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The Frist Art Museum has experiences for art and culture lovers all year round. Check out upcoming events and exhibits that will leave you inspired.
Shimmer: Dreaming the Posthuman
September 25, 2026 – January 3, 2027
Shimmer: Dreaming the Posthuman features 17 artists working with both analog and emergent technologies to visualize the interrelationship between humanity, other species, and the earth itself. Using tools such as digital animation, augmented and virtual reality, and motion capture and generative software, artists Ian Cheng, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Marguerite Humeau, Josèfa Ntjam, Jacolby Satterwhite, Saya Woolfalk, and others challenge the view that human exceptionalism allows us to ignore the need to care for the more-than-human world. Like the surrealists, these artists tap into the transformative agency of the marvelous, the uncanny, and the unpredictable. In their fluid and floating creations, images morph, flicker, and dance, forming psychologically charged archetypes within a new collective unconscious.
Robin Vuchnich: In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers – The Memory of a Season
Sep 25 – Jan 3, 2027
The nineteenth-century philosopher Henry David Thoreau has long been celebrated for his profound essays on subjects ranging from natural history to social justice. In his most prominent work, Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1854), Thoreau meditates on the transcendent experience of living in direct communion with nature. Throughout his life, Thoreau collected many species of plants from the region around Concord, Massachusetts, the site of Walden Pond. Today, much of his herbarium of dried and pressed specimens is housed at the Harvard University Herbaria.
New-media artist Robin Vuchnich draws inspiration from Thoreau to create interactive, light-based installations that bring to life her own interest in environmental stewardship and diminishing biodiversity. To create the first part of her installation, In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers, Vuchnich drew from the Harvard collection to compose a projected grid of pressed plants. This data visualization is color coded to reveal research from scientists tracking species decline in Concord. If Thoreau walked those woods today, he would encounter a profoundly altered landscape: More than half of the species he collected are now declining toward local extinction.
2026 Young Tennessee Artists: Selections from Advanced Studio Art Programs
Aug 28 – Mar 28, 2027
The eleventh biennial Young Tennessee Artists exhibition showcases some of the finest two-dimensional artwork by high school students from across the state. Students in Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) studio art programs during the 2025–26 academic year were invited to submit their work to be considered for inclusion in the exhibition. After reviewing nearly 600 entries from students in private and public schools, the jurors selected works by 33 artists.
Upper-level studio art courses make it possible for highly motivated students to build and refine their portfolios through ongoing investigation, practice, and reflection. At the end of the school year, each student’s portfolio is reviewed by AP or IB examiners. Students may subsequently receive college course credit or other recognition of their accomplishments. This exhibition illuminates their skillful synthesis of form, technique, and content. The array and quality of works on view demonstrate the growing sophistication and diversity of experiences within the AP and IB studio art programs across Tennessee.
We would like to acknowledge and thank the selection committee:
Lakesha Calvin, artist and associate professor at Fisk University
Lurlynn Franklin, curator, artist, and professor at the University of Memphis
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