Calendar of Events

Art Market Gallery of Knoxville is pleased to present an exhibit of recent works by Gordon Fowler of Knoxville and Pat Delashmit of Maryville. Gordon Fowler is a wood artist who creates heirloom-quality bowls, platters and hollow forms using a woodturning lathe. Inspired by the symmetry and symbolism of circles, his primary focus is functional pieces, his favorite being the salad bowl: “Something that looks great on your countertop, feels wonderful when you pick it up and makes a dandy serving piece for your food; with a little care, it should last for generations.” Pat Delashmit is a fiber artist who creates woven tapestries, soft sculpture and mixed media pieces. Her primary focus is tapestry, and the inspiration for many these pieces is the East Tennessee landscape. She says, “The changing seasons, weather and light of each day are images that inspire me.” She works from photographs as well as scenes remembered or imagined.

A First Friday Reception for the exhibit is planned for September 2 from 5:30-9 pm with complimentary refreshments and live 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

John Adams, sports editor for the Knoxville News Sentinel, will be giving a peek into his life as a journalist and will be discussing his journey as a sports columnist from Louisiana to Tennessee. John Adams is a Louisiana native who found his niche for writing at an early age. He wrote for a local newspaper called Citizens Watchmen at fifteen – and he later returned to the paper as its editor, after receiving his bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University. Adams took a break from local newspapers when he was drafted into the Army during the Vietnam era, but he didn't take a break from writing; he kept writing as a staple in his life while he was serving our country. He says, however, that going to another country to carry out tasks for the Army and then returning to life back in the US was not a similarly smooth transition. But Adams didn't waste any time getting back into the journalism world. He traveled all across the South and lent his writing talents to many different local papers. Then North he went to cover sporting events for the Pittsburgh Steelers, penning a column called "Steeler Beat." At the Sentinel, John Adams enjoys writing exactly what he thinks about the sports world. He says, "Every columnist knows a good article is a controversial one." Adams believes that expression is the key to writing and we can't wait for him to unlock his world of journalism!

The public is invited to attend. Meetings take place at the Laurel Theater, 1538 Laurel Avenue. The building is handicapped accessible. The public is invited to attend. A $2 donation is requested at the door. www.knoxvillewritersguild.org

All concerts in the Reading Rotunda of the library. Knoxville Opera Company will be represented by General Manager and Conductor, Brian Salesky, and two singers who will preview this season’s operas, Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata, Charles Gounod’s Romeo and Juliette and Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello.

Blount County Public Library, 508 N. Cusick Street, Maryville, TN. Information: 865-982-0981; www.blountlibrary.org

Knoxville Opera: 865-524-0795, www.knoxvilleopera.com

Please join us as we stroll through the Gardens, sampling delectable creations and cocktails. $25/advance, $30/door.

Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum, 2743 Wimpole Ave, Knoxville, TN 37914. Hours: Gardens open daily from dawn to dusk. Information: 865-862-8717, www.knoxgarden.org

William Kamkwamba, a 14-year-old boy from Malawi with limited formal education and no money, had a plan. His family and neighbors thought he was crazy: his plan would never work. But he proved them wrong, gaining national attention and becoming a local hero in the process. Kamkwamba, author of a New York Times bestseller recounting the experience, addresses an audience at Pellissippi State Community College. Using his intellect and ingenuity, Kamkwamba erected a windmill that provided the only source of electricity to Masitala, his impoverished Southeast African village. In so doing, he changed the life of the community, and of himself, forever. Kamkwamba related his story in “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope.” He co-wrote the book with journalist Bryan Mealer. “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” is the Common Book choice for the Pellissippi State’s 2011-2012 Common Academic Experience. The Common Academic Experience brings guest speakers and activities relevant to the Common Book’s theme to campus, with the primary mission of engaging students. The Common Book is required reading for all Pellissippi State freshmen.
Kamkwamba speaks at the President’s Convocation, which takes place in the Clayton Performing Arts Center on the Pellissippi Campus, 10915 Hardin Valley Road. The presentation is free and the community is invited.
For more information about this event, contact the Pellissippi State English Department at (865) 694-6708. To learn more about Kamkwamba, visit his blog at www.williamkamkwamba.com. To request accommodations for a disability, contact Ann Satkowiak at (865) 539-7153 or asatkowiak@pstcc.edu.

University of Tennessee public relations students have joined forces with Latitude 35 Restaurant to support Tuesday’s Children during a kickoff event that will include live music by Stephen Hurley along with special guests, including Erin Donovan, a WBIR correspondent and Derrick Furlow, former UT football player. This event will be held at Latitude 35, at 16 Market Square , Knoxville , 37902.

In honor of the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, this event marks the beginning of a three-month campaign to raise funds for Tuesday’s Children. This New York based nonprofit family service organization has made a long-term commitment to help every individual impacted by the events of September 11, 2001 as well as those who have been affected by global terrorism.

Featuring artists John Bissonette, Brian Jobe, and Greg Pond. Contemporary Focus is 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 series presents emerging artists who work in new and experimental ways. Contemporary Focus 2011 features three artists who work through different methods but share an aesthetic concern exploring concepts of space in innovative ways. John Bissonette uses traditional materials such as paint and canvas to produce colorful scenes of urban decay. His images reference banners or flags from abandoned storefronts and display windows once used to attract the attention of passersby, but now exist as mute abstract shapes. Brian Jobe transforms three-dimensional objects using brightly colored zip-ties. The thousands of ties extend otherwise ordinary objects into new, imposing forms. Greg Pond works with computer technology to program interactive, responsive sculptures, often using sound as a primary medium. His structures act as generative bases for tracking, manipulating, and projecting sounds made by audience members as they move through the exhibition space.

Opening reception is Thursday, August 25. KMA members are invited from 6-7pm, with the event opening to the public at 7pm. Artists will be on hand for questions and a cash bar will be provided.

Throughout the run of Contemporary Focus 2011, each artist will present a lecture or workshop about their artwork:
Saturday, September 17, 1-4pm Artist in Action with Greg Pond
Friday, September 23, 1-4pm Artist in Action with Brian Jobe
Wednesday, October 19, noon-1pm, Dine & Discover with John Bissonette
Saturday, October 22, 1-4pm, Artist in Action with John Bissonette

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10AM-5PM; Friday, 10AM-8PM; Sunday, 1-5PM. Information: 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org

The exhibition consists of faxes submitted by nearly 100 artists sent to the initial showing of FAX at The Drawing Center, New York, along with seminal examples of early telecommunications art. The KMA will invite additional artists to submit works through a working fax line in the gallery throughout the duration of the exhibition. All the transmitted pages will be archived or displayed together with the active fax machine, which may produce new faxes from invited artists at any moment. The result—an ongoing cumulative project—is a show concerned with ideas of reproduction, obsolescence, distribution, and mediation. Here, reproducible yet erratic faxes displace traditional notions of the hand‚ still commonly associated with the medium of drawing, and foreground the role of drawing as a generative process.

FAX is a traveling exhibition co-organized by The Drawing Center, New York, and Independent Curators International (ICI), New York, and circulated by ICI. The guest curator is João Ribas. The exhibition and the accompanying catalogue were made possible, in part, by members of the Drawing Room, a patron circle founded to support innovative exhibitions in The Drawing Center’s project gallery; and by support to ICI from The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, and ICI Benefactor members Agnes Gund, Gerrit and Sydie Lansing, and Barbara and John Robinson.

Opening reception is Thursday, August 25. KMA members are invited from 6-7pm, with the event opening to the public at 7pm.

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10AM-5PM; Sunday, 1-5PM. For information: 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org

The three Magrath sisters gather Mississippi to await news of their grandfather, who is living out his last hours in the local hospital. Lenny, the oldest, is unmarried at thirty with diminishing marital prospects; Meg, the middle sister, is back after a failed singing career on the West Coast; while Babe, the youngest, is out on bail after having shot her husband in the stomach. Overflowing with humor and infectious high spirits, this Pulitzer Prize winner is also, unmistakably, the tale of a very troubled family escaping their past to seize the future.

Oak Ridge Playhouse, 227 Broadway, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. Information and tickets: 865-482-9999, www.orplayhouse.com

Now on display at Farragut Town Hall, Farragut Arts Council member Pam Ziegler is showcasing her collection of "Woodland Creature and Dogwood Blossom Pottery" by Douglas James Ferguson. Founder of Pigeon Forge Pottery (which closed in 2000), Ferguson created internationally known handmade pottery for more than 50 years. In addition, Farragut resident Carlyle Urello has loaned her collection, "Butterflies of the World," by McCulloch.

For more information about this exhibit or to access a Featured Artist of the Month application, please contact Lauren Cox at lauren.cox@townoffarragut.org or 966-7057 or visit www.townoffarragut.org.

The Knoxville Museum of Art hosts an exhibition of original Haitian art in the Community Gallery through September 4. Works in the exhibition will be sold at a silent benefit auction on Sunday, August 28 2-4pm. Must be present to bid. The sale will also include works done by local artists. The exhibition and sale are organized by God’s Planet for Haiti to benefit the Community Elementary School of Hatte-Cotin, Haiti. For questions regarding the artwork, or the upcoming silent auction, contact Jemps Maignan at 856.257.7680 or Jemps@GodsPlanet4Haiti.org. The KMA Community Gallery is available to not-for-profit organizations.

1050 World’s Fair Park; open to the public Tuesday through Saturday 10 am–5 pm, and Sunday 1 pm-5 pm. Admission and parking are free. For more information: 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org

While outdoor temperatures soar, performers for this year’s Hot Summer Nights Concert series at the Blount County Public Library promise to warm the hearts of audience members who can stay cool inside the air conditioned library building. Spotlighting “emerging artists,” this year’s concerts feature groups who have been performing in the local area for awhile and are now moving on to various larger venues.

The lineup for this year’s “Emerging Artists” 10th season of concerts is:
Thursday, August 4 - Six Mile Express
Thursday, August 11 - The Great Great Pines
Thursday, August 18 - Rebecca Roberts (modern/classical) & DeAnna Gilson (classical arias)
Thursday, August 25 - Laurel Wright
Thursday, September 1 - Knoxville Opera Company

Free and open to the public, the program is at the Blount County Public Library, located at 508 N. Cusick Street, Maryville. 865-982-0981, www.blountlibrary.org