Future Exhibitions

People milling about buying and selling vegetables and tables set up in a park like setting in a city

Farm to Table: Art, Food, and Identity in the Age of Impressionism

Jan 31–May 4, 2025
Farm to Table: Art, Food, and Identity in the Age of Impressionism explores the intersections of art, gastronomy, and national identity in late 19th-century France. Beginning with the 1870 Prussian siege of Paris and the resultant food crisis and continuing through the 1890s, Farm to Table showcases the work of… Read More
Older woman standing in a cabbage patch resting her hands on the top of a hoe

Tennessee Harvest: 1870s–1920s

Jan 31–May 4, 2025
Tennessee Harvest focuses on 19th- and early 20th-century painters taking both realist and impressionist approaches to the depiction of food and its cultivation in the state. A companion show to Farm to Table: Art, Food, and Identity in the Age of Impressionism, this exhibition shows how artists like Lloyd… Read More
Dark figure emerging from its skin

M. Florine Démosthène
and Didier William: What the Body Carries

Jan 31–May 4, 2025
This exhibition of Haitian American artists M. Florine Démosthène and Didier William—both featured in the Frist Art Museum’s 2023 group show Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage—examines the capacity of immigrant bodies to recall a homeland while also reflecting a new, hybrid existence. Through a selection of figurative… Read More
Abstract painting with vertical bars and paint strokes in a variety of colors on a dark background

David C. Driskell & Friends: Creativity, Collaboration, and Friendship

Mar 14–Jun 1, 2025
David C. Driskell & Friends: Creativity, Collaboration, and Friendship highlights the artistic legacy of David C. Driskell and the importance of his relationships with fellow artists—many of whom hold a significant place in the 20th-century art canon. In 1976, Driskell curated the groundbreaking exhibition Two Centuries of Black American Art: 1750–1950, which… Read More
African American boy sitting in front of a large tree with sunflowers blooming all around him.

Kindred Spirits: Intergenerational Forms of Expression, 1966–1999

Mar 14–Jun 1, 2025
1966 marked the centennial year of Fisk University, the oldest institution for higher learning in Nashville, Tennessee. It also represented a moment of transition after the retirement of Aaron Douglas, founder and chair of Fisk’s Art Department and a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance. The appointment of David C. Read More
Two Burmese gardeners harvest produce

Enough to Go Around: Food and Community in Nashville

Mar 21–Jun 29, 2025
The USDA estimates that 30 to 40 percent of the food supply in the United States is wasted, but changes can be made to decrease waste and make nutritious food available for everyone. Nashville area artists are invited to submit for consideration art that explores topics of food justice,… Read More
Man posed looking to the side waring an intricate gold robe with large round gold buttons and matching gold hat.

Venice and the Ottoman Empire

May 31–Sep 1, 2025
This ambitious cross-cultural exhibition explores the relationship between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire, two rival superpowers in the Mediterranean, over four centuries (1400–1800) and in multiple spheres: artistic, culinary, diplomatic, economic, political, and technological. The exhibition comes to a spectacular conclusion with a gallery dedicated to Mariano… Read More
Close up of a group of gourds of varying shapes and sizes

Ellen Altfest: Forever

May 31–Sep 1, 2025
American representational painter Ellen Altfest paints directly from observation, often working on a single painting over the course of months or years. In meticulously rendering the surface qualities of objects that she feels have been overlooked in art and life—from the rough textures of rocks and tree bark to expanses… Read More
Colorful quilt with pink peacock in the middle with flowers surrounding it.

Fabric of a Nation:
American Quilt Stories

Jun 27–Oct 12, 2025
Seen by many as a timeless, democratic art form, the quilt has evolved throughout United States history and continues to develop today. Made by a broadly under-recognized diversity of artistic hands and minds, the medium offers an opportunity to tell a rich and complicated story of our shared and contested… Read More
figure dressed in long strand of blue and pink jute like material with a tall painted wood mask with a beak like nose with two deer stacked on top

New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations

Oct 10, 2025–Jan 4, 2026
New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations highlights the stories of four contemporary masquerade artists, their motivations, artistic choices, and the patronage and economic networks with which they engage. Through the presentation of works of Chief Ekpenyong Bassey Nsa (Nigeria), David Sanou (Burkina Faso), Sheku “Goldenfinger” Fofanah (Sierra Leone), and Hervé… Read More