Image: Memphis Brooks Museum of Art
The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art will present ‘Memphis College of Art, 1936–2020: An Enduring Legacy,’ an exhibition of 90 works tracing the history and influence of the Memphis College of Art. The exhibition runs from February 25 through September 2026 at the museum in Overton Park and forms part of the 2026 Tennessee Triennial.
The presentation brings together work by faculty members, administrators and graduates of the college, spanning a range of media and generations. The museum has organized the works into groupings of faculty and their students, an arrangement intended to reflect the school’s role in educating artists and extending its influence through teaching and professional practice.
Memphis College of Art graduated its final class in May 2020, bringing an 84-year history to an end. According to the Brooks, the college provided rigorous arts education to students from across the United States and around the world, while its graduates developed careers nationally and internationally and inspired subsequent generations through their own teaching.
The exhibition also examines the close institutional relationship between the college and the Brooks. The school’s history is tied to the Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, the institution now known as the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Florence McIntyre played a role in founding both organizations and in their subsequent organization, professionalization and development. The exhibition is therefore presented as a tribute to a closely connected institution as the Brooks prepares to leave its original Overton Park home.
Artists represented include Burton Callicott, Cynthia Bringle, Nancy Cheairs, Michael Coppage, Ted Faiers, Pinkney Herbert, Tommy Kha, James Little, Haley Morris-Cafiero, Floyd Newsum, Veda Reed, Ebet Roberts, Vitus Shell, Allison Read Smith, D’Angelo Lovell Williams and Tad Lauritzen Wright. The exhibition page identifies Tommy Kha’s ‘May (in April)’ from 2023 as an illustrated work associated with the presentation. The full selection includes 90 artists, with the museum describing the group as reflective of the diversity connected to Memphis College of Art.
‘Memphis College of Art, 1936–2020: An Enduring Legacy’ is guest curated by Marina Pacini, who served as chief curator of the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art from 2002 to 2019. The exhibition is included in the Tennessee Triennial, a statewide initiative focused on contemporary artists and the strength and diversity of Tennessee’s visual-art scene. The Brooks is participating alongside a consortium that includes the Frist Art Museum, the Knoxville Museum of Art and the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga.
The exhibition’s run is listed as February 25 through September 2026; the museum has not published an exact closing day in the supplied exhibition information. The Brooks gives its current address as 1934 Poplar Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee.
