Calendar of Events

The Knoxville Museum of Art presents Several Silences March 16-May 20, 2012.
Several Silences presents installations, videos, sculptures, and drawings by a diverse selection of contemporary artists from around the world who approach the theme of silence in distinctly individual ways. This group exhibition explores various kinds of silence—meditative, ambient, memorial, etc.—and calls attention to the rarity of the absence of sound in our growing “culture of distraction.”

There will be an opening reception Thursday, March 15 from 5:30-7:30pm at the KMA. Free and open to the public. Cash bar.

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10AM-5PM; Sunday, 1-5PM. Information: 865-525-6101,

A Creative Continuum - Arrowmont Artists-in-Residence Anniversary Exhibition
Reception: Thursday, May 17, 2012
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

The Knoxville Watercolor Society presents “Illuminations”—a mix of recent transparent watercolor paintings by the Knoxville Watercolor Society. The Show will be in the downstairs gallery of the Knoxville Museum of Art from March 16 to May 6. An opening reception with refreshments will take place on March 25 from 2 to 4 PM. The Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 10 AM to 5 Pm and on Sundays from 1 PM to 5 PM and is located at 1050 Worlds Fair Park Drive. More information can be obtained by contacting the museum at 865-525-6101 or the show chair person, Lil Clinard at 865-274-6394. To find out about membership information and view members works go to www.knxvillewatercolorsociety.com.

An exhibit featuring the paintings of Nathaniel Galka and Marianne Woodside will be on display at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919.
March 4, 2012 through May 5, 2012
Opening reception Friday, March 9, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.; artists' talks at 6:30 p.m.

Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919. Gallery hours: Monday-Thursday 9AM-5PM; Friday 9AM-4:30PM; Sunday 9AM-1PM. Information: 865-523-4176, www.tvuuc.org

Pre-order your 2012 Limited Edition Print, Scenic Road!
We are thrilled to announce that Scenic Road by Andrew Saftel was chosen as the 2012 Dogwood Arts Limited Edition Print!

Born in Massachusetts, and receiving his B.F.A. from San Francisco Institute of Art, Andrew’s interest in art began after working to publish editions of prints and sculptures at a printmaking workshop in San Francisco. He moved to Knoxville in 1985 and immediately felt inspired by the landscape and folk artists.

Scenic Road will be on sale for $100 to the public for the first time at the Dogwood Arts House & Garden Show, February 17-19, at the Knoxville Convention Center. The original artwork will be available for purchase at Bennett Galleries for $5,000 during the month of April.

Due to limited reproduction, we encourage you to pre-order your Scenic Road print via dogwoodarts.com or by calling [865] 637.4561.

Horizons is an installation by noted Icelandic artist Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir. The exhibition includes 12 androgynous, life-sized iron figures in the KMA’s South Garden. Each is unique in pose and expression, and has a polished glass band inserted in its torso. The artist explains this juxtaposition of glass and iron, “The color of the iron signifies their primal quality—as if they are emerging from the earth” while “Glass as a material has a lot of different connotations. It can be fragile, yet dangerous. It can be translucent, or solid . . . It's like water, but also like air.”

Thorarinsdottir has exhibited widely in Europe, Japan, and Australia over the last 30 years, as well as in the United States, where Horizons has been traveling for the past three years. The installation is featured in the documentary Horizons by independent filmmaker Frank Cantor, which won the CINE Special Jury Award in Washington as the best documentary of 2008. Thórarinsdóttir’s work is held by collectors worldwide, and she has been commissioned by both the Icelandic and English governments for major sculptural installations. She has received numerous awards including the Order of the Falcon by the President of Iceland in 2009.

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10AM-5PM; Sunday, 1-5PM. Information: 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org

Bobbie Crews has an exhibit of her work as the “2012 Dogwood Arts Resident Artist” in the Dogwood Arts offices at 602 S. Gay St. The show is on display from now through the 25th of May, Monday through Friday 8:30 – 5:00. Artist’s reception will be on Friday March 9th from 5 – 7 pm.

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.

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