Calendar of Events

Opening Reception: Sunday, January 15, 2012 from 2-4 PM. Gallery Talk 2 PM.

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

Curated by Professor and Distinguished Scientist Robert D. Hatcher, Jr. and Assistant Professor Micah Jessup, both from UT's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, the exhibition focuses on the formation of mountain ranges and the forces that continually alter them. Our own beautiful landscapes of East Tennessee and western North Carolina, part of the Appalachian Mountains, whose genesis was more than 250 million years ago, is one focus of the exhibit; the other is the striking and rugged Himalaya Mountains, the much younger and still rising result of tectonic movements, the global effects of which we learn about often in the news.

Introducing the subject in the gallery will be a fifteen minute video, created by award-winning producer Steve Dean (the Heartland Series) and featuring views of a number of sites in the Blue Ridge and Smokies sections of the Appalachians as well as original images of Himalayan locales and the Tibetan plateau. The dynamics of plate tectonics and processes of erosion are explained in animated segments.

Breathtaking as the surface topography may be, the exhibit will also delve into the structure of the respective ranges, as that is where the keys to the how and the why may be found. Three-dimensional maps, video animations, and of course, rocks will show visitors how we know what we know, and perhaps give viewers a new way to look at the world as well as the landscape around them. The past, the present, and the tectonic future await.

Frank H. McClung Museum, 1327 Circle Park Dr on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Hours: Monday-Saturday, 9AM-5PM; Sunday, 1-5PM. Information: 865-974-2144, http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu

Tennessee Mountain Writers January Jumpstart workshops - January 13-15, 2013
Tennessee Mountain Writers will present "January Jumpstart XIII" featuring a fiction workshop led by Darnell Arnoult, Writer-in-Residence at Lincoln Memorial University, and a poetry workshop led by Nashville poet Bill Brown. The event, to be held at the Magnuson Hotel in Sweetwater, will open with an informal social hour on Friday evening; workshop sessions will run from 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and from 8:30 - 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Participation is limited to 20 per workshop. The registration fee of $110 includes lunch on Saturday; there will be an optional catered dinner at the hotel Saturday night for an additional $16. For registration information, see www.tmwi.org, or email theorrs@usit.net.

Opening Reception: Friday, January 13, 2012 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Open Monday - Saturday 8:30 am to 5:00 pm

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Information: 865-436-5860, www.arrowmont.org

You are cordially invited to attend the opening reception for Central High’s 2nd Annual National Art Honor Society Exhibit to be held at the Fountain City Art Center at 213 Hotel Avenue . The reception will be held from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM. The Art Honor Society members and their instructors, Peggy Leland and Phyllis Ball, will be designing and distributing their own invitations, hanging their own show, bringing their reception food, and providing judges for the artwork. If you came to their show last year, you know that it was very impressive. After that show, the Art Center decided to offer them an opportunity to exhibit every year as a featured show. Be sure to mark your calendars!

Featuring the work of local fiber artist Nancy Roberson. Come view these exquisite hand-dyed, woven tapestries and shawls, capes and scarves.

Knoxville Arts & Fine Crafts Center, 1127 Broadway Suite B, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information: 865-523-1401, www.cityofknoxville.org/recreation/arts

The Town of Farragut Arts Council presents Mary Agnes Schaefer as the featured artist for January and February. Located at the Farragut Town Hall, her exhibit features a variety of decorated gourds, dolls and quilt blocks. A charter member of the Farragut Arts Council, Schaefer and her gardener husband, Bob, became interested in gourds after a trip to Gatlinburg. After the gourds are grown, harvested, cleaned and stored, she makes them into works of art. Depending on the shape, Schaefer turns the gourds into baskets, bird houses, dolls and boxes. Others are decorated in simple designs or painted. Also on display are Schaefer's "Fabric Friends" handmade dolls, as well as quilt blocks painted on wood panels.

11408 Municipal Center Dr, Farragut, TN 37934. Information: 865-966-7057, www.townoffarragut.org

Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church Exhibit
Knoxville Museum of Art executive director David Butler, sales manager Diane Hamilton, and administrator Shirley Brown present "The Spirit of Place: Landscapes That Resonate."
January 7, 2012 through March 2, 2012
Opening reception Friday, January 7, from 6 to 7:30 pm; artists' talks at 7 pm
Free and open to the public
Where: Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church Gallery
2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37918

Drawing from the Museum's extensive collection of ornithological prints, Curator Gerald Dinkins has selected 90 examples of aquatic bird prints by ten artists. In general, the term waterbirds is used to describe species within several worldwide families, and includes the vast array of sea birds and waterfowl. The artists represented are Eleazar Albin (1713-1759), Mark Catesby (1682-1749), Xaviero Manetti (1723-1784), Alexander Wilson (1766-1813), John James Audubon (1785-1851), Prideaux John Selby ((1788-1867), John Gould (1804-1881), Daniel Giraud Elliot (1835-1915), Henry Eeles Dresser (1838-1915), and Rex Brasher (1869-1960). All of the prints are hand-colored and comprise engravings, lithographs, and in the case of Brasher, photogravure.

The following taxonomic groups are represented: Alcidae (Auks, Murres, and Puffins), Procellariiformes (Tubenoses, including Albatrosses, Storm Petrels, Petrels, and Shearwaters), Anatidae (Ducks, Geese, and Swans), Stercorariidae (Jaegers), Gaviidae (Loons), and Podecipedidae (Grebes). Many of the artworks depict birds interacting in their natural settings, and show the two worlds they occupy – water and sky.

Frank H. McClung Museum, 1327 Circle Park Dr on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Hours: Monday-Saturday, 9AM-5PM; Sunday, 1-5PM. Information: 865-974-2144, http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu

An exhibition, utilizing audiovisuals and interactives, to explain a major international research project with the goal of demonstrating the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy. The U.S. ITER Project Office is hosted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, with partners Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in New Jersey and Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina. AMSE Second Level.

American Museum of Science & Energy, 300 S. Tulane Avenue, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. Hours: Monday-Saturday 9AM-5PM; Sunday 1-5PM. Information: 865-576-3200, www.amse.org

Historians have long mulled over the big and small questions surrounding the American Civil War. Scholars and enthusiasts alike look at the 1860s from every angle and still come up with new theories and ideas. As part of a four month sesquicentennial celebration of the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, Knox County Public Library invites the public to join in a free five-part reading and discussion series called “Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War.” The library is one of 65 public libraries nationwide receiving grants to host the book discussion series developed by the American Library Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Library has multiple copies available for check out of each of the three books being discussed. Attendees are encouraged to bring a bag lunch as well as an appetite for meaningful discussion. All programs begin at noon and occur in the East Tennessee History Center Auditorium, 601 South Gay Street , Knoxville , Tennessee , 37902 :

November 2 at 12 PM, March (2005), by Geraldine Brooks

November 23 at 12 PM, Selections from America’s War: Talking about the Civil War and Emancipation on their 150th Anniversaries (2011), by Edward L. Ayers

January 4 at 12:00 PM, Selections from America’s War: Talking about the Civil War and Emancipation on their 150th Anniversaries (2011), by Edward L. Ayers

January 25 at 12:00 PM, Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam (2002), by James McPherson

February 22 at 12:00 PM, Selections from America’s War: Talking about the Civil War and Emancipation on their 150th Anniversaries (2011), by Edward L. Ayers

For more information about the series please visit www.knoxlib.org/lincoln or contact Mary Pom Claiborne, 865-215-8767.

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