Calendar of Events

We will be holding a fundraiser for our on-going move! The FINAL STRIKE at 800 Tyson Street will be held Thursday, May 23 at 7 PM at our current location. This is a party to say farewell to the building that has presented 41 remarkable productions over the last five years. Admission to the party is free, but we will be asking for donations in a number of categories. For example, you can choose to help fill the bucket labeled "Stage," which contributes to the huge, fire-retardant stage we are currently building, or the bucket entitled "CHAIRS" to help us purchase new chairs for our auditorium. That night, we'll also be giving a SNEAK PREVIEW TOUR of the new facility at 8 PM for a $20 donation per person. Hope you'll make plans to join us for the party and to help KCT raise the funds need for re-location.

Knoxville Children's Theatre, 800 Tyson Street, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information: 865-599-5284, www.childrenstheatreknoxville.com. Reservations: tickets@childrenstheatreknoxville.com

Designed to evoke the architecture of Southern France, this home and garden is hidden within a forested hillside on one of Rockford’s most picturesque old farms. While the garden is a work in progress, it features hybrid tea roses, an expansive vegetable garden and a peony garden on the 17 acre site. Particularly impressive are espaliered pear trees and climbing roses on the façade of the house. Guests will sip champagne while touring the gardens followed by a French inspired light supper under the trees.

Host: Jackie Wilson - $40 per person - Limited to 40 people
Information: 865-862-8717, www.knoxgarden.org

Metro Pulse invites you to join them in celebrating the Best of Knoxville 2013.

Thursday, May 23 beginning at 7:00PM at Barleys, 200 E. Jackson Ave.
Live music with King Super & the Excellents at 9:00PM and The Broadcast at 10:30 PM.

The Town of Farragut Arts Council presents Knoxville artist Nancy Lloyd-Hooker as the featured artist for May and June. Her work is featured in specially designed cases on the second floor of the rotunda in the Farragut Town Hall.

Lloyd-Hooker paints landscapes and still lifes in oil and is also a jewelry artist. She has exhibited in the Midwest and Southeast and has won numerous awards in juried shows. Her work will also be on exhibit at The District Gallery in Bearden from May 31 to June 29.

The Farragut Town Hall is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is located at 11408 Municipal Center Drive directly across from the Farragut Branch Post Office.

Wednesday, May 22
7:00 pm - Sunset Sangria Walk
(Recommended for Adults) See Ijams Nature Center in a whole new light! Everything changes after dark... the trails, the trees, and the entire park. Be part of the Ijams nightlife as we enjoy cocktails and snacks before exploring the trails. Howling at the moon is optional, but encouraged! The fee for this program is $15 for members and $25 for non-members. Please call (865) 577-4717, ext. 110 to register.

Saturday, May 25
7:00 am - Sunrise Walk
(All Ages) Greet the morning in a beautiful way with this sunrise nature hike. What better way to start the day than with a walk around the wonderful trails at Ijams Nature Center? Free to members, $5 for non-members. Please call (865) 577-4717, ext. 110 to register.
10:00 am - Ijams Birding Series: Urban Wilderness Bird Tally
(Ages 12 and up) Explore part of Knoxville's Urban Wilderness at Anderson School. Join naturalist Stephen Lyn Bales, as he counts birds along the trail. The fee for this program is $5 for non-members and free for members. Please call (865) 577-4717, ext. 110 to register. NOTE: Due to limited parking, we will meet at Ijams Nature Center and then carpool to the South Knoxville location.
1:00 pm - Living Clean & Green: Build A Compost Sifter
(Recommended for Adults) In our opinion, a compost sifter is an absolute must if you're an avid gardener or generate a lot of compost. A simple backyard sifter will allow you to remove debris, rocks, and unfinished compost prior to using it in your yard. The fee for this program is $10 for members and $15 for non-members, which includes a finished compost sifter. Please call (865) 577-4717, ext. 110 to register.

Ijams Nature Center, 2915 Island Home Ave, Knoxville, TN 37920. Hours: Grounds and trails open during daylight hours. Call for Visitor Center hours. Information: 865-577-4717, www.ijams.org

One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo is the delightful story of a boy who befriends a penguin, and it's coming to life through song and dance at the Children's Festival of Reading. It will then tour 10 branches of the Knox County Public Library system. Dollywood has taken the book, which is part of the Imagination Library collection, and set it to song and dance. One of the songs was written by Dolly herself. Following the Library tour the show, which is presented by the Penguin Players, will play at Dollywood from June 14 - August 4.

The public is invited to watch as well-mannered Elliot visits the aquarium with his distracted father, and politely asks whether he can have a penguin — then proceeds to remove one from the penguin pool to his backpack! One Cool Friend kicks off the Children's Festival of Reading on May 18 at 10:00 a.m. in World's Fair Park.

The free performances will tour the following branch libraries:
Karns May 20 at 11:00 a.m.
North Knoxville May 20 at 4:00 p.m.
Murphy May 21 at 10:30 a.m.
Farragut May 21 at 4:00 p.m.
Sequoyah May 22 at 11:00 a.m.
Howard Pinkston May 22 at 3:00 p.m.
Carter May 23 at 10:30 a.m.
South Knoxville May 23 at 3:30 p.m.
Powell May 24 at 10:30 a.m.
Fountain City May 24 at 2:00 p.m.

One Cool Friend is part of on-going summer programs at the Library to encourage summer reading. The line up of programs across the Knox County Public Library system includes Wee Labs with the East Tennessee Discovery Center, Amazingly Awesome Science with Dr. Al Hazari, and Titanic's 1st Class Maid Jodi with child author Luke Copas. Additionally, Magician Michael Messing, the Knoxville Zoo's Zoomobile, and Storyteller David Claunch will appear at every library in the system. In late May and June, the Tennessee Stage Company takes the stage for the second year with its popular Shakespeare for Kids programs as they celebrate Twelfth Night.

A full schedule of events is available online at www.knoxlib.org.

Songs, the Heart, and Bee’s Knees - featuring graphite, watercolors, graphitint pencils, vintage linens, up-cycled distressed mirror

Join us for a wine and cheese reception on May 17 at 7:00 PM, AND in honor of the Biscuit Festival, we will also have strawberry biscuit shortcakes! Leann's works are visual interpretations of lyrics, yearnings of the heart, and sweet moments in nature. After spending over 20 years as a full-time mom for three children, Leann returned to her love for drawing and watercolor. She discovered that her talent was not lost but just on standby waiting until the time was right for her to sharpen a few pencils and begin marks of faith and hope on a fresh page.

website: www.leannvineyardcooper.com
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeannsArt
etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/leannvc

Viewings also available by appt. through late June. 865-368-5778
The SHAREhouse, 1640 Jefferson Ave., Knoxville, TN 37917

Jessica Schatz, the Artist of the Month at the Plateau Creative Arts Center, has been an artist for as long as she can remember. She also remains busy as an interior designer, specializing in staging and new construction, and is also a pet portrait photographer. She also donates her photography services, photographing homeless pets in order to help them find homes. Jessica and husband, Robert, recently became Fairfield Glade residents. They have been coming to Fairfield Glade for 27 years, as she has family in the area. Originally from the Midwest, she once ran a Gallery called “Widow’s Weeds” that featured both Civil War reenactment photography and more contemporary art. . Perhaps the most fascinating part of her artistic history is how she became the only woman at that time to photograph camp life and battle reinactments of the Civil War. “I hate war , but I love history, and the genre of photography of that time”. So when she was asked to record the reenactments by Prince William County, VA (site of two Civil War Battles) Jessica said “yes”.

Jessica first became interested in photography by using her mother’s point-and-shoot camera as a young girl. A friend of hers, who had been badly injured in the war in Viet Nam, gave her her first Nikon,as he was unable to use it. She has been a professional photographer, specializing in hand-painted black-and-white photography, until recently. She also enjoys another near “lost art” painting floor cloths, the precursor to linoleum. Thomas Jefferson had a floor cloth as a rug. Itinerant artists used to go house-to-house, painting the floor cloths. They can also be utilized as placemats, table runners, and as wall hangings (one is hanging in her exhibit).

Plateau Creative Arts Center, 451 Lakeview Drive, Fairfield Glade, TN 38558. Hours: M-F 9AM-4PM; Saturday-Sunday 1-4PM. Information: 931-707-7249; www.artguildfairfieldglade.net

In an extraordinary exhibit, Lens and Brush: The Visual Textures of East Tennessee, acclaimed watercolor artist Sandy Brown elucidates illusions of texture in Jim Caldwell’s breathtaking photographs of the environs of eastern Tennessee. Two artists, working in different mediums; one artist finding inspiration through his love of the land and the other artist finding inspiration in her ability to reinterpret texture, structure and light transitions.

An opening reception for the exhibit will be held on Tuesday, May 14th from 1:00 to 3:00 PM.

522 West Madison Avenue, Athens, TN 37303. Information: 423-745-0329

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts is famous as an international destination for all manner of aspiring artists and craftspersons—students seeking exposure, guidance, or simply practice at media ranging from jewelry-making to glass-fusing. The public tends to be less aware that Arrowmont’s historic campus is also a powerful attraction for a large, diverse and enormously talented family of instructors. For professional artists, instruction at Arrowmont offers an opportunity to ply their livelihood, certainly. But they also have the chance to demonstrate, discuss and refine their techniques in modern studios where lively conversation and exchange of knowledge enrich the entire group. For teaching academics, Arrowmont provides incentive to winnow away at a semester’s worth of teaching and determine what is essential and possible for a weeklong workshop. Both students and instructors say it’s common to cover more than a semester’s worth of collegiate art education during the span of one Arrowmont workshop.

Stefanie Gerber Darr joined Arrowmont as Gallery Director in April, following work at prestigious institutions in Denver and Nashville. “Every summer Arrowmont invites over one hundred artist instructors to share their talents and teach classes to students from all over the country,” says Darr. “They are conduits of creativity that help make Arrowmont an educational, expressive, and inspiring force in the world of arts and crafts. In addition to showcasing their abilities through the classes offered, the annual instructor exhibition presents the artist instructors’ work to the students as well as the greater community and visitors to the region. Representing diverse styles and media, the exhibition complements the educational experience of the individuals attending class sessions while also signifying the trajectory of contemporary craft.”

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

May 10, 6:00-8:00 PM: Opening Reception for Three Femmes Exhibition
Elaine Barnes, Annamaria Gundlach, and Lauren Karnitz will present their works through the end of May at the Clayton Center for the Arts in Maryville. The exhibition is titled “Femmes and Forms”.

Clayton Center for the Arts: 502 East Lamar Alexander Parkway, Maryville, TN 37804. Info: 865-981-8590, www.ClaytonArtsCenter.com

Marble Springs State Historic Site is proud to present the 3nd Season of ‘Shopping at the Farm’ – the Marble Springs Farmer’s Market for our South Knoxville community. The market will be held Thursdays beginning on May 9 & continuing weekly to November. All vendors will be selling fresh, locally-produced products including sauces, seasonal produce, herbs, perennial plants and more!

Marble Springs: 1220 West Gov. John Sevier Highway, Knoxville, TN 37920. Information: 865-573-5508, www.marblesprings.net