Calendar of Events

The Arts at Pellissippi State kicks off the new year with a special art exhibit, “Art Histories,” featuring the work of S. L. Dickey and Tom Wegrzynowski. An opening reception takes place from 4-6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 16.

The artists are showing together for the first time for this unique exhibit at Pellissippi State Community College. Dickey, chair of the department of art and design at the Mississippi University for Women, is known for creating dimensional screenprints and for “The Piedmont Sideshow,” performance art that explores perceived conflict.

Wegrzynowski is a painter and instructor at the University of Alabama. His work deals with the nature of myth and symbolism as a foundation for identity. “S. L. Dickey’s work is more informed by a pop history, and Tom Wegrzynowski’s work, while it does come from history, has an alternative narrative to it,” said Herb Rieth. Rieth is the curator of the exhibit, as well as an assistant professor of Liberal Arts at Pellissippi State.

Bagwell Center Gallery Hours of operation: Monday-Friday, 10:00 a.m.-6:30 p.m.
Pellissippi State: 10915 Hardin Valley Road, Knoxville, TN 37932. Information: 865-694-6405, www.pstcc.edu/arts

Huck Finn is on the run from his criminal father, along with his friend Jim, adrift on the mighty Mississippi River. The two fall prey to two con men, calling themselves the King and The Duke, and get involved in a number of outrageous schemes. If Jim can get far enough up river, he can become a free man, and Huck discovers there may be a fortune for him too!

Performances begin: Friday, January 16 at 7:00 PM
Performances end: Sunday, February 1 at 3:00 PM

January 11, 2014 PEG’S KITCHEN: Breakfast is Served
January 11, 2014 ANIMAL PROGRAM: Ijams Creature Feature
January 11, 2014 THE URBAN WILDERNESS: South Loop Piece-by-Piece
January 11, 2014 ANIMAL PROGRAM: Ijams Creature Feature
January 11, 2014 ANIMAL PROGRAM: Ijams Creature Feature
January 11, 2014 FAMILY WILDLIFE SERIES: Owl Prowl
January 16, 2014 IJAMS SOCIAL SERIES: Happy Hour Full Moon Hike
January 18, 2014 PUBLIC PROGRAM: Wagging Walk
January 18, 2014 PEG’S KITCHEN: Breakfast is Served
January 18, 2014 ANIMAL PROGRAM: Ijams Creature Feature
January 18, 2014 Nature Writing and Journaling Workshop
January 18, 2014 IJAMS GARDENING SERIES: Winter Gardening and Tools
January 18, 2014 SCOUT BADGE WORKSHOP: Geology
January 18, 2014 ANIMAL PROGRAM: Ijams Creature Feature
January 18, 2014 ANIMAL PROGRAM: Ijams Creature Feature
January 25, 2014 PEG’S KITCHEN: Breakfast is Served
January 25, 2014 ANIMAL PROGRAM: Ijams Creature Feature
January 25, 2014 IJAMS GARDENING SERIES: Seed Swap
January 25, 2014 ANIMAL PROGRAM: Ijams Creature Feature
January 25, 2014 ANIMAL PROGRAM: Ijams Creature Feature
January 31, 2014 IJAMS SOCIAL SERIES: Last Friday Single Mingle

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

The Ewing Gallery is pleased to present the 2014 Artist in Residence Biennial. The 4 exhibiting artists are:
Patricia Treib, Fall 2012
Michael Berryhill, Spring 2013
EJ Hauser, Fall 2013
Jaya Howey, Spring 2014

The Artist in Residence Biennial will be on display in the Ewing Gallery from January 9 - February 6, 2014. Please join us for an opening reception on Thursday, January 9 from 7-9PM in the Ewing Gallery.

Although the resident artists present slide lectures during their stays, it is access to their works of art that is highly anticipated and valued by both the students and the faculty. Therefore, the Ewing Gallery has sponsored group exhibitions of these artists since the inception of the Artist in Residence Program in 1982. Currently held every two years, this exhibition provides a continuing dialogue between artist-teacher and student. The AIR Biennial also offers our general university and regional community an opportunity to experience a provocative and often challenging exhibition of contemporary art.

Ewing Gallery of Art & Architecture
1715 Volunteer Boulevard
Knoxville, TN 37996
865.974.3200
www.ewing-gallery.utk.edu

Opening reception Friday, January 10 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.; artist’s talk at 6:30 p.m.

Don’t let any earthly calamity knock your dreamer and your hoping machine. -- Woody Guthrie
When I was a kid I would ride my bike around the neighborhood. My red Dyno bike was my first vehicle and my first way of exploring the world. I could ride as far as I wanted, as long as I could find my way home. At that age, everything was important, everything had something to offer. I would revisit places over and over again. I had nothing to do except look. Everything I encountered had nothing else to do except transform into something else. I still remember specific cracks in the sidewalk, street curbs, and creek beds. I am interested in this kind of familiarity with the world, the kind of unintended familiarity that happens by default. My studio process involves a balance between seeing and making. I revisit a place until it unfolds in a new way or gains new meanings. A telephone pole shadow becomes a totem, zip, or a slit. Woodgrain begins to have eyes. A cinderblock wall, reinforced with steel bolts, starts to become sundials, buttons, or nipples.

David Anthony Harman is a native of Dallas, Texas. He is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

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

Recent works by Garry Taylor of Knoxville, a painter in both watercolor and oils, and Lisa Kurtz of Knoxville, a clay artist, will be featured in January at the Art Market Gallery in downtown Knoxville.

Lisa has been a functional potter for 36 years. After getting her Master's Degree in clay (MA) at The University of Louisville, she set up her first studio in the eclectic, artsy, Highlands neighborhood in Louisville, Ky. and named her business Highland Pottery. She has been an exhibiting member of many professional juried guilds, boards, galleries and artist associations. Her clay work has been exhibited and collected across the U.S. and is also in private collections internationally. Lisa throws and handbuilds her pieces and often combines the two methods to produce her colorful functional pottery. Her work is often very textured to emphasize the malleable qualities of clay. Most of her pieces are altered while still wet to highlight the intrinsic beauty of the clay itself. Lisa mixes up her own glazes, which adds a unique depth and quality to the work. As an artist and a maker of "handmade" objects, she strives for that human connection with the user/collector of her pottery. For more information about Lisa's work visit her website: www.LisaKurtzHighlandPottery.com

Artistic expression, whatever form it takes, is a necessity in Garry’s life for it feeds his spirit and nourishes his soul. He relishes the process of imagination assuming physical form. He studied art and dance at LSU, graduating with a BS in 1980. Upon graduation he moved to New Orleans and began an apprenticeship in a stained glass studio. That became his primary media until he moved to Knoxville in 1987. At that time he put his art aside for a while, concentrating on being a counselor in the Alcohol and Drug Recovery program at UTMCK. He did this for almost ten years, and then started experiencing a real need to return to his art. He did so, again concentrating in stained glass but beginning to explore pastels (a media not taught at LSU while he was there) which he had experimented with after graduation. He is drawn to landscape painting, both plein aire and using photographs he has taken as references. And as an extension of that, flowers are a favorite subject matter. The two painters that have most influenced the way he approaches a painting are Georgia O’Keefe and Claude Monet. He has been absent from the Art Market gallery for the past 7 years to focus on being a stay at home parent for his now 8 year old twins, Julie and Billy. His art also took a hiatus during this period. Recently he began painting again, working with oil and watercolor, both of which he hadn’t worked with since he was in college. His new work is made up of expressions in these media. He continues to be drawn to landscapes, especially scenes that have paths, roads, or water reflections in them.

A First Friday opening reception for the exhibit is planned for 5:30 to 9 p.m., Friday, January 3, with complimentary refreshments and live music by cellist Leigh Sooter.

Art Market Gallery, 422 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11AM-6PM; Sunday 1-5PM. Information: 865-525-5265, www.artmarketgallery.net

Born in Miami of a Cuban Flamenco dancer, Tom McDaniel is a self-taught photographer. Growing up, art was everywhere: in the statuary-populated gardens of his home, in the huge surrealistic mural in his bedroom and in the lush, ever-present colors of the tropics. First drawn to nature photography, Tom used an old German fixed-lens camera and light meter. One can see elements of his early work in his clear preference for discovering and highlighting the common, often overlooked beauty that surrounds us.

HoLa Hora Latina: 865-335-3358, www.holafestival.org

The Arts & Culture Alliance proudly presents “Dragonflies of the World: an International Exhibition,” featuring painting, mixed media, and sculpture by 21 artists from the United States, Europe, and Central America. Dragonfly Arts Dimensions, an art agency in Gatlinburg, organized the exhibition to showcase diverse cultures and artwork from around the world. Exhibiting artists include: Jose Alanzo, Dennis Berrios, Deborah Cain, Rafael Casco, Eva Castillo, Dennis Cerrato, Ocean Starr Cline, Juan Pablo Delgato, Delia Flores, Leonel Flores, Delmer Meija, Adonay Navarro, Freddy Olger, Rene Oviedo, Hendry Rivera, Ruben Salagado, Hector Salvidar, Omar Sanchez, Ivan Soto, Orlando Roque, Allan Rosembelth, Fernando Venegas, and Tito Venegas. The exhibition will be on display in the main gallery of the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, in downtown Knoxville from January 3 – February 1, 2014, and an opening reception will take place as part of First Friday activities on January 3 from 5:00-9:00 PM with chocolate fondue provided by the Melting Pot of Knoxville. Artists who will be present at the opening include Rafael Casco, Ocean Starr Cline, Delia Flores, Hector Salvidar, and Ivan Soto. The First Friday reception also features a flamenco dance performance by Pasión Flamenco from 6:00-6:45 PM and a Jazz Jam Session hosted by Vance Thompson and Friends from 7:00-9:00 PM, both in the Black Box Theatre.

Many of the artists will travel to the US and East Tennessee to participate in a variety of activities related to the exhibition programming, including two public panel discussions: one will take place at the University of Tennessee’s Black Cultural Center (sponsored by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity), and another will take place at the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville (sponsored by HoLa Hora Latina and the Arts & Culture Alliance). Dates and times for the panel discussion will be announced shortly. Many of the artists are traveling from Honduras to visit East Tennessee for a cultural exchange.

“Dragonflies of the World: an International Exhibition” will be on display January 3 – February 1, 2014. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM and Saturday 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM. Please note, the Emporium will be closed Monday, January 20, for the holiday. For more information, please contact the Arts & Culture Alliance at (865) 523-7543 or visit www.knoxalliance.com.

The Art Guild at Fairfield Glade invites you to view the new works on display starting January 3, 2014. Come and view high quality art presented in watercolor, acrylic, oil, pastels, colored pencil, photography, mixed media, pottery, sculpture, jewelry, and fabric. While your enjoy the new art display you can check out the schedule of classes to be offered, enroll in one you will enjoy, or purchase a gift of fine art from the gallery.
The PCAC is handicapped accessible and open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Website: www.artguildfairfieldglade.net.

Bliss Home is pleased to present photographer, Phil Savage, for January's First Friday. Bliss Home, located at 29 Market Square, will host an opening reception on Friday, January 3rd, from 6pm to 9pm. Complimentary Steamboat Sandwiches will be provided and Phil's art will be featured for the month of January. Phil Savage was born in Mexico City and is a world-traveler, which has helped him hone his ability to "turn the ordinary into the extraordinary". Phil loves to explore the endless possibilities that photography has to offer, by embracing black and white panoramic photos with hand-tinted touches. Phil's First Friday exhibit, aims to challenge viewers to rediscover the beauty and complexities that can be found all around Knoxville.

Where: Bliss Home 29 Market Square Knoxville, TN 37902
Info: marketing@shopinbliss.com, shopinbliss.com, 865.329.8868

Just like at your favorite meat n’ three, the WDVX Blue Plate Special® is served up piping hot. This fresh and free daily helping of live music during the lunchtime hour that features performers from all over the world and right here in Knoxville has put WDVX on the map as East Tennessee’s Own community supported radio.

The WDVX Blue Plate Special® is a live performance radio show held at noon, with your host Red Hickey Monday through Friday and Doug Lauderdale on Saturday, at the WDVX studio inside the Knoxville Visitor Center. It’s always free to join in so please don’t be shy. Make yourself at home as part of the WDVX family. From blues to bluegrass, country to Celtic, folk to funk, rockabilly to hillbilly, local to international, it all part of the live music experience on the WDVX Blue Plate Special. You’re welcome to bring your lunch.

Previous performing artists include Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, The Avett Brothers, Old Crowe Medicine Show, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, Jim Lauderdale, Marty Stuart, Nickel Creek, Red Stick Ramblers, Rodney Crowell, String Cheese Incident, The Del McCoury Band, Tim O’Brien, Yonder Mountain String Band, David Grisman, Claire Lynch Band, Brett Dennen, Tommy Emmanuel, Uncle Earl, The Infamous Stringdusters, the Jerry Douglas Band, Joan Osborne, John Oats, Mary Gauthier, Darrell Scott, and many many more! There’s plenty of great music to go around! http://wdvx.com/program/blue-plate-special/

Free 2-hour visitor parking located next door to the Knoxville Visitor Center. One Vision Plaza, 301 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Info: 865-544-1029, http://www.wdvx.com

Wednesdays - Lessons at 7 pm, Open Dance at 8 pm. Dedicated to the purpose of promoting swing dance. http://swingknoxville.org

At the Laurel Theater, 1538 Laurel Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37916. For information call 865-224-6830.