Construction Will Lead to Early Closure of the Frist's Rome: City and Empire

Frist Art Museum officials have announced a premature closing of the Roman antiquities exhibition Rome: City and Empire due to construction issues related to the nearby Hyatt Regency Hotel project at Nashville Yards.

The exhibit, featuring more than 200 objects on loan from the British Museum, was making its only stop in North America at the Frist. It opened Feb. 23 and was planned to be on view through May 28, but its departure has been moved up by five weeks. The last day to see it is Saturday, April 21. The museum will offer free admission Friday, April 20, from 10 a.m.-9 p.m. to accommodate as many visitors as possible before the exhibition leaves Nashville.

In a release, Dr. Susan H. Edwards, Frist Art Museum director and CEO, says the decision to close prematurely “has been a difficult one.” Lending institutions reserve the right to withdraw objects or an entire exhibition at any time, she says. Earlier this month, 13 of the most fragile objects were removed from view and placed in safe storage. No work in the exhibition has been damaged or compromised.

“We were pleased that after several years of negotiations with the British Museum, we were able to arrange an exhibition of Roman antiquities for Nashville,” Edwards continues. “The British Museum has one of the most extensive and finest collections of Roman art in the world, and we are saddened that the opportunity for people in Middle Tennessee to learn about the impact of the Roman Empire on world culture has been cut short.” 

The release also quotes Amy Dillmann, the British Museum's project manager, who says that safety and security of the collection “has to be our top priority.”

Edwards notes that Frist Art Museum officials feel that San Diego-based Southwest Value Partners, the developers of the Nashville Yards site, worked “closely and diligently” to minimize the impact of construction excavation and the blasting that takes place every afternoon. In order to meet the British Museum's specifications, developers set vibration levels from the blasts significantly below the limits set by the state. Still, British Museum and Frist officials decided to discontinue the exhibit.

“Despite efforts by the Frist Art Museum to provide extraordinary precautionary measures, it was not possible to keep the exhibition here until the end of May,” Edwards said.

The exhibit that is currently in the Frist's Gordon Contemporary Artists Project Gallery — Slavery, the Prison Industrial Complex: Photographs by Keith Calhoun and Chandra McCormick, part of the Violins of Hope series — will be closed, Sunday, April 22, through Thursday, April 26, and will reopen in the Ingram Gallery on Friday, April 27.

The release does not mention if Nick Cave's Feat. will be impacted by the changes.

A version of this post appears at our sister publication Nashville Post.