Hold the Mayo!

Tennessee Crossroads will feature an unlikely collection of cheeseburger art assembled by Nashville vocal coach Renee Grant-Williams. Produced by Susan Watson, Ken Simington, and Mike King of WNPT, Nashville’s public broadcasting system (PBS) affiliate, the segment will air Thursday evening, December 29 at 7:00 P.M. and repeat Sunday morning, January 1 at 10:00 A.M. The viewing area is Tennessee and its bordering states.

The collection includes cheeseburger jewelry, pet toys, kitchenware, a wooden burger purse, delicate burgers crafted by Limoges, a burger cake pan, burger computer gear, three very different miniature tea sets shaped like burgers, cups, glasses, hats—hundreds of different renderings. There seem to be few limits to the imagination where cheeseburger art is concerned. “The word ‘art’ is kind of a reach,” says Grant-Williams, “I often wonder who thinks this stuff up. And what they’re thinking up now.”

Many of the cheeseburgers in Grant-Williams’ collection have been found and sent to her by celebrity students on tour, with the Dixie Chicks topping the list of the most contributed. One large quadruple-decker ceramic bank burger sat on Jimmy Buffet’s desk for 5 years.

How did this collection get started, you might wonder? “I wanted to collect Picassos,” she says, “but couldn’t afford them.”

Grant-Williams coaches business executives, sales professionals and celebrities including Faith Hill, the Dixie Chicks, Tim McGraw, Linda Ronstadt, Randy Travis and Huey Lewis. She presents communication programs to business organizations and has been quoted by Business Week, Cosmopolitan, AP, UPI, TV Guide, Southern Living, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe and the San Francisco Chronicle. She has appeared on numerous broadcast outlets including ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS, Bravo, USA, MTV, GAC, NPR. Grant-Williams is a former instructor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as well as the former director of the Division of Vocal Music at the University of California, Berkeley.