Calendar of Events

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

The performance is FREE and no reservations are required. A Woman Called Truth, by Sandra Fenichel Asher, is a story of the life and achievements of Sojourner Truth. The play begins at the 1851 women’s rights convention in Akron, Ohio. We then go back in time to 1797 and travel with Sojourner as she remembers some of the extraordinary experiences that shaped her life. We get a glimpse of her highly cruel and unjust treatment as a slave. We experience how she bravely took her freedom and how she fought to free her son. At the end of the play, we learn how she became “Sojourner Truth” and get a taste of her dynamic spirit as an orator as she delivers her famous “Ain’t I a Woman” speech.

The WordPlayers, Performed at The WordPlayers' Theatre at Middlebrook Christian Ministries, 1540 Robinson Rd. at Middlebrook Pike, Knoxville, TN 37923. For information: 865-539-2490, www.wordplayers.org

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

The show features never before exhibited drawings and photographic images of the Villa Ottolenghi project, from conception to construction.

PUBLIC LECTURE by Guido Pietropoli - "The Dancing Columns of the Villa Ottolenghi"
February 16 @ 5:30 PM
Rm. 109, McCarty Auditorium, Art + Architecture Building
A reception, open to the public, will commence immediately following the lecture, at 7PM, in the Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture.

Ewing Gallery, 1715 Volunteer Blvd, Knoxville, TN 37996. Hours: M-F 10-5, Sun 1-4. For information: 865-974-3200, www.ewing-gallery.utk.edu

Artworks of monumental physical scale are overwhelming. The diminutive viewer is confronted and consumed by the gigantic. Presented with the miniature, the viewers, no longer assigned to the passive role, can instead devour the work, taking it into their souls. The miniature invites the viewer into a personal and intimate relationship. With attention drawn to the significance of the seemingly insignificant, the momentousness of the miniscule is magnified, thus instilling monumental value.

This exhibition investigates the power of small-scale artists’ books to challenge their readers with grand, powerful, urgent, and poignant content. In addition to the work of current UT Assistant Professor of Printmaking, Althea Murphy-Price, as well as three UT school of art alums, MIMB includes books from 141 artists from the United States, Korea, Japan, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Spain, India, Pakistan, the UK, Canada, Mauritius, and Argentina. The miniature books range from complicated structures, poems, and humorous texts, to intricate drawings. Many of the books use unconventional materials and innovative bookmaking techniques; including relief printing, intaglio, lithography, silkscreen printing, and the newest digital processes.

To see images of individual books, visit the MIMB flickr page at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimborg/

Ewing Gallery, 1715 Volunteer Blvd, Knoxville, TN 37996. Hours: M-F 10-5, Sun 1-4. For information: 865-974-3200, www.ewing-gallery.utk.edu

The Farragut Folklife Museum will feature the “Out of the Attic” exhibit this winter and spring. This special exhibit will showcase interesting artifacts from the Museum collection that have not been displayed in many years or have never been on display.

Farragut Folklife Museum, 11408 Municipal Center Dr, Farragut, TN 37934. Hours: Monday-Friday, 10AM-4:30 PM. For information: 865-966-7057, www.townoffarragut.org

One artist likens her work to a Rubik’s Cube. The other is a former punk rock–bluegrass musician who now composes mixed media and traditional acrylic paintings. Both are full-time faculty members at Pellissippi State Community College and will share gallery space in the current New Faculty Show art exhibit.

The exhibit welcomes Jennifer Brickey and Herbert J. Rieth III as new faculty who have been teaching art at the college since fall 2010. Brickey and Rieth both teach classes ranging from drawing and painting to design. Brickey received her B.F.A. in studio art (painting) from the University of Tennessee and her M.F.A. in the same discipline from Maryland Institute College of Art. Rieth comes to Pellissippi State after teaching at universities in Alabama, Mississippi and Ohio. The art on display promises to be engaging. Brickey’s pieces represent five years’ worth of paintings and drawings, many of them autobiographical. Brickey says she is drawn to the connections between her life and work.

The New Faculty Show takes place in the gallery of the Bagwell Center for Media and Arts on the Pellissippi Campus, 10915 Hardin Valley Road. Exhibit hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday. An artist reception is scheduled for Jan. 20, 5-7 p.m., and will be preceded by an artist talk at noon. The reception, discussion and exhibit are free and open to the public. For additional information, contact Jeff Lockett, Art professor, at jlockett@pstcc.edu or (865) 694-6433.

The O’Brien Art Gallery on the Roane County Campus is currently featuring the paintings of Nashville based artist Ev Niewoehner. For gallery Hours, contact Bryan Wilkerson at 865.882.4649. www.roanestate.edu/art/gallery

An exhibit featuring the photographs and painting of Terri Swaggerty and oil paintings of Emily Spence Stables will be on display at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. Free and open to the public. Opening reception Friday, January 14, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.; artists' talks at 6:30 p.m.

Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919. Art Gallery hours: Monday-Thursday 9AM-5PM; Friday 9AM-4:30PM; Sunday 9AM-1PM. Information: 865-523-4176, www.tvuuc.org

Bliss Home is kicking 2011 off with a First Friday artist that is not one to be missed! Melissa Johnson has created truly unique and playful pieces of art that are not only beautiful, but also make a bold statement. The materials she uses range from actual vintage newspapers and magazines to vintage children's encyclopedias and fabric. The pieces capture Johnson’s personal experiences by involving culture and religion, love and relationships, body image, and American social codes and roles both from the 1960's and current. Her work will be on display at the 29 Market Square location through February!

29 market square. Addn info: anne@shopinbliss.com; 865.673.6711

Sevier County artists, aged 18 and older, were invited to submit artworks for consideration and 100 works created by 54 artists were selected for exhibition in the school’s main gallery. An opening reception and presentation of awards will be held Friday, January 28th from 6-8 pm in the Main Gallery. The event is open to the public and free to attend. Martha Connell curated the exhibition and sifted through more than two hundred works in order to select the art featured in the exhibition. Connell is from Atlanta and serves as a curator for a number of museum exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe. The exhibition features a diverse array of media including painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, furniture, woodturning, ceramics, fibers, basketry and jewelry. Arrowmont’s galleries are free and open to the public.

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 576 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. For information: 865-436-5860, www.arrowmont.org

URBhana welcomes 2011 with new artwork by local painter, Ashley Addair. You can preview her work on her website: http://noroomforhipsters.wordpress.com/photo-gallery-ashleys-work/

Ashley's vibrant and beautiful original paintings will be on display at URBhana all month, and available for purchase. Levon Walker will be entertaining our ears Friday evening with what he describes as: "Levon's attempt to describe a good lesson learned, in a multi-instrument, homemade oddity of sound contemplating country roots with funky keyboards, and sampled Harlem street sounds under slide guitars."

Join us - admission is free.

URBhana, 115 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. For information: 865-951-5454, www.urbhana.com