Frist Center for the Visual Arts

Frist Center for the Visual Arts
Nashville's Art-Deco style Frist Center was originally the city's main post office building
Established	2001
Location	919 Broadway Nashville, TN 37203 (United States)
Type	Art Center, Art museum
Director	Susan H. Edwards
Website	Frist Center for the Visual Arts
US Post Office
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location:	901 Broadway, Nashville, Tennessee
Coordinates:	36°9′28″N 86°47′2″W
Area:	2.5 acres (1.0 ha)
Built:	1932
Architect:	Marr & Holman
Architectural style:	Moderne, Art Deco
Governing body:	U.S. POSTAL SERVICE
MPS:	Marr and Holman Buildings in Downtown Nashville TR (AD)
NRHP Reference#:	84000580
Added to NRHP:	November 15, 1984

The Frist Center for the Visual Arts is an art museum in Nashville, Tennessee.

History

The museum is housed in what used to be the main post office designed by Marr & Holman Architects for the city of Nashville, which had been built in 1933-34 near Union Station, since most mail at that time was moved by train. As the city grew, the need for a more up-to-date main facility was obvious. When a new main post office was built in 1986, the historic old facility became a downtown branch using only a small portion of one floor.

In the early 1990s Thomas F. Frist, Jr., and his family, through the charitable Frist Foundation, took up the task of converting the old post office into an art museum. They implemented an interesting public/private venture between the Frist Foundation, the U.S. Postal Service, and the city of Nashville. The museum opened in April 2001.

In 1999 the City of Nashville took ownership of the building from the U.S. Postal Service for the purpose of creating the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. A renovated post office branch was opened in the basement in 1999.

The art center consists of approximately 24,000 square feet (2,200 m²) of gallery space, used to present visual art from local, state and regional artists, as well as major U.S. and international exhibitions.

Exhibitions

As a non-collecting museum, the Frist Center does not have a permanent collection in the truest sense; rather, the museum focuses on creating exhibitions as well securing travelling exhibitions from around the country and the world.

Current schedule:

A Divine Light: Northern Renaissance Paintings from the Bob Jones University Museum & Gallery Closing February 5, 2012

A Divine Light: Northern Renaissance Paintings from the Bob Jones University Museum & Gallery and its accompanying catalogue, which have been awarded financial support from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, presents twenty-eight works of art from one of the finest collections of Old Master paintings in the United States. These paintings were acquired by Dr. Bob Jones, Jr., for the art museum he founded in 1951 at Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC.

The great Baroque holdings of the museum have long overshadowed other parts of the collection, and A Divine Light marks the first time that its beautiful Northern Renaissance paintings have been the sole focus of an exhibition. A Divine Light is designed as intimate encounter with the devotional art of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and explores the ways in which Northern Renaissance artists expressed the central mysteries of the Christian faith through setting, pose, gesture, and the objects of everyday life.

Four of the paintings have undergone conservation treatment prior to their presentation in Nashville.

Tracey Snelling's "Woman on the Run" Closing February 5, 2012

Tracey Snelling’s sculptures of rundown buildings on the outskirts of town show a keen sensitivity to the psychological tensions and hidden narratives of ordinary life. “Woman on the Run”—the artist’s most ambitious work to date—is composed of nearly life-sized facades, cardboard cutouts, comic strips, photographs, signs, and videos, accompanied by a soundtrack. The installation creates a cinematic setting for a classic whodunit. Casting herself in the starring role, Snelling plays Veronica Hayden, a woman sought for questioning by the police after her dark and shady husband Victor turns up missing. She flees the scene and begins assuming a series of new identities while drinking in dive bars and checking in and out of roadside motels, all the while looking over her shoulder and hiding behind a leopard-print scarf, wig, and sunglasses.

Snelling refers to her work as three-dimensional storytelling, and at the heart of it is a motel room we can enter. Clues strewn haphazardly around the room suggest Veronica has recently stayed there. Like detectives, we try to imagine and piece together her identity from her belongings and the mess she has left behind. Has she committed a crime, or is there more to the story than we will ever know? Snelling’s narrative leaves out as much as it leaves in, so that our own experiences and assumptions give it shape.

Connecting Cultures: Children's Stories from Across the World April 15, 2011–March 27, 2012

In 2010, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts partnered with ten Nashville organizations that represent cultures from around the world. The goal was to create an exhibition of artworks depicting the children’s stories of different traditions. Ten artists and the Frist Center’s community outreach team led workshops in which the artworks on view in this gallery were created. Connecting Cultures: Children’s Stories from Across the World begins with the premise that the stories of children simultaneously reflect unique cultural values as well as perspectives that are shared by people worldwide.

All the artworks were created by an intergenerational group of more than two hundred participants. With the guidance of the lead artists, participants acquired and developed skills relating to composition, visual storytelling, and ways of using visual art techniques as a way of reflecting and interpreting narrative stories. It was interesting to discover that even within the same culture there were often diverse interpretations of a single story, often leading to strong discussions amongst the participants. The artworks created for this exhibition are as diverse as the communities, participants, and stories themselves.

Boaz Vaadia Sculpture

Asa & Yehoshafat, a work by New-York based sculptor Boaz Vaadia, is installed near the Demonbreun Street entrance to the Frist Center. Born in Israel in 1951 and raised on a farm where he developed a deep love for the earth, Vaadia creates works in stone and bronze which celebrate the spiritual connection between humanity and nature.

Education

A primary goal of the center is in supporting arts education. The center provides services such as teacher education, summer arts camps, community outreach programs, and various other programs designed to further arts education.

As soon as visitors approach the Upper Level of the Frist Center, they can hear the lively sounds of visitors having… fun in the award-winning Martin ArtQuest Gallery, the Frist Center’s colorful interactive space. Often called the heart and soul of the Frist Center, ArtQuest’s hands-on stations invite visitors to become artists as they learn. Visitors of all ages are invited and encouraged to create prints and collages, paint and sketch, or learn about photography, architecture, and the essentials of art, including depth, color, light, and perspective. The activities at the stations change as the Frist Center’s exhibitions change, so there is always something new to try.

The Martin ArtQuest Gallery is not just for kids. Everyone is welcome to come in and learn about and make art. It’s not at all unusual to see a grandparent, parent and child all participating in the same engaging activity.

External links

• Official Web Site