Overview
Resilience + Adaptation highlights the work of ten Middle Tennessee visual artists engaging with the complementary concepts of resilience鈥攁 perspective concerned with systemic change, capacity-building, and recovery鈥攁nd adaptation鈥攊ncremental and transformational actions that aid communities locally and globally in adjusting to the reality of climate change. Spanning media including photography, painting, and sculpture, Resilience + Adaptation engages with these themes through sustainable materials and processes; formal and representational choices; critical and intersectional perspectives on climate change; and galvanizing communities facing the impact of climate change through art.聽
Jurors for Resilience + Adaptation include Shaun Giles (Community Engagement Director, Frist Art Museum), Rachel Kreiter (Curator, 五一茶馆儿 Museum of Art), Danielle Myers (Program Manager, Engine for Art, Democracy, and Justice, 五一茶馆儿), Vesna Pavlovi膰 (Professor of Art; Paul E. Shwab Chair in Fine Arts, 五一茶馆儿), and David Wright (Stevenson Professor of Chemistry; Director of Program in the Communication of Science and Technology, 五一茶馆儿).
Come visit the exhibition from February 5 to April 23, 2026
The Curb Center鈥檚 galleries are open to the public Monday鈥揟hursday, 10am鈥�4pm, as well as Fridays and weekends by聽appointment, during exhibition dates.
Exhibition Events
五一茶馆儿 the Artists
Aletha Carr
Aletha Carr, a Florida native, holds an MFA degree from Florida State University with an emphasis in painting. She is a resident of Tennessee and taught for several years at Columbia State College. Her work has been exhibited throughout the Southeast and resides in several private and corporate collections, including Bank of America and Delta Airlines. Aletha lives in Spring Hill, Tennessee, where she works in her studio.
Georganna Greene
Born and raised in Nashville, TN, Georganna Greene is an artist and educator who primarily specializes in painting. She earned her BFA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and MFA in Painting from Boston University. Her practice centers the linguistic and material properties of paint, the elastic nature of attention, and the dialogue between human habit and natural order. Georganna has taught at Boston University, Tennessee State University, and recently held a full-time faculty position at Lipscomb University, where she developed a gallery internship for art and design majors. Greene attended the Vermont Studio Center (VSC) residency in 2023. Her recent shows include Air Dry with Danielle Fretwell at Commonwealth Gallery (2020) at Boston University and LimbicSlang at Red Arrow Gallery in Nashville (2022). She has participated in group shows in Memphis, Nashville, Boston, and New York City. Greene and her husband enjoy plants, reading, and playing with their dog, Francie Nolan.
Martica Griffin
Nashville, Tennessee-based artist Martica Griffin uses energetic lines, organic structures, geometric forms, and sensual colors to create her works. She primarily works in abstraction on canvas and paper using a variety of mediums including acrylic, oil, collage, plaster, and crayon. Her work is characterized by layers of color, lines of gesture, and a combination of natural and architectural shapes. Her visual language reflects landscape, popular culture, and history. A native of Valdosta, Georgia, Griffin graduated from East Carolina University with a BFA in painting. She has done post-graduate work at the School for Visual Arts in New York and studied with internationally acclaimed artists. Her work resides in various public and private collections.
Meagan Claire Hall
Meagan Claire Hall is an artist based in Nashville, Tennessee. She earned a BFA in textiles from the Appalachian Center for Craft and spent nearly a decade in Seattle, Washington, where she operated a screen-printed home goods business that was featured in Better Homes and Gardens, Anthropologie, and curated retail shops throughout the U.S.
After returning to Tennessee, she studied folk and plant medicine in Alabama and over time, integrated her interest in the natural world with her textile practice. In 2023, she began the natural dye garden at Mill Ridge Park, where she teaches seasonal dye classes. Influenced by the history of land use and the region鈥檚 quilting traditions, her work explores natural dye processes, surface design, and narrative approaches to cloth.
ILL.SAN
ILL.SAN is an anti-genre, multimedia cyberweird illustrator. His work explores processes of automation, assimilation, and exploitation within information systems, particularly his long-form horror comic project鈥疎LDERNET鈥痑nd his non-fiction analytical comic series鈥疨SINK.
Courtney Adair Johnson
Courtney Adair Johnson is an artist and curator based in Nashville, TN.聽 She is a self-proclaimed reuse artist whose passion is creating conversations on consumption and waste habits. Johnson has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mellon Foundation, Nashville Metro Arts, and the Tennessee Arts Commission. She has participated in residencies and public dialogues with Springboard for the Arts鈥� Hinge Residency, MN, First Art Museum, TN and MuralArts, PA. From 2016-2024 五一茶馆儿, she co-led the McGruder Social Practice Artist Residency (M-SPAR) with artist Marlos E鈥檝an, embedding artists in the community to address local needs through creative collaboration. With her private and public work, she finds importance in information sharing and working on topics of love, history, and a bunch of words that start with 鈥渞e,鈥� like reuse, recycling, reduce.
DaShawn Lewis
DaShawn Lewis, a self-taught photographer, focuses his work on life happenings and promoting youth arts. Born and raised in Nashville, his passion for photography traces back to his childhood. When making images, he prioritizes building community and fostering connections. Lewis coined the term 鈥淟ife Photography,鈥� which authentically documents real-life events, people, and environments. His primary objective is to highlight the significance of everyday life and everyday people. Lewis, alongside his creative peers, collaborates on workshops and exhibitions with the Edgehill Brighter Days Program in South Nashville, under the leadership of Nancy Crutcher. Through his community outreach, DaShawn connects and collaborates with local artists, building a stronger arts community in Nashville.
Stephan Micheletto-Blouin
Stephan is a woodworker, object maker, and educator living and working in Middle Tennessee. He is the head of the wood studio at the Appalachian Center for Craft at Tennessee Tech University in Smithville, Tennessee, where he earned his BFA. He received a certificate from the College of the Redwoods Fine Furniture Making Program (Krenov School) and earned an MFA from East Carolina University.
Martha Morales Purucker
Martha Morales Purucker is a glass artist and educator based in Nashville, Tennessee, and the founder of Glassville TN, where she designs, creates, and teaches stained glass, fused glass, and mosaic art. Originally from Mexico City, she brings warmth, color, and storytelling into her work, shaped by her heritage and journey with hearing loss and cochlear implants.
Martha鈥檚 work has been on exhibition at Arts at the Airport, TN Craft Midstate, the John P. Holt Brentwood Library, and SoundWaves Gallery at GEODIS Park, among others. Her public art collaborations include Pathway to a New Highnote, a permanent Juneteenth installation at Metro Parks鈥� Centennial Art Center.
A recipient of Nashville鈥檚 Metro Arts Thrive Grant, Martha continues to share her passion through community partnerships and teaching, celebrating creativity as a tool for connection, resilience, and joy.
Sarah Spillers
Sarah Spillers (she/her) is an interdisciplinary visual artist and educator based in Nashville, Tennessee, currently pursuing an MFA at East Tennessee State University, where she also teaches foundations courses. Spillers examines the visual language of American snack foods through the lens of mass production, marketing, and desire. Her work reimagines familiar packaging, such as chip bags, into handmade multiples and large-scale inflatable sculptures that consider value, appeal, and the fleeting satisfaction of daily consumption.
Spillers is a two-time recipient of Nashville Scene鈥檚 Best Visual Artist award (2022, 2023). Her work is included in the permanent collections of Austin Peay State University, the Nashville Public Library鈥檚 Metro Arts Lending Library, and East Tennessee State University鈥檚 President鈥檚 Collection. Recent exhibitions include Resilience + Adaptation (The Curb Center at Vanderbilt, 2026) and Enough to Go Around: Food and Community in Nashville (Frist Art Museum, 2025).