Frist Center Announces Upcoming Events Including Music, Tours & More

By: Aug. 21, 2009
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September 2009

Thursday, September 3 Music in the Grand Lobby

6:00-8:00 p.m. Harry Stephenson (guitar and vocals)

Free

Popular WAMB radio personality Harry Stephenson brings his solo vocal and guitar talents to the Frist Center for this Music in the Grand Lobby performance. His repertoire includes music from the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s that is perfect for dancing. The café will be open, and visitors are welcome to bring beverages and snacks into the lobby to enjoy during the performance.

Friday, September 4 Architecture Tour of the Frist Center

6:30 p.m.

Meet in the Grand Lobby

Free

Have you ever wondered about the significance of the icons in the Frist Center's Grand Lobby or marveled at the beautiful and unusual floors in our galleries? Join us and have your questions answered. Enjoy refreshments from our cash bar or café and stroll around the Frist Center as you learn more about our landmark building from one of our always-engaging docents and enjoy some live music at the conclusion of your tour.


Friday, September 4 Music in the Grand Lobby

6:00-8:00 p.m. Satellite City

Free

The solo project of Venus Hum musician Tony Miracle, Satellite City provides cutting-edge sound design created from vintage electronics, digital tools, and acoustic instruments, inspired by the architecture of his home in Cincinnati as well as the paintings of artist Charley Harper (1922-2007). Guests are invited to grab snacks and beverages from the café and visit with friends around the bistro tables in the Grand Lobby while learning more about electronic music as a contemporary art form. Spectacular music in a spectacular venue.

 

Thursday, September 10 Exhibition Opens to Public


Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris (Upper-Level Galleries)

Including more than 100 photographs by such artists as Eugène Atget, Hans Bellmer, Ilse Bing, Brassaï, André Kertész, and Man Ray, Twilight Visions will celebrate Paris as the literal and metaphoric base of Surrealism. In addition to examining the revolutionary social, aesthetic, and political activities of the movement between the world wars, the exhibition will focus on works that evoke the mystery of the chance encounters experienced by the Surrealists as they wandered through the labyrinthine city streets.
Exhibition continues through January 3, 2010

 

Thursday, September 10 Music in the Grand Lobby

6:00-8:00 p.m. String Jazz with Billy Contreras and Buddy Spicher

Free

The Frist Center has become a welcome "home" for Billy Contreras and Buddy Spicher, two of Nashville's most celebrated musicians. With their quiet, unassuming virtuosity, they are wowing a growing group of regulars and giving out-of-town visitors who wander in on these nights a "Music City moment" to take home. Hear these two greats perform in the intimate setting of the Frist Center's beautiful Grand Lobby.

Friday, September 11 Curator's Perspective

6:30 p.m. The City in Twilight: Surrealism, Photography, and Auditorium Paris

Free

Join Therese Lichtenstein, Ph.D., independent guest curator and organizer of the exhibition Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris, as she focuses on the Surrealists' conception of twilight as seen in the photographs of Paris taken during the 1920s and 1930s. Lichtenstein will discuss how Brassaï, Ilse Bing, Germaine Krull, André Kertész, Man Ray, and other photographers transformed iconic views of the city and its monuments by shooting at strange, disorienting angles and focusing on unexpected details. Everyday streets, signs, and cafés become unfamiliar and evocative; the ordinary is seen as extraordinary.

Friday, September 11 Music in the Grand Lobby

6-8 p.m. The Ukedelics
Free

Swing along with Todd Elgin, Andy Hudson, John Krauss, Anita Moffatt, Jill Mothershed, Ted Nunes, and Michael Timmes. The Ukedelics take you on a strum-tastic ukulele holiday. Nashville IS more than country music! Guests are encouraged to bring snacks and beverages from the Frist Center Café into the lobby so they can enjoy the music.

Saturday, September 12 Frist Center Kids Club: Cityscapes that POP!

Sessions at 10:30 a.m.,

1 p.m., and 3 p.m.

Frist Center Studios

Free

Call (615) 744-3357 to reserve a space.

Designed for 5-10 year olds, the Frist Center Kids Club offers exciting opportunities for children to discover, explore, and create art. Free membership includes a Kids Club card, rewards for participation, hands-on activities in the Martin ArtQuest Gallery. and monthly projects in the art studios. Members will take traditional cityscapes one step further by creating low-relief FUNscape skylines.

Monday, September 14 Story Time

10:30 a.m.

Art Library and Resource Center

Free

Join a Frist Center educator for an enthusiastic reading of an award-winning children's book. This program is designed for pre-kindergarten children and their families.
Wednesday, September 16 Art Making: Surrealist Dreamscapes

10:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

Grand Lobby

Free

Drop in, be inspired, and create your own work of art in the Grand Lobby throughout the day. Featured self-directed art activity: design your own Surrealist "dreamscape" similar to works by Salvador Dalí and René Magritte.
Thursday, September 17 Art Makes Place: "Gift of Understanding"

6:30 p.m. Adrienne Outlaw

Rechter Room

Free

The Frist Center for the Visual Arts is hosting a number of presentations organized in conjunction with ART MAKES PLACE: Contemporary Artists make Temporary, Community, and Performance-based Artworks for Public Spaces.

On September 17, Nashville artist Adrienne Outlaw will present a performance-based work about bioethical issues in which participants connect with each other through a set of handheld viewfinders featuring images, text, and symbolic cutouts. Art Makes Place is organized by the Nashville Cultural Arts Project, in collaboration with Metro Nashville Public Schools, Vanderbilt University, and the Frist Center, with funding from the Metro Nashville Arts Commission, Vanderbilt University, and the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation.


Additional information about Art Makes Place is available at www.n-cap.org/amp.html.

Thursday, September 17 Music in the Grand Lobby

6:00-8:00 p.m. Duology (acoustic guitar duo)

Free

Guitarists Barry Coggins and Joseph Brunelle are Duology. These two string virtuosos have successful separate recording and performing careers and have joined talents to perform their own thoroughly engaging original arrangements. They have appeared at corporate and community events throughout middle Tennessee and have recorded three CDs together. The sound of two acoustic guitars in the Grand Lobby is spectacular.

Friday, September 18 Music in the Grand Lobby

6:00-8:00 p.m. Kristie L. Sibley (vocalist)

Free

Vocalist Kristie Sibley has a stunning, expressive voice. It is rich and agile, as at home on jazz and pop standards as in her first love, Gospel music. She has performed with many of Gospel music's greatest talents. Hear her in the stunning acoustics of the Frist Center's Grand Lobby.

On Thursday and Friday evenings, the Frist Center presents free music in the Grand Lobby. Visitors are encouraged to purchase wine, beer, and other beverages from the Frist Center Café to bring into the Grand Lobby where bistro seating is offered.

Monday, September 21 Senior Mondays

10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
The Frist Center for the Visual Arts and WAMB-AM present Senior Mondays, a series of events for those who admit their "senior" status. On these days, gallery admission is $4.25 (1/2 price) for seniors, and a special senior parking fee of $2.00 in the Frist Center lots is offered, based on availability. Visitors may also donate non-perishable food items to Second Harvest and receive free admission. Seniors receive a 15 percent discount on Gift Shop purchases and on Frist Center Café refreshments purchased. Seniors can enjoy the live radio broadcast of WAMB's Harry Stephenson in the Grand Lobby. Special gallery talks and other activities are scheduled throughout the day. Admission is free to everyone on Mondays with the donation of a non-perishable food item to Second Harvest.

Monday, September 21 Story Time

10:30 a.m.

Art Library and Resource Center

Free

Join a Frist Center educator for an enthusiastic reading of an award-winning children's book. This program is designed for pre-kindergarten children and their families.
Monday, September 21 Senior Monday Movie: Momentum in Science

12:30 p.m.

Rechter Room

Free

September 21 is World Alzheimer's Day, when Alzheimer's organizations around the world work together to raise awareness of the disease. In collaboration with the Alzheimer's Association of Middle Tennessee, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts will screen part of the HBO documentary Momentum in Science on Monday, September 21, at 12:30 p.m. in the Rechter Room.
Amidst the heartbreak of Alzheimer's disease, there is real reason for hope. This documentary takes viewers inside the laboratories and clinics of 25 leading scientists and physicians who seek to discover what can be done to better detect, diagnose, and present the disease. Scientists are zeroing in on both genetic and environmental factors that might cause Alzheimer's or protect against it. Groundbreaking advances in brain imaging are allowing scientists to peer into the living brain to see the disease at its earliest stages, and revolutionary approaches to treating and preventing Alzheimer's, such as vaccines, are reaching the final stages of drug testing.

Bring your lunch and join us for this informative and revealing presentation. Produced by John Hoffman and Susan Froemke, 2009, 75 minutes. Not Rated.

Wednesday, September 23 Art Making: Standing Mobile

10:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

Grand Lobby

Free

Drop in, be inspired, and create your own work of art in the Grand Lobby throughout the day. Featured self-directed art activity: Create your own standing mobile reminiscent of Alexander Calder's sculptures.

Thursday, September 24 ARTini

7:00 p.m. Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris

Meet at the information desk

Free with purchase of gallery admission

Join Anne Taylor, curator of interpretation at the Frist Center, as she leads an informal conversation about one or two works of art in this exhibition. Complete your evening by relaxing in the Grand Lobby with beverages from the cash bar or café and visiting with friends.

Thursday, September 24 Music in the Grand Lobby

6:00-8:00 p.m. The Contrarian Ensemble

Free

The Contrarian Ensemble is widely known and sought after by folk and contra dancers in Middle Tennessee. This delightful community band, comprising guitar, mandolin, accordion, fiddle, recorder, and percussion, plays music of and by the folk. From contemporary reels, jigs, and waltzes, to music of the early 17th century, the Contrarians will inspire you to rise and dance. And visitors are welcome to do just that.

Friday, September 25 Surreal to Reel: Paris on Film

6:30 p.m. Un Chien Andalou and L'Atalante

Auditorium

Free

In conjunction with Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris, the Frist Center is partnering with the Belcourt Theatre and Vanderbilt University's International Lens film series and French and film departments to offer Surreal to Reel: Paris on Film. This three-part series of Surrealist and Poetic Realist films will feature artists such as Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí, and Jean Vigo.

The film series will start at the Frist Center with the screening of Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí's Un Chien Andalou and Jean Vigo's L'Atalante. Dudley Andrew, the R. Selden Rose Professor of Film and Comparative Literature and co-chair and director of graduate studies of film studies at Yale University, will introduce these two films.

About the films:

Un Chien Andalou

Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí worked collaboratively to produce this well-known and influential Surrealist film. The film follows no conventional plot, but takes the viewer through a 17-minute dreamlike narrative. Scenes such as the slicing of an eyeball with a razorblade, a young man bicycling down a calm urban street wearing what appears to be a nun's habit and a locked box around his neck, and a couple (seemingly dead) buried in sand up to their shoulders, take viewers on a fantastical journey from the wayward minds of two important Surrealists. About their approach to the film, Buñuel said, "Our only rule was very simple: no idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted." Directed by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, 1929, 17 minutes. 35mm. Not Rated.
L'Atalante

This Poetic Realist film begins with the marriage of a young barge captain, Jean, and a village girl, Juliette, who barely know each other. Juliette begins her married life by moving onto the barge. With only her husband for company, as well as his sailor friend named Jules, a cabin boy, and at least six cats, Juliette soon finds that she has no real place on the barge. What ensues are specific moments in the life of this newlywed couple, including an unforeseen separation, that illustrates the turbulent nature of learning to live with the one you love. L'Atalante focuses on the dream of love and presents realistic yet magical images of peasant and working class life. Directed by Jean Vigo, 1934, 89 minutes. Not Rated.

Friday, September 25 Music in the Grand Lobby

6:00-8:00 p.m. String Jazz with Billy Contreras and Buddy Spicher

Free

The Frist Center has become a "home" for Billy Contreras and Buddy Spicher, two of Nashville's most celebrated musicians. With their quiet, unassuming virtuosity, they are wowing a growing group of regulars and giving out-of-town visitors who wander in on these nights a "Music City Moment" to take home. Hear these two greats perform in the intimate setting of the Frist Center's beautiful Grand Lobby. Expect to hear some Django-style music to accompany this night of French films.

Monday, September 28 Story Time

10:30 a.m.

Art Library and Resource Center

Free

Join a Frist Center educator for an enthusiastic reading of an award-winning children's book. This program is designed for pre-kindergarten children and their families.
Wednesday, September 30 Art Making: Diorama Drama

10:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

Grand Lobby

Free

Drop in, be inspired, and create your own work of art in the Grand Lobby throughout the day. Featured self-directed art activity: Assemble dramatic dioramas just like Joseph Cornell's miniature collaged works in boxes.

October 2009

Thursday, October 1 Music in the Grand Lobby

6:00-8:00 p.m. String Jazz with Billy Contreras and Buddy Spicher

Free

The Frist Center has become a "home" for Billy Contreras and Buddy Spicher, two of Nashville's most celebrated musicians. With their quiet, unassuming virtuosity, they are wowing a growing group of regulars and giving out-of-town visitors who wander in on these nights a "Music City Moment" to take home. Hear these two greats perform in the intimate setting of the Frist Center's beautiful Grand Lobby.

 

Friday, October 2 Exhibitions Open to Public


Georgia O'Keeffe and Her Times: American Modernism from the Lane Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Ingram Gallery)

This exhibition of forty-five paintings and eight photographs featuring masterpieces by Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles Sheeler, Arthur G. Dove, Stuart Davis, and Marsden Hartley, the Lane Collection traces the development and diversity of American Modernism through the eyes of a passionate collector. William H. Lane (1914-1995), owner of a small Massachusetts manufacturing plant, formed his pioneering collection in the early 1950s when these painters were little understood, though today they are considered to be the most important American artists of the early twentieth century.
Exhibition continues through January 31, 2010

Thomas Hart Benton in Story and Song (Ingram Gallery)

In conjunction with the Nashville Public Library's call for a city-wide celebration of beloved author Mark Twain, the Frist Center will present a selection of drawings and watercolors by another promoter of American narratives and everyday life, Thomas Hart Benton. A second section of the exhibition will focus on another source of inspiration for the artist-one particularly appropriate for Nashville-folk music and musicians. Benton's lifelong admiration of American music is well known, yet works of this subject matter have not yet been assembled as an exhibition.

Exhibition continues through January 31, 2010

Oliver Herring: Common Threads (Gordon Contemporary Artists Project Gallery)

This exhibition includes four objects and a selection of short videos by New York-based artist Oliver Herring. Collaborating with friends and strangers in the creation of his sculptures, performances, and video art, Herring documents his growing interest in using art as a tool of social engagement.
Exhibition continues through January 31, 2010

 

Friday, October 2 Curator's Conversation

Noon "From Marbles to Modernism:

Auditorium Stories Behind the Lane Collection"

Free

Join collector Saundra Lane and Karen Quinn, Kristin and Roger Servison Curator of Paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and curator of Georgia O'Keeffe and Her Times, for a lively discussion of the genesis of the Lane Collection. Learn about the Lanes' adventures with Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles Sheeler, and other artists who became their friends as they acquired American Modernist works at a time when they were underappreciated.
Friday, October 2 Architecture Tour of the Frist Center

6:30 p.m.

Meet in the Grand Lobby

Free

When was the Frist Center built? Who was the architect? Can you tell me about the floors in the galleries? These are just a few of the questions that are answered in the Frist Center's popular monthly architecture tours. Enjoy refreshments from the cash bar or café and stroll around the Frist Center as you learn more about our landmark building from one of our always-engaging docents.

Friday, October 2 Music in the Grand Lobby

6:00-8:00 p.m. Clara Oman

http://www.myspace.com/claraoman

Nashville-based vocalist Clara Oman's music is a blend of disparate musical influences, including Julie Andrews, Doris Day, Brian Wilson, Bob Dylan, and Cole Porter. Her songs are evocative and even a bit whimsical. Her voice is sweet, lilting, and expressive. Songwriter Andrew Gold ("Thank You for Being a Friend"), describes her with a single word, "magic."
Saturday, October 3 Artist's Perspective: Oliver Herring

11:00 a.m.

Meet at the information desk

Free with gallery admission

Join New York-based artist Oliver Herring as he leads an informal conversation about some of his work presented in Common Threads, on view in the Gordon Contempory Artists Project Gallery.


Tuesday, October 6 Surreal to Reel: Paris on Film

7:00 p.m. Hotel du Nord

Belcourt Theatre

Free

In conjunction with Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris, the Frist Center is partnering with the Belcourt Theatre and Vanderbilt University's International Lens film series and French and film departments to offer Surreal to Reel: Paris on Film. This three-part series of Surrealist and Poetic Realist films will feature artists such as Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí, and Jean Vigo. Join us at the Belcourt Theatre for a screening of Hotel du Nord with an introduction by Andrea Mirabile, Ph.D., assistant professor of Italian at Vanderbilt University.
About the film:

Hotel du Nord

This Poetic Realist film by Marcel Carnè opens immediately with a fantastic collision of idealism and normality. As two young lovers, Renée and Pierre, attempt to carry out a mutual suicide and are sharing one last moment of life together in one of the Hotel du Nord's rooms, the hotel staff members are throwing a party. Pierre eventually begins to carry out the suicide pact and shoots Renée, but lacking the courage to follow through with their plan, he flees from the scene. As the film continues, the contrasts between ideas of normality versus romantic idealism develop into an incredible story of passion, adventure, rejection, and the destructive powers of love.

Directed by Marcel Carnè, 1938, 95 minutes. 35mm. Not Rated

Thursday, October 8 Music in the Grand Lobby

6:00-8:00 p.m. Nashville Mandolin Ensemble

Free http://soundartrecordings.com/

The late, great mandolin player Butch Baldassari was the founder of the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble and a great friend to the Frist Center. With this donated performance, the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble returns to the Frist Center to pay tribute to Butch's memory and celebrate the art of Thomas Hart Benton. With their magnificent repertoire that moves easily from period arrangements of classical chamber tunes to animated transcriptions of bluegrass, jazz, pop and contemporary composers, the NME always delights. The Nashville Mandolin Ensemble is widely credited for reviving and updating a musical form that was widely popular at the turn of the twentieth century, and today, NME continues to perform widely, carrying with them the indomitable spirit of its talented and visionary founder.

Friday, October 9 Lecture

12:00 p.m. "Georgia O'Keeffe: Photography and an

American Icon"

Auditorium

Free

No artist has been photographed from the beginning to the end of a career as frequently and consistently as Georgia O'Keeffe by many of America's most well-known photographers: Ansel Adams, Philippe Halsman, Yosuf Karsh, Arnold Newman, Alfred Stieglitz, Todd Webb, and Andy Warhol to name only a few. Join Barbara Buhler Lynes, Ph.D., curator at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and the Emily Fisher Landau Director at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center, as she explores the significance of the two opposing personas that these photographs constructed of O'Keeffe during her lifetime, and the degree to which the medium of photography played a key role in defining her as one of America's leading art celebrities.

Friday, October 9 Music in the Grand Lobby

6:00-8:00 p.m. Wendy Jans

Free www.myspace.com/wendyjans
Award-winning songwriter Wendy Jans studied opera and sang at Carnegie Hall, but has, shall we say, strayed a bit, settling into a distinctive style that is warm and jazzy. Think Norah Jones meets Madeleine Peyroux. Simple as a Song, her new album, was produced by Chad Carlson, whose engineering talents are heard on albums by Chris Isaak, Trisha Yearwood, and Taylor Swift.

Saturday, October 10 Kids Club: BIG Hats

Sessions at 10:30 a.m.,

1 p.m., and 3 p.m.

Frist Center Studios

Free

Call 615.744.3357 to reserve a space.

Designed for 5-10 year olds, the Frist Center Kids Club offers exciting opportunities for children to discover, explore, and create art. Free membership includes a Kids Club card, rewards for participation, hands-on activities in the Martin ArtQuest Gallery, and monthly projects in the art studios. Featured activity: Inspired by the art of Keith Herring, Kids Club members will create large two-dimensional hats using an assortment of fun materials.
Wednesday, October 14 Surreal to Reel: Paris on Film

7:00 p.m. L'Age d'or and Under the Roofs of Paris

Vanderbilt University's International

Lens at the Sarratt Cinema

Free

In conjunction with Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris, the Frist Center is partnering with the Belcourt Theatre and Vanderbilt University's International Lens film series and French and film departments to offer Surreal to Reel: Paris on Film. This three-part series of Surrealist and Poetic Realist films will feature artists such as Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí, and Jean Vigo. Join us at Vanderbilt University's Sarratt Cinema for screenings of L'Age d'or and Under the Roofs of Paris with an introduction by Paul Young, Ph.D., associate professor of English and director of film studies at Vanderbilt University.
About the films:

L'Age d'or

L'Age d'or, which began as a collaboration between Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí (Dalí abandoned the project at an early stage), was seen by the artists as a challenge to make a film equally as bold as Un Chien Andalou. Combining Surrealism and an anti-bourgeois attitude to shocking effect, this film instigated wild protests worldwide. Though it was released in 1930, the U.S. did not have an official premier for the film until 1979. With this first solo film Buñuel made quite an impression. L'Age d'or is said to be as disgusting as it is comic with scenes such as a father cheerfully playing with his son before shooting him a moment later and a Catholic priest and stuffed giraffe being thrown out a window.

Directed by Luis Buñuel, 1930, 60 minutes. 35mm. Not Rated

Under the Roofs of Paris

Noted as one of the most successful French films of the 1930s, Under the Roofs of Paris is not only monumental for its pioneering use of sound and interesting camerawork, but for portraying Paris in a distinctive light. Using poetry and romanticism to reveal the humdrum life of poor, ordinary citizens in Paris, René Clair creates a charming atmosphere that brings the spirit of the city to life. In a working-class part of town, a love triangle develops between a young street performer named Albert, a Romanian woman named Pola, and a mobster named Louis. As this youthful and lively film develops, Clair gives viewers a unique look at Paris through the eyes of kindly working-class heroes, a realistic set, and captivating street songs.

Directed by René Clair, 1930, 96 minutes. DVD. Not Rated

Thursday, October 15 Artist's Forum: Ron Lambert and

6:30 p.m. Lesley Patterson-Marx

Rechter Room

Free

Artist's Forum is a program in which Nashville-based and regional emerging and recognized artists discuss the thoughts and processes behind their work. Participants are encouraged to come and be a part of the dialogue about the artistic process.

Working mainly in video and sculpture, Ron Lambert investigates the intersection between psychology and the environment. He received his MFA from the School of Art and Design at Alfred University and has taught at Cornish College of the Arts, Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle, and Alfred University, where he received an excellence in teaching award in 2008. Ron is currently an assistant professor at Watkins College of Art and Design in Nashville, Tennessee. His work has been published in Shaping Space (Third Edition), and Color (Third Edition), both by Paul Zelanski, as well as in the exhibition catalogue People Doing Strange Things With Electricity. Ron has shown at the Catherine Person Gallery in Seattle, the Athens Institute for Contemporary Art in Georgia, the Center on Contemporary Art in Seattle, the Lexington Art League, the Soil Collective in Seattle, and several university galleries around the country. Ron's work has won awards at Artworks Gallery in Hartford, Connecticut, and the Foundry Art Centre in St. Charles, Missouri. His work is in the Joseph Vascovitz collection and in the collection of the Tacoma Art Museum. He is currently represented by Catherine Person Gallery in Seattle. To see examples of Ron's work go to: www.ronlambertart.com

Lesley Patterson-Marx was born in 1975 in Louisville, Kentucky. She became obsessed with art in high school and took Saturday classes through the Louisville Visual Art Association. An Art teacher led her to the Summer Art Workshop for high school students at Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky. She eventually attended college at Murray State, where she received her BA in Fine Art in 1997. She then moved to nearby Paducah, where she was a working artist and teacher for nearly two years. She left Paducah in 1999 to pursue an MFA in studio art at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Upon graduation in 2001, she was invited by one of her instructors, Judy Chicago, to work on "At Home, A Kentucky Project," in Bowling Green, Kentucky. While living in Bowling Green, Lesley began teaching in Nashville, commuting daily to Watkins College of Art and Design as an adjunct instructor. Upon completion of the "At Home" project, she moved to Nashville and was eventually hired as a full-time instructor and gallery director at Watkins, where she worked from 2001 to 2006. In 2004, along with students and friends, she helped found Plate Tone Printshop, a non-toxic, fine art community printshop. In the fall of 2006 she began teaching as a part-time instructor at University School of Nashville, where she currently teaches book arts and printmaking to high school students. The artwork of Lesley Patterson-Marx has been featured in several publications, including Readymade Magazine, Craft Magazine, and New American Paintings MFA Annual. Her work has been exhibited nationally in galleries including Wendy Cooper Gallery in Madison, Wisconsin, and Cynthia Broan Gallery in New York City. She had shown regularly in Nashville at Tag Gallery before it closed. To see examples of Lesley's work go to: www.lesleypattersonmarx.com


Thursday, October 15 Music in the Grand Lobby

6:00-8:00 p.m. Benita Hill

www.benitahill.com

Benita Hill's silken voice and arresting jazz tunes reflect the sum total of one truly remarkable life. A former backup singer for the Allman Brothers Band and a hit songwriter with two number-one singles for Garth Brooks under her stylish belt, she made a seemingly oblique turn into the world of jazz. She has shared the stage with Chuck Mangione, Michael Franks, and Yolanda Adams.

Friday, October 16 ARTini: Georgia O'Keeffe and Her Times

7:00 p.m.

Meet at the information desk

Free with the purchase of gallery admission

Join Anne Henderson, director of education and outreach at the Frist Center, as she leads an informal conversation about one or two works of art in this exhibition. Complete your evening by relaxing in the Grand Lobby with beverages from the cash bar or café and visiting with friends.

Friday, October 16 Music in the Grand Lobby

6:00-8:00 p.m. The Contrarian Ensemble

Free http://www.contrarians.discoveringstuff.com/About_the_Band.html

The Contrarian Ensemble is widely known and sought after by folk and contra dancers in Middle Tennessee. This delightful community band, comprising guitar, mandolin, accordion, fiddle, recorder and percussion, plays music of and by the folk. From contemporary reels, jigs, and waltzes, to music of the early 17th century, the Contrarians will inspire you to rise and dance. And visitors are welcome to do just that.

Sunday, October 18 Family Day

1:00-5:30 p.m.

Free

Enjoy a fun-filled day of excitement with friends and family including special art-making activities, a musical instrument petting zoo offered by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, live music from Nashville's own Westbound Rangers, and a main stage marionette production depicting the tall tales, scenes, and music from the hill country titled Backwoods Rambling presented by Wood and Strings Theatre.

Check out Georgia O'Keeffe and Her Times: American Modernism from the Lane Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which features amazing examples of American Modernist paintings and photographs. Stroll through Thomas Hart Benton in Story and Song to see Benton's original illustrations for Mark Twain's books, Life on the Mississippi, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and drawings, prints, and paintings from Benton's lifelong admiration of folk music and musicians. Visit the Upper-Level Galleries to explore the exhibition Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris, which includes photographs that evoke the mystery of the chance encounters experienced by the Surrealists as they wandered through the labyrinthine city streets of Paris.

Monday, October 19 Senior Mondays

10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
The Frist Center for the Visual Arts and WAMB-AM present Senior Mondays, a series of events for those who admit their "senior" status. On these days, gallery admission is $4.25 (1/2 price) for seniors and a special senior parking fee of $2.00 in the Frist Center lots is offered, based on availability. Visitors may also donate non-perishable food items to Second Harvest and receive free admission. Seniors receive a 15 percent discount on Gift Shop purchases and on Frist Center Café refreshments purchased during the event. Seniors can enjoy WAMB's Harry Stephenson live radio broadcast in the Grand Lobby. Special gallery talks and other activities are scheduled throughout the day. Admission is free to everyone on Mondays with the donation of a non-perishable food item to Second Harvest.

Thursday, October 22 Music in the Grand Lobby

6:00-8:00 p.m. String Jazz with Billy Contreras and Buddy Spicher

Free

Billy Contreras and Buddy Spicher have become one of Music in the Grand Lobby's most popular musical guests. With their stunning virtuosity and soulful stylings, their straight-ahead jazz standards create an evocative mood. Backed by tasty bass and light snare, the music is, quite simply, sublime. Buddy Spicher is a Nashville music industry legend, and Billy is a jazz wizard on any instrument with strings. They play again in November. You'll be calling your friends.

Friday, October 23 Music in the Grand Lobby

6:00-8:00 p.m. Thenderfin

Free http://thenderfin.com/

Thenderfin is a four-piece experimental folk ensemble hailing from East Tennessee. With traditional instrumentation that includes guitar, banjo, mandolin, and bass, this quartet infuses their original tunes with influences ranging from bluegrass and folk to world music and rhythms that are almost reggae. They have been profiled in articles in music publications and appeared on the popular Knoxville radio show, Blue Plate Special on WDVX-FM. We think Thomas Hart Benton would be intrigued and delighted by their music.

Saturday, October 24 Tour: Alfred Stieglitz Collection at Fisk University

10:00 a.m.

Fisk University's Carl Van Vechten Gallery

Cost is $10 per person

Call 615-744-3247 to register
Join Victor Simmons, Fisk University Galleries curator, for a tour of the Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Modern American and European art. The collection includes paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe, Arthur Dove, and Marsden Hartley, whose works are also included in the exhibition Georgia O'Keeffe and Her Times: American Modernism from the Lane Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on view at the Frist Center through January 31, 2010.


Thursday, October 29 Gallery Talk

7:00 p.m. Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris

Meet at the information desk

Free with purchase of gallery admission

Join Katie Delmez, curator at the Frist Center, for a tour of this exhibition. Complete your evening by enjoying Music in the Grand Lobby or visiting with friends in the café.

 

November 2009
Sunday, November 1 Films at the Frist: Herb and Dorothy

3:00 p.m.

Auditorium

Free

Herb and Dorothy explores the remarkable story of Herbert Vogel, a postal worker, and Dorothy Vogel, a librarian, who were able to amass one of the most important collections of contemporary art in history on the most modest of budgets. Director Megumi Sasaki takes viewers on an unbelievable and heartwarming journey through the lives of two of the most unassuming art collectors, who show the world that "you do not have to be a Rockefeller to collect art." Directed by Megumi Sasaki, 2008, 87 minutes. Not Rated. Cameron Kitchin, director of the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, will introduce this film.

The screening of this film is a collaboration between the Frist Center for the Visual Arts and the Nashville Jewish Film Festival and a prelude to the 2009 Jewish Film Festival, which is being held November 7-12, 2009 at the Belcourt Theatre. Visit http://www.templenashville.org/_njff/ for more information on the festival.

Thursday, November 5 Lecture

6:30 p.m. "Thomas Hart Benton: An Epic Life"

Auditorium

Free

Thomas Hart Benton was not only a famous American painter, but a notable writer, musician, and spokesman for American country music. While best known as the leader of the "American Scene" movement of the 1930s, he also had a notable early career as a Modernist in Paris and was the teacher of the abstract painter Jackson Pollock. Join Henry Adams, author of the principal biography of Benton, as he reviews the trajectory of Benton's life, as he ranged from Gertrude Stein's Paris to the highways of the American West.
Henry Adams is the author of Thomas Hart Benton: An American Original (Knopf, 1989) as well as the recent book Tom and Jack: The Intertwined Lives of Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock (Bloomsbury Press, October 2009).
Friday, November 6 Architecture Tour of the Frist Center

6:30 p.m.

Meet in the Grand Lobby

Free

Grab some refreshments at the cash bar or café and stroll around the Frist Center as you learn more about our landmark building from one of our always-engaging docents.

Friday, November 6 Off the Wall Lecture Series

6:30 p.m. "‘The Center Cannot Hold': Europe between Two Auditorium World Wars, 1924-1939"

Free

You have seen Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris and delved into the minds of the Surrealists. Now learn more about the tumultuous yet edifying times they lived in by attending the Frist Center's three part Off the Wall lecture series being held in conjunction with the exhibition. Dr. Michael Bess, Chancellor's Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, will trace the shattered hopes of Europeans during the years following World War I-hopes for a lasting peace, hopes for prosperity, and hopes for a bright future for themselves and their children. These years saw the rise of fascism, the collapse of international capitalism during the Great Depression, the growing popularity of communist movements and ideas, and the gradual dismantling of the international diplomatic system that had been built around the League of Nations in the aftermath of the Great War. The lecture will take an interdisciplinary approach, looking at economic, military, diplomatic, political, and cultural events to show why the descent into World War II acquired an unstoppable momentum as the 1930s went by.
Saturday, November 7 Adult Painting Workshop: The Essence of Nature

10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. Part 1

Frist Center Studios

$50 members; $60 nonmembers; cost includes all supplies and gallery admission. Participants may bring their own lunches or purchase them in the Frist Center's café.

Call 615.744.3247 to register.
Michele Herbert, artist and co-owner of Shimai Pottery, will lead participants in a discussion of works by Georgia O'Keeffe and Arthur Dove in the exhibition Georgia O'Keeffe and Her Times. The discussion will focus on the artists' reduction of natural structures to their basic forms and their use of light and color to celebrate the natural world. Participants will then move to the Frist Center studios, where they will have the time and space to experiment, in paint, with the abstract qualities of the natural world, using O'Keeffe's and Dove's paintings as the impetus for these explorations.

Sunday, November 8 Adult Painting Workshop: The Essence of Nature

1:00-4:00 p.m. Part 2

Frist Center Studios

$50 members; $60 nonmembers; cost includes all supplies and gallery admission. Participants may bring their own lunches or purchase them in the Frist Center's café.

Call 615.744.3247 to register.
Thursday, November 12 Gallery Talk: Georgia O'Keeffe and Her Times

7:00 p.m.

Meet at the information desk

Free with purchase of gallery admission

Join Mark Scala, chief curator at the Frist Center, for a tour of this exhibition, which includes superb examples of some of American Modernism's greatest artists, such as Georgia O'Keeffe, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, and Charles Sheeler.
Saturday, November 14 Kids Club: A Closer Look

10:30 a.m., 1:00 p.m.,

or 3:00 p.m.

Frist Center Studios

Free

Call 615.744.3357 to reserve a space.

Designed for 5-10 year olds, the Frist Center Kids Club offers exciting opportunities for children to discover, explore, and create art. Free membership includes a Kids Club card, rewards for participation, hands-on activities in the Martin ArtQuest Gallery, and monthly projects in the art studios. Featured activity: Zoom in for a closer look at various types of plants and flowers! Kids Club members will create beautiful abstract paintings based on interesting details that they find in the provided photographs.
Saturday, November 14 Gallery Talk: Georgia O'Keeffe and Her Circle of Early

11:00 a.m. American Modernists

Meet at the information desk

Free with purchase of gallery admission

Vivien Fryd, Ph.D., professor and chair of the history of art department at Vanderbilt University, will examine the art of the early American Modernists associated with the so-called Stieglitz circle-painters Georgia O'Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, Arthur Dove, John Marin, Joseph Stella, and Charles Sheeler as well as photographers Gertrude Käisebeir, Anne Brigman, Alfred Stieglitz, and Edward Steichen. The styles, themes, and historical contexts of these modern visual images will be examined, focusing especially upon themes of sexuality, the city, spirituality, and nature.

Wednesday, November 18 Gallery Talk:Thomas Hart Benton in Story and Song

12:00 p.m.

Meet at the information desk

Free with purchase of gallery admission

Join Katie Delmez, Curator at the Frist Center, for a tour of this exhibition.

Thursday, November 19 Off the Wall Lecture Series

6:30 p.m. "RE-ASSEMBLING REALITY: Surrealism and

Auditorium Surrealist Film in 1920s and 1930s Paris"

Free


You have seen Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris and delved into the minds of the Surrealists. Now learn more about the tumultuous yet edifying times they lived in by attending the Frist Center's three part Off the Wall lecture series being held in conjunction with the exhibition. Kelli Shay Hix, moving image archivist at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, will discuss the techniques and goals of the creators of selected early Parisian Surrealist films, as well as the history behind their works.

The post-World War I Parisian Surrealists used the mediums of writing, painting, and photography to expose the "superior reality of certain forms of previously neglected associations." But it was the medium of moving image film which gave the Surrealists the opportunity to create a nearly complete parallel world in which reason took a backseat to dreams, and in which traditional editing processes were used to confuse, rather than to clarify, normal patterns of reason. Though entertaining, these films are far from escapist. Much of the meaning in the films relies on the viewers' expectations, reactions, and interpretations of the films. This cinema is not meant to re-enact dreams or to tell a narrative, but to acknowledge a reality "outside of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation."

*Quotes are from The Surrealist Manifesto, André Breton, 1924
Friday, November 20 ARTini

7:00 p.m. Oliver Herring: Common Threads

Meet at the information desk

Free with purchase of gallery admission

Join Susan Edwards, Ph.D., Director and CEO of the Frist Center, as she leads an informal conversation about one or two works of art in this exhibition. Complete your evening by relaxing in the Grand Lobby with beverages from the cash bar or café and visiting with friends.

Friday, November 20 Music in the Grand Lobby

6:00-8:00 p.m. The Contrarian Ensemble

Free http://www.contrarians.discoveringstuff.com/About_the_Band.html

The Contrarian Ensemble is widely known and sought after by folk and contra dancers in Middle Tennessee. This delightful community band, comprising guitar, mandolin, accordion, fiddle, recorder and percussion, plays music of and by the folk. From contemporary reels, jigs, and waltzes, to music of the early 17th century, the Contrarians will inspire you to rise and dance. And visitors are welcome to do just that.

Friday, November 27 Music in the Grand Lobby

6:00-8:00 p.m. String Jazz with Billy Contreras and Buddy Spicher

Free

Billy Contreras and Buddy Spicher have become one of Music in the Grand Lobby's most popular musical guests. With their stunning virtuosity and soulful stylings, their straight-ahead jazz standards create an evocative mood. Backed by tasty bass and light snare, the music is, quite simply, sublime. Buddy Spicher is a Nashville music industry legend, and Billy is a jazz wizard on any instrument with strings. They play again in November. You'll be calling your friends.


Current and Upcoming Exhibitions

Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration

Ingram Gallery

Through September 13, 2009
This exhibition is a comprehensive survey of the prints of Chuck Close, an important American painter who has produced a significant body of prints using a variety of mediums and techniques in collaboration with master print shops.
This exhibition was organized by Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston.

Dean Byington: Terra Incognita

Gordon Contemporary Artists Project Gallery

Through September 13, 2009
Oakland, California-based artist Dean Byington creates large, collaged paintings that are composed of dense accumulations of fantastic imagery such as anthropomorphic animals and topographical views of enchanted lands as if seen from a mountaintop.
This exhibition was organized by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts.

Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris
Upper-Level Galleries
September 10, 2009-January 3, 2010

Including more than 100 photographs by such artists as Eugène Atget, Hans Bellmer, Ilse Bing, Brassaï, André Kertész, and Man Ray, Twilight Visions will celebrate Paris as the literal and metaphoric base of Surrealism.

This exhibition was organized by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts with guest curator Therese Lichtenstein, Ph.D.


Georgia O'Keeffe and Her Times: American Modernisms from the Lane Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Ingram Gallery
October 2, 2009-January 31, 2010

This exhibition of forty-five paintings and eight photographs featuring masterpieces by Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles Sheeler, Arthur G. Dove, Stuart Davis, and Marsden Hartley, the Lane Collection traces the development and diversity of American Modernism through the eyes of a passionate collector. William H. Lane (1914-1995), owner of a small Massachusetts manufacturing plant, formed his pioneering collection in the early 1950s when these painters were little understood, though today they are considered to be the most important American artists of the early twentieth century.
This exhibition was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Thomas Hart Benton in Story and Song

Ingram Gallery

October 2, 2009-January 31, 2010

In conjunction with the Nashville Public Library's call for a citywide celebration of beloved author Mark Twain, the Frist Center will present a selection of drawings and watercolors by another promoter of American narratives and everyday life, Thomas Hart Benton. A second section of the exhibition will focus on another source of inspiration for the artist-one particularly appropriate for Nashville-folk music and musicians. Benton's lifelong admiration of Americana music is well known, yet works of this subject matter have not yet been assembled as an exhibition.

This exhibition was organized by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts.

Oliver Herring: Common Threads

Gordon Contemporary Artists Project Gallery

October 2, 2009-January 31, 2010

This exhibition includes four objects and a selection of short videos by New York-based artist Oliver Herring. Collaborating with friends and strangers in the creation of his sculptures, performances, and video art, Herring documents his growing interest in using art as a tool of social engagement.
This exhibition was organized by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts.

VISITOR INFORMATION

Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, located at 919 Broadway in downtown Nashville, Tenn., is an art exhibition center dedicated to presenting the finest visual art from local, regional, U.S., and international sources in a program of changing exhibitions. The Frist Center's Martin ArtQuest Gallery features more than 30 interactive stations relating to Frist Center exhibitions. Gallery admission to the Frist Center is free for visitors 18 and younger and to Frist Center members. Frist Center admission is $8.50 for adults, $7.50 for seniors and military and $6.50 for college students with ID (college students are free Thursday and Friday evenings). Discounts are offered for groups of 10 or more with advance reservation by calling 615.744.3246. The Frist Center is open seven days a week: Mondays through Wednesdays, and Saturdays, 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. and Sundays, 1-5:30 p.m., with the Frist Center Café opening at noon. Additional information is available by calling 615.244.3340 or by visiting our Web site at www.fristcenter.org.

 



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