It didn’t help that, the day the Art Gallery of Knoxville was slated to open, the city demolished the bridge—the Gay Street Viaduct—that would otherwise connect it with the rest of downtown. In effect, it was cut off, geographically at least, from downtown’s budding art scene before it even got started. Luckily, Art Gallery founders Chris Molinski, Leslie Starritt and Bryan McCullough, who’d just relocated to Knoxville from the School of Art Institute of Chicago, were undeterred, and today, one year later, their faith is paying off. | ![]() |
Art Gallery of Knoxville – Leslie Wylie

It didn’t help that, the day the Art Gallery of Knoxville was slated to open, the city demolished the bridge—the Gay Street Viaduct—that would otherwise connect it with the rest of downtown. In effect, it was cut off, geographically at least, from downtown’s budding art scene before it even got started.
Luckily, Art Gallery founders Chris Molinski, Leslie Starritt and Bryan McCullough, who’d just relocated to Knoxville from the School of Art Institute of Chicago, were undeterred, and today, one year later, their faith is paying off. The bridge has since been rebuilt, and the gallery now boasts a momentum and following that’s stronger than the entrepreneurial post-grads could have originally envisioned. It just goes to show that if you build it, they will come—no matter what roadblocks stand in the way. The most important bridges are symbolic rather than literal, and the Gallery’s has been able to make those necessary connections.
“I think it’s been accepted very well,” Molinski says. “As far as I’m concerned, Knoxville is the only place I’d want to do a gallery like this.”
By “like this,” Molinski means a gallery that’s braver, and more ambitious, than most in the area. It showcases new and emerging artists, culled from local, national, and even international sources, whose work would likely not otherwise ever make it into the Knoxville eye. At the same time, it offers artists whose work might otherwise be limited to exhibitions in heavily urban areas the opportunity to have it seen in a different context—that of a mid-sized Southern city.
The Art Galleries exhibitions thus far have run the gamut media-wise, though most often the media represented are mixed together in ways that defy classification or description. “It’s been important to us to not have any distinction between specific media or specific approaches to artwork…it’s always very vague and open,” Molinski explains.
Multi-media highlights of the past year include an exhibition titled “Global Groove,” a collection of work from young international artists exploring themes of media-driven globalization; Victorian-era women’s clothing re-imagined by innovative Chicago artist Jaime Bravo; and a mail-based collaboration curated by Amy Joseph. A number of local artists’ work has been represented as well, as engaging the local creative community is part of the Art Gallery’s mission, says Molinski. “I think it’s very important to be involved with whatever community you’re in,” he says. “We’ve always had the intention of showing the artwork we are most interested in, whether it’s from Knoxville or from other countries.”
But the Art Gallery’s attempt to establish its identity as an interactive space is hardly limited to hanging art on its walls. Through a series of lectures, discussions and events, the Gallery has managed to instigate a two-way discourse between itself and area artists. The creative relationship benefits all parties involved, Molinski explains: “These are the people who are feeding back enthusiasm, guiding our direction.”