Calendar of Events

SWOPERA is a spoken-word opera that addresses familial history, internal epiphany, and collective responsibility through a fusion of music that ranges from Be-Bop to Hip-Hop.

August 12 & 15 at 7:00 PM

At Knoxville Botanical Garden & Arboretum's Greenhouse, 2743 Wimpole Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37914. Information: 865-544-0447, www.carpetbagtheatre.org; 865-862-8717 (Garden). Tickets: 865-523-7521, www.KnoxTIX.com

The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present a new exhibition featuring oils and acrylics by the South Knoxville Senior (SKS) Painters in the Balcony at the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville. The SKS Painters started out at the newly opened South Knoxville Senior Center in October 2007 when Mary Harris volunteered to teach a painting class. Harris, a Knox County native and Powell High graduate, is a self-taught artist who taught oil painting for sixteen years at Vance-Granville Community College in Louisburg, NC. What started out with just one senior citizen has now expanded to an overflowing class and the creation of the "SKS" Painters. While most had never painted before, each had a strong desire and a wish to learn to paint when they retired. With growing fellowship, the class meets every Wednesday for the lessons in putting paint to canvas, etc. Although they are working with different media and different applications on varied surfaces, the class mostly paints in acrylics. Several of the SKS Painters have now experienced the pleasure of having their work not only appreciated but also purchased, and several artists have been commissioned by individuals to paint landscapes, portraits, and historical sites. Along with learning to paint, they have applied their life-learned skills in marketing, social networking, woodworking, photography and computer technology in their art endeavors. These artists have developed their own style and favorite things to paint.

The exhibition will be on display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. For more information, call (865) 523-7543 or visit www.knoxalliance.com.

Jane South has achieved international attention for her innovative mixed-media constructions that blur the lines between drawing, sculpture, installation art, and architecture. Born in Manchester, England, she draws inspiration from the industrial urban character of her hometown and of her adopted home in Brooklyn, New York, where she has resided since 1989. Using little more than a scalpel and colored inks, South transforms flat sheets of paper into a range of sculptural objects whose shapes mirror the contemporary urban environment. She cuts, folds, paints, and attaches each element to create forms resembling vents, containers, ladders, scaffolding, and other functional, industrially-fabricated structures. Working without a preconceived plan, the artist assembles these individual parts in elaborate groupings that thrust outward into space as dynamic sculptural assemblages. The slotted cut-outs on the surfaces of South’s drawings make visible their internal structure, and create intricate shadows that extend into the surrounding environment.

The public is invited to a free exhibition preview at the KMA Thursday, August 26 from 7 to 9pm. Artist Jane South will be on hand to meet with guests, who can also enjoy the opening of Contemporary Focus 2010 on the same evening. More information is available at www.janesouth.com.

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

ARTIST RECEPTION: Saturday, August 7 from 1-3 p.m.

Abraham Pardee is a 2010 graduate of Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville/Smithville, receiving his BFA in metals. Calling on his formal training in psychology and mixing those studies with the study of metals as craft, Abraham constructs metal objects which are, for him, symbols of human interaction. Using forged steel as his foundation, Abe adds design and artistic statement through the use of other materials such as wood, copper, bronze and brass. His sculptures represent both a reflection of himself... and the way in which he sees the world.

5607 Kingston Pike ~ Knoxville, TN 37919
865.584.6097 ~ www.hansongallery.com
Summer Gallery Hours: Mon - Fri, 10 - 5:30; Sat, 10-4

Featured during the month of August:
Paintings by Asa McEwing - www.asamcewan.com
Custom/cast silver jewelry by Denae Oglesby
Handcrafted furniture from Nigeria, carved and designed by Joseph Oluwaseyi

Unarmed Merchants, 129 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 12-7PM. Information: 865-549-5769, www.unarmedmerchants.com

The Arts & Culture Alliance collected more than 2,500 votes from the general public, individual members of the Alliance, and a panel of jurors to select artwork for the Top Choice Exhibition. Top Choice features recent 2-D and 3-D works by 27 artists from Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, and Ohio. The exhibition will be displayed at the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville from August 6-27, and an opening reception will take place as part of First Friday activities on August 6 from 5:00-9:00 PM featuring chocolate fondue from the Melting Pot. Winner-take-all awards will be given to the three pieces attracting the most cash "votes" before 8:00 PM that evening.

The Alliance received nearly 250 submissions from 62 artists for the exhibition. The Alliance invited the general public, their individual membership, and a select panel of five jurors (Mark Hall, Maryville College Art Department; Nandini Makrandi, Curator of Contemporary Art, Hunter Museum; Jeff Morton, Covenant College Art Department; Elizabeth Snipes, Missouri State University Department of Art + Design; and Jennifer Stoneking-Stewart, Belmont University Department of Art) to cast their vote for their favorite five works! The 15 works receiving the highest number of votes within each sector appear in the exhibition, which includes works in the areas of photography, oil, watercolor, acrylic, pastel, collage, stained glass, wood and marble sculptures, and more.

On display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM with additional hours on Saturday, August 7, 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM. For information: 865-523-7543, www.knoxalliance.com.

By Charles Marowitz, Directed by Patrick McCray. Winner of the Louis B. Mayer Award. Created by an American-born playwright-director who has become one of the most celebrated figures in the modern British theatre, this diabolically clever (and frequently funny) play was first presented as part of the Olympic Arts Festival in Los Angeles and went to Broadway in 1987. It was produced at the Nederlander Theatre with Frank Langella as Sherlock Holmes and Donal Donnelly as Doctor Watson. Illuminating aspects to the master sleuth's character heretofore ignored, the play is both true to the spirit of the original and a totally fresh and absorbing theatrical excursion.

Theatre Knoxville Downtown, 319 N. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37917. Performances are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8:00 PM and Sunday at 3:00 PM. Tickets are $10 plus fees for Thursday & Sunday; $15 plus fees for Friday & Saturday. For information: 865-544-1999, www.theatreknoxville.com. For tickets: 865-523-7521, www.KnoxTIX.com

Footlights Productions is extremely proud to present RENT by Jonathan Larson to benefit The Hope Center in Knoxville. RENT is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson, based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème. It tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York's Lower East Side in the thriving days of Bohemian Alphabet City, under the shadow of AIDS. RENT will be performed in the Clayton Performing Arts Center on the campus of Pellissippi State College,10915 Hardin Valley Road, in Knoxville. Performance dates and times are as follows:

Friday, August 6th, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, August 7th, 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, August 12, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, August 13, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, August 14, 2:00 and 7:30 p.m.

www.footlightsproductions.net

Chongqing Culture Week from August 6-12 - artists will be doing live demonstrations in the lobby (free to the public); musicians will play traditional Chinese instruments - such as the two-string Erhu.
Shanghai Culture Week from October 8-12

During these two cultural weeks, we invite artists coming all the way from China to perform in the Cirque de Chine show; we also hold a photo exhibition introducing the Chongqing/Shanghi city in the theater; we have some successors of Intangible Cutural Heritage in China do a live show in the theater.

179 Collier Dr, Sevierville, TN 37862. For information: 865-429-1601, www.smokymountainpalace.com

Art Market Gallery of Knoxville will spotlight the work of two member artists: wood carvings by Steve Smith and paintings and drawings by Marjorie Horne. The gallery will host a First Friday Reception for the Featured Artists on August 6 from 5:30-9 p.m. with light refreshments and live music performed by Clark & Stacey Miller, playing guitar and cello pop music.

Art Market Gallery, 422 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11AM-6PM; Sunday 1-5PM. For information: 865-525-5265, www.artmarketgallery.net

Featuring East Tennessee artists Bain Butcher, Judy Condon, Lynda Evans, Carl Gombert, Denise Stewart-Sanabria, Asheville artist Virginia Derryberry, and Florida artist Thaddeus Erdahl. There will be an afternoon closing reception on Sunday, September 12.

Ewing Gallery, 1715 Volunteer Blvd, Knoxville, TN 37996. For information: 865-974-3200, www.ewing-gallery.utk.edu

Gallery summer hours are Tues.-Fri. 12-4, and will be switching to regular hours when school opens. (Regular Hours: Monday & Thursday: 10AM-8PM; Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday: 10AM-5PM; and Sunday: 1-4PM.)

The artworks in this exhibition were created during the MySpace Art Project, a two-day workshop held in late March 2010 at the Marcella Center for the Arts and Education in Sweetwater, Tennessee. The project was designed to introduce teens with autism to the concepts and skills required to create architectural design based on what they learned. MySpace Art Project is a program of VSA Arts Tennessee. Sponsors of this exhibition include Mark Holcomb, State Auto Insurance and the Grand Chapter Royal Arch Masons.

The mission of VSA Arts Tennessee is to provide opportunities for people with disabilities to participate in and express themselves through the arts and arts education and it achieves its mission through the primary goals: Arts in Education, Awareness of Abilities of People with Disabilities, and Professional Development.

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