Calendar of Events

1/24 • Family Owl Prowl
1/25 • Becoming a Survivalist: Beginner Outdoor Skills
1/25 • Nonprofits 101: Behind the Scenes at Ijams
1/25 • CREATIVE SERIES: Herbal Infusions Workshop
1/25 • Family Owl Prowl
1/26 • Reset, Renew, Rejuvenate Workshop
1/26 • Winter Tales with the Smoky Mountain Storytellers Association
1/31 • Nature Nerd Trivia
2/2 • SoundBath Meditation
2/2 • Reset, Renew, Rejuvenate Workshop

Ijams Nature Center, 2915 Island Home Ave, Knoxville, TN 37920. Visitor Center open daily 10-6; grounds and trails open daily from 8 AM - dusk. Information: 865-577-4717, www.ijams.org

Jan 24, 2025 - 6-9pm and Jan 25, 2025 -9a-6p

Join us at the 9th Annual ChocolateFest on January 24th and 25th, where The Kraken’s Cup will offer a delightful selection of chocolate teas for you to taste and purchase. Kick off the weekend with a brand-new exclusive event — “ChocolateFest: After Dark” on Friday evening, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. This adults-only gathering showcases premium chocolates, captivating performances, live music, and a romantic ambiance, making it an ideal date night! Each ticket includes a free tasting, a complimentary photo opportunity, and access to a cash bar.

Return on Saturday, from 9 AM to 6 PM, to enjoy VIP Tasting Experiences at 10:00 AM, 11:30 AM, 1:00 PM, 2:30 PM, and 4:00 PM. Sample a variety of delicious chocolates, candies, and gifts from Knoxville’s top vendors, or stroll through the vendor floor with General Admission to discover the perfect Valentine’s Day surprises.

Please be aware: VIP timed tickets offer a 45-minute tasting/show and access to the vendor floor, while General Admission provides vendor floor access only. Make sure to choose the correct time slot when buying tickets. Please note that tickets are non-refundable. Get your tickets at www.mychocolatefest.com/buy-tickets/

Scott Miller, Friday, January 24, 2025, 8:00 PM at the Bijou Theatre.

Tickets: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/1B0061589C33596C

Bijou Theatre, 803 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information/tickets: 865-522-0832, https://knoxbijou.org/

Stillhouse Junkies are on the forefront of breaking through the genre with their free-flowing musical interplay that weaves roots, classical, texas-swing and blues into a high-energy, intricately composed yet expansively improvised tapestry of sound.

The quartet of close friends Fred Kosak (guitar, mandolin), Alissa Wolf (fiddle), Eric Lee (mandolin, fiddle, guitar), and Matt Thomas (bass) are based in the wilderness town of Durango, Colorado. Formed in 2017, the band is already 3 albums deep with singles constantly streaming out including a collaboration with Tim O’Brien. Their prolific songwriting, 3-part harmonies and outrageous instrumentals brought them the prestigious International Bluegrass Music Award “Momentum Band of the Year” in 2021.

https://stillhousejunkies.com/

Tickets available at TicketLeap or at the door 30 minutes prior to show.

Jubilee Community Arts at the Laurel Theater, 1538 Laurel Ave, Knoxville, TN 37916. Tickets: https://jubilee-community-arts.ticketleap.com. Information: 865-522-5851, www.jubileearts.org

Friday, January 24 • 12:00-1:30 pm

The Artist’s Luncheon is back due to popular demand! Friday, January 24, will be an afternoon of art, food, and wine at the beautiful Phoenix Room at Bistro By The Tracks.

Marga McBride, the featured artist for the 2025 L’Amour du Vin wine gala and auction, will share her journey as an artist. Throughout the luncheon, sip on the distinctive, world-class wines of La Crema Winery. By the Tracks Catering will serve a three-course lunch, making The Artist’s Luncheon an event that you cannot afford to miss!

LIMITED SEATING; ADVANCE RESERVATIONS REQUIRED.

Proceeds support the Knoxville Museum of Art.

Purchase tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lamour-du-vin-artists-luncheon-tickets-968657830647

Also featuring Sue Boyd Barton, "Knoxville's Jenny Lind"
6 PM
$5 donation suggested
https://blount-mansion.square.site/product/donation/13

Blount Mansion, 200 W. Hill Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-525-2375, www.blountmansion.org

Donations Taken at the Door, Cash and Card
RSVP to Rose@BlountMansion.org

Reception | Thursday, January 23, 5-7pm with awards at 6pm
Begun in 1947 by C. Kermit Ewing, founder of The University of Tennessee School of Art, the annual student exhibition has become one of the oldest competitions in the country and one of the highlights of the Ewing Gallery’s exhibition season. This competition has been an outlet for UT’s talented students for 78 years.
This year’s exhibition was juried by William Downs.

https://ewing-gallery.utk.edu/78th-annual-student-art-competition/

Ewing Gallery, 1715 Volunteer Blvd on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Hours: M-F 10-5, Sun 1-4. Information: 865-974-3200, www.ewing-gallery.utk.edu

A post-impressionist look through a window in the sky. Paintings by Nolan Steil

Gallery 1010, 100 S. Gay Street, Suite 114, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Reception Thu 5-7 PM, Sat 10 AM – 1 PM, or by appointment. Information: https://gallery1010.utk.edu/

Gallery 1010 is a contemporary art exhibition space located at 100 S. Gay Street in Suite 114 of the Emporium Center of downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. As one of three University of Tennessee School of Art galleries, Gallery 1010 is the only fully student-run, non-profit, off-campus exhibition space in the state of Tennessee. The mission of Gallery 1010 is to provide space for the School of Art students of the University of Tennessee to experiment and develop new ideas while gaining educational gallery experience in professional standards and practices.

Artwork created over twenty years at The State Botanical Garden of Tennessee in Knoxville
January 20 - March 2, 2025 • Tomato Head @ 12 Market Square
Greet the Artist: Tuesday, January 28, 2025 from 4:30-5:30pm

Tomato Head Market Square hours are: M-R 11am-9pm; F 11am-10pm, Sat 10:30-10pm, Sun 10:30am-9pm

Artist Statement: Since co-founding COMMA Art Group in 2004, I have been going weekly each summer for "plein air" art creation at the University of Tennessee Gardens. Our group has had art shows over the years at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, the Phoenix Building, Fountain City Art Center and Ijams Nature Center, as well as exhibiting individually. We celebrated our 20th anniversary this past summer. This retrospective is a sample of work created over the years. Typically, each year I would choose a theme for that summer’s work, which might include media, techniques and subject matter. UT Gardens offers a wide variety of subjects and has changed over the years, so it’s always an adventure to see what each summer offers.

Bio: Cheri Jorgenson has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Alabama and a Masters of Science in Art Education from the University of Tennessee. She originally was a graphic designer, working for the Knoxville International Energy Exposition, Tennessee Valley Authority, and in her own design firm, among others. She was an art educator for Knox County Schools for 20 years, and retired from the L&N STEM Academy in 2020. She was the 2012 Tennessee Art Educator of the Year, the 2020 Tennessee National Art Honor Society Sponsor of the Year, and was the 2021 National Sponsor. In 2004, she co-founded COMMA, a plein air group that meets weekly at UT Gardens, with shows in The Phoenix Building, Fountain City Art Center, Ijams Nature Center and TVUUC Gallery. She also shows her work in local competitions and shows. Ms. Jorgenson lives in South Knoxville with her husband in a very old farmhouse surrounded by natural habitat captured in another series.

Tomato Head, 12 Market Square (865-637-4067) in Knoxville. https://thetomatohead.com/

James Henry Trotter lives with his cruel aunts Spiker and Sponge until one day the barren, old peach tree in their yard produces a single peach that grows to nearly the size of a house. When James takes a closer look at the enormous fruit, he discovers a tunnel that leads him to the peach pit where he meets a rag-tag band of human-sized, talking invertebrates: an old green grasshopper, a centipede, an earthworm, a spider, a ladybird, a glowworm, and a silkworm. These bugs become James’ companions on an adventure that will take them over land and sea! And as they travel James learns important lessons about courage, friendship. and seagulls.

https://knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com/tc-events/james-and-the-giant-peach/

Knoxville Children's Theatre, 109 E. Churchwell Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information: 865-208-3677, www.knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com

1/17 @ 6 pm - Family Owl Prowl
1/18 @ 2 pm - Tracks and Scat! Animal Activity in Winter
1/18 @ 3 pm - Reading the Landscape: Geology
1/19 @ 1 pm - Reset, Renew, Rejuvenate Workshop
1/19 @ 2 pm - Monthly Bluegrass Jam
1/24 • Family Owl Prowl
1/25 • CREATIVE SERIES: Herbal Infusions Workshop
1/25 • Family Owl Prowl
1/26 • Self-Care Sunday Yoga
1/26 • Winter Tales with the Smoky Mountain Storytellers Association

Ijams Nature Center, 2915 Island Home Ave, Knoxville, TN 37920. Visitor Center open daily 10-6; grounds and trails open daily from 8 AM - dusk. Information: 865-577-4717, www.ijams.org

By Brian Friel
Directed by Barry Wallace

This extraordinary play is the story of five unmarried sisters eking out their lives in a small village in Ireland in 1936. We meet them at the time of the festival of Lughnasa, which celebrates the pagan god of the harvest with drunken revelry and dancing. Their spare existence is interrupted by brief, colorful bursts of music from the radio, their only link to the romance and hope of the world at large. The action of the play is told through the memory of the illegitimate son of one of the sisters as he remembers the five women who raised him: his mother and four maiden aunts. He is only seven in 1936, the year his elderly uncle, a priest, returns after serving for twenty-five years as a missionary in a Ugandan leper colony. For the young boy, two other disturbances occur that summer. The sisters acquire their first radio, whose music transforms them from correct Catholic women to shrieking, stomping banshees in their own kitchen. And he meets his father for the first time, a charming Welsh drifter who strolls up the lane and sweeps his mother away in an elegant dance across the fields. From these small events spring the cracks that destroy the foundation of the family forever. Widely regarded as Brian Friel’s masterpiece, this haunting play is Friel’s tribute to the spirit and valor of the past.

Performances are Thu-Sat 7:30 PM and Sun 3 PM

Theatre Knoxville Downtown, 800 S. Central Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information & tickets: 865-544-1999, www.theatreknoxville.com