goods and technology, though, is still one she's trying to figure out, she admits.
'It's a paradox, really,” she says. 'I try to balance them both by being authentic with the story and aesthetic, no matter what the medium.” While Morgan is a purveyor of goods, she is careful to stress that the collective is, ultimately, 'not about things.”
'Yes, things are beautiful, but Nomad is first and foremost about the people behind these things,” she says. 'Being intentional about what we surround ourselves with is really important. I try to put people first.”