Higher Ground is the first ongoing exhibition devoted to the history of art in East Tennessee. It features a selection of more than 60 objects from the Knoxville Museum of Art’s holdings supplemented by those borrowed from public and private collections from all over the country. Many of the featured artists spent their entire lives and careers in the area, while some moved away to follow their creative ambitions. Others were drawn to the region by its natural beauty, as the wealth of landscape imagery in this exhibition attests.
Together, these artists’ works form the basis of a visual arts legacy in East Tennessee that is compelling and, until the opening of Higher Ground in June of 2008, largely unknown. The exhibition allows viewers to follow the history of artistic activity in the region over roughly 150 years of development and learn about some of the many exceptionally gifted individuals who have helped shape the area’s visual arts tradition. www.knoxart.org