Calendar of Events

Bonnie Prince Billy is one of the great American songwriters to emerge in the last decade. Over the course of five albums and countless singles, compilation tracks, collaborations, live performances and material not intended for release, Bonnie Prince Billy has become a sought after commodity around the free world, as well as some of the uncharted parts of the planet.

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 popular Music Concert Series hosted by Pellissippi State Community College will present 10 performances for 2011-12. The second in the series features:

Faculty Recital Showcase honoring Mary Costa and Allen Edwards

All performances are offered at no charge. However, donations will be accepted at the door for the Pellissippi State Foundation on behalf of the Music Scholarship fund. During the 2010-11 academic year, the Foundation awarded more than 100 music-related scholarships to more than 80 Pellissippi State students.

Concerts take place in the Clayton Performing Arts Center on the Pellissippi Campus, 10915 Hardin Valley Road . Plenty of free parking is available, and the community is encouraged to attend.

Pellissippi State Community College continues its 2011-2012 free concert series with a special tribute presentation of the Faculty Recital Showcase. Performers will honor Mary Costa, world-renowned opera singer, Disney legend and friend of the college. They also will recognize Allen G. Edwards, a leader, visionary, community college advocate and former president of Pellissippi State .

Costa, a native Knoxvillian, is best known for her role as the voice of Princess Aurora in the Walt Disney film “Sleeping Beauty,” but her voice, grace and beauty also are legendary in the world of opera. Edwards retired earlier this year as the college’s president. During his tenure, he made the Music program one of his special areas of focus. He now serves as president emeritus of Pellissippi State .

The special evening is made possible by Sandra and Monroe Trout. It takes place in the Clayton Performing Arts Center on the Pellissippi Campus. A reception in the College Center , on the first floor of the Goins Building , follows the concert. Plenty of free parking is available.

Pellissippi State: 10915 Hardin Valley Road, Knoxville, TN 37932. Information: 865-694-6400, www.pstcc.edu

Justin Randolf Thompson's Exhibition, "The Pits" at UT's Downtown Ewing Gallery on display October 7th - 29th, is a multi-disciplinary installation and performance that investigates the political employment of sound, both in realm of propaganda and as protest, and the visual hierarchies of the architectural organization of theatre space. The work involves a direct collaboration with sculpture, architecture and music department students.

Hear him talk about his work, Tuesday October 4, 7pm, Room 109 Art and Architecture Building, The University of Tennessee.

UT Downtown Gallery, 106 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Wednesday-Friday: 11AM - 6PM; Saturday: 10AM - 3PM. Information: 865-673-0802, http://web.utk.edu/~downtown

COMCAST is pleased to announce C-SPAN's 2011 LCV Cities Tour of eight southeastern cities. C-SPAN will visit Knoxville for a week starting October 3, 2011, as it features the history and literary life of the city on the cable network's non-fiction book channel, BookTV on C-SPAN2, and history channel, American History TV on C-SPAN3.

VIP Reception 5:00 - 6:00 PM. C-SPAN has dubbed the regional circuit of eight southeastern cities as its 2011 LCV Cities Tour. That's because C-SPAN producers are travelling in specially detailed Ford Transit Connect vehicles, which C-SPAN is calling Local Content Vehicles (LCV's). Come join us and meet the crew at the VIP Reception.

Special Lecture: 6:00 - 7:00 PM
Dr. William Bruce Wheeler, Professor Emeritus, Department of History, University of Tennessee, will deliver a special lecture on the history of Knoxville. Following his lecture, the audience will be invited to participate in a question and answer session with Dr. Wheeler. The entire program will be taped by C-SPAN for airing during the Knoxville feature weekend October 29-30, 2011.

East Tennessee Historical Society, 601 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Museum hours: Monday-Friday: 9AM-4PM; Saturday: 10AM-4PM; Sunday: 1-5PM. Library: Monday-Tuesday: 9AM-8:30PM; Wednesday-Friday: 9AM-5:30PM; Saturday: 9AM-5PM; Sunday 1-5PM. Information: 865-215-8824, www.easttnhistory.org

Elaine Barnes, Lauren Karnitz and Annamaria Gundlach will present their works October 3 through October 28 at the Denso Gallery at the Clayton Center for the Arts. There will be a reception during Last Friday Artwalk 6-8 pm, Friday, October 28, 2011.

Elaine Barnes has a BA from University of Florida and MA from University of Central Florida. She lives in a beautiful, rural setting in East Tennessee, where the natural beauty that surrounds her inspires and influences her artwork in both clay and glass. Her education continues through classes by local artists, as well as national and international workshops with renowned artists. She has won awards in juried shows and her work is exhibited in several galleries in Tennessee.

Lauren Karnitz earned a B.A. in English Education and Russian Literature from New York University in 1992, taught English in New York City, then accepted a job in Seattle. In 2001 she returned to academia to pursue her first love, painting. In 2004, while completing her Fine Arts degree at University of Tennessee, Lauren opened Three Flights Up Gallery in downtown Knoxville, where she was founding partner and curator through 2009. Lauren remains active in Knoxville's art community, while exhibiting her own work and raising two boys. Her work is in private collections around the country.

Annamaria Gundlach creates pieces that are on-of-a-kind, hand-sculpted forms with figurative overtones. Many are large, slab-constructed or sculpted. Gundlach uses numerous coats of oxides, engobes and paints to get her patinas and finishes. Her figurative pieces reflect her Italian/Greek heritage and love of myths and nature. She has received numerous grants from the Tennessee Arts Commission to study sculpture in the United States and Italy and exhibits her work in fine arts exhibitions, museums and galleries.

Clayton Center for the Arts: 502 East Lamar Alexander Parkway, Maryville, TN 37804. www.ClaytonArtsCenter.com

In observance of the Civil War’s 150th anniversary, Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center is hosting an exhibition from the Tennessee State Museum, Common People in Uncommon Times: The Civil War in Tennessee. The exhibition focuses on how the war affected the lives of Tennesseans through personal stories of participants whose sagas illustrate a land divided.

The narrative of personal struggle and endurance during the Civil War is presented on 10 graphic panels taken from the State Museum’s collection of photographs and artifacts from the era, as well as from other collections across the state. Each panel portrays a different theme: Confederate leaders, Union leaders, African-Americans, civilian home front, common soldiers, war on the water, reconstruction and commemoration.

Admission to the special exhibition is included in the museum admission price, and free for Heritage Center members. For current hours and admission rates, visit www.gsmheritagecenter.org

At the Palace Theatre, 72 South Main Street in Crossville.

www.isiksonmez.com

Isik Sonmez, whose oil paintings are done with a palette knife, is exhibiting at the Palace Theatre in Crossville during the month of October.

Born in Turkey of a noted military family, he went to Military High School and became a soldier in the Turkish Army and became an apprentice to Professor Dr. Gulbin Yalim and began his study of abstract art. Later he was mentored for a year under the instruction of Nesin Us, a well known abstract artist.
He has been accepted and won prizes in prestigious exhibits both in Turkey and the U.S. In Tennessee, this includes the Oak Ridge Art Center Open Show and 1st in the landscape category in the Art Guild’s juried show.

Sonmez described his work as his own versatile blend of impressionism and surrealism. The exhibit theme at the Palace consists of horses, clients at a café, and Turkish peasants, great fields, storm clouds, and a piece that comments on both joy and pain.

The Palace Theater, 113 West Broadway, Maryville TN 37801. Information: 865-983-3330, www.palacetheater.com

Photographer Molly Harrell is exhibiting her photography series "The Nudes" at URBhana. This recent collection of nudes, photographed over a period of several months, will be on display throughout the month of October.

A graduate of The University of Tennessee 1986, and The Art Institute of Atlanta 2002, Molly currently resides in Columbia, SC, as a commercial photographer specializing in portraits. Her fascination with the beauty of the human body has led to a continued love of photographing people in the nude.

For this show, Molly works primarily with black and white images. A mix of framed works, images printed on canvas, and mixed media will be featured.

String quartets from the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra will travel to local libraries during the months of September and October to read stories and play music for pre-school aged children as part of the orchestra’s Story Time Program: Music Is All Around Us. Musicians will read books that explore music that children may hear throughout their day from breakfast to bath time. Violet’s Music tells the story of a born musician who searches to find a band of friends to play along. Fiddle-I-Fee, based on Aaron Copland’s I Bought Me a Cat, will explore in song items that may be purchased on a daily trip to the store. These performances will help to highlight the connections between music and literacy and introduce string instruments to young audience members as well as prepare children for the KSO’s Family Concert on Sunday, October 9 featuring the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and animated character Picardy Penguin.

KSO Library Story Times are made possible by support from the Tennessee Arts Commission, Knox County , the City of Knoxville and Aqua-Chem. All Story Time performances are FREE and open to the public.

September 27 10:30 AM Murphy Library

September 28 11:00 AM Karns Library

September 29 11:00 AM Smart Toys and Books

September 29 4:00 PM Farragut Library

September 30 10:15 AM Fountain City Library

October 4 10:30 AM Sequoyah Library

October 5 10:15 AM Bearden Library

October 7 4:00 PM Cedar Bluff Library

The Oak Ridge Art Center announces their annual juried, mixed media exhibition. The exhibition is intended to showcase exceptional work produced throughout our region.

The opening reception is September 17 at 7 PM. A gallery talk will precede the opening at 6:30. Oak Ridge Art Center, 201 Badger Avenue, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 9AM-5PM; Saturday-Monday, 1-4PM. Information: 865-482-1441, www.oakridgeartcenter.org