Calendar of Events

This is the twelfth season for this popular concert series with all performances sponsored by the Blount County Friends of the Library. Concerts for this annual series, made possible through funding by Friends of the Library, will be presented on Thursday nights in August. All concerts take place in the Reading Rotunda of the library.

Thursday, August 1, 7 p.m., “Bean and Bailey.” This comedy-music duo is on a mission as they tour across the country to bring good, clean humor back to the streets of America. Bradley Bean and Jackson Bailey met at Carson-Newman College and now, they and their families still live in East Tennessee. So welcome them home as they perform in the Reading Rotunda of the library.

Thursday, August 8, 7 p.m., “Ben Bolt.” Classical guitarist, Ben Bolt, travels internationally to perform and teach Master Classes (Paris, Brazil, Uruguay, North America), and he has won honors in each of these countries, including induction into Delta Omicron as a National Patron (a title he shares with Walt Disney, Luciano Pavarotti and Shinichi Suzuki). He is a knight of the Ducal Order of the Cross of Burgundy, and he was awarded the coveted medal, Premio al Mérito, at the National Library of Montevideo. He presently lives in Maryville while caring for his elderly father. He will perform in the Reading Rotunda of the library.

Thursday, August 15, 7 p.m., “The Twangtown Paramours.” Mike Lewis and Mary Beth Zamer, a husband and wife team who live in Nashville and perform internationally have a new album, "The Promise of Friday Night," that was # 2 on the July Folk DJ Chart. In November, 2012, John Platt of WFUV in New York City and Lilli Kuzma of WDCB in Chicago included their album on their top 10 lists for 2012. In May, they won Wildflower's Michael Terry People's Choice award in Richardson, TX. They are currently writing songs for upcoming films for Major Studio Partners in NYC, who has financed films such as Superman II and The Devil Wears Prada. In 2012, they opened for Joe Ely, Claire Lynch, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Kim and Reggie Harris. They will perform in the Reading Rotunda of the library.

Thursday, August 22, 7 p.m., “Hugh Livingston.” Local organist, Hugh Livingston, will perform a concert on a box organ. For two years, he was the house organist at Knoxville’s Tennessee Theater where he played “The Mighty Wurlitzer” theater pipe organ between Saturday night movie features—at the same time he played trumpet with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra! He is a Blount County Tennessee native and a graduate of Alcoa High School and Maryville College. He was for three years the band and choir director at Alcoa High and has worked in the music ministry of many area churches. He will perform in the Reading Rotunda of the library.

Thursday, August 29, 7 p.m., “Knoxville Opera Company.” Brian Salesky, Executive Director and Conductor, will accompany two opera performers who will sing excerpts from this coming season’s operas: “The Tales of Hoffman” (a poet in his world of fantasy and demons pursues four mesmerizing women), “The Elixir of Love” (a romantic comedy), and “Norma” (a triangle of forbidden love). They will perform in the Reading Rotunda of the library.

Free and open to the public, the programs are hosted by the Blount County Public Library, located at 508 N. Cusick Street, Maryville. For further information about library programs or services, call the library at 982-0981 or visit the Web site at www.blountlibrary.org.

RECEPTION - Friday, August 23, 5:30 - 7:30pm in the Ewing Gallery

From laser cut aluminum to furniture design and photography taken abroad, Thirty Two is an exhibition of work by faculty of the College of Architecture and Design. The collection, named for the number of participants, demonstrates the creative energy and rich ideas of a faculty, whose dedication to the college's three disciplines -- architecture, landscape architecture, and interior design -- inspires their professions and the students they teach. The legacies of the college and its programs are a reflection of the research and creative pursuits of its instructors. Since the last faculty exhibit six years ago, the culture of the College of Architecture and Design has evolved. It is more interdisciplinary than ever. The addition of the Landscape Architecture Program in 2008, appointment of new leadership, and employment of diverse faculty to the ever-growing Architecture and Interior Design programs, reflect the college's long-standing mission to create an environment of inquiry, collaboration, exploration, and learning. Thirty Two documents this vibrant culture. It provides a source of inspiration to students to stretch their thinking, investigate their passions, and pursue their own creative work.

GALLERY HOURS - M-F: 12-5PM
Ewing Gallery, 1715 Volunteer Blvd on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Information: 865-974-3200, www.ewing-gallery.utk.edu

Tennessee Educational Enrichment

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

A traveling exhibition organized by the Tennessee State Museum that showcases 22 of the most compelling images to document the aftermath of U.S. bombing raids on the Japanese cities struck by the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Artifacts and explanatory panels complete the exhibition. Books are available about this exhibition in the Museum's Discovery Shop. AMSE Lobby.

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

Thursday, August 1, 7 p.m., “Bean and Bailey.” This comedy-music duo is on a mission as they tour across the country to bring good, clean humor back to the streets of America. Bradley Bean and Jackson Bailey met at Carson-Newman College and now, they and their families still live in East Tennessee. So welcome them home as they perform in the Reading Rotunda of the library.
Free and open to the public, the program is at the Blount County Public Library, located at 508 N. Cusick Street, Maryville.

Award-winning poets Marilyn Kallet and Keith Flynn will perform poetry from their latest books at the August Knoxville Writers’ Guild meeting.

The event, which will be open to the public, begins at 7 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 1, at the Laurel Theater, at the corner of Laurel Avenue and 16th Street in Fort Sanders. A $2 donation is requested at the door. The building is handicapped accessible. Additional parking is available at Redeemer Church of Knoxville, 1642 Highland Ave.

Flynn fronts a band called Keith Flynn and the Holy Men and Kallet is known for her fantastic live poetry readings, so this won't be your typical poetry reading. “Keith Flynn and I are both performers; we don't read poetry, we aim to embody it," Kallet said.

Her latest collection is titled "The Love that Moves Me" (Black Widow Press, 2013) and will be the bulk of her performance, although Kallet promises to read a couple of new poems. Flynn, editor of the "Asheville Poetry Review," will be reading exclusively from his latest, "Colony Collapse Disorder" (Wings Press, 2013). The KWG August meeting will be his 42nd show out of 86 scheduled for this book tour.

Copies of both books will be available for purchase at the meeting. Additional information about Flynn can be found at www.keithflynn.net. Information about Kallet and her work can be found at redroom.com/member/marilyn-kallet. For more information about this and other KWG events, visit www.knoxvillewritersguild.org.

This pioneering exhibition will present an underappreciated side to the work of Thornton Dial, Sr. (b. 1928), an artist best known and celebrated for his large scale, multi-media assemblages dealing with a wide range of charged social and political themes. Since the early 1990s, Dial has also produced a rich body of lyrical works on paper, often engaged with themes of gender and human relationships. This exhibition focuses on the very earliest of those drawings, a group of 50 sheets with Dial’s characteristic and broadly coherent iconography of women, fish, birds,
roosters, and tigers, rendered in a variety of media. Organized by the Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina.

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

The Tennessee Stage Company presents its 23rd annual summer Shakespeare Festival, featuring the comedy “Twelfth Night” and the history play “Richard III.” “If Music be the food of love, play on,” declares Shakespeare in his beloved romantic comedy “Twelfth Night.” Though the search for true love lies sweetly at the heart of the play, “Twelfth Night” is adorned with enough raucous ribaldry, outrageous intrigue, vaulted villainy and gender-bending cross-dressing to declare it one of Shakespeare’s most outrageous comedies. “Richard III” makes its return to the Shakespeare in the Square stage the summer after the much-maligned King of England himself made a dramatic comeback, when his remains were discovered last August in a parking lot in England. Look for the skeletal Son of York to make a cameo appearance in the Shakespeare in the Park program.

Thursday-Sunday at 7:00 PM
Twelfth Night: July 11,13,19, 21, 25, 27 Aug. 2,4,8, 10 (free) with the indoor Square Room matinee on July 13 at 2:00 pm ($10 admission)
Richard III: July 12, 14, 18, 20, 26,28, Aug. 1, 3, 9, 11 (free) with the indoor Square Room matinee on July 20, at 2:00 pm ($10 admission)

“Twelfth Night” alternates performances with “Richard III". “Richard III” is directed by Mark H. Creter, co-founder of the Tennessee Stage Company and professor of theater at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville. “Twelfth Night” is directed by Tom Parkhill, founding artistic director of the Tennessee Stage Company.

Shakespeare on the Square productions are performed on a rough replica of the new Globe Theatre in London (a reconstruction of Shakespeare’s original theater). The plays are presented in the timeless style of Elizabethan theatrical presentations. The Tennessee Stage Company encourages our audiences to spend an evening on the Square: do a little shopping, have a nice dinner, see the play and maybe stop by a pub afterward. All of this and more is available on Market Square nightly. So come early and see the Square! Tennessee Stage Company: 865-546-4280, www.tennesseestage.com

On First Friday July 5th., “2 Many Pixels” photo gallery is proud to present a collection of photographs by artist and 6 times Ilford Prize winner JACQUES GAUTREAU.

This exhibit explores the full extent of the photographic language, composition, colors, textures, shadows and offers a voyage through the most subtle and genuine emotions.
The photographs are all for sale, gallery archival prints, signed and numbered by the artists.
Hope to see you all for the opening on Friday night, July 5th., 6pm to 9:30pm.
The photos will remain on the walls through the months of July and August.
"2 Many Pixels"130 West Jackson avenue, suite 201, Knoxville, TN 37902
The gallery is open weekdays 10 am to 5 pm and after hours or weekends by appointment or chance... at 917 532 4913 or patrice@2manypixelsphoto.com

The Town of Farragut Arts Council presents Knoxville artist Bill Cook as the featured artist for July and August. His work is featured in specially designed cases on the second floor of the rotunda in the Farragut Town Hall through Aug. 30.

As a young child growing up in the foothills of East Tennessee, Cook took up wood carving with a pocket knife, creating small carvings from the plentiful cedar wood on the family farm. As a University of Tennessee student, he discovered sculpting in clay, and, in the late 1990s, he began using marble as a sculptural medium. Cook enjoys the physical, mental and spiritual effort required to use marble to create sculpture. He currently resides in Knoxville with his wife and three children.

For more information about this exhibit or to access a Featured Artist of the Month application, please contact Lauren Cox at lauren.cox@townoffarragut.org or 865-966-7057 or visit www.townoffarragut.org (Departments, Parks & Leisure Services, Arts & Culture). 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.

Support Knoxville's own Hard Knox Rollergirls!

At the Knoxville Civic Coliseum, 500 Howard Baker Ave. 6/29, 7/13, 7/27, 8/10, 8/24, 9/7, 9/21. Whistle blows at 6:00PM.
Tickets for sale at Coliseum box office or Knoxville Tickets. All dates Double Headers!
www.hardknoxrollergirls.com or 865 272 WHIP (9774).

8th Annual Fountain City Art Center Annual Open Show - a spectacular array of area artists’ talents. This exhibit includes pottery, amazing decorative gourds, a handmade book, a leather and fossil sculpture, oils, watercolors, pastels, graphite pencil drawings, fused glass, and many mixed media pieces.

Exhibit Reception - June 28, 6:30-8:00 PM

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