Calendar of Events

Contemporary Focus 2010 is the second installment of an annual KMA series that serves as a vital means of recognizing, supporting, and documenting the development of contemporary art in East Tennessee. Each year the KMA features emerging artists who work in new and experimental ways. Contemporary Focus 2010 presents the work of Emily Ward Bivens, Nick DeFord, and Evan Meaney. The art categorized as “contemporary” represents the leading edge of where artists are working today. Contemporary art is experimental, provocative, exciting – it is an investigation into new ideas that change the way art is made.

The public is invited to a free exhibition preview at the KMA Thursday, August 26 from 7 to 9pm. Contemporary Focus Artists Emily Ward Bivens, Nick DeFord, and Evan Meaney will be on hand to meet with guests, who can also enjoy the opening of Jane South: Shifting Structures on the same evening.

Emily Ward Bivens uses found and made objects to forge narratives, provoke or encourage interaction, and reveal fictional and non-fictional mysteries. These objects shift from prop to subject to evidence when used in performance, video, and installation. Characters or identities are created to act as subjects, authors, inventors, and curators of the work.

A Knoxville native, Nick DeFord earned his BFA in drawing from the University of Tennessee, and an MFA in fibers from Arizona State University. His work explores the visual culture of geography and cartography using common household materials. Through maps, globes, travel guides, pamphlets and charts, DeFord disrupts commonly recognizable systems to examine our relationship to identity and place, the known and the unknown.

Evan Meaney has been working with film, video, and emerging media for over a decade. Educated at Ithaca College and the University of Iowa, his interests have grown to include deconstructive sequencing, ghost stories, breakdancing, and the poetry of hexadecimal code.

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

Student Exhibit: B. J. Clark’s students

213 Hotel Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37918. Information: 865-357-2787, www.fountaincityart.com

The Knox County Public Libraries team up with renowned artists to foster appreciation for jazz and public libraries. At various locations in downtown Knoxville. Information: 865-215-8729, www.knoxlib.org

Knoxville will be swinging during the 5th annual Knoxville Jazz Festival, August 27-28. Headlining the festival is Jimmy Cobb's So What Band presenting Kind of Blue at 50, a celebration of Miles Davis' classic album. Cobb is the sole surviving member of the original band that included Davis, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, and Paul Chambers. He worked with Miles Davis from 1957-1963 playing on several of Davis' watermark albums including Sketches of Spain and Porgy and Bess. For the past year, Cobb has been touring the world with an all-star band playing the five masterpieces from Kind of Blue.

Another highlight of the festival is the premiere of the documentary film A Place for Me: Living Jazz in a Small Southern City. Sponsored by Knox County Public Library, A Place for Me draws on oral histories, the Library’s archival resources, and rare footage from the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound. What emerges is a portrait of Knoxville's rich musical history, particularly its long lineage of jazz music makers.
See the complete schedule and learn more about the events: www.knoxjazzfest.org

Vibrant art crawl on the last Friday of every month at various locations in downtown Maryville. Coordinated by the Maryville Arts Coalition who has enlisted local businesses of all types to help foster its emerging art scene. Directions: From downtown Knoxville, take Alcoa Hwy past the airport. Veer left at the split (411). Pass the Sun Trust, Food City, and Kroger on your right and take a right on Broadway. Park at either of the two big parking lots on your left. Information: www.maryvilleartwalk.com

Brown bag luncheon & video presentation.

Oak Ridge Art Center, 201 Badger Avenue, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 9AM-5PM; Saturday-Monday, 1-4PM. For information: 865-482-1441, www.oakridgeartcenter.org

Presented by People Empowering People Project, Inc. At the Marriott Hotel, featuring the Carpetbag Theatre, Knoxville Opera Company, West African Dance Artists, an audio-visual art exhibition by Knoxville Historian Bob Booker, musicians from the University of Tennessee Jazz Department, bluegrass artists, salsa dancing, and more. Tickets are $50. A silent auction runs from 6:00-7:00 PM. Information: 865-524-6100, projectp@bellsouth.net

Reception: Thursday, August 26
Curated by Bryan Wilkerson. “A Thousand Words” explores the many definitions of a person’s face and/or expressions. These 8” X 5” collage/drawings on panel depicts various meanings based on the viewers standpoint.
Len Davis - http://www.lendavis.com/

O’Brien Art Gallery, Roane State Community College, 276 Patton Lane, Harriman, TN 37748 • (865) 882-4649, http://www.roanestate.edu/art/gallery/

An Exhibition of 2nd Year Graduate students from The UTK School of Art. 2-D, 3-D, and 4-D works by David Alcorn, Eleanor Aldrich, Leslie Grossman, Amy Hand, Emmy Lingscheit, Guen Montgomery, Vickie Phipps, Jonathan Purtill, Ben Seamons, Chadwick Williams, and Taryn Anne Williams.

August 26-28 with an open reception on Friday August 27th, 6pm - 9pm
Open Gallery hours: Thursday - Saturday, 12pm - 4pm

Gallery 1010, 113 S. Gay Street. For information: http://sunsite.utk.edu/gallery1010

Opening reception Aug 20, 6-9pm
Free Admission, Public is Welcome

2013 UTK Graduate Art Students present: Fresh Pickin’s Graduate Art Show.

The First Year Graduate Show is held annually to commemorate the acceptance of the Student's candidacy for Graduate work at the University of Tennessee, by which the public becomes acquainted with the newest of the Fine art Graduate students.

UT Downtown Gallery
106 S. Gay Street
Knoxville, TN 37902
865.673.0802
www.ewing-gallery.org/New_Downtown/Index/DT_Index.html#

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.

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.