Spring in Nashville is all about time for flowers and the open air and galleries and events that bring them to us!

ESTEL Gallery located at 115 8th Ave. North has Pittsburgh artist Scott Turri’s work remaining through the month. With color, repetition and sequencing he creates minimalist works that are amusing and enjoyable.

“I feel compelled to examine how corporations, the media and individuals are responsible for the formation and propagation of the stereotypes related to sex and drugs,” notes Turri, ”and how they contribute to a culture of excess and the glorification of gratification.” Poppies and Heroines, new paintings by Scott Turri, runs through May 26. 

CRAFT: A Creative Community will hold its May Sunday Fair on Sunday, May 6, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the rear parking lot of the Lipstick Lounge in East Nashville. Over thirty local artisans will present and sell original hand-crafted items and artwork at affordable prices.  Knitted, crocheted and quilted goods, clothing and accessories, jewelry, paintings, wall hangings and drawings, prints and papercraft and many more items will be available. Rain date: May 13, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., 1400 Woodland Street. For additional information on the Second Sunday Fair, contact craft.a.creative.community@gmail.com

The Nashville Shakespeare Festival (NSF) presents The Bar’d Crawl & Art Sale Friday May 18 5 p.m. at Roundabout Plaza on Division Street. Presenting Sponsors: Dodson, Parker & Behm, Provence Café, Eakin Partners, and Village Real Estate Honorary Chairs: Heather Byrd and Lee Ann Merrick.

NSF has worked with Caroline Carlisle Consulting to present a local art show that serves as a fundraiser for the theatrical non-profit that will then give back 50 percent of the sales to the visual artists that create the works that will be for sale for two hours only! 

Confirmed artist to date:  Andee Rudloff, Tiffany Dyer-Denton, Stacey Irvin, Samantha Callahan,  Franne Lee, Daniel Lai, and Keith Harmon. The event will begin with a wine, cheese and cookies event at Provence Bread & Café in the Roundabout Plaza from 5-7 p.m. Artwork from several local artists will be available for purchase from 5-7 p.m. At 7 p.m., the guests will travel by foot down Demonbreun on the Bar’d Crawl. Different drink and food specials will be offered during the 7-9 p.m. time period for anyone with a $10 arm band. The event will end at 9 p.m. at Rhythm Nashville with a raffle drawing for two specially-themed dinner baskets from The Mad Platter and Chappy’s for your summer picnic at the park! They will be unveiling at the Art Sale the 20th Anniversary Nashville Shakespeare Festival Poster from the award-winning Spirit of Nashville Collection. For more information visit www.nashvilleshakes.org

Creative Expression and Recovery: A Path to Mental Wellness will be on display at The Parthenon’s East Gallery through July 7.  The Parthenon is collaborating with several local mental health organizations to present an exhibit on the healing potential of art therapy. The organizations include The National Alliance on Mental Illness, The Mental Health Coop, Centerstone, The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, The Tennessee Mental Health Consumers Association and Housing Within Reach Park Center.  The exhibit will include work created by persons with serious mental illnesses, showing the importance of art therapy. Not only does it provide an outlet, helping patients cope with the illness and express their emotions, but it also allows them to see themselves, and be seen by others, as multifaceted, defined by more than their diagnoses.  

Most of the approximately forty art objects, drawings, and paintings on view were made in adult activity centers or at home.  A few examples, however, were produced while their creators were institutionalized. Wherever it was done, the work comprising the exhibit gives a unique insight into the lives of those with mental illnesses. Where possible, interviews with the creators help illuminate their stories and create personal contexts in which to view the work.

Visitors to the exhibit should be aware that some of these interviews address adult themes. The Parthenon, a division of Metro Board of Parks and Recreation, is open 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Tuesday –Saturday.  Admission is $5 for adults and $2.50 for seniors over 62 and children 4-17.  Children under four are free.

Special exhibition by Gallery One artist Henry Isaacs opening at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The exhibition of Isaacs' plein air works is part of a series of events being held at Vanderbilt in conjunction with the Society for the Arts in Healthcare's Annual International Conference. To view the exhibition online, visit http://www.galleryone.biz

RUBY GREEN presents SCAPE Through May 26 - Erin Anfinson, Sisavanh Phouthavong & Jarrod Houghton.  These three artists find several conceptual threads that initiate a dialogue about landscape, common narrative and the process of collage/assemblage. The show will include new multi-media works that highlight these intertwining threads and focus on their connected interest in a unique sense of place. 514 Fifth Avenue South Nashville hours: Tues. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Come out into the plein air this May and see the art!