Events
Local aquatic and outdoor scenes painted by Rutherford County artists are now up for bid through a special project to benefit Tennessee Riverkeeper. The paintings are on view as part of an outdoor mural at the Walnut House.
Free to members or with your new RAA membership, this workshop with Murfreesboro Performing Arts Laureate Kara Kemp will help you refine and better communicate your vision an an artist.
The Middle Tennessee Sinfonietta will feature two of the most famous orchestral symphonies that have been left unfinished, as well as 2024 Concerto Competition winners.
SoKidLit Difference Makers Days invites kids to interact with author Kristin O’Donnell Tubb; participate in fun activities involving art, literacy, math, and more; and be inspired to be the authors of their own story.
Learn how to make the most of your water photography in this free workshop with local expert Gale Stoner.
Join us for our winter quarterly meeting! Network with other creatives and learn more about our host, the social enterprise Liberty’s Station.
The 3nd annual Rutherford County Theatre Crawl will feature five middle Tennessee theatre companies, Grady’s food truck, face painting, improv, and more. Oaklands at night image courtesy Jeff Whitt, @615lens
Join us for Murfreesboro’s second annual Lantern Parade, made possible by the Discovery Center and the Rutherford Arts Alliance as part of the 7th annual Tennessee STEAM Festival. Live music and food trucks will also be at this creative event!
Join us for our fall meeting! Network with other creatives and learn more about our host, the new Dow Street Community Music School in Murfreesboro.
Participate in our Sidewalk Chalk Contest, held in conjunction with the Friday, 9/15, Boro Art Crawl and Friday Night Live concert! Registration deadline is 9/1.
Join us for a free, fun line dancing workshop! No experience or partner needed.
Free to members or with your new RAA membership, this workshop with Murfreesboro Poet Laureate Mike James will help you craft some new poems or short prose pieces. Come early for a brown bag lunch and open mic!
The RAA community meeting for July will coincide with the reception for our exhibit celebrating five years of the Alliance! Drop by anytime; stay for the announcements from 7:15-7:30.
Grown-up reading enthusiasts are invited to gather and hear fellow book lovers from our community share passages from some of their favorite books. There’s also time for mingling and refreshments! Doors open at 6:30 for the 7:00 PM program.
The new Youth Poet Laureate of Tennessee is from Murfreesboro! Hear Angel Hu and share some of your own work, if you like, at this event.
This free concert will feature Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 and the 2023 Composition Competition Winners!
Free to members or with your new RAA membership, this workshop with Murfreesboro Performing Arts Laureate Kara Kemp will help you craft personal, engaging stories through a wide range of narrative forms, including poetry and prose, musical inspiration, and/or visual arts.
Listen to some poetry and/or share some of your own! We’ll also have time for mingling and sharing arts news.
Join us for a meet and greet - and apply today to be one of our featured presenters!
Pick up your preorder, buy additional calendars, and celebrate local creatives! Program from 3:00-4:00.
Join us for Murfreesboro’s first Lantern Parade, made possible by the Discovery Center and the Rutherford Arts Alliance as part of the 6th annual Tennessee STEAM Festival.
Join the Middle Tennessee Sinfonietta for a family-friendly concert involving music, poetry, and storytelling. This event is part of the Tennessee STEAM Festival and a collaboration with members of the literary arts interest group of the Rutherford Arts Alliance.
The 2nd annual Rutherford County Theatre Crawl will feature eight middle Tennessee theatre companies in a spooky, family-friendly night of candy collecting and performances. Oaklands at night image courtesy Jeff Whitt, @615lens
Join us to learn how to salsa as we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. No experience or partner needed.
Join us in September when we meet at Franklin’s Fruit Tea. Mylika Franklin, Operations Manager/Coordinator at Franklin's Fruit Tea, will be sharing cultural events she is involved with, including Friday Night Market in the BORO, held every Friday in the summers at Cannonsburgh. Malika is also with the Boro Black Marketplace and the Hot Chicken Festival.
As always, come prepared to share arts news from your own practice or organization! Flyers and business cards welcome. Whether you’re a RAA member or just interested in checking us out, we welcome you!
Franklin’s Sweet Tea is located at 348 Castle St., Suite A. There is free parking in the front and on the street in the area.
Image credit: unsplash/@jdalkmin
Join us for a brief meeting and artist reception for the Art Is exhibition on Friday, August 12, at 5:30 PM in the City Hall Rotunda.
Art Is, an exhibit of 2D and 3D work, is now on display at the Murfreesboro City Hall Rotunda. The exhibit is curated by Cultural Arts Murfreesboro, Visualize Murfreesboro, and the Murfreesboro Art Committee (MAC).
From the Mundane to the Extraordinary, ART IS…the theme as defined by the creatives of Rutherford Arts Alliance! What is art to you?
There will be a short presentation about creative assets in Rutherford County by Cultural Arts Murfreesboro. Awards will be presented and light refreshments will be served.
Participating artists include:
Lynn Anthony
Carol Berning
Lisa Browning
Gail Bryant
Kay Currie
Barbara Hodges
Leroy Hodges
David Michael Jackson
David Klemann
Gregory Lannom
Suzanna LeBeau
Pamela Mack
Wade McMackins
Samantha Minard
Abby Hirsch Reish
Sharon Trevathan
Susan Waldrop
Janet Wilcox
As always, come prepared to share arts news from your own practice or organization! Flyers and business cards welcome. Whether you’re a RAA member or just interested in checking us out, we welcome you!
There is free parking in the City Parking Garage underneath the City Hall complex (access on Church Street), as well as street parking nearby on Vine, Church, and Maple.
Murfreesboro City Hall image credit: Kory Wells
Gallery images credit: Ginny Togrye
Join us for our July membership meeting and a presentation on Murfreesboro Muslim Youth, led by coordinator Abdou Kittih. After a short program about the organization and its mission, he will open the floor to conversation.
As always, come prepared to share arts news from your own practice or organization! Flyers and business cards welcome. Whether you’re a RAA member or just interested in checking us out, we welcome you!
Please consider bringing a donation to MMY—see more about their mission below.
A pharmacist by trade, Abdou Kattih initially worked for Rite Aid and Eckerd as a district manager and then a state manager. Currently, he works for Walgreens as a pharmacist, where he also coordinates COVID-19 training for all pharmacists and techs in their area stores. He loves serving in the community of Murfreesboro that he has grown to love and support.
Kittih is also the Executive Director and Founder of the nonprofit organization Murfreesboro Muslim Youth (MMY), where he works with young people who do good things in the community. The nonprofit organization is all about promoting understanding. Completely managed by volunteers, MMY is run by the youth involved. Each of the programs run by the organization are coordinated by the kids who come up with the idea.
It is part of the group’s chosen mission to feed the hungry. Feeding the hungry is one of their most successful programs. In 2021, they distributed more than 5,000 meals. These meals included food boxes to families in need, 500 Thanksgiving meals and bi-weekly meals to whomever comes by their new drive-through meal distribution window. The drive-through meal distribution program was created by and is run by a 19-year-old.
Parking at the Murfreesboro Muslim Youth Center is free.
Banner image credit: unsplash.com/@sebasluna
Join us for our June membership meeting and a program by Sisavanh Houghton, a professor of painting at MTSU.
Sisavanh will talk about her experience as a refugee and immigrant from Laos, and how this experience inspires her art to raise awareness of the Secret War waged on her country, the most heavily bombed country in history. She will share examples of her art that chronicles the aftermath of this war and and talk about how the arts can nourish and sustain a community through seasons of loss and the healing.
As always, come prepared to share arts news from your own practice or organization! Flyers and business cards welcome. Whether you’re a RAA member or just interested in checking us out, we welcome you!
Sisavanh Phouthavong Houghton is a Lao-American visual artist born in Vientiane, Laos, whose artwork has been exhibited throughout the United States. She was the 2017 Tennessee Arts Individual Artist Fellowship recipient and the 2019 Artfields' winner for painting. Through her artwork, she confronts the challenges of bicultural memory and documentation. She also champions the arts for the unique ways they enrich our communities.
We’ll be meeting in the Todd Hall Art Gallery on the MTSU campus. Free parking is available in the Jones Parking Lot behind Todd Hall. This Google map and/or this campus map may be helpful (look for the yellow Jones Lot behind the orange building marked TODD).
“Transparent Voices” by Sisavanh Houghton. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Celebrate the arts and kick off summer in Smyrna’s Depot District with this free community event organized by Carpe Artista.
Front Street in the Depot District will be pedestrian-only for a perfect evening with great music and food, cultural experiences, creativity, and more. The celebration offers:
Free Community Event
Family Friendly
Artistic Engagement
Multiple Live Music Stages
Variety of Music Genres
Artists & Artisans
Cultural Experiences
Wine Tasting and Craft Beers
Food Trucks and Local Food Vendors
75 – 80 Vendors
8,000 – 10,000 in attendance
Large parking areas
Rain or Shine
There are vendor opportunities for: Artists & Artisans, Food Vendors/Food Truck, Non-Profit & Business.
Registration is now open at carpeartista.com/simply-smyrna/
Simply Smyrna Festival image courtesy Carpe Artista website
The Rutherford Arts Alliance is excited to announce a new literary festival just for kids! Young readers will connect with headliner Irene Latham, plus a dozen local published authors.
Join us for our May membership meeting and a program on “How Religions Shape Our Culture” by Dr. Jenna Gray-Hildenbrand.
From saying “God bless you” when someone sneezes to the rhythms of the calendar year, religions have shaped and continue to shape American culture. While religious traditions vary considerably, they pose similar questions to people both within and outside their communities. For example, what happens when we die? How do we live a good life? How can I feel connected to something bigger than myself? Am I alone or are there others like me? This talk presents four ways religions shape culture through religious beliefs, religious ethics, religious rituals, religious communities.
As always, come prepared to share arts news from your own practice or organization! Flyers and business cards welcome. Whether you’re a RAA member or just interested in checking us out, we welcome you!
Dr. Jenna Gray-Hildenbrand, image by Andy Heidt, MTSU Digital Content Specialist
Dr. Jenna Gray-Hildenbrand is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Middle Tennessee State University. She has published academic articles on Christian serpent-handling, the spirituality of hula hooping, embodied religious practice, and religious experience. Her research and teaching focus on the ways religions both inform and are informed by popular culture, politics, and the law in the United States.
The MTSU Academic Classroom Building is located on MTSU Boulevard (which is off of N. Rutherford) adjacent to the McFarland Building. Parking is free and available behind and on the east side of the building. Find us in room 110!
Dome ceiling image credit: Unsplash/@delfidelarua7
Mailing Address Only:
3050 Medical Center Pkwy | attn: Susan Gulley | Murfreesboro, TN 37129 | More contact information
RAA is not responsible for the content of any off-site web page. A link does not constitute an endorsement.
Images credit Amy Roberts, Kory Wells, Susan Gulley, other RAA volunteers, and Unsplash contributors.
