Calendar of Events

Discover Life In America: All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory captivating illustrations of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park's ecosystems (plants, animals and micro-organisms) AMSE Lobby

American Museum of Science & Energy, 300 S. Tulane Avenue, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. Hours: Monday-Saturday 9AM-5PM; Sunday 1-5PM. For information: 865-576-3200, www.amse.org

Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center’s Sunset Music Series, now in its fifth year, will premier on Friday, June 11 with a performance by Wild Blue Yonder. All the concerts are presented in the Heritage Center’s outdoor amphitheater which has a roof over the entire amphitheater so that concerts may be presented rain or shine. Wild Blue Yonder is back for their fifth appearance and is the only band to perform every year since the Series began. Also back by popular demand are Labron Lazenby & LA3, who made it to the finals of this year’s International Blues Challenge in Memphis; Hokum’s Heroes, from Boston; John Myers Band, who recently released a new CD “I Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”; EG Kight, the “Georgia Songbird”; Y’uns, a “seriously silly” jugband from Knoxville; and Steve Kaufman, 3-time national guitar champion from Maryville. Making their Sunset Music Series debut this year are the Lonesome Coyotes, Knoxville’s most celebrated band to play in the western swing and country-rock style. Admission to the concerts is $4.00 and may be purchased at the door. Heritage Center members are admitted free.

SUNSET MUSIC SERIES 2010
Friday, June 11 Wild Blue Yonder: Bluegrass, country & Americana
Friday, June 18 Labron Lazenby & LA3: Blues, boogie & rockabilly
Friday, June 25 Hokum’s Heroes: String-band music with elements of swing, folk and blues
Friday, July 16 Lonesome Coyotes: Western swing, honky-tonk & country-rock
Friday, July 23 John Myers Band: Soul, gospel and country
Friday, July 30 EG Kight: Blues, ballads & roots music
Friday, August 6 Y’uns: Jug-band music with elements of country, swing and blues
Friday, August 13 Steve Kaufman: Three-time national guitar champion

Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center, Townsend, TN 37882. Information: 865-448-0044, www.gsmheritagecenter.org

Collecting shells has been a pastime of many, young and old, for centuries. It is only when collecting becomes a passion rather than a pastime that the finest examples are sought, and the subject is researched in detail. Such is the case with this collection, one of the country's finest, assembled by local physician Dr. Peter Stimpson. Focusing on six families of marine gastropods - cowries, cones, conchs, harps, volutes, and olives - the collection includes over 1,000 species listed in the "Registry of World Record Size Shells". Dr. Stimpson has made a portion of his collection available for public enjoyment in this exhibition.

1327 Circle Park Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996. Hours: Mon - Sat: 9:00A to 5:00P, Sun: 1:00P to 5:00P. Information: 865-974-2144, http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu

20 award winning photomicrographs. Dynamic images at the intersection of science and art show the beauty and complexity of life as seen through a light microscope. AMSE Lobby

American Museum of Science & Energy, 300 S. Tulane Avenue, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. Hours: Monday-Saturday 9AM-5PM; Sunday 1-5PM. For information: 865-576-3200, www.amse.org

Department of Energy Facilities Public Bus Tour with guide commentary, Monday through Friday, except government holidays (July 5 & 6). Tour participants can register at AMSE beginning at 9 am. Must be U.S. citizen 10 years of age and up. Photo ID required. Seating limited. First come, first served. Off the bus stops include Y-12 New Hope Visitor Center; Spallation Neutron Source Lobby and Graphite Reactor, both at Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and K-25 Overlook. No advance reservations. Some restrictions apply.

American Museum of Science & Energy, 300 S. Tulane Avenue, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. Hours: Monday-Saturday 9AM-5PM; Sunday 1-5PM. For information: 865-576-3200, www.amse.org

In the Loggia Gallery. Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 576 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. For information: 865-436-5860, www.arrowmont.org

30 beautifully painted rain barrels will be on display until auctioned at the Knoxville Museum of Art. Voting and bidding open on May 23 and end at 12:00 midnight on July 11. www.waterqualityforum.org

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10AM-5PM; Friday, 10AM-8PM; Sunday, 1-5PM. For information: 865-934-2036, www.knoxart.org

Vision, Language, and Influence brings together for the first time the work of three photographers of the American South over a 50-year period. Walker Evans (1903-1976) is represented by incisive images of Alabama sharecroppers stemming from his epic collaboration with James Agee on Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Eudora Welty (1909-2001) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning Southern writer and photographer who traveled across Mississippi in the 1930s and early 1940s taking photographs and documenting rural and small-town life in her home state. Baldwin Lee (born 1951) is a professor of photography at the University of Tennessee, and a former assistant to Walker Evans. Complementing the 50 or so works by Evans and Welty are more than 30 of Lee’s images of African-American life in the South taken during the 1980s with the support of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Vision, Language, and Influence was organized by the Knoxville Museum of Art in collaboration with Baldwin Lee.

Free admission. Hours: Tues-Thurs 10-5; Fri 10-8; Sat 10-5; Sun 1-5. 1050 World’s Fair Park Drive, Knoxville, TN 37916. 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org, info@knoxart.org

An exhibit featuring the work of TVUUC members and friends will be on display at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. This show displays the TVUUC congregation's wide range of artistic talent and is displayed in the entry exhibit hall at TVUUC. The public is encouraged to share the vision and artistic skill of the TVUUC community. Free and open to the public!

Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919. Information: 865-523-4176, www.tvuuc.org

In the Sandra J. Blain Galleries. Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 576 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. For information: 865-436-5860, www.arrowmont.org

Every Spring, the Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture plays host to the work of top students from the Department of Art and the College of Architecture and Design.

As determined by respective faculty panels, exhibiting students indicate the highest levels of committed creative achievement among their peers.

This year's exhibitors from the School of Art include: Jo Beth Richards, Sonja Foard, Derek Whitlock, Bethany Robertson, John Phillips, Leslie Hatten, and Megan Ford.

Exhibitors from the School of Architecture include: Eric McGinnis, Megan Warner, Daniel Luster, Paul Legan, and Ryan Flener.

Exhibitors from the Interior Design Program include: Luisa Bustamente and Denton Whitson (joint Studio Architecture and Interior Design project), and Madeline Hayes.

Please join us for the opening reception, Friday, May 7, from 2-4PM. Light refreshments will be served.

Ewing Gallery, 1715 Volunteer Blvd, Knoxville, TN 37996. Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 12-4pm. For information: 865-974-3200, www.ewing-gallery.utk.edu

Featuring a broad selection of works - paintings, photographs, drawings, and video - by artists whose chief inspiration stems from the surrounding landscape, whether rural or urban, perceived or imagined. The exhibition examines the many ways artists reference the external environment in constructing scenes marked by instability, ambiguity, deception, or fragmentation. Includes works by Jim Campbell, Patty Chang, Herb Creecy, Robert Van Deventer, Tomory Dodge, Chuck Forsman, Natasha Kissell, Alison Moritsugu, Brian Novatny, Hiraki Sawa, Darren Waterston, Roger Weik, and Charlotta Westergren.

Free admission. Hours: Tues-Thurs 10-5; Fri 10-8; Sat 10-5; Sun 1-5. 1050 World’s Fair Park Drive, Knoxville, TN 37916. 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org, info@knoxart.org