Be Still My Beating Art

I love this town. Nashville’s a vibrant city with so much to see and do. And one of those things you need to do? Take a trip to the Frist Art Museum.

Located in the heart of downtown, the Frist is a stunning example of art deco architecture. Built in 1933 and renovated in 2001, this incredible historic building features an impressive grand lobby, high ceilings, and intricate details.

That alone is nearly reason enough to visit, but then there's the art (of course), which rotates out on the regular. Right now, the museum is showing three fascinating exhibitions: Jeffrey Gibson's The Body Electric, Otobong Nkanga's Gently Basking in Debris, and Matthew Ritchie's A Garden in the Flood.

Gibson is a world-renowned multi-disciplinary artist who mixes modern visuals with traditional Indigenous arts and cultures. His work has been featured in museums around the world and won numerous awards. And now it’s right here in Music City!

Nkanga's striking paintings, tapestries, videos, and sculptures explore connections between geography, nature, and the human body—all with her signature blend of realism and abstraction.

The Frist website says Ritchie's exhibition "features dramatic paintings, an architectural structure, and hallucinatory animations, some made through artificial intelligence." There's even a video element featuring Grammy award–winning Fisk Jubilee Singers.

As if all this wasn’t enough, the Frist Art Museum also hosts various events. Right now the Frist After Five offers up a great way to experience and celebrate the vibrant culture and art of the Black community. Every Thursday evening in February.

For your visit, you can buy tickets in person or online (though buying online for a set entry time is always how I roll). Oh, and everyone 18 and younger gets in free. (I’ll have to dedicate a whole email to my favorite spots to take the kids. This is totally one of them.)

Great tunes aren’t the only artform we’ve got in Music City. Get yourself to the First and see for yourself!

Hey, if you’ve already been to this spot, what exhibition was showing—and what did you think? Tell me all about it! I’d love to hear.