Frist Center for the Visual Arts Reviews

Wonderful as always. A cornerstone for the Arts in Nashville.

This is a small museum, which is why it's only $12 for an adult. It's a very cool building though with great exhibitions! They also have a gift shop and cafe. I went to see the Nick Cave exhibition and it was amazing! If you're traveling they will check your bags for no additional cost.

I love the fact that they have different themes so it's not always the same thing every time

Amazing building, renovated post office. Great setting for museum. Current exhibit of Italian post war cars is great and not just for car buffs

I always love the Frist Center. I have a membership.

Great exhibition of Frida Kahlo and the Mexican modernists. We went with a baby, it was a blast!

Great exhibitions, better guided tours and the best customer service. Perfect Friday evening!

I always get in free with my student id on Thursdays and Fridays. Makes you feel cultured lol. Fun fancy date idea.

Consistently excellent exhibits. Rome and Nick Cave exhibits.

What a beautiful art museum! The architecture in this building is gorgeous. The exhibits were interesting and timely. My daughter and I truly enjoyed being here. And the ladies bathroom was very uniquely designed. I really appreciated this visit.

Family friendly me the kids and Mrs loved it going again

Such a treasure to have in Nashville. My children particularly enjoy the upstairs where you go to create art. It was a lot of fun to create right alongside them.

Great museum with many galleries. The showings are often there for long periods of time so you can go see them a second or third time. Paid membership is absolutely worth it.

The Frist Art Museum is a beautiful and insightful museum that shows a variety of interesting shows.

Great current exhibit, informed guides on Frida Kalo, wheelchairs available for tours which are long on old legs!!!

Realizing that covid 19 is a factor, and not realizing only two exhibits available--it was so disappointing! We were done in literally five minutes. We will never go again, and I was really looking forward to it.

It cost 15 dollars to gain access to the galleries.
There are currently 3 exhibits at the Frist Art Museum. The first and most developed is called The Hearts of Our People and showcases Native Women Artists. The second is an exhibit that focuses on the art and life of Eric Carle, who made The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The third and smallest exhibit is called Osgemeos, which presents itself as a very short-lived and vibrant experiment with acid.

There were many incredible pieces of craftsmanship in the Hearts of Our People exhibit. The themes revolved around female empowerment and the personal experiences of women. If you enjoy such topics, it's the place to go. If you don't, then... Don't go.
The Eric Carle was a nice exhibit with some in-depth looks at the creative process and an area with video of the author reading the book. There are play areas for children around the upper floor.
The Osgemeos I don't have much to say about- I walked in, walked through the two rooms, then walked out. It was colorful.
There is also a hallway directly in front of the door that houses the Community Arts Gallery, which has examples of African-American cultural art, graffiti, and murals.

The museum is clean and orderly, has chairs and wifi, a gift shop, information and membership services. I gave the museum 3 stars because of the cost and how little variety there currently is in the galleries. I walked through the galleries in 30-45 minutes and ended up confused, thinking there would be more. There was no abstraction, impressionism, or other 'fine art' pieces, which I personally feel that, you know... An art museum should have.

Having seen everything, I would not return to the Frist Art Museum until the galleries cycled out or collected a wider variety of pieces.

Beautiful art and paintings. We came for the Frida exposition. Learned many things about her paintings, history, culture and timely death. Would recommend to any one that likes to learn about history.

A nice art museum centrally located with great exhibits.

Smaller exhibits but is quite affordable and has amazing service and accessible parking! It is also kid friendly and has a unique and beautiful architecture

Beautiful museum - the building is actually more beautiful than its contents. And the latter are not many but very very nice.

It is a former post office. Impressive.

Friendly staff.

Nice but small collection. Great area for kids upstairs to explore their artistic side!

Great experience! There may have only been three exhibits open because of Covid-19 but I still thoroughly enjoyed myself and would definitely come again.

Smaller than I expected. Check their schedule for a free day, but prepare for a crowd.

Excellent exhibit! All the exhibits are great! We were there for the Impressionist exhibit this time. Really great anytime.

I'm a big fan of the Frist Art Center, they have art making for kids on the top floor.

I m a member. I recommend that if you enjoy art, become a member.

Revolving exhibits. Mummies and rare vintage cars have been favorites. Nice gift shop. Cafe expensive but no bad. Beautiful building. Kids art room is the best. Kids free all the time.

Always loved this museum! Last time I went was during the Frida Kahlo exhibit and it was amazing.

A membership to the Frist is an excellent birthday/anniversary/Valentines gift. Students under 18 are free and graduate students or university students or teachers get discounted rates to purchase the membership. The Frist has attractive and intriguing travelling galleries that come through seasonally, so there's almost always something new happening every few months. While there's displays and art exhibits that come and go, you'll always be treated with kindness by the staff and you'll be sure to find something intriguing in the exhibits. Last fall, they had an exhibit from the British Museum featuring Rome, and my wife and I went on three different dates to visit and explore for about an hour-hour and a half each time and we never completed seeing all they had in that exhibit. I also have taken my kids on the weekends to do some art in the children's section. I'm always grateful for the artists they have who work with the kids. Very grateful for the Frist and what they bring to our Nashville community!

Beautiful exhibit, knowledgeable and friendly staff.

To be honest, the place could be much bigger. But that has more to do with the really well made exhibits. I've been to a few of their exhibitions now and I can say that it is worth going to because they are well coordinated and thoughtfully curated. They use the digital aids kinda sparsely; like the touch screens, but they do it to a point and its apparent when you experience it.

Great museum with a surprising good restaurant. A gem in the middle of town.

It's not the Louvre, but it's a decent museum that includes nice traveling exhibits.

Great museum, but smaller than expected. If you have a college ID be sure to show it for their student discount.

Great private collection of Frida Kahlo paintings and photographs. So much to see and study and not enough time. Gotta go back next week to catch up with Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali exhibits.

If you go upstairs than you think, it seems to be another exhibition every time. Things are good!

Wonderful experience for us. Excellent displays, friendly, helpful staff, convenient parking, good food in the cafe. Loved it.

The Frist is small, but it does get some interesting exhibits.

The building is gorgeous, and the art that comes through is so varied from Kandinsky to cars to Tibetan monks to American masters to Nick Cave. Since they don't have a permanent collection, they can get really creative with exhibits. It's also a good event space both inside and out.

Great exhibits and thankful for free family events when available. Parking is horrible and expensive.

I attended a wedding on Nov 4th. It was beautiful. However, the Frist had to provide drinks, runners, and bar tends. I had 4 drinks of wine that I was not able to finish because someone would take it up too soon. One drink, I only took one sip then he took it up. I had atleast 8 other individuals at the wedding that said the same thing. The Frist profited from taking up drinks where individuals would have to get another.

Wonderful revolving exhibits & gorgeous architecture

No permanent collection but friendly staff, interesting exhibits.

This is a valuable asset for this community. I try to go as often as I can.

Always a hit for us. Spacious, beautiful building, helpful staff. Gorgeous gift store, great prices...

Nashville has not many art museum, this one is the only Art museum I will visit regularly. Remember to ask the information desk for the discount parking.

Sometimes this place is Smithsonian grade, sometimes flea market grade... With a 100% rotation display... It's like a box of chocolates; you neva know what you're gonna get. Makes it kind of exciting for a spontaneous visit: sometimes awesome, sometimes disappointing.

I just love this museum. The latest exhibit, Chaos and Awe, is thought provoking and very engaging.

We spent an amazing morning at Frist! We were surprised by an unexpected story time, (the docent was amazing: prepared, informative, educational, engaging in an age appropriate way) beautiful galleries the perfect scale for little people attention spans, lovely collections, and the hands on art experience upstairs was phenomenal! This is a fantastic resource for the city! Thanks Frist Center for the Visual Arts for a great day!

Very small art museum, but nice nonetheless. Went here on a school field trip and thoroughly enjoyed.

Upstairs they have an entire interactive kids area with different stations set up for kids to do fun art activities. My daughter, age 5, who loves art, really loved this section. They had everything from stamping to stenciling to videography and free drawing, water color painting and more.

Awesome for kids on a rainy day .

Fantastic art exhibit! Although a little small, the pieces are wondrous to inspect, and the interactive portions are incredibly fun!
Remember to ask the front desk about parking discounts, as you'll get cheaper museum parking than if you're just going to the mail center of the building.

Beautiful grounds and building but thought there would be more art. Very helpful that there s a free coat check if you re travelling and the staff were nice and helpful.

Amazing collection Degas, Monet, Picasso, it was exquisitely Scrunted

I'm from Birmingham, with an enormous museum, so I was a little disappointed. If you're ever in Birmingham, AL go there! It's donations only too.

This is Nashville treasure! Enjoyed our day atvthe Frist

exhibits are thought provoking & BEAUTIFUL. Martin Art Quest is a gift for all ages, a creative space for kids, parents, tourists & even professionals - see art & MAKE art. Love the Frist, especially music in the Cafe, as a performer and a patron it is a soul soothing experience!

Loved the exhibition of Chaos. Thanks for supporting military families.

The Frist Center is a museum with beautiful pieces of art which are displayed throughout the building! It has a great atmosphere and it's appropriate for people of all ages.

Art museum downtown. The permanent exhibit is the Roman located downstairs. Nick Cave show upstairs on view til mid May was quite eclectic. The art deco design might have been my favorite part. It's a quick visit, can go through it in under an hour. Not the first place I'd visit but interesting nonetheless.

Check the exhibit calender! Went on a whim on my birthday and just happened to be on tear down day.

Friendly docent made our visit priceless. A nice collection along with interesting exhibits. We learned a lot; perhaps that some things remain the same

WOW and I mean WOW!! What a great place to go. I went to see the Van Gogh exhibit. I can tell you it is so worth going.. The staff was friendly and I learned about the building its so art deco. There is so much history not just art but about how the building housed all of Nashville mail at one time. I urge you to go.. o yes the cafe is really good too. I really enjoyed my time there.

Great museum! I was blown away how well put together it was. Also I visited in time for the tour which was courtesy of the museum! I visited many museums in Europe and Mexico. I was extremely happy to catch the Frida exhibit and wasn t as packed luckily.

This place always a great visit. Their exhibits are top notch and the kids art area is very fun when you have a little one (or even if you're just young at heart!)

Granddaughter and I, years ago, viewed 'Whistler's Exhibit' at Frist. Incredible! Granddaughter and I also were given opportunity by Frist to actually do process of Intaglio...etching on glass. (I am now trying to find out when that art exhibit took place; year and month.)
Whistler's exhibit was outstanding. Shown was black and white foto next to completed painting of Whistler actually painting his famous oil painting, 'Whistler's Mother'!
Perfect! A most wonderful experience provided by Frist Museum!
Thank you!
Kathleen Hughes

I love the building, maybe more than the exhibitions I saw. I went for the surrealists during war. I loved that but didn't find much of their permanent exhibit worth visiting..

I'm just not thrilled with this place, and I would not recommend you pay to go here. There is less art than you would expect. There is a lot more hallways, entryways, and office space than galleries. And everything has the air of pretentiousness. It's not terribly inviting for the common man.

If you catch a Free Frist opening, absolutely check it out. You have nothing to lose, and the art is cool. But I would only recommend it under those circumstances.

We visited on girl scout day this past Saturday. It had nice activities for the girl scouts to do to earn patches and a 'different' type of art than I am used to seeing. Not a large quantity of available art in my opinion. Overall our scouts enjoyed themselves. Parking is not bad for Nashville. Would return for another event.

Great museum, always something interesting on display.

I Liked It but most of the area was closed on that day. If you love History and want to know some of the beginning of US History. Visit Frist Center

If you love art, you will love this place. Fascinating!

My favorite art museum in Nashville. The galleries are changed out quite often. It is a beautiful building that is actually a repurposed post office. The building itself is rich in history and culture. There is even a cool kids space where you can create orignial pieces with your little piccasso. All the exibits are educational and interesting.

Went to see Frida Kahlo and the surrealism exhibit. It was wonderful. Very clean and respectful environment. Even with lots of people. One of the "guards" had their arms in their shirt not in the sleeves, I'm sure she was freezing though. :) One of the guards was even Willing to give information about an exhibit. Wonderful experience, Will be returning.

Excellent exhibit; knowledgeable and helpful docent; beautiful building.

I was totally impressed by this museum from the exterior architecture to the interior. It's a fabulous structure to admire, balance and symmetry throughout. The visiting exhibit was Nick Cage, and I found the exhibit to be visually stunning, like nothing I've ever seen before. They had a fun interpretive area that actually was very entertaining, even though it is designed for children.

Expect to be here 2+/- hours.
They also honor AAA discounts which was a nice addition.

Beautiful art museum that looks like an Art Deco dream! Large exhibition space with high profile exhibits from Monet to Dorothea Lange. Kids are FREE and they large kids space upstairs can keep the occupied for hours as they create their own paintings, sculptures, films and reliefs.

What a waste of time. Only two rooms were open. That s why it is only half price we were told. Should have paid us money to see it.