The Frist Art Museum, formerly known as the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, is an art exhibition hall in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

, housed in the city's historic

U.S. Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the Federal government of the Uni ...

building, which is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

History

The museum is housed in a white

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

building that was built in the 1930s to serve as Nashville's main

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

. Designed by Marr & Holman Architects, it was built in 1933-34 for $1.5 million. Its location near

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

was convenient for mail distribution, since most mail at that time was moved by

train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pul ...

. By the 1980s, downtown was no longer a good location for postal distribution. When a new main post office was built near the airport in 1986, the historic old facility became a downtown branch using only a small portion of one floor. In the early 1990s

Thomas F. Frist, Jr. Thomas Fearn Frist Jr. (born August 12, 1938) is an American billionaire physician and businessman. He is a co-founder of HCA Healthcare, and the wealthiest person in Tennessee.

, and his family, through the charitable Frist Foundation, identified the post office building, an example of

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

and

Stripped Classicism Stripped Classicism (or "Starved Classicism" or "Grecian Moderne") Jstor is primarily a 20th-century Classical architecture, classicist architectural style stripped of most or all Ornament (art), ornamentation, frequently employed by governmen ...

style, as a good location for a proposed downtown art museum. The Foundation implemented a public-private venture between the foundation, the

U.S. Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U. ...

, and the city of Nashville. In 1999 the City of Nashville acquired the building from the U.S. Postal Service for the purpose of creating the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, paying $4.4 million. The city contributed $15 million toward renovating the building, and the Frist Foundation and Frist family contributed $25 million for the renovation and to start an endowment for the art museum. The city owns the building but granted the Frist a 99-year lease for $1 per year. A renovated post office branch was opened in the basement in 1999. The art center opened in April 2001 with approximately of gallery space presenting visual art from local, state and regional artists, as well as major U.S. and international exhibitions. On April 2, 2018, the Frist announced that it changed its name from The Frist Center of the Visual Arts to The Frist Art Museum. The change became legally effective April 1, 2018. The post office branch remains open and has its own separate entrance on the western end of the building.

Exhibition and program information

As a non-collecting museum, the Frist does not have a permanent collection; rather, the center focuses on creating exhibitions as well as securing traveling exhibitions from around the country and the world. Information regarding past, current and future exhibitions is found on the Frist's website. Each exhibition page contains detailed information about exhibition-related programs and an array of resources, including gallery guides, audio guides, videos and additional information from varying sources. Martin ArtQuest (MAQ) is a permanent interactive gallery space at the Frist Art Museum. The MAQ space consists of: a drawing station, a painting station, a printmaking station, a zoetrope station, a shadow theater, a stop-motion animation tool, an interactive Everbright wall composed of color-changing dials, a collaborative textile-weaving installation using a large six-sided art deco grid, a full-body-animated digital painting experience, and a sound pattern station which allows visitor to manipulate frequencies with sand on metal plates. MAQ is run by the Frist's Educational department, which is led by Anne Henderson, who is the Director of Education and Community Engagement.

References

External links

* {{authority control 1931 establishments in Tennessee 2001 establishments in Tennessee Art Deco architecture in Tennessee Art museums established in 2001 Art museums and galleries in Tennessee Arts centers in Tennessee Buildings and structures completed in 1932 Contemporary art galleries in the United States Frist family Former post office buildings Museums in Nashville, Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Nashville, Tennessee Neoclassical architecture in Tennessee Post office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee PWA Moderne architecture Stripped Classical architecture in the United States