Newsroom

  • Thursday, September 01, 2022 | 02:05pm

    The Tennessee State Museum is the recipient of the 2022 Southeastern Museums Conference (SEMC) Silver Award in the over $100,000 budget category for its current exhibition, "Painting the Smokies: Art, Community, and the Making of a National Park." The SEMC Exhibition Competition showcases the best in our profession and provides benchmarks for regional exhibition efforts in southeastern museums.

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  • Wednesday, March 30, 2022 | 03:37pm

    Home to the most-visited national park in America, the Great Smoky Mountains have enchanted tourists, nature-lovers and artists for generations. A new exhibition at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville, Painting the Smokies: Art, Community, and the Making of a National Park, invites visitors to examine the history of the park through the work of five visual artists active around the time of its creation, about 1900 to 1940. Placing art in conversation with artifacts, the two-gallery, 8,000 square foot show will open April 22, 2022, and run through January 16, 2023. The exhibition will be complemented by a variety of public programming and digital offerings to be announced soon.

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  • Monday, November 08, 2021 | 02:19pm

    Tennessee Craft and the Tennessee State Museum are pleased to announce the winners of the 2021 Best of Tennessee Craft Exhibition, on view at the Museum through February 20, 2022. This juried exhibition celebrates and showcases the exceptional contemporary and traditional craft our state has to offer, providing public visibility and recognition for the quality and diversity of craft found throughout Tennessee. Best in Show went to Nashville’s Beizar Aradini for her fiber/textile work, "My Existence is Political." She is the first Kurdish American to win the exhibition’s top prize.

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  • Tuesday, March 02, 2021 | 08:00am

    The Tennessee State Museum will commemorate the 225th anniversary of Tennessee’s statehood in 2021 with Tennessee at 225: Highlights from the Collection, a self-guided tour within the Museum’s galleries complemented by an online exhibition, showcasing 100 artifacts from the Museum’s collection across five key themes.

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  • Thursday, October 01, 2020 | 07:40pm

    The Tennessee State Museum has received an Excellence in Development Award from the Nashville Chapter of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) in the Large Public Sector Project category. The Museum was one of seven private- and public-sector projects to be recognized at ULI-Nashville’s virtual award gala on Tuesday, September 29.

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  • Tuesday, September 29, 2020 | 11:13am

    The Tennessee State Museum will commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the founding of the United Nations by recognizing Tennessee-native Cordell Hull, whom President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called “The Father of the United Nations,” with a special temporary display from October 13-24, 2020. Titled Cordell Hull: Tennessee’s Father of the United Nations, the display will include the rare exhibition of Hull’s 1945 Nobel Peace Prize medal, on loan from the Friends of Cordell Hull, Pickett County, Tennessee. Born near present-day Byrdstown, Tennessee, Hull was awarded the medal in 1945 in recognition of his work creating the United Nations. It will be displayed along with several other items on loan from the Friends of Cordell Hull, Picket County, including Hull’s Nobel Peace Prize certificate and a bound first charter of the United Nations signed by Hull and others. A portrait of Hull by Casimir Gregory Stapko painted about 1945 from the State Museum’s collection will also be on exhibit.

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  • Wednesday, June 24, 2020 | 08:30am

    The Tennessee State Museum will reopen to the public beginning on Wednesday, July 1, 2020 at 10 a.m., welcoming visitors back to experience Tennessee history, art, and culture from the state’s natural history beginnings through the present day. The Museum has taken the Tennessee Pledge and is committed to protecting the customers that it serves. In preparation for its reopening, the Museum is sharing the following important information, also made available on the Museum’s website at TNMuseum.org.

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  • Wednesday, May 20, 2020 | 07:00am

    – The Tennessee State Museum has received prestigious recognition from two major national museum organizations. The Museum has been re-accredited by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), the highest national recognition signifying excellence afforded the nation’s museums. In addition, the Museum is a recipient of an Award of Excellence from The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) for its 2019-20 exhibition, Let’s Eat! Origins and Evolutions of Tennessee Food. The AASLH Leadership in History Awards, now in its 75th year, is the most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history.

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  • Friday, March 13, 2020 | 05:48pm

    In an abundance of caution for the protection of our visitors and our collection, the Tennessee State Museum will close to the public effective at 5:00 p.m. today, March 13 and remain closed through April 3. A public closure allows for the proper disinfecting protocol without damage to the artifacts and their displays. The closure also includes the Military Branch of the Museum at War Memorial.

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  • Monday, March 09, 2020 | 10:28am

    UPDATED TO REFLECT NEW OPENING DATE - The stories of Tennesseans’ roles within the women’s suffrage movement – culminating with Tennessee’s ratification of the 19th amendment 100 years ago – are at the heart of a new 8,000 square-foot, two gallery exhibition at the Tennessee State Museum. Ratified! Tennessee Women and the Right to Vote opens April 24, 2020, and runs through March 28, 2021.

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  • Tuesday, January 14, 2020 | 11:25am

    The Tennessee State Museum will mark the closing of its exhibition, Let’s Eat! Origins and Evolutions of Tennessee Food, on Sunday, February 2, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. with a special “In Conversation” event featuring mother and daughter, Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams, authors of Soul Food Love (Clarkson Potter, 2015). The event is free and open to the public.

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