See what’s going on at the Frist during the dates you are planning to visit.

Exhibitions

A Landmark Repurposed: From Post Office to Art Museum

Jan 8, 2021–Feb 27, 2022
Celebrating the Frist Art Museum’s 20th anniversary, this reimagined exhibition highlights the landmark building’s role as a civic institution, from its creation as Nashville’s main post office in 1934 to its reopening as a museum on April 8, 2001. Read More

Designing the New: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow Style

Jun 11–Sep 12, 2021
At the end of the nineteenth century, the Glasgow Style emerged as the major manifestation of Art Nouveau in Britain. This exhibition showcases Charles Rennie Mackintosh—the greatest exponent of the Glasgow Style—as an architect, designer, and artist, and contextualizes his production within a larger circle of designers and craftspeople in… Read More

Bethany Collins: Evensong

Jun 11–Sep 12, 2021
Chicago-based artist Bethany Collins (b. 1984) explores the intersection of language and race in her conceptually driven practice. She alters existing documents—such as the daily Birmingham News from 1963 or the U.S. Department of Justice’s report on the Ferguson, Missouri, police department—to critique the truthfulness and completeness of the official record. Since 2016, Collins… Read More

Teens Take the Frist!

Jun 18–Sep 5, 2021
Prompted by our vision of inspiring people through art to look at their world in new ways, the Frist Art Museum invited teens to submit their artwork for this third edition of Teens Take the Frist! The resulting selection features more than 180 artworks in a variety of mediums—including over… Read More

Kara Walker: Cut to the Quick
From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation

Jul 23–Oct 10, 2021
A leading artist of her generation, Kara Walker (b. 1969) works in a range of mediums, including prints, drawings, paintings, sculpture, film, and the large-scale silhouette cutouts for which she is perhaps most recognized. Her powerful and provocative images employ contradictions to critique the painful legacies of slavery, sexism, violence, imperialism, and other power structures, including those in the history and hierarchies of art and contemporary culture. Read More

American Art Deco: Designing for the People, 1918–1939

Oct 8, 2021–Jan 2, 2022
Appropriately presented within the Frist’s own art deco interior during the museum’s 20th-anniversary year, this exhibition offers an overview of an international style that manifested stateside in decorative arts, fine arts, architecture, and design during the 1920s and 1930s. Read More

Mary Sibande:
Blue Purple Red

Oct 8, 2021–Jan 2, 2022
Johannesburg-based Mary Sibande creates hyperrealistic figurative sculptures, photographs, and virtual reality installations that address inequities of race, gender, politics, and economics in postcolonial South Africa. Read More

Medieval Bologna:
Art for a University City

Nov 5, 2021–Jan 30, 2022
This is the first museum exhibition in the United States to focus on medieval art made in the northern Italian city of Bologna. Home to the oldest university in Europe, Bologna fostered a unique artistic culture at the end of the Middle Ages. With its large population of sophisticated readers,… Read More

On the Horizon: Contemporary Cuban Art from the Pérez Art Museum Miami Collection

Jan 28–May 1, 2022
On the Horizon: Contemporary Cuban Art from the Pérez Art Museum Miami Collection features approximately seventy works by fifty Cuban artists of multiple generations, including María Magdalena Campos-Pons (currently a professor at Nashville’s Vanderbilt University), Yoan Capote, Los Carpinteros, Teresita Fernández, and Zilia Sánchez. Through paintings, photographs, sculptures, videos, and… Read More

LeXander Bryant: Forget Me Nots

Jan 28–May 1, 2022
Nashville-based artist LeXander Bryant’s debut solo museum exhibition Forget Me Nots addresses themes of perseverance amid adversity, family struc­tures and bonds, economic inequality, community activism, and more. The centerpiece of this multimedia exhibition is a suspended cracked concrete slab out of which blue forget-me-not flowers bloom. The installation references the… Read More

Alma W. Thomas:
Everything Is Beautiful

Feb 25–Jun 5, 2022
Alma W. Thomas: Everything Is Beautiful provides a comprehensive overview of the artist’s long life (1891–1978) with more than one hundred works, including her rarely seen theatrical designs and beloved abstract paintings. The exhibition will demonstrate how her artistic practices extended to every facet of her life—from community service and… Read More

Nashville Art Teachers:
Beyond the Classroom

Mar 4–Aug 28, 2022
This juried exhibition salutes the heroic efforts of teachers during the challenging circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. It features the work of elementary, middle, and high school art teachers working in Davidson County and is presented concurrently with Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful. Thomas (1891–1978), the first African American woman to… Read More

Light, Space, Surface:
Southern California Art from LACMA’s Collection

Jun 3–Sep 6, 2022
This exhibition includes sculptures, paintings, and immersive and experiential installations by a loose-knit group of artists working in Southern California from the 1960s to the present. The renowned “Light and Space” and “Finish Fetish” artists are united by an interest in manipulating the medium of light, projected or reflected, to… Read More

Knights in Armor

Jul 1–Oct 9, 2022
Knights in Armor showcases stunning examples of European arms and armor from the renowned collection of the Museo Stibbert in Florence, Italy. One hundred and thirty rare objects—including full suits of armor, mounted equestrian figures, helmets, swords, and other weaponry—tell the tale of the European knight from the Middle Ages… Read More

Weaving Splendor:
Treasures of Asian Textiles

Oct 7–Dec 31, 2022
Weaving Splendor: Treasures of Asian Textiles presents rarely seen Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and Persian costumes and textiles drawn from the renowned collection of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Made with fine materials, exemplary techniques, and stunning artistry, Asian luxury textiles were central to global trade. The extraordinary stories of these… Read More

Virginia Overton

Oct 7–Dec 31, 2022
This exhibition of outdoor and indoor sculptures by Virginia Overton, a Nashville-born, Brooklyn-based artist, is co-presented by Cheekwood Estate & Gardens and the Frist Art Museum. Though she has worked in New York City since the early 2000s, Overton maintains strong connections with Middle Tennessee, where her family has owned… Read More

Matthew Ritchie: A Garden in the Flood

Nov 11, 2022–Mar 5, 2023
Renowned transmedia artist Matthew Ritchie invites viewers to experience the richness and fragility of the world by connecting such fields as philosophy and mythology, epic poetry and science fiction, and history and physics. This exhibition’s interweaving of paradise and chaos offers a meditation on art’s capacity to help overcome our… Read More

Events

Frist at Home: Architecture

Thursday, August 5, 1:30–2:00 p.m.

Presented on Zoom; registration required

Join us wherever you are for a Frist at Home tour—a closer look at the architecture of our building. Read More
Register

Performance: Nashville Pipes and Drums

Saturday, August 7, 10:00 a.m.–3:15 p.m.

Frist Art Museum Turner Courtyard; free

Listen to the sounds of Scotland and learn more about its rich cultural heritage during this day of performances in the Turner Courtyard. Inspired by the exhibition Designing the New: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow Style, Nashville Pipes and Drums will present fifteen-minute performances at the top of each… Read More

Vaccination Day

Saturday, August 7, 10:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.

Frist Café

The Metro Public Health Department will be on-site at the Frist Art Museum providing COVID-19 vaccines from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 7. Both the two-dose Pfizer vaccine and the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be available. There is no cost to get vaccinated, and… Read More

Architecture Tour

Saturday, August 7, 4:30–5:30 p.m.

Meet in the Grand Lobby; no reservations necessary

Offered every Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
When was the Frist Art Museum built? Who was the architect? Can you tell me about the floors in the galleries? Enjoy a guided tour of our landmark art deco building at 4:30 p.m. every Saturday. Read More

Educator workshop
Kara Walker: Cut to the Quick

Thursday, August 12, 9:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m.

Upper-Level Galleries and Studios; registration required

During this workshop, explore the nuances of Kara Walker: Cut to the Quick, from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation. Participate in a tour, spend time on your own in the galleries, receive teaching materials, discuss curriculum connections, and participate in art-making activities. Read More

Frist at Home: Designing the New: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow Style

Thursday, August 12, 1:30–2:00 p.m.

Presented on Zoom; registration required

Join us wherever you are for a Frist at Home online tour—a closer look at some of the art currently at the museum. Spend thirty minutes in the company of our docents and other art lovers. This conversation will focus on Designing the New: Charles Rennie Mackintosh… Read More
Register

Architecture Tour

Saturday, August 14, 4:30–5:30 p.m.

Meet in the Grand Lobby; no reservations necessary

Offered every Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
When was the Frist Art Museum built? Who was the architect? Can you tell me about the floors in the galleries? Enjoy a guided tour of our landmark art deco building at 4:30 p.m. every Saturday. Read More

Frist at Home: Architecture

Thursday, August 19, 1:30–2:00 p.m.

Presented on Zoom; registration required

Join us wherever you are for a Frist at Home tour—a closer look at the architecture of our building. Read More
Register

Sensory Dreams, Sated: A tasting inspired by Kara Walker

Saturday, August 21, 3:00–5:00 p.m.

Frist Art Museum Auditorium; $50 members; $60 not-yet-members (gallery admission, parking validation, and tasting included).

THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT

Join Chef Keshia M. Hay of Sip N Bite for an edible interpretation of the works of Kara Walker. This program will begin with a visit to the exhibition Kara Walker: Cut to the Quick, from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, followed by a three-course tasting with drink pairings by Perfectly Cordial. Read More

Architecture Tour

Saturday, August 21, 4:30–5:30 p.m.

Meet in the Grand Lobby; no reservations necessary

Offered every Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
When was the Frist Art Museum built? Who was the architect? Can you tell me about the floors in the galleries? Enjoy a guided tour of our landmark art deco building at 4:30 p.m. every Saturday. Read More

Frist at Home: Designing the New: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow Style

Thursday, August 26, 1:30–2:00 p.m.

Presented on Zoom; registration required

Join us wherever you are for a Frist at Home online tour—a closer look at some of the art currently at the museum. Spend thirty minutes in the company of our docents and other art lovers. This conversation will focus on Designing the New: Charles Rennie Mackintosh… Read More
Register

Architecture Tour

Saturday, August 28, 4:30–5:30 p.m.

Meet in the Grand Lobby; no reservations necessary

Offered every Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
When was the Frist Art Museum built? Who was the architect? Can you tell me about the floors in the galleries? Enjoy a guided tour of our landmark art deco building at 4:30 p.m. every Saturday. Read More

Frist at Home: Architecture

Thursday, September 2, 1:30–2:00 p.m.

Presented on Zoom; registration required

Join us wherever you are for a Frist at Home tour—a closer look at the architecture of our building. Read More
Register

Frist at Home: Designing the New: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow Style

Thursday, September 9, 1:30–2:00 p.m.

Presented on Zoom; registration required

Join us wherever you are for a Frist at Home online tour—a closer look at some of the art currently at the museum. Spend thirty minutes in the company of our docents and other art lovers. This conversation will focus on Designing the New: Charles Rennie Mackintosh… Read More
Register

Teach-In: Ka I ros

Saturday, September 11, 1:00–2:00 p.m.

Frist Art Museum Auditorium
Free; first come, first seated. Space is limited.

Join Dr. Juan Floyd-Thomas and Dr. Stacey Floyd-Thomas for a teach-in, presented in conjunction with Kara Walker: Cut to the Quick, from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation. Read More

Performance
"The Star Spangled Banner"

Sunday, September 12, 3:00–3:30 p.m.

Gordon Contemporary Artists Project Gallery
Free to members; gallery admission required for not-yet-members

Bologna Redux: A Fresh Look at the Beginnings of Legal Manuscript Illumination

Thursday, November 11, 6:00–7:00 p.m.

Auditorium
Free; first come, first seated. Reception to follow.

In this lecture, Dr. Susan L’Engle takes us on a journey of how she first became interested in legal manuscript illumination and the avenues of research that she has since pursued as she seeks to understand medieval legal iconography, the ways scribes and artists worked in service to Bologna’s university, and how students in this period engaged with texts and images in the classroom as they learned and memorized the law. Read More
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