Frist Art Museum: Nashville’s home for the visual arts
The Frist Art Museum brings the world’s art to downtown Nashville. Since opening in 2001, it has paired international exhibitions with work by local, state and regional artists across about 24,000 square feet of gallery space. Longtime locals may still call it by its original name, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts.
An Art Deco landmark on Broadway
The museum’s home is worth the visit on its own. This former post office opened in 1934 as Nashville’s main post office, and the Art Deco building still shows off its white marble, aluminum grillwork and geometric Art Deco-style details. The post office building served the U.S. Postal Service for decades before it became an art museum, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
A non-collecting museum
The Frist is a non-collecting museum, so it has no permanent collection. Instead, it partners with museums around the world, and the galleries change several times a year. Through January 3, 2027, the Gordon Contemporary Artists Project Gallery hosts Robin Vuchnich: In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers—The Memory of a Season. In this interactive light installation, fields of projected flowers shift as you move through the room.
Family-friendly by design
The Frist is one of the most family-friendly stops in Nashville, Tennessee. Visitors 18 and under always get in free, and the Martin ArtQuest Gallery offers hands-on art-making stations for kids and grown-ups alike. College students with ID receive discounted admission, and the museum runs educational programs and talks and workshops year-round. Leave time for the gift shop and café on your way out.
Frist Art Museum Broadway, Nashville TN
You’ll find the Frist Art Museum at 919 Broadway in Nashville, TN, at the quieter western end of the street near Union Station. It’s an easy walk or a quick ride from Noelle and a natural pairing with lunch in the Gulch afterward. The museum is open Thursday through Monday. Check fristartmuseum.org for current hours, tickets, and exhibitions before you go.
Why Noelle guests love it
Noelle was built around Nashville’s creative community, and the Frist Art Museum is where the city’s commitment to the visual arts shows most clearly. If your trip needs one slower, more reflective afternoon, spend it here.