Knoxville Museum of Art Tennessee

Having only been to Nashville and Memphis in Tennessee we were excited to be able to explore more of the state with a stop in Knoxville. Our fur baby Hershi was having a spa day, so we dropped him off and headed to the Knoxville Museum of Art Tennessee for an art filled day.

Where we stayed

Our RV park, Riverbend Campground, was actually in Pigeon Forge TN. But there was no Petco in Pigeon Forge and Hershi desperately needed to be groomed. Besides we looked forward to the opportunity to explore Knoxville a bit. So we checked Hershi in at his day spa and headed to First Watch for some brunch.

Day trip to Knoxville

After our delicious sustenance we headed to downtown Knoxville for a visit to the Knoxville Museum of Art Tennessee. Whenever we can we love visiting art museums and galleries. Steve and I have collected pieces we love since we started our lives together in 1969. In fact. one of the most difficult tasks when downsizing our lives to fit in an RV was parting with our vast collection. We squeezed what we could into Ladybug, gave our most valued pieces to Brian and Eve and sold all of the rest.

Knoxville Museum of Art Tennessee

The Knoxville Museum of Art celebrates East Tennessee’s rich, diverse visual culture and its connections to the wider currents of world art. It places great value on diversity and inclusion in exhibitions, programs, staff, volunteers, visitors, and stakeholders. Warmly welcoming and embracing all by operating ethically, responsibly, and transparently as a public trust. The Knoxville Museum of Art enhances the community’s quality of life and strives to meet people where they are, to encourage life-long learning and engagement.

KMA history

The KMA’s (Knoxville Museum of Art) predecessor was the Dulin Gallery of Art, which opened in 1961 in the elegant Dulin House. This 1915 John Russel Pope architectural masterpiece located was located in a residential neighborhood on the west side of Knoxville. It was there that the institutional “DNA” of the KMA as an outwardly-focused, education-oriented, community-rooted organization first took shape. It was evident in the early 1980s that, in order to reach out to and serve a growing and increasingly diverse community, the Dulin would have to expand, or move its operations to more accessible and spacious quarters.

The City of Knoxville offered a tract of land on the downtown site of the 1982 World’s Fair. An ambitious community effort raised $11 million to construct a new, state-of-the-art building, designed by renowned American architect Edward Larrabee Barnes. And in March 1990 the Knoxville Museum of Art Tennessee opened in its current 53,200 square-foot facility.  The exterior of the four-story steel and concrete building, named in honor of Jim Clayton, the largest single contributor to its construction, is sheathed in locally quarried pink Tennessee marble.

Focus on culture of the Southern Appalachians

Since the museum opened, its programming has evolved to become increasingly focused on the rich culture, old and new, of the Southern Appalachians. Currents:  Recent Art from East Tennessee and Beyond features a selection of objects from the KMA’s growing collection of works by emerging and established artists and represents a chronological and geographic expansion of Higher Ground that allows viewers to consider the achievements of area artists within a global context. Facets of Modern and Contemporary Glass showcases the KMA’s growing holdings of 20th and 21st century glass. A permanent installation of nine Thorne Rooms, from a series of miniature historic interiors created in the 1930s and later acquired by the Dulin Gallery, provides a tangible link to the KMA’s early history.

Installation by Richard Jolley

In spring 2014 the museum unveiled a permanent, monumental glass installation by acclaimed Knoxville artist Richard Jolley, a powerful affirmation of the KMA’s commitment to the art and artists of the region. Cycle of Life: Within the Power of Dreams and the Wonder of Infinity is the largest figural glass installation in the world and took 5 years to complete. In preparation for this amazing milestone in the KMA’s history, the museum underwent a comprehensive, top-to-bottom restoration and renovation at a cost of close to $6 million.

Purchase from the Beauford Delaney estate

Another institutional milestone came in 2018 when it purchased a group of major paintings from the Beauford Delaney estate.  The museum now boasts the world’s largest public collection of this important African American artist’s work.  Many of the KMA’s key Delaney works were shown for the first time in 2020 in Beauford Delaney & James Baldwin: Through the Unusual Door, a groundbreaking exhibition examining Delaney’s development through the lens of his intense 38-year friendship with Baldwin. Through the Unusual Door drew national attention to the KMA’s exceptional Delaney holdings, affirmed the validity of the museum’s strategic focus on East Tennessee artists, and broadcast to our community and to the world the global significance of East Tennessee’s visual arts legacy.

Knoxville Museum of Art Tennessee future plans

Reinforcing and strengthening the museum’s focus on the art and artists of East Tennessee and diversifying its collection, programming, and audiences are central to the Knoxville Museum of Art’s current strategic agenda.The museum has plans to completely rethink, enlarge, and reinstall Higher Ground, the museum’s signature permanent exhibition, first opened in 2008. They now have a significantly bigger, richer, and more diverse collection to present.  In particular, the new installation, projected to open in the fall of 2023, will enable the museum to devote significantly more space to its greatly expanded holdings of works by Knoxville natives Beauford and Joseph Delaney, and will also feature a stronger interpretive component to engage visitors more fully.

Admission to the Knoxville Museum of Art is always FREE. Free admission is a core institutional value that creates a friendly exchange at the front door and helps communicate the message that everyone is welcome.