Calendar of Events

Tuesday-Saturday, 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Additional dates: October 5-9, November 2-6, November 30 - December 4, February 1-5, March 1-5, April 5-9, May 3-7

Free tours are provided for up to three Knox County students ages 5-18 (per paying adult) during the first week of every month during the school year (except January). Tours are given at the top of every hour between 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM.
Advance reservations required? NO
How to obtain admission: Visitors should stop by the Blount Mansion Visitor’s Center and see a staff member to purchase tickets. Must mention Penny Performances and provide proof of Knox County residency to receive $0.01 admission.
Contact: Ashleigh Oatts, 865-525-2375, educationcoordinator@blountmansion.org
200 W. Hill Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37901 | www.blountmansion.org

Over her 28-year career Natalie Merchant has earned a place among America's
most respected recording artists with a reputation for being a songwriter of
quality and a captivating performer. Merchant began her musical career as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the pop music band 10,000 Maniacs and released two platinum and four gold records with the group between 1981 and 1993 (The Wishing Chair, In My Tribe, Blind Man's Zoo, Hope Chest, Our Time in Eden & MTV Unplugged). In 1994 Merchant began her solo career with a self-produced debut album, Tigerlily (1995) which astounded the music industry by selling 4 million copies. In the years following, she released Ophelia (1998), Natalie Merchant Live (1999) and Motherland (2001). In 2003 after 18 years she left Elektra Records and independently released an album of traditional and contemporary folk music, The House Carpenter's Daughter on her own label, Myth America Records. In 2005 she was persuaded to curate a collection of
her own work for a double album she titled Retrospective.

Tickets are $47, plus applicable service fees. Historic Tennessee Theatre, 604 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. For information: 865-684-1200, www.tennesseetheatre.com. For tickets: 865-684-1200, 865-656-4444, www.knoxvilletickets.com

Rodrigo y Gabriela first met in Mexico City while playing for a thrash metal band. Since then, their sound has evolved to encompass several styles of lyrical and rhythmic guitar. After moving to Dublin, Rodrigo y Gabriela played at the 2005 Oxygen Music Festival, launching their careers and an extensive festival tour. The duo first rose to popularity in Ireland, but soon after their break into the US music scene, Rodrigo y Gabriela enjoyed exposure on MTV, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and Lopez Tonight.

Tom Hughes of the newspaper The Guardian describes their live presence as, “Those busking roots show through in their easy camaraderie with the audience (as do their metal ones, via all the devil-horn hand gestures), and the priority seems to be pleasing the crowd rather than making an artistic statement.”

Cox Auditorium, Alumni Memorial Building. Students $5, Faculty / Staff $20, Community $25. UT Cultural Attractions Committee: 865-974-5455, http://activities.utk.edu/category/cpc/cac/

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

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/

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

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

Quilts from the Ramsey House collection and the Ramsey Family are on display now through the end of August at our Visitor's Center.

Ramsey House Plantation, 2614 Thorngrove Pike, Knoxville, TN 37914. Open year around (except Mondays & Holidays). For information: 865-546-0745, www.ramseyhouse.org

An exhibit featuring the art work of Ken Moffett and photographs of Karen Krogh will be on display at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church.
Karen Krogh, Photographs - "TVUUC: The Light of Love"
For 23 years photography has been an artistic passion for Karen Krogh. The opportunity to freeze a moment in time and to reflect upon it drives her interest in this art form. Beginning as a photo lab assistant in California she became a corporate photographer for the Toyota Motor Company. Later she moved on to magazine and public relations work. She is currently associated with a Knoxville commercial studio and also accepts freelance assignments.
The images in this exhibit are reflections from a most difficult and challenging year in the life of Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. Her photographs convey the incredible resiliency of a congregation of courageous and loving people.
Ken Moffett, "Transparent Colors"
Ken Moffett's exhibit features five decades of watercolor painting by this architect/artist. His vocation as an architect has limited his time for artistic activities but not his success as an artist. His work has been exhibited in five states and is represented in several private collections. Ken's technique of using a single brush for an entire painting helps to define his work, freeing him from conventional detailing and creating integrated and somewhat abstract compositions. He has lived in Knoxville since 1975 and has been a member of TVUUC since the 1980s.

Opening reception Friday, July 16, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.; artists' talk at 6:30 p.m.

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