Calendar of Events

A musical based on the novel by Rudyard Kipling and the Walt Disney Studios animated film. Performances: August 13 through 28, 2010. Located at 800 Tyson Street, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information: 865-599-5284, www.childrenstheatreknoxville.com, info@childrenstheatreknoxville.com.

On the second Friday of each month. All ages and experience levels are welcome to participate in this fun, family event. Kids love the Raku process. Or it could be a great "date night" event. Plus, you will be taking home a beautiful piece of art to decorate your home that you helped create! We offer three options for participation:
+ Pick One: The $30 fee includes: your choice of 1 bisque piece, use of our studio raku glazes and participation in the firing.
+ Make One*: The $30 fee includes: 5 lbs of Raku Clay, bisque firing of your piece, use of studio raku glazes, and participation in the firing. (*The 'Make One' option requires that your piece be in our hands, ready to bisque no later than Tuesday the week of the firing. Please contact us for more information regarding this option.)
+ Bring One: The $20 fee includes: Use of studio raku glazes and participation in the firing. (Bring your own bisque piece.)

Mighty Mud, 2444 Sutherland Ave, Knoxville, TN 37919. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11-6PM. For information: 865-595-1900, www.mightymudclay.com

Dan Zanes rocked out with 1980's band The Del Fuegos, but now he's singing to a slightly different tune starting a kids' music phenomenon with band mates Colin Brooks, John Foti, Saskia Sunshine Lane, Elena Moon Park, Rankin' Don and Sonia de los Santos. The group has released several award-winning, critically acclaimed discs including The Welcome Table: Songs of Inspiration, Mystery and Good Times, which is a collection of old and (mostly) new DZAF recordings of tunes drawn primarily from North American gospel traditions. See this family friendly show at the Bijou Theatre, 803 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. For information: 865-522-0832, www.knoxbijou.com. For tickets: 865-684-1200, 865-656-4444, www.knoxvilletickets.com

Live Sketch Comedy
If you like 'Saturday Night Live', you should join us for a night of laughs. Our cast of comedic actors go live and unscripted. There is no telling what will happen.
$1.00 at the door - Must be 18 & older

at the Creative Arts Co-op Visual & Performing Arts Center, 426 Ruritan Road,
Harriman, TN. For more information, call the Creative Arts Co-op at 865/765-1129 or visit http://creativeartsco-op.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

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