Calendar of Events

Our festival showcases some 400 musicians featuring authentic Southern Appalachian bluegrass, Gospel, folk and old-time country music continuously playing on 5 stages. Returning favorites include Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Grammy award-winning bluegrass and Gospel band; Blue Moon Rising, 2011 IBMA Showcase Artist; Dixie Gray, Homecoming’s most requested group; Southern Raised, energetic crowd-pleaser; Cody Shuler & Pine Mountain Railroad, topping bluegrass charts; the Cluster Pluckers, with outstanding harmony; and The Quebe Sisters Band which features three sisters playing triple fiddles.

Authors autographing new releases will include Bill Landry with Appalachian Tales & Heartland Adventures, highlighting stories from 25 years of The Heartland Series. Randy Rudder will have his latest book, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Country Music: The Inspirational Stories behind 101 of Your Favorite Country Songs. Jill Peterson, founder of A Simple Life magazine, will present her new cookbook, Simple Cooking for a Simple Life.

Wherever you are on the grounds there will be music nearby. Old-time crafters will entertain and offer their treasures for sale. Demonstrator will show and explain how people lived and worked during pioneer times. As always there will be plenty of tasty Southern vittles to enjoy. Southern hospitality will be in abundance too.
Over 175 artisans—some whose work is rarely seen elsewhere—demonstrate old-time mountain activities, including quilting, basket weaving, splitting cedar rails, spinning and weaving, whittling, caning chairs, making lye soap, and constructing old-time instruments. Thousands of handcrafted items are available for purchase during the three-day event.

Museum of Appalachia, 2819 Andersonville Hwy., Clinton, TN 37716 (16 miles north of Knoxville at I-75, exit 122, then one mile east). Open every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas. Information: 865-494-7680, www.museumofappalachia.org

Nestled at the Foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, Maryville, Tennessee hosts three days of amazing world class concerts, juried arts and crafts, and activities, shows, and much more for the whole family. We’re setting the stage for you this October!

The performers will be: Fri., Oct. 7, 9:00 PM Sara Evans; Sat. Oct. 8, 6:00 PM Steel Magnolia, 7:00 PM The Band Perry, and 8:30 PM Reba McEntire; Sun., Oct. 9, 6:30 PM Craig Campbell and 8:00 PM Chicago. There will be several other local/regional bands. Tickets on sale at the Maryville Municipal Center, Blount County branches of First Tennessee and GreenBank, as well as through Tickets Unlimited, (865) 656-4444 and online at knoxvilletickets.com. For more information: www.foothillsfallfestival.com

Voted one of the South’s most popular fall events, Gatlinburg readies itself for the 36th Annual Gatlinburg Craftsmen’s Fair. Over 180 craftspeople will be exhibiting and demonstrating their crafts at the Gatlinburg Convention Center this October 6-23. During these dates the Gatlinburg Convention Center transforms into an enormous multi-level community of craftspeople from all over the U.S. The 36th Annual Gatlinburg Craftsmen’s Fair will host some of the country’s finest artists and craftsmen that offer their unique art for sale.

Hours are 10am to 6pm daily and 10am to 5pm on Sundays. Music shows are 12, 2 and 4pm daily 12 and 2pm on Sundays and are included in the admission cost ($6 for Adults and children 12 and under free. Group rates available). For additional information call 865/436-7479 or visit our website at www.craftsmenfair.com

By Molière, Translated into English verse by Richard Wilbu. At the Lab Theatre.
A classic comedy by one of the greatest playwrights of all time. A "man of the cloth" worms his way into the gullible heart of a rich family man and tries to take him for all he has. Molière skewers religious hypocrisy, mindless piety, and sexual deceit – all in glorious rhyming verse.

Clarence Brown Theatre 1714 Andy Holt Ave on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. For information: 865-974-5161, www.clarencebrowntheatre.com. For tickets: 865-974-5161, 865-656-4444, www.knoxvilletickets.com

“The Rainmaker” is a comedy set in a rural western town during the Depression. The play tells the story of a woman whose family is more worried about her fading marriage prospects than the drought killing their cattle. On a hot day, their lives are changed by the arrival of a man who claims he can make it rain. RSCC Theatre, Harriman, General Admission $10, Students $7.

October 6-8, 13-15 at 7 pm
Matinee performance October 9 & 16 at 2 pm

Roane State Community College, Harriman, Tennessee, 865.882.4567
Check website periodically for updated information at www.roanestate.edu/theatre

An Art2Action production
Eleven Reflections on September is an original piece written by Andrea Assaf. It is a poetry-based, multimedia performance dealing with Arab-American identity, Wars on/of Terror, and “the constant, quiet rain of death amidst beauty” that each autumn brings in a post 9/11 world.

Themes include reflections on September 11th, hybrid identity, Wars on/of Terror (including Iraq, Afghanistan, the 2006 bombing of Lebanon, Palestine, and Somalia) airports, loss and the revolutions and uprisings currently sweeping across the Arab world.
Aesthetically, the poems explore the disintegration of language in the face of violence, prejudice, and unspeakable horror; as such, they progress from lyrical to abstract and broken. The witnessing of falling autumn becomes a metaphor for the ever-increasing numbers of human lives lost, on all sides.

While in residency with The Carpetbag Theatre, Inc., Assaf will be performing the one-woman show three times; Thursday, October 6th at 8pm, Saturday, October 8th at 8pm, and Sunday, October 9th at 3pm. Each performance will be followed by a talkback between the audience and the performer discussing the themes and presentation of the piece. The performances will take place in The Carpetbag Theatre, Inc.’s Black Box Theatre at the Emporium Center (100 S. Gay St., Knoxville, TN; Suite 114). General admission: $12, Students and children 12 and under: $5 Please call (865) 544-0447 for more information or visit www.carpetbagtheatre.org.

For more information on Andrea Assaf, Art2Action, and Eleven Reflections on September, please visit http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/showcase/eleven_reflections_on_september.
The Carpetbag Theatre, Inc. is a NPN Partner of the National Performance Network (NPN). This project is made possible in part by support from United States Artists and the NPN Performance Residency Program. Major contributors include the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information: www.npnweb.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.

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