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Summer travels may be fading into warm memories as winter temperatures drop, but cheer up – there’s more to vacations than beaches and mountains. For cold-weather getaways with minimal bad-weather drive time, think art.

Tennessee’s museums are working hard to attract wide audiences, expanding their collections, polishing up their facilities and bringing world-class special exhibits to town. Want to see a Warhol, learn about ancient Egyptian art or see Impressionist paintings from a famed European collection? No need to travel to New York, Chicago or Washington this winter– you can find great art close to home.

From Choo-Choo to Childe Hassam

“Whether you go to a museum once a week or once a year, we’re all about making the experience comfortable and giving people the tools to really enjoy American art,” says Ellen Hays of Chattanooga’s Hunter Museum of Art.

The Hunter, nestled along the city’s downtown riverfront, has just completed a $19.5 million expansion, reinstalling its permanent collection in creative ways and adding space for changing exhibits. While you peruse works by such giants as Winslow Homer and Helen Frankenthaler, you’ll find spots to write a journal or a poem, learn about contemporary culture or maybe even draw your own landscape.

The museum, at 10 Bluff View, is open seven days a week, with hours varying by day of the week.

Admission: $7 adults; children 3-12 $3.50, under 3 free.

Call 423-267-0968 for more information.

While in Chattanooga, be sure to explore the galleries and outdoor sculpture in the Bluff Art District. The nearby Houston Museum of Decorative Arts, at 201 High St., houses an outstanding collection of antique glass and ceramics – including the world’s largest collection of pitchers.

1,352 Guitar-Pickers– and Gainsborough, too

In Nashville, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts offers 24,000 square feet of gallery space, a first-rate café and a popular gift shop, all in a masterfully restored Art Deco post office. Be sure to spend time in the Art Quest gallery, where adults and kids can paint, sculpt or make an original print.

This winter, the center hosts“The Splendid Palette: Painting in France from Monet to Bonnard,” until April 30, and an installation by California artist Deborah Aschheim through Jan. 8.

Located at 919 Broadway, the museum is open seven days a week.

Admission: adults $8.50, college students $6.50, seniors 65-plus $7.50, 18 and under free.

Call 615-244-3340.

The Tennessee State Museum, one of the largest state museums in the nation, is home to a permanent collection of Tennessee-related art and artifacts as well as temporary exhibits, including this winter’s European Masters show (see accompanying story).

Located at Fifth and Deaderick Streets in the James K. Polk Center, hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sunday.

Admission free, except for some temporary exhibits.

Call 615-741-2692.

Don’t miss Fisk University’s Carl Van Vechten Gallery and its breathtaking Alfred Stieglitz collection of modern art, which includes work by Picasso, Cezanne, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec and Georgia O’Keeffe. Free admission; donations encouraged.

Hours: Tues-Fri. 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun. 1-5 p.m.

Located at Jackson Street and 18th Avenue North.

Call 615-329-8500.

Across town, Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum boasts a collection of 600 paintings and 5,000 prints, drawings and photographs; the museum also specializes in decorative arts, a contemporary art collection that includes Larry Rivers, Andy Warhol and Red Grooms, and an outdoor contemporary sculpture garden.

Cheekwood’s winter exhibits include “The Compelling Frontier: Selections from the John A. and Margaret Hill Collection of American Western Art” (through Dec. 31), a show of Miami artist Westen Charles’s work (through Jan. 1) and a unique show, “100 Artists See God,” Feb. 4 through April 16.

Cheekwood is at 1200 Forrest Park Drive.

Hours: Tues.-Sat. 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Sun. 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Admission: Adults $10, seniors $8, college students $5, youth (3-13) $5, under 3 free; $30 household cap.

Call 615-356-8000.

Berthe Meets Beale Street

Eighty Impressionist works by French artist Berthe Morisot and such friends as Degas, Renoir, Manet and Monet take center stage at Memphis’ Brooks Museum of Art now through Jan. 29.

The handsome museum’s 86,000-square-foot exhibition space pays special attention to Italian Renaissance and Baroque paintings, and 19th- and 20th-century painting and sculpture. The Brushmark Café is a great place for lunch.

Located at 1934 Poplar Ave.: Open six days a week (closed Mondays).

Admission: Adults, $6, seniors 65+ $5, students $2, children 6 and under, free.

Call 901-544-6200.

Also in Memphis, the Dixon Gallery and Gardens, 4339 Park Ave., specializes in Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art in a collection that numbers more than 2,000 paintings and other works.

Hours vary (closed on Mondays)

Admission: adults $5, seniors 60-plus $4; students and children free.

Call 901-761-2409.

Mountain Whimsy

The Knoxville Museum of Art celebrated 15 years in its striking Edward Larrabee Barnes-designed building last May with the unveiling of Dragon II, a 15-foot-tall outdoor sculpture by celebrated American artist Kenneth Snelson.

Other riches in its collection – which focuses largely on modern American art – include works by artists with Tennessee connections (Red Grooms and Joseph Delaney among them) and contemporary pieces by such luminaries as Robert Rauschenberg and David Bates.

Located at 1050 World’s Fair Park. Hours: Tues, Wed. noon-8 p.m.; Thurs., Fri. noon-9 p.m.; Sat., Sun. 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Call 865-525-6101. 

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Magazine:
Tennessee Home & Farm, Summer 2010 Edition Edition

Headline:
Art-full Getaways

Summary:
Who needs the Big Apple? Tennessee art museums make the perfect winter destination.

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