Calendar of Events

Innovative home building technologies and strategies that can help restore the health and viability of natural systems are explored in "Sustainable Shelter: Dwelling Within the Forces of Nature," exhibition opening February 1 and on display through April 20, 2012 at the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge.

Through graphics, cartoons, interactive computer games, model homes and mock shelters, visitors can explore how ordinary activities -- from reading a book to drying clothes -- impact the planet's carbon and water cycles. The exhibit also compares and contrasts human dwellings with those of other animals, offers a cross-cultural look at human dwellings from around the world and looks at the changes in building methods and consumption patterns of U.S. houses over the past 150 years.

The American Museum of Science and Energy, located at 300 South Tulane Avenue in Oak Ridge, is open Monday through Saturday from 9 am - 5 pm and Sunday 1 - 5 pm. Admission is Adults $5, Seniors (65+) $4, Students (6 - 17) $3 and Children (5 and under) are free. AMSE members are free. Group rates are available for 20 or more with advance reservations. For more information on AMSE membership, exhibits, programs and events, click on www.amse.org To schedule a group visit, call AMSE at (865) 576-3200.

Liquid Light: Watercolors from the KMA Collection, January 27-April 15, 2012, celebrates the KMA’s growing watercolor collection and presents an exciting range of approaches to the medium. Many of the works featured in Liquid Light were acquired recently through gift or purchase and have not been previously exhibited.

The Knoxville Museum of Art celebrates the art and artists of East Tennessee, presents new art and new ideas, serves and educates diverse audiences, and enhances Knoxville’s quality of life. The museum is located in downtown Knoxville at 1050 World’s Fair Park and is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday 10 am–5 pm, and Sunday 1 pm-5 pm. Admission and parking are free. For more information, contact Angela Thomas at 865.934.2034 or visit www.knoxart.org.

January 12 - April 14th
A Timeless American play that inspired the Academy Award winning film, Driving Miss Daisy, is the Affecting story of the decades long relationship between a stubborn Southern matriarch and her compassionate chauffeur

Admission: $24 for Adults, $23 for Seniors, $22 for groups (15 or more Adults/ Seniors), $12 Kids/Students. Includes a $3 Service/facility charge

Steve Scarborough, a founder of Dagger Canoe Co, will talk about The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Fresh Water in the Twenty-First Century by Alex Prud'homme, in the year’s first Brown Bag Green Book program, 12 p.m. on Wednesday, January 18 at the East Tennessee History Center, 601 South Gay Street.

The series continues on February 15th with Elandria Williams, Educational Consultant for Highlander Education and Research Center talking about My Work Is That of Conservation: An environmental biography of George Washington Carver by Mark D. Hersey.

On March 28th, Katie Ries, Marketing and Outreach Director for Three Rivers Market, will talk about Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.

On April 18th, David Massey, Neighborhood Coordinator for the City of Knoxville, will discuss the book Bringing Buildings Back: From abandoned properties to community assets by Alan Mallach.

On May 16th, Dr. Agricola Odoi, Associate Professor in UT’s College of Veterinary Medicine will talk about Changing Planet, Changing Health: How the Climate Crisis Threatens Our Health and What We Can Do about It by Paul R. Epstein

The Brown Bag Green Book program series is sponsored by the Knox County Public Library (KCPL) and the City of Knoxville. For more information, please call Emily Ellis at 215-8723.

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.

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

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