NASHVILLE, TN. The Frist Center for the Visual Arts has planned its most ambitious exhibition schedule yet for 2010, with an entire year filled with magnificent art from acclaimed institutions from the U.S. and abroad, expected to draw crowds from around the region and beyond.

In a year of spectacular exhibitions, The Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, from the home of the world’s finest collection of Impressionist paintings, is expected to be the highlight. The Frist Center will be one of only three venues worldwide to host this singular exhibition. The exhibition will open at San Francisco’s de Young Museum in the summer of 2010 before opening at the Frist Center on October 15, 2010. The show will be seen in Madrid in the spring of 2010 prior to traveling to the U.S.

In addition to Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay, the Frist Center will welcome The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London, 1947–1957 from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; a site-specific installation designed for the Frist Center’s Upper-Level Galleries by acclaimed glass artist Dale Chihuly; Masterpieces of European Painting from Museo de Arte de Ponce, a significant collection of Old Master paintings in Puerto Rico; and Heroes: Mortals and Myths in Ancient Greece from the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.

“Undoubtedly, 2010 will be a benchmark year for the Frist Center and for Middle Tennessee,” says Frist Center Executive Director Susan H. Edwards, Ph.D. “It really is a magnificent lineup of exhibitions. Our visitors will have the chance to see here in Middle Tennessee some of the most important art of western civilization. From works that date from the very cradle of our culture, to a show on fashion that broke all records at the Victoria and Albert Museum, to many of the very works that gave birth to the Impressionist movement. 2010 will be a spectacular year for art lovers throughout the region.

“The works coming to Nashville from the Musée d’Orsay are among the most important produced by early masters of modern art, such as Manet, Monet, Degas, and so many others. This art is, literally, being taken from the walls of one of the world’s greatest museums.

“This entire year presents Middle Tennesseans and visitors from beyond the region with many exciting opportunities to see some of the greatest art in the history of the world— art in an array of mediums from all time periods and from some of the world’s greatest institutions.”