Per Matt
Looking ahead to next week, The Art of Beer will be appearing at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts as a special one-day presentation, on Friday, August 22. This will be the third Art of Beer event presented by the Frist Center, which will include art, beer appreciation, a beer discussion by Nashville breweries and beer consumption. Make sure to get your tickets soon. The registration deadline ends on Friday, August 15 and tickets to the event aren’t available at the door.
Associate Curator of Interpretation Megan Robertson develops public programs for the Frist Center. Since she conceptualized the upcoming event from start to finish, I asked her a few questions to preview the event.
Is this the first time this exhibit has appeared at the Frist?
– “Watch Me Move: The Animation Show is a very unique exhibition for the Frist Center. Visitors to the exhibit will encounter hundreds of clips from the history of animated film. This includes examples as divergent as well-known cartoon characters from all of the major studios to films created by contemporary fine artists.”
“The August 22 Art of Beer will be the third Art of Beer event that the Frist Center has presented. Previous Art of Beer events have focused on the exhibitions Rembrandt and the Dutch Golden Age (we talked about tavern scenes) and American Chronicles: the Art of Norman Rockwell (we discussed Rockwell’s beer advertisements).”
Who is organizing this event?
– “The Art of Beer is organized by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts’ Education Department. I was excited to create an event in support of Watch Me Move that was a little irreverent and fortunately the breweries agreed that exploring depictions of inebriation in cartoons would be fun.”
Since this is a one-day event, can we expect more like it to appear throughout the year?
– “This is the one and only Art of Beer event on our calendar for 2014 – but we do plan to host similar events in the future.”
Will there be any beer-related art on display?
– “There will be some cartoon clips shown that specifically feature beer.
What are the types of classic cartoons we can expect at the exhibit?
– “We will be featuring a range of inebriated characters — some cartoon examples are older, but others are very recent. The consumption of mind-altering substances can serve many purposes within the narrative of a cartoon. Alcohol might make a character behave in a way that is inconsistent with their usual personality or trigger a wacky, hallucinatory sequence. I wrote the program description broadly so that we can include some non-alcohol induced cartoon mayhem, too. Almost anything consumed without moderation can make a cartoon act very foolishly. Unfortunately, I really can’t be too specific on what cartoons we will be showing. The surprise will be part of the fun.”
How would you describe the relationship between art and beer?
– “Creating great beer, just like creating great art, takes vision, talent, creativity and a mastery of one’s craft. We wanted to highlight local, craft breweries for the program to introduce them to our audience of art lovers (and to introduce their audience of beer lovers to art). We also only do Art of Beer events when there is a thematic link to the work on view in our galleries.”
How were the three local microbreweries chosen to give their presentation?
– “We wanted to focus on local, craft breweries for this program. So far, we have worked with four great breweries — Fat Bottom Brewing Co., Jackalope, Turtle Anarchy and Yazoo. All of these breweries have been fantastic partners. We want to keep them in the rotation and continue to add other breweries who are interested in being part of the program in the future.”
Do you have a scheduled time for when each brewery will be speaking?
– “The program will run from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm. I will be giving a short introduction and talking about alcohol and animation, then a representative from each brewery will talk about their beer philosophy and the beers they have brought with them to share.”
Will each brewery offer samples of the beer they’re discussing?
– “Each of the three breweries will be bringing two beers for participants to try. After the tasting, participants can redeem a drink ticket for one pint of their favorite beer from the tasting.”
Do you know which beers will be available?
– “The brewers will not be sharing which beers they are bringing until later next week.”
For More Information:
– The Art of Beer program description
– Frist Center Website
– Frist Center Facebook
– Frist Center Twitter