Exhibitions

NASHVILLE ART TEACHERS: BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

Frist Art Museum / 919 Broadway March 4, 2022 - August 28, 2022

The Frist Art Museum presents Nashville Art Teachers: Beyond the Classroom, a group exhibition that salutes art teachers working in Davidson County and their extraordinary efforts during the challenging circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. Featuring the artwork of elementary, middle, and high school art teachers, the exhibition will be on view in the always-free Conte Community Arts Gallery from March 4 through August 28, 2022.

The juried exhibition features works by thirty-three artists that were selected from more than three hundred submissions from eighty teachers. “Beyond the Classroom showcases a remarkable selection of works from artists who are skilled in diverse media and emphasize a variety of themes,” says exhibition curator and Frist Art Museum community engagement director Shaun Giles. “These artists share their observations, perceptions of the world around them, and personal stories through their art.”

Beyond the Classroom will be shown as a companion to the major retrospective Alma W. Thomas: Everything Is Beautiful. Artist Alma W. Thomas (1891–1978) worked as a schoolteacher for thirty-five years at Shaw Junior High School in Washington, DC, and she considered teaching art to be her greatest legacy. Thomas was the first Black American woman to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1972, as well as the first to have a painting enter the collection of the White House.