Family Fun at the Frist!

Located in the heart of downtown Nashville, the Frist is a world-class art museum presenting an ever-changing schedule of exhibitions and offering something for everyone—from toddlers to teens and grown-ups too.

Families especially love the award-winning Martin ArtQuest, a hands-on creative space filled with interactive art-making stations where you can make your own masterpieces.

Venice and the Ottoman Empire invites us on a journey to the Mediterranean Sea between 1400 and 1800. During this period, Venice—an astonishing city built on hundreds of small islands off the coast of northeast Italy—stood at the crossroads of a vast trade network connecting Africa, Asia, and Europe. To maintain its status as an international emporium, with markets full of spices, ceramics, metalwork, textiles, and other goods, Venice acquired overseas territories to its east and cultivated close ties with the Ottomans, whose empire became the wealthiest and most powerful in the Eastern Mediterranean after their conquest of Constantinople in 1453 and widespread expansion in the sixteenth century.

With their scrupulously rendered detail, unlikely juxtapositions, and tightly woven compositions, Ellen Altfest’s paintings comprise an intimate poetry of the everyday. This exhibition’s title is inspired by Emily Dickinson’s line “Forever – is composed of Nows,” an encouragement to live fully in the present. Turning inward, away from the noise, distractions, and inattentiveness that characterizes much of contemporary experience, Altfest’s work reinforces the importance of mindfulness both for the viewer and herself.

Celebrating aesthetic and technical achievements while also exploring the lives of quilters, Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston features nearly 50 remarkable examples of quilts and coverlets made from the 18th century up to 2021, presented in groups devoted to themes such as “Unseen Hands,” “Modern Myths,” and “Making a Difference.” Quilts and coverlets made by Americans of European ancestry are shown with those created by Black and Indigenous Americans. Comparative examples from Britain and India invite a broader understanding of five centuries of global textile production and trade.