Calendar of Events

Free and open to the public
Opening reception Friday, September 17, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.; artists' talks at 7 p.m.

This exhibit features the art work of Bobbie Crews and photographs of Clay Thurston. Bobbie Crews has been painting professionally since 1993. She earned her BFA in studio art from the UT School of Art, graduating Suma Cum Laude in 2007. Her artwork is widely collected in the U.S. and overseas. Locally her work is exhibited in schools, government buildings, churches, businesses, and private homes. Bobbie teaches art, speaks on art and is a courtroom sketch artist. She is also an activist for women in the form of artwork for education and awareness of domestic violence. A retired physical education teacher with the Oak Ridge schools, Clay Thurston now pursues photography full time. He has traveled extensively in the continental U.S. and Alaska and across the globe photographing the beauty and diversity of the land, its wildlife, and its people. Clay has been an award-winning nature and wildlife photographer for about 35 years. Inspired by his wife and best friend, Bobbie Crews, he now seeks to find the art in an even wider range of subject matter.

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

Kuumba Watoto Urban Youth Institute and African American Appalachian Arts, Incorporated will be launching West African Dance Classes for the entire family and the “Dancer in You”. Fall Quarter 2010 will include a six (6) week session for six consecutive Saturdays, beginning Saturday, September 11th thru Saturday, October 16th 2010. The second 6 weeks will begin October 23rd thru December 11th, 2010. Gain a Session Pass for thirty ($30) dollars. Door admission is $5. Children’s class 11:00am-11:45am & Adult class 12:00-12:45am. Classes will be held at YWCA Phyllis Wheatley Center at 124 S. Cruze Street in Knoxville, TN. For more information please call: (615) 429-4235 or kuumbawatoto@yahoo.com; www.kumbafestival.com

The Monroe Consort and soloists will perform Mozart’s Requiem in D-minor (K.626) in it’s entirety at 7:30 PM on Saturday September 11th and at 3:00 PM on Sunday September 12th. The Saturday performance will be in the Sanctuary at Keith Memorial Methodist Church in Athens. The Sunday afternoon performance will be at the White Lion Theater at the Monroe Area School for the Performing Arts in the Norman Lee Real Estate Building (810 New Highway 68) in Sweetwater. Soloists include Nancy Owens (Soprano,) Judy Maiuri (Mezzo Soprano,) Grae Taylor (Tenor) and Josh Gettinger (Bass.) Dr. Douglas Manley will accompany and Dr. Karel Bouse will direct. The Saturday evening concert will feature Dr. Manley’s accompaniment on the pipe organ. A portion of the net proceeds from these performances will go to the National Audubon Society to aid their efforts to help wildlife injured and displaced as a result of the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf.

Tickets are $10. No reservations are necessary. Doors open 30 minutes prior to performances. Info: (423) 351-9013, http://www.masparts.org/

Located at Bearden Area's Earth Fare Healthy Supermarket. Brought to you by: URBhana Creative Life Center, Awakened Reiki Yoga, and Michael Lott

The Holistic Open is a one day festival showcasing healing arts, holistic, spiritual, complementary, and enlightening modalities to the Knoxville community and across the nation! There will be live demos, music, specialty events, celebrity guests and much much more! Our headlining guest is FAITH HUNTER, national yogini based out of Washington D.C.'s Shakti Mind-Body Studio. Faith will be leading an asana practice, sharing her story of Yoga and will be giving a workshop sponsored by The Glowing Body on September 12 at 9:00AM. The Holistic Open benefits three charities: Our Weeping Angel Foundation, WAVV: Women Against Verbal Violence, and ChildHelp of Knoxville. Information: angie.awakened@yahoo.com or 865.748.6885

Join naturalist Kara Remington at Smart Toys & Books for a program for young children and their parents about owls and birds featuring a live screech-owl. Kara will discuss bird behavior, teach everyone how to make an owl puppet and read a story. Reservations and $5 per child (to cover materials) are required in advance. Space is limited. To register call Smart Toys & Books at 9700 Kingston Pike: 691-1154 or come into the store. For more information see http://smarttoysandbooks.com.

Creating the air we breathe, trees produce the oxygen that we all require. Join naturalist Peg Beute and explore the importance of these stately plants to our species and the environment. The program is free of charge. To register call Sheila at 577-4717 ext. 10.

Ijams Nature Center, 2915 Island Home Ave, Knoxville, TN 37920. Hours: Grounds and trails open during daylight hours. Visitor Center: Monday: by appointment only for tour groups and school trips; Tuesday-Saturday: 9AM-5PM; Sunday: 1-5PM (March 1 - November 30). For information: 865-577-4717, www.ijams.org

In this brilliant and powerful drama, Sister Aloysius, a Bronz school principal, takes matters into her own hands when she suspects the young Father Flynn of improper relations with a student. A gripping story of suspicion that is less about scandal than about fascinatingly nuanced questions of moral certainty. Winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play. Suitable for mature teens and older.

Oak Ridge Playhouse, 227 Broadway in Historic Jackson Square, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. For information and tickets: 865-482-9999, www.orplayhouse.com

by Jones, Hope & Wooten. Hilarity abounds when the feisty females of Eden Falls, Georgia, decide to shake up their lives. The action in this rollicking Southern comedy takes place in SPA-DEE-DAH!, the abandoned church-turned day spa where this group of friends gathers every Friday afternoon. After the loss of a dear friend, the women realize time is precious and if they're going to change their lives and achieve their dreams they have to get on it now! But Sugar Lee, their high-spirited, determined leader, has her hands full keeping the women motivated. Carlene's given up on romance, having buried three husbands. Nita's a nervous wreck from running interference between her problematic son and his probation officer. Mavis' marriage is so stagnant she's wondering how she can fake her own death to get out of it. And sweet, simple Crystal entertains them all, singing Christmas carols with her own, hilarious lyrics.

The comic tension mounts when a sexy, ex-boyfriend shows up unexpectedly, a marriage proposal comes from an unlikely suitor and Sugar Lee's arch rival vows she'll stop at nothing to steal the spa away from her. By the time the women rally together to overcome these obstacles and launch their new, improved lives, you've got a side-splitting, joyful comedy that will make you laugh out loud and shout "Hallelujah!"

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

More details to come!

The Tennessee Valley Fair we know today was born in 1916; however, we can trace its origins back to the earliest years of this century. It began as an idea in the minds of a group of progressive and in some way idealistic Knoxvillians. These men dreamed of making their city the shinning centerpieces of a prosperous and modernized Appalachian. Lead by the regions most enterprising citizens - businessmen, publishers, educators, and others, they conceived the idea of bringing to their city a great exposition, which would serve as a showcase for Knoxville and all of southern Appalachia, drawing national attention to the city's promising start in commerce and industry and to the region's bountiful (but as yet undeveloped) natural and human resources. Thus was born the Appalachian Exposition of 1910. A great deal remains unchanged; however the Midway today offers much of the same of thrills and oddities as it did ninety years earlier, and the Fair's nightly fireworks seem never to lose their appeal to Fair-goers of all ages. Most importantly, whatever the effects of social, economic, and technological change in the world around it, the Fair remains for all East Tennesseans a place to learn, to compete, to have fun, and most of all to build memories.

Tennessee Valley Fair: 865-215-1471, www.tnvalleyfair.org

During the month of September the UTK School of Art is pleased to welcome four printmaking students from Poland as guest artists. Visiting are Monika Łukowska and Ms. Małgorzata Sprawka from the Academy of Fine Art in Wroclaw as well as Sylvester Piasecki and Damian Siuzdak from the University of the Arts in Poznan. During the month they will work in our printmaking studios in the Art and Architecture Building. Their visit is supported by the Marek Maria Pienkowski Foundation and the Betsy Worden Printmaking Endowment.

On Friday September 10th Gallery 1010 at 113 South Gay Street will hold a public reception for “Polished” an exhibition of works by these artists. The reception will take place from 6-9pm, and is free and open to the public. For more information contact the UTK School of Art at 974-3407.

Gallery 1010, 113 S. Gay Street. Hours: Thursday-Saturday 12-4PM; opening receptions Friday 6-9PM. For information: http://sunsite.utk.edu/gallery1010

“Homecoming”, Marie Merritt’s one woman show, opens to the public in the lobby and mezzanine of Niswonger Performing Arts Center. The exhibit is a celebration of the vibrant work of Marie Merritt in a masterful combination of transparent and opaque oil paints. She is a native of Greene County and draws inspiration from East Tennessee history and that of southern Appalachia, translating their beauty, people, and places into stories told on canvas. Her own memories of her childhood in this county provided the motivation for her to take up painting as an adult. “Marie’s paintings are wonderful oils in a very representational genre with tiny traces of romanticism” says James-Ben Stockton, director of Greeneville’s regional art center. “Her work was so well received at the Capitol Theater last year during the “Civil War Views” exhibit that I’m having a preview event in the gallery from September 1-4.” This preview exhibit of Civil War inspired art
will take place at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center and include Marie’s open-stock prints and note cards and two original paintings of John Hunt Morgan. The “Thunderbolt of the Confederacy” is also portrayed through cold-cast bronze sculptures from Dell Hughes. Civil War inspired images including portraits of Stonewall Jackson and Nathan Bedford Forrest will also be on hand. Barbara Bible “Jake” Carter’s evocative watercolors depicting Civil War scenes will be included, along with prints from Lynne Olka and Kenneth Hinkle. “Visitors should take special interest in Suzanne Saltzman’s detailed and panoramic action photos of Civil War reenactments,” says Stockton.

September 7, “Homecoming” will open at Niswonger Performing Arts Center. A Meet the Artist event will take place Sunday, September 19th from 12:30 to 3 PM.

James-Ben: Studio & Gallery Art Center, 129 North Main Street, Historic Morgan Square, Greeneville, TN 37743. Information: 423-787-0195, www.james-ben.com

09/04/10 vs. Tennessee Martin
09/11/10 vs. Oregon
09/18/10 vs. Florida
09/25/10 vs. UAB
10/02/10 at LSU
10/09/10 at Georgia
10/23/10 vs. Alabama
10/30/10 at South Carolina
11/06/10 at Memphis
11/13/10 vs. Mississippi
11/20/10 at Vanderbilt
11/27/10 vs. Kentucky
12/04/10 - SEC Championship (ATL)
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