Tennessee Voices, Episode 350: Tim Ozgener, Oz Arts and Ozgener Family Cigars
Among the cultural gems in Nashville, Tennessee is a former cigar business warehouse turned center for the performing and visual arts on the west side of town near the John C. Tune Airport.
OZ Arts opened in 2013 as a gift to the city from the Turkish-Armenian Ozgener family who had resided in Music City since the 1960s.
On this episode of the Tennessee Voices video podcast, OZ Arts co-founder and CEO Tim Ozgener spoke about the center, his family's legacy and his relatively new venture as owner of Ozgener Family Cigars, a return to the family business.
His immigrant parents met in New York City and worked hard to achieve their higher education. He was born in Nashville, but his family would take him to Turkey and he learned about how his father's ancestors were killed in the genocide in Armenia.
The vision for OZ Arts was inspired by Art Basel in Miami, which transformed the Florida city.
We talked about lessons learned from the pandemic, which Ozgener said was a time of introspection.
Ozgener also shared his thoughts on the growth of Nashville.
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About Tennessee Voices
The Tennessee Voices videocast is a 20-minute program, which started in March 2020 and invites leaders, thinkers and innovators who have written guest columns for a USA TODAY Network Tennessee publication to share their insights and wisdom with me and our viewers.
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Please email your ideas for future guests to me at dplazas@tennessean.com. Thank you for watching.
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David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network - Tennessee. He is of Colombian and Cuban descent, has studied or worked in several Spanish-speaking countries, and was the founding editor of Gaceta Tropical in Southwest Florida. He has lived in Tennessee since 2014. Call him at (615) 259-8063, email him at dplazas@tennessean.com or tweet to him at @davidplazas.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Video podcast: Tim Ozgener, Oz Arts and Ozgener Family Cigars
