Judy Liff Barker

Judy Liff Barker is a distinguished arts patron, historian, and philanthropist whose lifelong commitment to culture and community has shaped Nashville’s civic and artistic landscape. Born in Northeastern Ohio, she holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan, an M.A. in history from Northeastern University in Boston, and completed all but dissertation (ABD) at Washington University in St. Louis. She has been the recipient of many distinguished awards including Nashvillian of the Year in 2004, along with publisher John Siegenthaler, the Tree of Life Award from the State of Tennessee for Outstanding Community Leadership in 1992, the YWCA Women of Achievement award in 2002, and, along with her husband, Joseph Barker, the National Opera Trustee Recognition Award in 2012.

Judy’s career began in public media, where she served as Director of Development for, WPLN, the Nashville affiliate of NPR (Nashville Public Radio). While She was perhaps best known for the nationally syndicated program “Riders Radio Theater” for which she and her two co-producers were presented with the coveted CPB Gold Award, she is equally proud of her leadership role in securing the station’s independence from city government. As she was an early and avid proponent of public-private support for the not-for-profit sector and anxious to insure the continuing viability of public radio in Nashville, she was responsible for the creation of the WPLN foundation which became the repository of private funding and, thus enabled the construction of a dedicated broadcast facility which continues in use to this day.

Building further on her success with public private partnerships, she became the driving force in the creation of the Nashville Public Library Foundation which was set up in similar fashion to the WPLN Foundation, and for the similar purpose of becoming a repository of private funding. Today, the public library of Nashville stands as one of the great Library repositories in the country.

Judy served on the Boards of both the WPLN and the Public Library foundation, as well as the governing boards of each for several years.

A founding board member of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, and subsequent chair, Judy served continuously as a board member from its inception until 2024, championing community philanthropy for decades. She has held influential roles on numerous boards including the Frist Art Museum and the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute for which she served as Chair for several years. She was the award recipient for her service by the state of Tennessee named after Senator Douglas Henry, who was the founder of the Institute.

Alongside, her late husband, Noah Liff, Judy played a pivotal role in supporting the Nashville Opera, she was a lead donor and sponsor of the Noah Liff Opera Center and currently serves as President of its board for this facility. She is also a permanent member of the Nashville Opera’s board of directors. An avid art collector and curator, Judy has built significant collections of contemporary, tribal, and indigenous art. Works from her collection have been exhibited at the Whitney Museum in New York, The American Art Museum of the Smithsonian, The Frist Museum, The Naples Museum of Art, and major Canadian institutions. Her ongoing work includes writing, research, and curation that reflect her passion for art, history, and cultural preservation.

Joseph N. Barker

Joe was born in Sandwich, Illinois, and is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Vanderbilt University School of Law. During the Vietnam war he served on active duty as a Captain in the United States Marine Corps, then returning to Nashville to practice commercial real estate and banking law for many years with the firm of Dearborn & Ewing. Together with Steve Turner and his son, JayTurner, in 2000 they formed a company, MarketStreet Enterprises, which became the developer of Nashville’s Gulch Project, a “NewUrban”, In-Fill, Mixed Use real estate development which revitalized the central business core of Nashville. Joe remains active in the Nashville community through service to a variety of philanthropic and community organizations. In addition to having served for many years on the boards of directors of the Nashville Opera, the Board of Overseers of the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College, and more recently, the American Friends of the Musee d’Orsay of Paris, France, he has served on the boards of directors of the Vanderbilt Eye Institute, Gilda’s Club, The Nashville Chamber of Commerce, the Nashville Downtown Partnership and the Three of Us Foundation. He also was elected and served for ten years as a Commissioner in Williamson County, Tennessee.

Joe continues to serve as a consultant to MarketStreet Enterprises and its family of companies and serves as the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the MarketStreet Management company which manages the daily operations of The Gulch Project. He also privately develops other real estate and consults on the development of a variety of other real estate projects in the Nashville, Tennessee market.

Joe and his wife, Judy Liff Barker, are avid art collectors. They have amassed major collections of a variety of genres of art and related crafts. Especially significant are their collections of Japanese wood block prints of the “Bijin ga” style bridging the years from the early 1700’s through the mid 1950’s, along with contemporary paintings, works on paper, textiles, photography, and glass. A recent addition to their collections is that of contemporary and traditional Native American and First Nation art of North America. Joe is himself an award winning photographer having had a show of his work at Belmont University, Nashville Tennessee and his works published by the National Geographic Society and the Bhutan Foundation.

Joe has received a variety of awards for his service to the community and his skill as a practicing attorney. He remains a member of the American College of Real Estate Attorneys and a Fellow of the Nashville Bar Foundation.

Noah Liff

Noah Liff was a pioneering entrepreneur and arts philanthropist whose legacy shaped Nashville’s cultural and business landscapes. Noah was born in a small northwestern Ohio town and grew up in Indiana. He earned a B.S. from the Indiana University, and in the post WWII years, went on to join his father in, what was then, a small family recycling business. With foresight, he recognized and embraced the bountiful opportunities of this newly burgeoning industry. Ultimately, he became the founder of the Southeast’s largest recycling conglomerate, and in the process, becoming a major advocate for sustainability and recycling long before they became global causes. In 1978, he was elected to the national presidency of ISIS (Institute of Scrap Iron and Steel). During Noah’s incumbency, and under his tutelage a major sculpture by Mark di Suvero of scrap iron and steel was dedicated by ISIS as a permanent legacy at the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC.

He would often say that “where others see broken glass, crumpled rebar, twisted copper tubing, textile remnants and old computer parts as society’s castoffs, I see a symphony of resources.”

He shared his prosperity with the Nashville community that he loved with an open heart and open mind. He was philanthropic in every way, with financial resources, personal time, leadership, creativity, and professional advice. He gave the original seed money for a women’s abuse center which was later incorporated into the YWCA programming. He worked with Catholic Charities to provide jobs for non-English-speaking immigrants and then set up English language classes for them during their working hours. For these efforts he was awarded the Crown of Thorns Award, thereby being the first non-Catholic in Nashville to be honored in this way.

He privately supported random needs of people unknown to him; a prosthesis for a man who regularly brought in broken glass for recycling or burial expenses for someone’s mother, or rent, or food or clothing. He paid for neighborhood soccer teams to have shirts, shoes, and transportation in disadvantaged neighborhoods and on and on. He did all this and more, much more.

An announcement in 1991 that he was a recipient of the National Conference of Christians and Jews (seeking to promote a society free of prejudice) Humanities award, began with this statement: “Liff has made a career out of public and community service. He launched a comprehensive recycling effort in Nashville through area schools, churches, synagogues, and neighborhoods.” Noah was recognized as an excellent strategist and problem solver, and consequently, held leadership roles in seemingly disparate organizations such as The Metro Arts Commission, Metro Action Commission, United Way, Rotary Club, The Rape and Sexual Abuse Center, The Nashville Symphony. For these and many other things The Community Foundation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee awarded him the Joe Kraft Award in 2000.

Most especially, he loved the arts. A passionate supporter of the Nashville Opera, Noah envisioned and inspired the creation of the Noah Liff Opera Center, a hub for performance, production, and community engagement.

He did all this in many ways; publicly, privately, silently, confidently and with passion.

Known for his generosity, hands-on leadership, and enduring vision, Noah’s influence continues through the institutions he helped build and the ideals he lived by.

Contact

Address
808 Broadway
P.0. Box 23830
Nashville, TN 37202