Art lovers, this is the weekend to visit the Frist Art Museum, before two notable exhibitions close on Sunday, May 1. Don’t miss your final opportunity to see LeXander Bryant: Forget Me Not and On the Horizon: Contemporary Cuban Art from the Pérez Art Museum Miami. This is also a good chance to see Alma Thomas: Everything Is Beautiful before it closes June 5.
Closing the Show: A Conversation with LeXander Bryant and Joshua Black takes place on Saturday, April 30, at 1:00 p.m. in the Frist Auditorium; free; first come, first seated. Join LeXander Bryant and comedian Joshua Black for a lively conversation about Bryant’s artistic practice and his first solo museum exhibition before Forget Me Nots closes.
Plan to see Nashville Art Teachers: Beyond the Classroom, which 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. Jurors narrowed over three hundred submissions from eighty teachers to this remarkable selection of thirty-three works, showcasing artists who are skilled in diverse media and emphasize a variety of themes. These artists share their observations, perceptions of the world around them, and personal stories through their art.
The exhibition is a companion to Alma W. Thomas: Everything Is Beautiful. Thomas (1891–1978) was an art teacher in a Washington, DC, public school for thirty-five years and became the first African American woman whose work was hung at the White House. By connecting these two exhibitions, we hope to underscore the importance of art teachers and celebrate their artistic contributions inside and outside the classroom. It runs through August 28 in Conte Community Arts Gallery
Be sure to mark your calendars now for Technology Inspiring Art: Alma W. Thomas’s Space Paintings, which will be on Thursday, May 12, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. by Zoom; free; registration required, presented by Billy Teets, PhD, director and resident astronomer, Dyer Observatory. During her lifetime, Alma W. Thomas witnessed historic milestones in space exploration such as the Apollo 11 moon landing, and she reflected on those events through her signature dabs of paint and expressive use of color. Join Billy Teets of Vanderbilt University’s Dyer Observatory to learn more about the NASA missions that inspired many of Thomas’s paintings featured in the exhibition Everything Is Beautiful.
Note that after the Cuban and LeXander Bryant shows close, the Museum will discount their adult admission to $10 (from $15) while they only have the Alma Thomas show open. Their next Ingram Gallery Show (Light, Space, Surface) opens on June 3, and once that show opens, tickets will be back to regular price. Bottom line, from May 5 through June 2, adult admission is $10 (and kids 18 and under are always free!).
Please consider supporting the Frist Art Museum with a donation. Your gift is essential to their mission of serving the community through the arts and art access in particular, and they truly appreciate your generosity. COMING SOON: Light, Space, Surface: Works from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, June 3 – September 4 AND Knights in Armor, July 1 – October 9.
