Calendar of Events

Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders are more evident in our society than ever, with an annual growth rate of 10-17% accounting for as many as 1 of 70 boys and 1 of 110 girls. For families and caregivers, the diagnosis can mean a significant change in lifestyle and personal outlook. Knox County Public Library is pleased to partner with three authors of a new book, I might be … you, to present a monthly series on Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders. The series, which begins Monday, August 15 at 6:00 p.m. at Lawson McGhee Library, 500 W. Church Ave, is designed specifically for caregivers, families, educators, and practitioners. Each session will include three 30-minute presentations given by each author, who has a different view of Autism: a parent, a woman diagnosed with Autism, and a practitioner. Refreshments will be served, and there will be time for a brief question and answer period at the end of each program. The series is free and open to the public. For more information, please call (865) 215-8767.

Schedule and Program:
The A Word: What is Autism? August 15
“Inside Autism” Mary Donnet Johnson
An experiential exploration that offers novel ways to understand both the challenges and strengths of people with autism through the use of interactive props and exercises.

“Justice for All” Barb Rentenbach
I am not here to convince you that I am here. I am here that you may hear, “I might be…you.”

“What We Know from Those We Know” Lois Prislovsky, Ph.D.
Practical implications for parents, teachers, practitioners and those who struggle with ASD. Rethinking roles, expectations, intervention strategies, and empowerment.

The Diagnosis - September 19
“Learning to Breathe Again (Resilient Reactions to a Serious Diagnosis)” Mary Donnet Johnson
Find the flipside of challenges and create true happiness out of even the darkest moments. Learn how to get back in touch with your own precious life force and joy. Breathe. Laugh. Discover new coping techniques in an instant that can last for a lifetime.

“Purpose and Perseverence” Barb Rentenbach.
Know your part. Be your part. Play your part with pride and conviction. Hold your head up and project your voice.

“Transitioning from Overwhelmed to Overcome to Overabundance – Training for the Triathlon of Parenting a Child with ASD” Lois Prislovsky, Ph.D.
Exercises and discussions promoting self care to maximize the mind-body connection to improve stamina, the immune system, relationships, alertness, joy, and overall
quality of life while decreasing anxiety and depression.

Your Team -- October 17
“Make Every Team an A-Team” Mary Donnet Johnson
When working with a child with special needs, even the most well-intentioned team can become divisive and ineffectual. Yet, within every challenge there is almost always an opportunity to build and/or re-energize a team and boost a child.

“Teacher, please” Barb Rentenbach
An insider’s perspectives on the dos and please don’ts of teaching students with autism

“Treat Me” Lois Prislovsky, Ph.D.
Encouraging psychologists and other practitioners to adapt best practices for ASD treatments that include transparency, accountability, mental freshness,
humility, and collaborative equality with families and individuals with ASD (empowering parents to be more informed psychoeducational consumers).

Life Everlasting -- November 21
“Here Come Hormones!" Mary Johnson
Coping with a Teen on the Autism Spectrum” Mary Donnet Johnson
Eating, sleeping, privacy, self care, exercise, self-image, social life, age-appropriate activities, aggression, meds, and backtalk (even from nonverbal children). Learn how you can guide your child with autism through the agony of adolescence and live to tell the tale.

“Connection” Barb Rentenbach
Overcoming communication, behavioral, and isolation difficulties – a plan for living with autism and everyone else.

“Finding Purpose Through Service Evaporates Isolation” Lois Prislovsky, Ph.D.
Pity is not empowering. Let it go. Connecting with individuals with ASD to help them visualize and actualize their highest potential. Non-patronizing, respectful approaches to communication, motivation, and goal setting are highlighted.

The UTK Creative Writing Program, Writers in the Library, Ready for the World, and the Haines-Morris Foundation invite you to our 2011-2012 Series of Readings and Performances, Free and Open to the Public. All events will take place at 7:00 PM in the Hodges Library Auditorium on the UT campus (unless otherwise noted).

Amy Greene’s debut novel, Bloodroot (Knopf, 2010) is a family saga set in the Smoky Mountains: “spot-on account of a land and its people – with its old-fashioned Scots-Irish dialect and its close-knit communities, its homespun Christianity and its folk remedies.” Greene was born and raised in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, where she lives with her husband and two children.

Information: http://web.utk.edu/~english/grad/creative/creative.shtml, mkallet@utk.edu

The Historic Homes of Knoxville are pleased to invite the public to a luncheon to celebrate the founding of the City of Knoxville 220 years ago. First Lady of Tennessee Crissy Haslam will be the featured speaker. Knoxville's key leaders will come together to celebrate and promote the city and its most precious properties, including Blount Mansion, Crescent Bend House & Gardens, Historic Ramsey House, James White’s Fort, Mabry-Hazen House and Marble Springs State Historic Site.

The luncheon will be held on Monday, Oct. 17, 2011 from 11:30am – 12:30pm at The Foundry, 747 World’s Fair Park Dr., Knoxville, TN 37902. WBIR's Robin Whilhoit perform the duties of Mistress of Ceremonies. Tickets are $50 per person or ($400 for a table of eight). Purchase tickets through www.knoxtix.com, or by calling 865-523-7521 or RSVP to the Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville at 865-523-7543 by Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011.

Here they come ----housewives and engineers, secretaries and doctors, principals and plumbers, and oh yes, a few professional artists and art teachers. What do they have in common? Well, they all are exhibiting their fine arts in the Fall Awards Show in the art gallery at the Plateau Creative Arts Center, 451 Lakeview Drive (off Peavine), Fairfield Glade.

The exhibit is scheduled to open for public viewing on October 15. Awards will be given to the artists by judge, Julie L. Rabun, an Associate Art Professor at Carson Newman College. Rabun will judge the following categories: watercolor, oil, colored drawings (pastel and colored pencil), black and white drawing (pencil, charcoal, and pen and ink), 3-D (pottery, sculpture, and jewelry), mixed media, and photography.

The show is open to anyone who is a member of the Art Guild at Fairfield Glade, however, membership is open to all Plateau artists. This is an interesting group. Many of our most creative and technically professional people retired from their family supporting job (orchid raising - very hard job), began to work daily on their art ability, and are now indistinguishable from the pros.

Our shows are diverse and quite good! So come join in the cultural appreciation of Plateau artists who are members of the Art Guild. You don’t have to be retired to be a member, and entries are open to anyone 16 or over. This is one of the fall art events of Cumberland County…..don’t miss it.

The Art Guild at Fairfield Glade is a not-for-profit ©(3) organization and an equal opportunity provider. Website: www.artguildfairfieldglade.net

BOO! at the Zoo presented by U.S. Cellular® kicks off 11 nights of safe and not-too-scary Halloween fun beginning Thursday, Friday and Saturday, October 13, 14 and 15 and continuing Thursday through Sunday, Oct. 20-23 and 27-30, from 5:30-8:00 p.m. each evening.
BOO! at the Zoo, a Halloween tradition for 25 years, is a family event featuring
devilishly good music and games at the Monster Mash tent in The Clayton Family
Kids Cove, your favorite costumed characters throughout the zoo, and the only
“haunted” carousel in East Tennessee, the Scary-Go-Round. (How can you tell it’s
haunted? It goes backwards, of course.)
One of the highlights of BOO! at the Zoo is the BOO! Trail, where little trick-or-treaters can fill their bag with goodies as they make their way through the zoo. Each night will feature a variety of entertainment, from belly dancers and jugglers to out-of-this-world STAR WARS characters. For updated information
about each evening’s activities, visit the zoo’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/knoxvillezoo.
Boo! at the Zoo tickets are $6 per person. Children under two are admitted free. Parking is $5. Tickets are available at in advance by phone at 865.637.5331, online at www.knoxville-zoo.org, or at the zoo’s ticket office during regular zoo hours. Knoxville Zoo members receive a $1 discount on admission and free parking.

Blackberry Farm Gallery at Maryville College presents Inward by Donna Haynes
October 10-31, 2011
Reception for Last Friday Artwalk, October 28, 2011 6-9PM"
The Blackberry Farm Gallery is open Monday through Friday, 10AM-6PM

Reception Oct. 7, 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

Fountain City Art Center Annual Membership Show

Fountain City Art Center, 213 Hotel Avenue, Knoxville , TN 37918
October 7 - November 4, 2011
Contact Info: 865.357.2787
www.fountaincityartctr.org

129 North Main Street
Greeneville, TN 37743
(423) 787-0195

www.james-ben.com

"LARGER THAN LIFE" Exhibit at NPAC Displays Great Talent and Inspiration

As a prelude to the holiday season, the final 2011 exhibit in the lobby of the Niswonger Performing Arts Center by James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center is set to open Friday, October 7th. "LARGER THAN LIFE" features work from 4 of the Art Center's most gifted artists who are expressing themselves in large format images. Barbara de Saussure, Medha Karandikar, David Daus, and Lorna Paquin have all been represented in previous NPAC exhibits but "LARGER THAN LIFE" brings together some of their more striking works in a group show of larger images. The exhibit is open free to the public and can be viewed during lobby hours at NPAC,10:00 am to 5:30 pm Monday through Friday, and during scheduled performances.

For further information about "LARGER THAN LIFE" or the Art at NPAC series, contact James-Ben Stockton at (423) 787-0195.

Justin Randolf Thompson's "The Pits" 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 and can be broken down into four interrelated parts:
-A raised stage supporting a faux marble inlay floor
-A pit orchestra performance
-A chandelier
-A series of three freestanding sculptures

This orchestra will be a collaboration with students and faculty of the UT music department. Jazz musician and composer Jason Thompson (a Knoxville local and UT Graduate) will work with this group to create an 8-10 piece pit orchestra that will be conducted to perform a score that shifts from classical, triumphant marches, into the drum and flute sound of Black Power poets, through folk styles of spiritual praise, and finally into abrasive Hip Hop. The score will be recorded with each instrument taken separately, and following the opening performance; the orchestra will be replaced (in each of their seats) by their recording. The mix of sound references is meant to associate triumph with climax and climax with ascent and the skewing of the elements geographical and cultural identity addresses sound's social transcendence and simultaneous role as entertainment.

The stage and sculptural elements will be created as a collaboration with the artist, UT's architecture department, and UT's sculpture department.

Opening Reception: October 7, 5-9pm with live musical performance as part of First Friday opening.

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

Norman and Ethel Thayer return for the forty-eighth year to their summer home on Golden Pond. Ethel is the perfect foil for an aging Norman, who suffers heat palpitations and a failing memory—but is still as tart-tongued and observant as ever. A visit from their middle-aged daughter and her fiancé leaves them with a teenaged boy, who, for the summer, becomes the “grandchild” the elderly couple always longed for. A touching, funny and warmly perceptive study of a spirited and lovable trio brought even closer together by incidence.

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

Norman and Ethel Thayer return for the forty-eighth year to their summer home on Golden Pond. Ethel is the perfect foil for an aging Norman, who suffers heart palpitations and a failing memory—but is still as tart-tongued and observant as ever. A visit from their middle-aged daughter and her fiancé leaves them with a teenaged boy, who, for the summer, becomes the “grandchild” the elderly couple always longed for. A touching, funny and warmly perceptive study of a spirited and lovable trio brought even closer together by incidence of a heart attack.
OCTOBER 7-23
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