Nashville for Free

Maybe it’s because my brother is an artist, but I am all about supporting local artists. There are a lot of them, many of them are incredibly talented, and you know what? Their job isn’t easy. Some people would say that an artist is lucky if he or she can pursue art full-time and make a living on it.

A dozen graphic design seniors at Watkins would disagree. The title of their senior art show is No Dumb Luck with the tagline, “Good fortune is found where talent and hard work meet opportunity.” Well, I certainly wouldn’t dare to disagree with that.

The show is this Friday, April 29th at Houston Station from 6-9pm and is free and open to the public. Come check out the art from new artists, enjoy some free refreshments, and if you see something that strikes your fancy, buy some art!

-Emily

They grow up so fast! Holy crap guys, can you believe that it’s the Frist Center’s 10th birthday already? I know I can’t, but when they opened I was 11 years old and living in Ohio, so I sort of missed out on most of its youth. But still, 10 years is quite the wonderful achievement and Nashville’s biggest (and really, only) art museum is celebrating by having a party for all of its friends. That’s right, this Friday and Saturday you’re all invited to experience the Frist Center for free!

Today it’s just a regular museum day, but if you can only head over after you get off work you might want to consider hanging in the lobby for a bit and listening to the bluegrassy sounds of Belmont’s Bluegrass Ensemble.

Saturday is a little more packed with events and will, presumably, be a little more packed with people. There will be different artsy-crafty stations all over the museum; perfect for kids or the lovable artistic soul in you.

But what’s there to see at the Frist? Right now you can see:

• Vishnu: Hinduism’s Blue-Skinned Savior
• William Eggleston: Anointing the Overlooked
• Simen Johan: Until the Kingdom Comes
• Hindu Home Shrines: Creating Space for Personal Contemplations
• Young Tennessee Artists: 2010 Statewide Advanced Placement Studio Art
• Boaz Vaadia Sculpture

I guess that this awesome free admission thing means we’re going to have to go easy on you for not getting a birthday cake, eh Frist Center?

-Emily

Alright, y’all ready to get krrrazy?! Not even kidding, Art After Hours is basically the equivalent of a rave for fine arts. All the hottest galleries around town are staying open extra, extra late (5 – 8pm) for all of you party-holics, and they’re sure to celebrate with some special events, food and/or drink and even some new openings. This is Nashville’s finer culture at it’s best, and just a great opportunity to engage with a remarkably impressive community while the sun sets.

Art After Hours, presented by the Nashville Association of Art Dealers, takes place all around town with several prominent galleries, including, but not limited to: Cumberland Gallery (Green Hills), Gallery One (Belle Meade Galleria), LeQuire Gallery (Charlotte Avenue/Green Hills), Local Color (on Broadway), Midtown Gallery (on Broadway), Zeitgeist (Hillsboro Village), Bennett Galleries (Green Hills), Richland Fine Art (Green Hills), and Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery. Emily suggests checking out the Arcade downtown or Hillsboro Village for some art crawl fare, but I also want to highlight a very special event going on at Belmont University’s Lou Center for the Visual Arts.

A special exhibition, “Quick Read, Message Received: The Poster as a Vehicle for Social Commentary” from Nashvillian Kristina Graham has been on display for several weeks now, and her closing reception will be a part of this months Art After Hours event. In addition to a series of works by Graham, the exhibition also features celebrated artists Milton Glaser, Luba Lukova, Kelsey Freeman, Favianna Rodriguez and Jorge Arrietta. From Kristina’s artist statement: (more…)

The past two Fridays I’ve done something that I’ve (surprisingly) never done before in my three years in Nashville: I went to films at the Frist.

It’s not that the movies have never struck my fancy. It’s not even that I wasn’t sure I could find anyone to go with. I’ve just been lazy about my Friday nights. “Hey,” I would think to myself, “I’ll just get in on Netflix.”

But I never do get the movies on Netflix. Never. And just like that, I miss out on seeing a potentially really good movie and free popcorn because I’m lazy.

All that has changed, my friends. As I mentioned before Matt and I have been going to the Strangeness of the Ordinary film series there that celebrates directors who were inspired by the photography of William Eggleston, whose work they currently have on display. Last week they screened Blue Velvet and this week it was Drugstore Cowboy.

Now let’s talk about the experience. You sit in a room with a not-huge but not-small projection screen filled with folding chairs. You get free popcorn. You can grab a seat cushion from the Frist but I suggest you bring your own (that’s a story for another time). The crowd is enthusiastic and respectful, and the only cost to you is the $3 or so that you pay for parking if you use their lot. The only negative thing I could think of is that I thought that Blue Velvet was a little loud.

As for the movies themselves, I enjoyed both Blue Velvet and Drugstore Cowboy, but I favored the later. Blue Velvet was a good movie and it really got me going after awhile, but it was a little slow for me. I have to give the Frist credit for their choices though, they didn’t pick films that wouldn’t piss anyone off. All three of the movies in this series (Virgin Suicides is next) are messed up. There’s drugs, there’s sex, there’s violence, there’s general “oh my god what the hell is going on here” weirdness all over the place. I’m sure a few of their donors wouldn’t approve, but the Frist is an art museum, and damnit, they’re going to pick the films that are art, not the films that are bubblegum.

I applaud you, Frist Center, and I look forward to joining you next Friday at 7pm for a screening of The Virgin Suicides.

-Emily

According to their mission statement, Untitled Artist Group “provides community for artists, provides opportunities for artists to show their work, provides education for artists, and creates new audiences for the arts” all of which sound pretty fantastic to me.

I’m a pretty big fan of art, and though admittedly most of the art I’m a fan of is painted on the walls of churches in Florence, Italy, I’ll support anything that supports local artists.

It’s great to see a genuine art show. I love Art After Hours and First Saturday Art Crawl, but there’s a lot to be said for a one-night only art show for artists who aren’t in the galleries, who don’t necessarily have dealers behind them.

This Friday at Corsair Artisan Distillery from 6-10pm Untitled Artist Group will be having their winter show, titled Frozen Stiff. There will be street art, traditional art, sculpture, photography, performance art, an an ice carving sculpture by Matt Simonds, music from the band Whiskey Whiskey, a performance from Umbra A Shadi a local belly dance group and more. Oh yeah, there will also be cocktails and whatnot.

Most of the art at the show will be on sale, as well as smaller works by the artists in the show, which are great Christmas gifts for that artsy person in your life. Corsair Artisan Distillery is located in Marathon Village at 1200 Clinton Street in Nashville. This should be a great night of great art and cool people, so don’t miss it.

-Emily

Christmas is in the air, and Nashville hasn’t even turned the lights on its official tree yet! But that doesn’t matter, what does matter is the holiday spirit, and tonight Hillsboro Village will be full of it.

It’s the first Thursday of the month, which means it’s time for the Art After Hours art crawl. Now, N4F used to be all about hanging out in the Arcade, but lately we’ve been more into hanging out in Hillsboro Village, this month especially. There will be free cider from Fido, free Santa pics from Anna Robertson at Posh, a snowflake craft night at Clothing Exchange, $40 off one pair of glasses and $60 off the second pair at See, free “festive” food and drink at Bosco, free samples at Sweet G Treats, choirs caroling at Belmont Methodist Church, wine, cookies, milk, and all kinds of discounts at all kinds of stores, and more.

Possibly the biggest event, the Christmas prize to end all Hillsboro Village Art Crawl Christmas prizes is a HUGE gift basket giveaway with $500 worth of Hillsboro Village merch and gift cards. You can enter to win that at EVERY shop in the Village. Man, if you won that you would basically be king or queen of Hillsboro Village, and that would be amazing.

It might be cold tonight, but put on your winter coat, scarf, gloves, and hat and make your way down to the Hillsboro Village Art Walk. 5-8, y’all.

-Emily

I haven’t written a post about Art After Hours since they either changed publicists or got rid of them completely. So now I sadly don’t get a bunch of pretty pictures in my inbox that I can send along to you.

However, I still wanted to tell you all what’s up.

Art After Hours is a basically an art crawl. You walk or drive around to different art galleries, visualize what that awesome painting will look like above your TV, drink some free wine, socialize, and repeat. This happens every first Thursday of every month. It goes from 5-8pm and it’s always a lot of fun. Even I sometimes buy things when I go on art crawls.

So, where does this happen? The easy answer is “all over the city” but it’s mainly focused around the Arcade downtown and in Hillsboro Village. Here’s a list of some of the bigger galleries participating:

• Cumberland Gallery (Green Hills)
• Gallery One (Belle Meade Galleria) 
• LeQuire Gallery (Charlotte Avenue/Green Hills)
  
• Local Color (on Broadway) 
• Midtown Gallery (on Broadway) 
• Zeitgeist (Hillsboro Village) 

I would mostly just stroll around those areas. After all, art galleries tend to be grouped together. However, if you want a map of all the galleries, here it is!

Have fun, be safe, stay warm.

-Emily

In the past I’ve given a lot of attention to NAAD’s Art After Hours. For several months I wrote about a lot of the major galleries, most of which are downtown, and didn’t give much thought to the other smaller, individual communities.

Eventually I started getting emails about something called the Hillsoboro Village Art Walk that also took place on the first Thursday of every month. I figured I was just being told about the same event twice, but then I received some pictures of the event and realized that, though it was connected to Art After Hours, it was completely its own thing in Hillsboro Village.

As some of you know, I’ve spent a lot of time in the Belmont/Vanderbilt Area, and that of course includes Hillsboro Village, so I was surprised I’d never even heard of this before. Apparently I don’t get out as much as I like to think I do. I must fix that.

Judging from the pictures the Art Walk is so much more than free wine and a bunch of artists trying to sell you their stuff. It really is a community get-together. The pics I saw showed a really significant crowd of adults and children alike and live music everywhere. It looked like a lot of fun and I imagine is a great place to meet some cool people.

I don’t really want to just blindly give you some highlights of what will be happening because I honestly don’t know what the highlights are. I’m not familiar with many local artists. Anyway, I don’t think that’s the point of the Art Walk. I think that the idea is that you wander around and discover new things, and if I sat here and gave you a list of things to hit then what’s the point of it?

There’s one thing I will tell you though, Boscos is the featured local shop this month and they’ll be raffling off a prize bag with some Boscos swag, a free beer dinner, and a pair of hand-made glass earrings by featured artist Meredith Edmondson. So I say go and get yourself entered, then check out the rest of the festivities.

The Hillsboro Village Art Crawl is Thursday October 7th (and every first Thursday of the month) from 5-8pm.

Happy walking. I hope to see you there.

-Emily

FINER THINGS - Laughing Skeleton by Matthew Cox

By now I’m sure most of you know the drill. On the first Thursday of every month the art dealers in Nashville leave their galleries open late and give you free wine. You get to walk around and look at cool and not so cool artwork. You may even find something you want to buy, but it’s not just about buying stuff, it’s about enjoying local art with your community. The event takes place from 5-8pm. Here are some of the higlights.

• The Cumberland Gallery (Green Hills) presents Artist Interview: the irreverent Robert Durham. The second installment in an ongoing series, this event features a discussion with the long-time Nashville painter, in an interview format, exploring the theories and processes of his work.  The discussion will begin at 6:30PM. Gallery One (Belle Meade Galleria) will showcase several new works by figurative sculptor Chad Await, a third-generation wood carver with works in the collections of Disney, Caesar’s Palace, entertainer Usher, and the Alabama Supreme Court
• LeQuire Gallery (Charlotte Avenue) is hosting Finer Things Gallery with a special benefit event during its “on the road” tour. Many of the artists represented by Finer Things have donated their work to be sold and 100% of all sales of work by Finer Things artists will go to support rebuilding the gallery.
• Local Color (on Broadway) celebrates the Fourth of July weekend with a Mexican Fiesta night including Sangria refreshments
• Zeitgeist (Hillsboro Village) opens the second of three summer ensemble exhibitions, entitled Right to Assemble. The exhibits showcase luminaries from the Nashville artist studio, university, and independent art scene. This month’s show features diverse artwork by Derek Cote, Todd McDaniel, Kristi Hargrove, Andrew Smaldone, and Ruth Zelanski.
• LeQuire Gallery (Green Hills) work by master potter, Tom Turnbull
• Parthenon, East & West Galleries (Centennial Park) continues the exhibition Hidden Gems: A History of Collecting at the Parthenon. Artwork from its permanent collection, the exhibition tells the story of art collecting at the Parthenon, which has its roots in the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition.
• Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Downtown) offers free music in the Grand Lobby. This month, Fuzzmuzz, a.k.a. Winston Harrison, is an electro-acoustic, ambient artist who will be recording this performance for a new CD

And, as always, some samples of what you’ll see in the galleries this Thursday.

CUMBERLAND GALLERY - Tall by Dane Carder

Again, it’s time for Art After Hours, which is held the first Thursday of every month at the various art galleries around town from 5-8pm. It’s always a great time, with lots of art, wine, and company. What else could you want on a Thursday evening?

There is a little spin on things this month. Just like so many other events have done, Art After Hours will be doing what they can to help victims of the recent flooding. 10% of all art sales will go towards helping the community.

Here are the highlights of Art After Hours:

• The Cumberland Gallery (Green Hills) will host a series of discussions with artists in an interview format during the summer months.  The various artists will be exploring the theories and processes of their work, beginning with Nashville painter Dane Carder.  The discussion will begin at 6:30 p.m.
• Gallery One (Belle Meade Galleria) will be showing the surrealist paintings of California artist Jeff Faust.  His acrylic on canvas paintings feature odd juxtapositions – a combination of clouds, ropes, leaves, eggs, and other objects and settings that hint at some form of narrative
• LeQuire Gallery (Charlotte Avenue) continues its exhibition, Influences of White, featuring paintings and sculptures inspired by the color white from Maggie Rose, Lori Putnam, Somers Randolph, Ben Caldwell, Alan LeQuire, Marti Jones Dixon, and Joshua Bronaugh. Tom Turnbull also joins the group with a new collection of porcelain pottery featuring a special white-on-white glaze created exclusively for this exhibit. As a special treat, hors d’oeuvres en blanc will be served.
• LeQuire Gallery (Green Hills) will be featuring handmade paper books in all sizes (starting with 1” books) by Claudia Lee
• Local Color (on Broadway) continues its exhibition of new works by Sandee Sander and Anita Westerberg.  In addition, artists Charles Cox, Lee Hamblen, and Emily Miller will be featured.  These artists lost their homes in the Nashville flood and for this evening, 100% of their art sales will go directly to these artists
• Zeitgeist (Hillsboro Village) opens the first of three summer ensemble exhibitions, entitled Right to Assemble.  The exhibits will showcase luminaries from the Nashville artist studio, university, and independent art scene.  This month’s group show features diverse artwork by Nicole Baumann, Mark Bynon, Shannon Clarke, Joe Saunders, and Patrick Schlafer.

And some images: