Calendar of Events

DISNEY'S BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, September 30 & October 1, 2013
Details TBA

The Broadway at the Tennessee series has continued to flourish each year by bringing premier titles to Knoxville -- and the 2013-2014 season is no exception. This season consists of Disney classics, Tony Award® winning favorites and breathtaking, contemporary pieces.

Tennessee Theatre, 604 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. For information: 865-684-1200, www.tennesseetheatre.com.

Valley Young + poet Jeff Taylor

Tennessee Shines is a weekly radio show on WDVX FM hosted by Bob Deck and Paige Travis on the stage of the Knoxville Visitor Center Mondays at 7pm and broadcast live on WDVX FM and WDVX.com. Tickets are $10, free for students with valid ID and children ages 14 and under. Tickets are available in advance at the WDVX Blue Plate Special, noon weekdays and Saturdays at the Knoxville Visitor Center, or at the door beginning at 6 p.m. on the night of the show. Tune in Monday nights at 7pm and Saturday nights at 10pm for rebroadcasted shows and compilations of off-air performances. Information: 865-544-1029, www.wdvx.com, http://www.tennesseeshines.com

Brown Bag Lecture with Julie Paine Fritz
In her new book, Remembering the Hill, Julie Paine Fritz captures the essence of growing up on in Knoxville and Bearden Hill in the 1950s. Those who remember this time, as well as those too young to have these memories, will enjoy her warm, detailed descriptions of people and events and her collection of stories, described as “unique enough to be quirky and funny, yet universal enough to cause readers to dig back into their own lives and relive their memories of the time.” Free and open to the public.

East Tennessee Historical Society, 601 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Museum hours: Monday-Friday: 9AM-4PM; Saturday: 10AM-4PM; Sunday: 1-5PM. Library: Monday-Tuesday: 9AM-8:30PM; Wednesday-Friday: 9AM-5:30PM; Saturday: 9AM-5PM; Sunday 1-5PM. Information: 865-215-8824, www.easttnhistory.org

We are holding auditions for new company members and associate artists at the Tennessee Conservatory of Fine Arts (2906-A Tazewell Pike Knoxville, TN 37918). Dancers interested in auditioning should prepare 30 seconds to one minute of their own choreography and should register by emailing their name and contact information to momentumdancelab@gmail.com. Auditions will begin promptly at 7 p.m. with a modern technique class followed by each dancer's demonstration of prepared choreography.
Momentum Dance Lab: 865-670-2748, www.momentumdancelab.com

Satisfy your Soul – experience a ghoulishly gourmet dinner at some of Knoxville’s best local restaurants, then travel through time on a haunted excursion through Historic Knoxville, exploring – The City Where Spirits Never Sleep!

Paula Johnson, creator of Knoxville Food Tours and J-Adam Smith, the founder of Haunted Knoxville Ghost Tours will be hosting 3 unique Food & Fright events, each highlighting different restaurants and districts of town. Guests will be treated to a 3 course gourmet meal featuring a specially created menu for the evening. Following dinner, the group will depart on their haunted excursion and “Ghost Hunt” through the designated area of town. Guests will be educated on paranormal investigation and lead to haunted locations where they will have an opportunity to use the same tools they see on TV!

Sunday, September 29: Dinner at Windows on the Park, the recently renovated jewel overlooking the World’s Fair Park, followed by a Ghost Tour of Knoxville’s Market Square District, the Investigation Tour that put Knoxville on the Paranormal Map, and the most requested Ghost Tour.

Sunday, October 13: Dinner at downtown’s longest continuously operating eating and drinking establishment and the infamously haunted - Bistro at the Bijou, followed by a Ghost Tour of Knoxville’s Court District, the district controlled by the elite and powerful.

Sunday, October 20: Dinner at Boyd’s Jig & Reel, recently featured on CNN as 100 Places to Eat Like a Local, followed by a Ghost Tour of Knoxville’s Old City District, the once disorderly wild bar scene of Knoxville.

Guests should arrive at the dinner locations between 6:00–6:30 p.m. to have an opportunity to meet the tour guides, mix and mingle. Dinner will begin at 6:30, followed by the Ghost Tour from 8:30–10:30 p.m.

Tickets are $60 per person, with a $5 discount for early purchases. Guests who wish to attend all 3 events will receive a special Haunted Goody Bag! These exclusive engagements are limited to 20 guests per event, and reservations are required.

Paula Johnson 865-201-7270, knoxvillefoodtours.com
J-Adam Smith 865-438-4413, knoxghost.com

Blount Mansion will host an exhibit opening from 5:30-7:30pm entitled Furniture on the Frontier, a showing of the Blount Mansion’s finest collection pieces on display at the Blount Mansion Visitors Center. Admission is free with light appetizers and a special gift for our members. Blount Mansion is currently closed to the public for a historic restoration and preservation project; the Visitors Center remains open Tuesday-Saturday 9:30-5 with the exception of Game Days in Volunteer country. This exhibit, Furniture on the Frontier, will be on display for the duration of the closure and is always free to the public, with a suggested donation! Come and see some of William Blount’s most valuable possessions and a wonderful example of the splendor of the Blount’s during the founding of Knoxville. Blount Mansion is the home of William Blount, Tennessee’s only signer of the United States Constitution, as well as where the Tennessee State Constitution was drafted and signed. It will be an opportunity for all Knoxville citizens to learn about their vital historical importance in the founding of our government. Blount Mansion is Knoxville's only National Historic Landmark given by the National Park Service and is the oldest house museum in Knox County. It is owned and operated by the Blount Mansion Association, Inc., a nonprofit, educational organization.

Blount Mansion, 200 W. Hill Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-525-2375, www.blountmansion.org

Weave your way to the Bagwell Center for Media and Art at Pellissippi State Community College and gain a new appreciation of an Appalachian heritage craft, basket weaving. “A Celebration of Baskets” by the Foothills Craft Guild Basket Weavers is on display at the Bagwell Gallery with an opening reception 3-5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24. The event is free, and the community is invited. “The Foothills Craft Guild exhibit will present original work created by guild members, along with examples of work done by a special guest,” said Jennifer Brickey, an art instructor at Pellissippi State. “A Celebration of Baskets” features the work of Pam Parham, a Shaker-basket weaver from Sevierville. According to Virgil Davis, a Pellissippi State adjunct faculty member and also a guild member, the basket exhibit pays homage to a timeless Appalachian craft, as well as introduces traditional and modern weaving techniques. Like Parham, Davis creates Shaker baskets. Whether baskets, furniture or architecture, Shaker style is intended for longevity and usefulness. The display includes not only Shaker pieces but also nesting baskets, Nantuckets with solid wood bases and lids, and Appalachian berry baskets, which were traditionally made quickly, on site, from carved poplar bark. Heritage basketry is joined in the exhibit by more modern creations. The display is meant to encourage visitors to be conscious of space and enclosures and to find beauty in everyday items.

“A Celebration of Baskets” is one of the events that make up Pellissippi State’s arts series, “The Arts at Pellissippi State.” The series brings to the community cultural activities ranging from music and theatre to international celebrations, lectures, and the fine arts. Pellissippi State: 10915 Hardin Valley Road, Knoxville, TN 37932. For more information about The Arts at Pellissippi State, contact Pellissippi State at (865) 694-6400 or visit www.pstcc.edu/arts.

"The Science Maze" where visitors get lost in science facts as they discover interesting tidbits of science fields from astronomy to zoology. 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

A juried, mixed-media exhibition open to all artists and intended to showcase exceptional work produced throughout our region. Juried by Jeffrey Adams, Director of the Appalachian Center for Craft.

Opening reception: September 14, 7-9 PM with a gallery talk at 6:30 PM.

Oak Ridge Art Center, 201 Badger Avenue, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 9AM-5PM; Saturday-Monday, 1-4PM. Information: 865-482-1441, www.oakridgeartcenter.org

The Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture is pleased to present Fransje Killaars: Color at the Center from September 12 - October 21, 2013.

Fransje Killaars is a remarkable colorist who approaches her medium – textiles – in challenging and innovative ways that are as much cultural statements as they are vigorously conceptual. Killaars places color at the center of her practice, production, and viewer’s experience. Her installations exist in a space that merges art, architecture, fashion, and interior design.

Killaars’ primary media has strong associations with the handwork of craft traditions. At the same time, her work is also discussed within the context of deskilling, the continued removal of the artist’s hand from the creation of art, an artistic practice embraced by artists primarily with the advent of Modernism.

Killaars will be lecturing on Thursday, September 12 at 7:30 pm in room 109 of the Art and Architecture Building on the UT Campus. There will be an opening reception for Color at the Center immediately following the lecture in the Ewing Gallery. All events are free and open to the public. The Ewing Gallery is open Monday - Friday from 10 am - 5pm and on Sundays from 1-4pm. Additional evening hours may be added at a later date.

Ewing Gallery of Art & Architecture
1715 Volunteer Boulevard
Knoxville, TN 37996

865.974.3200
www.ewing-gallery.utk.edu

Pueblo pottery of the Southwest is one of the most beautiful and enduring artistic traditions in all of Native North America. It is a tradition rich with history—not only as an expression of cultural identity, but also to serve as a reflection of the relationship between Pueblo peoples and the influences from outside their own community. Today, there are about twenty pueblos with a total population in excess of 50,000. It is a practice flexible enough to adapt as necessary over time, while still adhering to established social norms.

Pottery-making in the American Southwest is a tradition that first emerged about two thousand years ago. Historically, it was a functional art form, passed from generation to generation over the span of centuries by people living in permanent villages known as pueblos. The pottery of each pueblo was unique and distinguished by a variety of characteristics, such as the individual clay source and shape of the vessels and designs, or lack thereof, painted onto the surface. By the latter part of the nineteenth century, these traditions were well established; and as more and more people began to travel and move to the Southwest, pottery production was quickly transformed from a functional art form (used primarily within Pueblo communities) to a highly marketable cultural expression.

Curated by Bill Mercer, this exhibition consists of seventy-four Pueblo Indian pottery vessels and supporting materials, dating from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twenties centuries, illustrating the remarkable variety of pottery created during that very dynamic time of transformation. Some of the vessels in the exhibition are very conservative and adhere to the traditional style of a particular pueblo, while others incorporate innovations specifically designed for the retail market.

It is also during this time period that certain individuals, such as Nampeyo from Hopi and Maria Martinez from San Ildefonso, became recognized for the quality of their work. The exhibition includes outstanding examples of their work as well.

Through this exhibition, drawn exclusively from the rich collections of the Kansas City Museum and Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, visitors will be introduced to the various styles of Pueblo pottery, as well as an understanding of the narrative behind its continued development.

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

"Collage as a Strategy for..." an exhibition of work by Jean Hess.
Reception, Friday, September 20, 2013, 6:00-7:30 PM. Artist talk at 6:30 PM.

Jean Hess’s work is influenced by her studies in cultural anthropology as well as in art. She creates obscure and playful collage paintings, combining natural materials and recycled ephemera to reference dream, memory and nostalgia as well as issues of loss, particularly environmental degradation.

Solo shows include the University of Tennessee, University of North Carolina – Charlotte, Tennessee Arts Commission, University of Alabama – Huntsville, East Tennessee State University, University of North Carolina – Charlotte, Maryville College, Association for Visual Arts (Chattanooga), Callanwolde Fine Arts Center (Atlanta) and Savannah College of Art and Design. Hess’s solo show at the Huntsville Museum of Art in 2004 was accompanied by an award-winning catalogue. Her work has been included in juried or curated shows at Hunter Museum of Art (Chattanooga); Knoxville Museum of Art; William King Museum, Abingdon, VA; Huntsville Museum of Art; Evansville Museum of Art, Science and History; Carroll Reese Museum (Johnson City); Clarksville (TN) Museum and Cultural Center; McKinney Avenue Contemporary (Dallas); and University of Texas – Dallas. Hess’s mixed-media collage paintings are in numerous private and public collections, including the Huntsville Museum of Art; Evansville Museum of Arts, Science and History; University of Virginia.

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