Calendar of Events

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

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

The Holiday Express returns to the UT Gardens again this year with extended days (including Christmas Day), appearances by Santa, and musical performances by community choral groups. The garden-scale train display decorated for the holidays will open with a sneak preview for UT faculty and staff, sponsors and Friends of the Gardens on Tuesday, November 24. It will open to the public the following day. Last year 9,300 people visited Holiday Express at the UT Gardens, and even more are expected this year. Bring the kids, grandkids and kids at heart to help make Holiday Express a continuing holiday tradition that will benefit the UT Gardens. Visit on one or more of the following dates: November 25-28: 12-8 p.m., Sunday, November 29: 12-6 p.m.; Weekends December 4-January 3: (Except Friday, Christmas Day): 2-6 p.m.; Friday and Saturdays:12-8 p.m. Sundays: 12-6 p.m.

Free and open to the public. Opening reception Friday, November 13, from 6 to 8 p.m.; artists' talk at 7 P.M.
Harlan Hambright Photographs: "An Odd World Observed" and Fran Thie: "Poetry and Pastels". Knoxville native and UT Architecture graduate Harlan Hambright parleyed his passion for architecture and photography into a diversified career as an architectural photographer spanning over 30 years. As a boy he was taught by his father to carefully observe the world around him. It is this ability to observe and photograph the sometimes obscure man-made objects that defines his work. He chooses "to document the weird artifacts and occurrences that I find when I'm just looking around." From her life as a high school teacher to a CPA Fran has brought a wealth of experience and influences to her current work as a visual artist. Fran is both self-taught and educated in painting classes and workshops led by nationally prominent artists. She has painted in pastels and watermedia for more than a decade and regularly exhibits in juried exhibitions across the Southeast, with several awards to her credit. She is active in the Knoxville arts community, and has served as president of Tennessee Artists Association and the Knoxville Watercolor Society. Currently, her work can be seen at the Art Market Gallery in Knoxville on Gay Street. Fran's love of creative writing and literature have left their mark on her lyrical view of the world, with impressionistic and expressive interpretations of nature in both landscape and abstract paintings. By means of intuitive use of color and texture, she strives to transform an ordinary scene into a special place where both drama and serenity can co-exist. Her works, whether representational or abstract, always have their foundation in the world of nature. 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919. Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday 9-5, Sunday, 9-1. For information: 865-523-4176, www.tvuuc.org

Interested in the links between art, science, and technology through the ages, New York artist Devorah Sperber deconstructs familiar images to address the way the brain processes visual information versus the way we think we see. "As a visual artist," she says, "I cannot think of a topic more stimulating and yet so basic than the act of seeing—how the human brain makes sense of the visual world." Using ordinary spools of thread, Sperber creates pixilated, inverted images of masterpieces, which appear as colorful abstractions to the naked eye. When viewed with optical devices, however, the works becomes immediately recognizable as the famous paintings. The thread spools works are hung upside down in reference to the fact that the lens of the eye projects an inverted image of the world onto the retina, which is corrected by the brain. A clear acrylic sphere, positioned in front of each work, functions like the human eye and brain, not only inverting but also focusing the image so that it appears as a sharp, faithful, right-side-up reproduction of the famous painting. 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

Knoxville artist Russell Briscoe's paintings reflect the work of a historian, as well as an artist, and cover some 190 years of the region's past. Subjects include "Clinch and Gay, 1896," "Christmas Morning," "First Train in Knoxville, 1855," and "The 1897 Gay Street Fire." Information: 865-215-8830, www.east-tennessee-history.org

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg will present "Women in Wood," an exhibition to bring light to the exceptional quality of work being created by women artists working in the medium of wood - both woodturning and constructed wood. The public is invited to the opening reception in the main gallery and lecture presented by nationally renowned studio wood sculptor Betty Scarpino on Friday, Oct. 16, at 6:00 pm. The exhibition runs October 16-January 2, 2010. The guest lecturer Betty Scarpino will also be teaching a weekend master class that weekend at the school. She has a background in industrial arts, sculpture, and design, all of which she teaches and writes about. Her work is represented in many public and private collections including The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the Mobile Museum of Art. Her work was included in the recent book, New Masters of Woodturning: Expanding the Boundaries of Wood Art. She is currently the editor of American Woodturner, journal of the American Association of Woodturners. For more information: 865-436-5860 or www.arrowmont.org

UT Photojournalism professor Robert Heller always has his camera with him when he travels. Heller's photographic exhibit, "City Light," examines the confluence of architecture, people and light, as found in cities such as San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Warsaw and elsewhere. Open to the public M-F 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM. 625 Market Street, Suite 1400, downtown Knoxville. 865-524-1223 or www.easttennesseefoundation.org

The objects featured in this exhibit, ones seen publicly for the first time, are drawn from a private collection developed over the past 30 years by an adventuresome couple from Ten­nes­see. What started as a simple memento of the Southwest—a pair of small kachina dolls purchased in Santa Fe, New Mexico—eventually led to a remarkably rich and diverse collection of items produced by Indian peoples throughout all culture areas of Native North America. With each new specimen, the couple wanted to learn more about not only the object itself but also the cultural context within which it was made and used. Each new item added momentum to the couple's quest to expand and diversify their holdings. They were increasingly drawn to the scholarly literature on Indian art; they visited museums and Indian reservations across the United States and Canada; and they initiated contact with well-known dealers from coast to coast. They also began tailoring their vacations to match their collecting interests concerning the work of particular Indian artists, artifact types, and culture areas. All of this activity was fueled by the desire to broaden their understanding of the material culture of Native Americans. Their history of collecting can best be characterized as a journey of discovery, one they hope the viewer will share while touring this exhibit. The beautifully crafted pieces represent only a fraction of the holdings contained in this remarkable private collection. Information: 1327 Circle Park Drive, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996. 865-974-2144, http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu

Tours every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from March-December. Bleak House, an antebellum mansion of fifteen spacious rooms and wide halls, stands well back on an eminence among lovely trees and elaborately landscaped grounds. There is a charge for the tour.

3148 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919. For more information: (865) 522-2371, www.knoxvillecmh.org