Calendar of Events

You are invited to help kick off the National Performance Network's 25th anniversary year at the 2009 Annual Meeting in Knoxville, TN. The anniversary milestone will be shared with host Carpetbag Theatre, celebrating an amazing 40 years and counting. And to take advantage of your visit to beautiful East Tennessee, we are providing opportunities for pre-conference guided field trips to NPN Partner Appalshop, also recognizing 40 years of creative accomplishments, and the historic Highlander Research and Education Center. Information will be available at npnweb.org/site/annualmeeting2009. When else can you engage in critical dialogue with a national group of performing and visual artists, colleagues, curators and presenters who are committed to bringing the arts to communities around the country? Highlights include performances and exhibitions of new work by national NPN-subsidized and area artists, Idea Forums and panels addressing cutting edge cultural topics, keynote, and of course the time and space to get to know some of the brightest and most creative people working in the field.

First Friday Opening reception December 4, 5-9pm; Closing Reception, January 8, 5-9pm. Curator Timothy Massey will give a gallery talk on December 4th & January 8th at 7 & 8 pm.
Gallery Hours: Wed –Fri 11-6pm & Sat 10-3pm
The Gallery will be closed Dec 24-26 & Jan 1
Much of the development for an artwork happens well before the brush meets canvas, the hand meets clay, or the finger meets camera, etc. These preliminary inspirations and concepts go mostly unnoticed and unappreciated. This exhibit brings to light the methods artists employ to inform themselves of the possibilities for their as yet unrealized works. Artists providing access to their journals include Fred Burton, Memphis, TN; Joseph Delaney, New York City; Gage Opdenbrouw, San Francisco, CA; Susan Kemenyffy, McKean, PA; and John Copeland, Brooklyn, NY. This exhibit was curated by Timothy Massey, Director of the Tower Fine Arts Gallery at SUNY Brockport. He is also a native of Knoxville and a graduate of the University of Tennessee.

The sights, sounds and smells of an old-fashioned Christmas. 205 East Hill Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37915. Information: 865-525-6514 or www.jameswhitesfort.org

Wood-fired clay vessels at the O'Brien Art Gallery. For specific dates and updates to exhibits: 865-882-4649, wilkersonbs@roanestate.edu, or www.roanestate.edu/art/gallery

The Art Market Gallery of Knoxville will feature the work of two member artists, Lynnda Tenpenny, mixed media and Pat Fitch, painted toys & furniture. The Gallery will host a First Friday Reception for the Featured Artists on Friday, December 4 with music by Brian Sward, guitarist. The Gallery is now selling ‘artist-made’ Christmas Ornaments to benefit the Community School of the Arts in Knoxville.
Holiday Gallery Hours are: Monday – Saturday, 11am – 6 PM & Sunday 1 – 5pm.
422 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902
865-525-5265, www.artmarketgallery.net

The simple joys of an old-fashioned Christmas await Museum of Appalachia visitors during the month of December. The Museum will celebrate "Twelve Days of Christmas in Old Appalachia" with special music and activities each day. Throughout the holiday season cabins will be decorated in pioneer style, recalling times past when Christmas was a quiet family holiday. During chilly December days, visitors may tour the Hall of Fame exhibit building in leisurely comfort. Logs burn brightly in the brick fireplace downstairs, and there's time to read the Museum's trademark stories about colorful and resourceful Appalachian folk. Regular admission. 2819 Andersonville Hwy, Clinton, TN 37716. Information:
865-494-7680, www.museumofappalachia.org

Oak Ridge Art Center, 201 Badger Road, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 9-5; Saturday-Monday, 1-4. For more information, visit the Web site or call (865) 482-1441.

The open air ice rink on Market Square opens at 10 a.m. on November 27 and will be open every day through January 3rd (except Christmas Day).

The Tennessee Art Education Association is pleased to announce it's partnership with the Knoxville Museum of Art to present the Fourth Annual East Tennessee Regional Student Art Exhibition. This exhibition features artwork created by East Tennessee middle and high school students. The competition offers students the opportunity to display their talents and be honored for their accomplishments in a professional art museum environment. The student art exhibition provides an excellent competitive arena for young artists. This year exhibition will spotlight a remarkable cross-section of the region's best student artwork from grades six through 12 and encompass an impressive variety of media, including ceramic, drawing, digital imagery, mixed media, painting, computer graphics, sculpture, traditional photography, and printmaking. There will be an awards ceremony at 6pm on Tuesday, December 1, 2009, in the Great Hall of the Knoxville Museum of Art, for the artists participating in the Fourth Annual East Tennessee Regional Student Art Exhibition, their families, friends and school's personnel.
1050 World's Fair Park Drive, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tuesday-Thursday 10am-5pm, Friday 10am-8pm, Saturday 10am-5pm, and Sunday 1pm-5pm. FREE admission. For more information: (865) 525-6101, www.knoxart.org

November 27,28,29, December 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22.

Our most popular event with Santa, cookies, and storytelling.

More information on our excursions can be found online: www.ThreeRiversRambler.com

By Jones, Hope & Wooten. It's Christmas-time in the small town of Fayro, Texas, and the Futrelle Sisters — Frankie, Twink and Honey Raye — are not exactly in a festive mood. A cranky Frankie is weeks overdue with her second set of twins. Twink, recently jilted and bitter about it, is in jail for inadvertently burning down half the town. And hot-flash-suffering Honey Raye is desperately trying to keep the Tabernacle of the Lamb's Christmas Program from spiraling into chaos. But things are not looking too promising: Miss Geneva, the ousted director of the previous twenty-seven productions, is ruthless in her attempts to take over the show. The celebrity guest Santa Claus — played by Frankie's long-suffering husband, Dub — is passing a kidney stone. One of the shepherds refuses to watch over his flock by night without pulling his little red wagon behind him. And the entire cast is dropping like flies due to food poisoning from the Band Boosters' Pancake Supper. When Frankie lets slip a family secret that has been carefully guarded for decades, all hope for a successful Christmas program seems lost, even with an Elvis impersonator at the manger. But in true Futrelle fashion, the feuding sisters find a way to pull together in order to present a Christmas program the citizens of Fayro will never forget. Their hilarious holiday journey through a misadventure-filled Christmas Eve is guaranteed to bring joy to your world!

Showtimes: Thursday, Friday, Saturday @ 8:00 pm and Sunday @ 3:00 pm
Tickets: Thursday, Sunday $10; Friday, Saturday $15.
319 N. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37917. 865-544-1999, www.theatreknoxville.com

The Tennessee Stage Company, known to Knoxville audiences for Shakespeare On The Square and the New Play Festival returns to our Timeless Works series this fall with the modern classic, I Hate Hamlet. This most outrageous of comedies is a ghost story wrapped up in a theatrical farce. A young Hollywood television star comes to New York to play the role of Hamlet in Shakespeare In The Park. Hopelessly out of his depth he gets surprise tutoring – from the ghost of John Barrymore – dead for seventy years but called back from the other side to assist a young Hamlet in desperate need!
Tickets on sale now: limited availability. Call (865) 546-4280 for Reservations. General Admission: $ 15; Students/Seniors $ 12. Group discounts available. Tennessee Stage Company, P.O. Box 1186, Knoxville, TN 37901.