Calendar of Events

Designed especially to introduce you and your 2 or 3 year-old to the wonders of the animal world - 1.5 hours of hands-on learning filled with stories, crafts, animals and much more. Every week is different. Join us for each one. Snack and drink provided. One adult only required. No siblings of any other age can be accommodated.

Knoxville Zoo, 3500 Knoxville Zoo Drive, Knoxville, TN 37914. Open every day except Christmas. Information: 865-637-5331, www.knoxville-zoo.org

The UT Downtown Gallery is pleased to present the work of Scott Sherk in this exhibition of sound sculptures, soundscapes and field recordings. Mr. Sherk lives and works in Allentown , PA and is a Professor of Art at Muhlenberg College. Mr. Sherk has also exhibited internationally, completing sound projects in Iceland and Italy and his work has also been shown in several exhibitions at the Kim Foster Gallery in New York City .

Mapping sound explores ideas about the representation of space through the use of sound. If sculpture is an exploration of space through form, in these works of sound sculpture, sound becomes the primary focus of the exploration of three-dimensional space.

Included in the exhibition will be a sound drawing in eight channels of field recordings of New York City . This three-dimensional drawing with sound in space uses vector based amplitude panning of three sound sources over eight speakers. Also presented are several sculptural shapes that contain soundscapes of natural sounds in identifiable spaces. These works play with ideas about perspective and the perception of space through sound. Recent works that juxtapose video images with audio will also be presented for listening with headphones.

Scott Sherk will perform a live set of field recordings and audio manipulations along with video actualization of ambient sound during the First Friday Opening event on September 2, at 7:00pm in the UT Downtown Gallery, 106 South Gay Street.

Please join us for a First Friday Opening reception with the artist, September 2 from 5:00pm until 9:00pm. Admission is free and the public is welcome.

The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present "In Absence", an exhibition of new works by Brandon Woods, Emporium Center Artist-in-Residence from April – September 2011. The exhibition opens Friday, September 2, at 5:00 PM in the Balcony of the Emporium Center. This solo exhibition catalogs the six months of Woods’ residency and includes oil paintings and photography. Woods' work explores the imagery of abandoned buildings, portraying them as symptoms of a consumer-driven culture. In a society that is constantly changing, he views abandoned spaces as "tangible fragments of a discarded history...tossed aside and left to be forgotten in the wastelands of time". As a result, in this exhibition he hopes to illuminate mankind to their sense of loss in the face of consumerism and technology.

His process involves digital photography and graphic design software to create digital drawings on which he then bases his paintings. The finished work is minimalistic, incorporating simple forms and pure colors. "Ultimately, the finished paintings are silhouettes and caricatures of the actual environments," says Woods. "They are observations of a forgotten world through the eyes of modern technology, leaving us to ponder the fading memories of our culture, our definition of progress, and what we are willing forsake for it."

Brandon Woods was born in 1987 in Knoxville. He received his B.F.A. at Middle Tennessee State University. He is an award-winning artist, most recently receiving a Personal Development Support grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission. For more information, visit his web site at www.brandonwoodsart.com.

Please note: the Emporium will be closed on Monday, September 5, for the holiday. Arts & Culture Alliance at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM. Information: 865-523-7543, www.knoxalliance.com

HoLa Hora Latina is pleased to present “Frutos Latinos II”, an exhibition by Hispanic artists that live and work in the United States, particularly in the southeast region and the Knoxville area. The exhibition is hosted by the Arts & Culture Alliance at the Emporium Center and is on display in conjunction with Hispanic Heritage month in Knoxville and HOLA Festival on September 24. The exhibition opens Friday, September 2, at 5:00 PM in the main gallery of the Emporium Center. Fourteen artists will showcase works in the following media: oil, pastel, watercolor, acrylic, collage, and more. These artists will also display small works at the Knoxville Museum of Art, opening September 15.

This exhibition shows the diversity of media and style produced by contemporary Hispanic artists who explore what it means to now live and work in the United States. The artists included in the exhibition are: Antuco Chicaiza (Ecuador); Rafael Casco (Honduras); Valeria Eiler (Chile); Astrid Galindo (Mexico); Jorge Gómez del Campo (Mexico); Stella C. Martin (Colombia); Aida Reyes (El Salvador); Dina Ruta (Argentina); Patricia Tinajero (Ecuador); Loren Velázquez (Puerto Rico); Eugenio Wade (Argentina); Patty Wade (Argentina); Ruth Chang White (Perú); and Jorge Yances (Colombia).

“Frutos Latinos II” will be displayed in the main gallery of the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street. An opening reception will take place as part of First Friday activities on September 2 from 5:00-9:00 PM with complimentary hors d’oeuvres and wine. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM. Please note, the Emporium will be closed on Monday, September 5, for the holiday. For more information: 865-523-7543, www.knoxalliance.com.

Bliss Home will feature Todd Witcher for September’s First Friday. A reception will be held at Bliss Home, 29 Market Square, from 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday, September 2. Witcher is executive director for Discover Life in America. DLIA is a small non-profit organization based in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Its goal is to learn of all the species that call the Smokies their home and share the information with scientists and the public. With his nature-focused career, Witcher pulls from his surroundings to create his artwork. This month enjoy photographs of the Ferns of the Smokies. Each fern is a new scientific finding and the high-resolution photographs allow every detail to be seen. Witcher will be featured beginning September 2 and remain through the month.

For more information, contact Anne at anne@shopinbliss.com
Bliss; www.shopinbliss.com; 865-216-1237; 24 Market Square; Knoxville, TN 37902

The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present a new exhibition of watercolor paintings by local artist Thomas H. Windham. This collection of works chronicles the history, challenges, and accomplishments of this artist, who has a neuromuscular disorder that makes this exhibition special.

An opening reception will take place as part of First Friday activities on September 2 from 5:00-9:00 PM with complimentary hors d’oeuvres and wine.

Reception Sept. 2, 6:30-8:30 PM

213 Hotel Ave, Knoxville, TN 37918. Hours: Tuesday & Thursday, 9AM-5PM; Wednesday & Friday, 10AM-5PM; Saturday, 9AM-1PM. For information: 865-357-2787, www.fountaincityart.org

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

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.