Tennessee State University Department of Art
Main Campus
Elliott Hall/Women's Bldg.
3500 John Merritt Blvd.
PO Box 9562
Nashville, TN 37209
(615) 963-1599
Map

Hours: MWF 11am-3pm or by appointment

The Space for New Media is scheduled to open in February 2009 and will show innovations in art and technology by African Americans

MISSION
The Hiram Van Gordon Memorial Gallery and Space for New Media are curated and maintained by the Department of Art at Tennessee State University. Traditional and non-traditional mediums are represented, as well as selected exhibitions that include items from the permanent Witt and Edwards collections of African art.

Annually, student and faculty exhibitions are installed in the gallery, serving as a hands-on training ground for students hoping to pursue art and arts administration. The Department is a member of the Association of College Museums and GalleriesExhibitions/Events:

Exhibition

S t r e t c h
January 17-February 25, 2011

Stretch includes artists whose work can be read as a “stretch” of the traditional definition of painting. Conceptually inspired by Wilma Rudolf’s legacy, the exhibition features artists who choose to work in pliable, stretchable, flexible materials. An alumnus of Tennessee State University, the great runner Wilma Rudolf overcame extreme obstacles of poverty, racism and physical disability, to become one of the most celebrated athletes in American history. In a sense, not only did she literally stretch her body in preparation for her life’s work, she also stretched racial boundaries, gender roles and physical barriers.
-Jodi Hays Gresham, curator

Aimee Miller (Atlanta, GA) creates sculptural paintings from torn canvas. The dense tangles create tactile works that are metaphors for transformation and mediation.

Jeanne Williamson’s (Boston, MA) work, while not quilting, per se, can be seen as an extension of use of textiles in art; in a similar way that the quilts of Gee’s Bend transcend medium and begin to formally speak to modernist concerns. Her paintings are not made of paint at all, but are multi media, sewn objects that tend to jog a line between feminine and masculine ideologies.

Lesley Patterson-Marx (Nashville, TN) creates intricate works on paper, employing storytelling through sewing and weaving.