2026 AVA Exhibition Calendar
In 2026, AVA’s exhibition calendar is shifting to align with the city-wide First Friday Gallery Crawl. Shows will now run for a two month duration with exhibit openings coinciding with First Fridays.
This calendar reflects exhibits at the 30 Frazier Avenue location and does not include information about CHA Art Space or CHI Memorial Hospital/AVA Exhibits.
Exhibit 1:
Main Gallery: Ghosts in the Walls- Preservation as Memory
A group exhibition of AVA Members highlighting discourse and issues around historic preservation in Chattanooga.
Landis Education Gallery: The state of today.
A Juried Student Show organized by the UTC Student Art Collective.
The Stage: Family Laundry
Featured installation by AVA Member artist, Nicci Schwartz
Opening Night- Friday, January 9th
Exhibit Duration- Friday, January 9th- Friday, February 27th
Exhibit 2:
Main Gallery: AVA Member Media Exhibit- Jewelry and Adornment
Annual medium specific exhibit for AVA Members only. Highlighting the work of our artists working with hand-made jewelry, wearable art and various fiber arts related to the human body.
Landis Education Gallery: Center for Creative Arts Student Show
Group exhibition highlight work from students enrolled in the Visual Art program at CCA, Chattanooga’s fine arts magnet school.
The Stage: Material Intimacies
Featured installation by Artist Kris Bespalec
Opening Night- Friday, March 6th
Exhibit Duration- Friday, March 6th-April 24th
Exhibit 3:
Main Gallery: AVA Member Thematic Show- “Macro/Micro”
Annual multi-media thematic exhibit for AVA Members only. Artists are invited to submit works that play with the idea of scale, whether in size, concept or in subject matter. Think universe vs. particle, big vs small, large format or wide angle lens vs macro lens, tiny art, large scale works, large things made from small components, systems vs units, scope vs scale, etc.
Landis Education Gallery: Overflow for “Macro/Micro”
The Stage: CROSSPOLLINATION - The Language of MIXED-UP Media
Featured installation work created in collaboration by Claire Vassort, Lisa Houser, Dixon Stetler and Cody Havens
Opening Night- Friday, May 1st
Exhibit Duration- Friday, May 1st-June 26th
Exhibit 4:
Main and Landis Education Galleries: Annual Juried Member Exhibition
Every year, AVA hosts a Juried Show for our Member Artists. Each year a panel of jurors (each an established professional in the visual art field) score and evaluate submissions from AVA’s member artists. This show is a smaller scale group exhibit and helps us determine an artist for our annual Solo Artist Exhibition. The artist whose work receives the highest score from the Jurors is awarded “Best in Show” and will receive a solo exhibition of their work at AVA the following year as well as serving as a juror for the next Juried Show. Jurors are also each asked to select an artist to receive “Juror’s Choice” for automatic inclusion in the exhibition, regardless of score. Those artists are awarded a small group exhibition of their work in the Landis Education Gallery the following year, coinciding with the Best in Show solo exhibition.
Opening Night- Friday, July 3rd (Wednesday, July 8th Alternate)
Exhibit Duration- Friday, July 3rd-August 28th
Exhibit 5:
Main Gallery: 2025 Best in Show: Danyelle Woods (Title TBD)
Danyelle Woods received “Best in Show” in the 2025 Annual Juried Exhibition for her work Memory Map I. Danyelle’s work is a combination of known and unknown forms, created with organic materials made by the earth.
Landis Education Gallery: 2025 Juror’s Choices: Jeweli Eslinger, Meredith Olinger and Andy Brooks (Title TBD)
Eslinger, Olinger and Brooks were each selected by the Jury of the 2025 Juried Show as recipients of the “Juror’s Choice Award.” Jeweli Eslinger is an abstract artist working in a street art and graffiti aesthetic. Meredith Olinger is a mixed media artist who works with bold patterns through wallpaper that she designs, create, and prints using both digital and hand-printing along with some collage techniques. Brooks is a photographer who creates abstract, filtered images of mundane, household objects printed at a large scale.
Opening Night- Friday, September 4th
Exhibit Duration- Friday, September 4th-October 30th
Exhibit 6:
Main and Landis Education Gallery: Annual AVA Member Salon Show
Each year, around the holidays, AVA fills our gallery floor to ceiling with artwork from as many of our Member Artists as we can fit in the space! Based on the public art exhibitions and intellectual social gatherings in France in the 17th-19th centuries, this show is scheduled to coincide with the holidays. It is a perfect opportunity to purchase affordable art from living, local artists for those holiday gifts!
Opening Night- Friday, November 6th
Exhibit Duration- Friday, November 6th-December 20th