Calendar of Events

Blue Star Museum admission program to AMSE begins Memorial Day, May 30, 2013 through Labor Day, September 2, 2013. Free AMSE Admission available to active-duty military ID holder and five immediate family members. Active duty military include Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, active duty National Guard and active duty Reserve members. Must show active duty military ID for free admission.

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

Paid chorus positions with Knoxville Opera are available for the 2013-2014 opera season. Auditions dates for new choristers are May 30 & 31.

Knoxville Opera Chorus auditions are open to interested singers on Thursday and Friday, May 30 and 31, 5:00 – 6:00 p.m. at Knoxville Opera, 612 E. Depot Avenue, near the intersection of Hall of Fame Drive and East Magnolia. Knoxville Opera presently has open positions in all voice categories. Tenors and basses are especially encouraged to audition. All persons auditioning should bring two pieces of their choosing in Italian and/or French and a resume of their musical training and performance history. An accompanist will be provided.

The Knoxville Opera Chorus will present three productions at the Tennessee Theatre during the 2013-2014 season:
Tales of Hoffman by Offenbach in October 2013, The Elixir of Love by Donizetti in February 2014, and Norma by Bellini in April 2014. Choristers are engaged one opera at a time and are not required to sing in all productions.

To schedule an audition on May 30 or 31, and/or to receive further information about paid chorus positions, please contact Knoxville Opera Chorusmaster, Don Townsend, at dtownsend@knoxvilleopera.com or call 865-599-7961.

10:00 am - Little Tykes Hike
(Ages 2-6) Bring your little ones out to explore, dig, run and play. We'll be celebrating a spring fling as we explore the world of flowers, birds, and other fun things! Recommended for families with children aged 2-5. This program is free, but pre-registration is required. 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

Throughout the month of May, the East Tennessee Preservation Alliance (ETPA) is celebrating National Preservation Month. The Lakeway Civil War Preservation Association and the Morristown Area Chamber of Commerce will host an open house, tour, and panel discussion about the preservation efforts at the Bethesda Presbyterian Church and the historic house that once served as General Longstreet’s headquarters. This FREE event will begin with a reception at Bethesda Presbyterian Church, located at 4990 Bethesda Road in Russellville, Tennessee. Call 865-523-8008 or send an email to egarlington@knoxheritage.org to RSVP for the event.

Light refreshments will be served at the Church from 5:30 to 6:00. Members of the Lakeway Civil War Association will speak about the preservation and interpretation plans at the Church and the Longstreet House, which is open as a historic museum. At 6:00 the guests will venture over to the Longstreet House for tours. The Lakeway Civil War Preservation Association was organized in February 2006 to save the historic house, and the organization has worked closely with Middle Tennessee State University’s Center for Historic Preservation to properly interpret the significant house. Information about the Longstreet house and the Bethesda Presbyterian Church is available online at http://www.longstreetmuseum.com.

Kuumba Watoto Urban Youth Institute has been a seasonal program since AAAA's inception. Every year we hold a Drum and Dance camp for kids from 5 to 18 years old lasting 4 weeks. At the end of the camp the kids will be able to showcase what they learned at the Kuumba Festival. If you are interested in signing your kids up please go to website and go to the Kuumba Kamp tab to fill out the application.

Kuumba Kamp Community Sign-ups & Parent Appreciation Day will be on Sunday, May 26, 2013 from 2pm-5pm in-front of Austin-East Magnet High School on Martin Luther King Jr., Avenue. Kuumba Kamp will be held Tuesday, May 28th through Tuesday, June 18th, 2013 from 8am- 3pm. The camp will be held at Vine Middle School (1807 M.L.K. Jr, Ave.), entrance is on Bertrand Street.

For more information: 865-217-6786 or www.kuumbafestival.com.

Original paintings, sculptures, and graphics by artists from the world over celebrate the timeless appeal of birds through fresh, artistic interpretations.

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, 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

Exhibit Reception - May 24, 6:30-8:00 PM

Oils, watercolors, and mixed media by 35 Guild members; most of the work is for sale. Also on exhibit: oil painting by the students of Aurora Harrison Bull

Fountain City Art Center, 213 Hotel Ave, Knoxville, TN 37918. Hours: Tuesday & Thursday, 9AM-5PM; Wednesday & Friday, 10AM-5PM; Saturday, 9AM-1PM. Information: 865-357-2787, www.fountaincityartctr.com

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.

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