Museum getting works of local artist

The Tennessean reports the Tennessee State Museum is being given more than 300 works by Nashville artist Red Grooms from the collection of Walter and Sarah Knestrick.

Walter Knestrick is a former chairman of the Tennessee Arts Commission who was childhood friends with Grooms in Nashville, where they were both 1955 graduates of Hillsboro High School. Knestrick began collecting Grooms’ works when his friend began doodling in fifth grade.

Grooms later moved to New York, where he gained international fame for his sculptures, paintings, installation art and filmmaking.

Knestrick says he had long wanted to donate the collection, but couldn’t find a suitable space. That changed with the construction of a new Tennessee State Museum, which is scheduled to open in 2018.