Calendar of Events

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, it is time to book a romantic cruise for yourself and that special someone, and nothing says “I love you” like an unforgettable cruise aboard a luxury yacht.
The Volunteer Princess has a week’s worth of events to entertain you, starting with our romantic pre-Valentine’s Day Sunset Dinner Cruise on Wednesday, February 12, and our pre-Valentine’s Day Starlight Dinner Cruise on Thursday, February 13.
On Valentine’s Day, Friday, February 14th, cupid will stay busy with not one, but two luxurious cruises!
The love boat will sail from 6:30-9:00 PM with the Valentine’s Day Starlight Dinner Cruise. Nauti Dessert Cruise sails from 10:15-11:30 PM.
If you did not get your fill of Valentine’s Day festivities, you are in luck! We have three cruises on Saturday, February 15 for all of the lovers that just cannot get enough of this romantic holiday!
Sunday, February 16, is your last chance to celebrate with your Valentine until next year, so do so with our second Valentine’s Day Champagne Brunch (1:00-2:30 PM).
Ticket prices for each cruise range from $29.95-$69.95 per person. Tickets WILL SELL OUT so make your reservations today!
For more information on The Volunteer Princess’ 2014 Valentine’s Day Events, call (865) 541-4556 or visit www.volunteerprincess.com. Remember the BEST EVENTS ARE ON THE WATER!

This dress rehearsal is FREE for all students; accompanying adults pay $5. Ticket holders for the February 14 or February 16 performance may attend for FREE if they have their ticket in hand. Doors open at 5:30 PM.

Gaetano Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love is the perfect romantic comedy for your Valentine! Get ready for dazzling vocal fireworks and glorious melodies that will melt your heart as the desperate Nemorino pursues the feisty Adina. Although she is already engaged to a dashing sergeant, the determined Nemorino downs a love potion in hopes of stealing her away. “Liquid courage” triumphs!

Highlights include:
◊ Nemorino’s “Una furtiva lagrima”
◊ the Nemorino – Belcore duet “Venti scudi”
◊ Adina’s show-stopping finale
◊ Featuring Ukrainian soprano Stefania Dovhan and tenor Joshua Kohl

Presented in memory of Luciano Pavarotti whose legendary performances in Elixir won the hearts of millions of fans, including those who heard him perform arias from the opera at his 1990 Knoxville concert.
Performed in Italian with projected English translations.

At the Tennessee Theatre, 601 S. Gay Street. Information and tickets: 865-524-0795, www.KnoxvilleOpera.com

The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present a professional development seminar for artists and other creative people on Wednesday, February 12, from 12:00-1:00 PM at the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville. Join us as we welcome Lisa Gifford Mueller, who will instruct attendees on how to use popular social media networks to promote their art and grow their creative business with little or no money. Attendees will learn: Tips to boost your message and attract the right people, as well as how to turn likes, followers and pins into customers and sales; and how to increase your social network using a handful of free tools effectively and without taking time away from what you love: creating art. This workshop will primarily cover Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, and it will also discuss YouTube, LinkedIn, Flickr, Tumblr and Google+ to get attendees ready to create their social media marketing strategy. The presentation is $3 for members of the Arts & Culture Alliance and $5 for non-members.

The presentation will take place at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, in downtown Knoxville. Please register in advance via PayPal at http://www.knoxalliance.com/development.html. Parking is available at metered spots on the Gay Street viaduct or in the parking lot on Jackson Avenue caddy-corner from the Emporium. Guests are invited to bring a “Brown Bag” lunch. For more information, please contact the Arts & Culture Alliance at (865) 523-7543 or visit www.knoxalliance.com/development.html.

Henry Fribourg, Emeritus Plant Sciences Professor at UT, will be discussing his memoir, Escape to Freedom,
at a Nosh'N Chat sponsored by the Creative Writing Program and the Fern and Manfred Steinfeld Program in Judaic Studies, in 1210-1211 McClung Tower. Bagels and coffee will be served.

Dr. Henry Fribourg, Author of the Holocaust memoir: ESCAPE TO FREEDOM: A Story of Survival, Dreams, Betrayals, and Accomplishments. Born in Paris, France, Dr. Fribourg gives a personal account of the Holocaust in France. Professor Fribourg joined the university in 1956 as Assistant Professor in Agronomy. He taught graduate courses for more than 30 years. He has lectured at the Institut Superieur d'Agriculture, Polytechnicum de Lille, France and advised on US-AID projects in Guinea and Cape Verde. He was a Fulbright Lecturer at Ataturk University in Erzurum, Turkey.

Information: mkallet@utk.edu

Valentine's Poetry Reading at UT Hospital's Preston Medical Library. Marilyn Kallet will be reading love poems and Donna Doyle, Poet-in-Residence, is our host. Kallet is the director the creative writing program at UT and the author of 16 books, including The Love That Moves Me (poetry) and Jack the Healing Cat (children's book). Everyone's invited! Information: mkallet@utk.edu

Sculptor Raymond Padrón brings a one-man show of his far-ranging and eclectic pieces to Pellissippi State Community College in February, part of The Arts at Pellissippi State. "Journeyman," featuring the artist many may know from his public art installations in Chattanooga, exhibits at the Bagwell Center for Media and Art gallery with an opening reception 4-6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 10.

Some of the pieces Padrón will display were done specifically for this exhibit. According to Brian Jobe, a Liberal Arts adjunct faculty member, the sculptor uses a variety of techniques for his work, including casting and woodworking.

The Bagwell Gallery is located at Pellissippi State’s Hardin Valley Campus. Both the opening reception and the exhibit are free and open to the community. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-6:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Ample parking is available on campus.

Pellissippi State: 10915 Hardin Valley Road, Knoxville, TN 37932. Information: 865-694-6405, www.pstcc.edu/arts

The Mystical Arts of Tibet will be coming to UT’s Campus from February 10-14, 2014. There will be three different lectures and a dance performance. The full schedule is provided below:
MONDAY (Feb. 10): Opening Ceremony in the UC Room 223-224 at 12:00pm with the creation of the sand mandala following immediately after the ceremony until 4:00pm
TUESDAY (Feb. 11): “The History of Diaspora lecture in the UC Auditorium” at 12:00pm and the sand mandala creation in the UC Room 227 from 12:00-4:00pm
WEDNESDAY (Feb. 12): “Opening the Heart: Arousing the Mind of the Universal Kindness” lecture at the I-house at 12:00pm, creation of the sand mandala in UC Room 227 from 12:00-4:00pm, “Sacred Music Sacred Dance for World Healing Performance”* at the Bijou Theatre at 7:30pm
THURSDAY (Feb. 13): “The Symbolism of the Sand Mandala” lecture in the UC Auditorium at 12:00pm, sand mandala creation in UC Room 227 from 12:00-4:00pm
FRIDAY (Feb. 14): Creation of the sand mandala in UC Room 227 from 10:00am-12:00pm, Closing Ceremony in the UC Room 223-224 at 12:00 pm

*Tickets for the Sacred Music Sacred Dance performance for the general public are $14.75 including applicable fees. Tickets can be purchased from the Tennessee Theatre Box Office or online at knoxvilletickets.com (also please note that students purchasing tickets online must go through the student portal).

Cultural Attractions Committee: cac@utk.edu, http://activities.utk.edu/cpc/cac/

Painter Diana Dee Sarkar and wood-turner Gordon Fowler, both of Knoxville, are the Art Market Gallery’s February featured artists. Their recent works will be on exhibit with an opening reception to be held from 5:30 to 9 p.m., Friday, Feb. 7, during the monthly First Friday Art Walk in downtown Knoxville. At the opening reception visitors may enjoy complimentary refreshments and live music performed by Living Room Roots.

Gordon Fowler, whose background includes carpentry and a degree in microbiology from University of Tennessee, studied at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts and the Kentucky School of Craft. He has been turning wood since 2002, concentrating on creating pleasing shapes with an eye to proportion. "I love the symmetry and symbolism of circles, and am inspired by the patterns and contrasts found in nature," he says. With his three children now grown, this fulltime stay-at-home dad spends time in the kitchen, tending to the chickens, volunteering, and at the lathe, where he enjoys creating works from recycled logs that would otherwise have gone into someone's fireplace or the landfill.

Diana Dee Sarkar grew up in Wichita, KS, with a formal education focused on chemistry and medicine. Painting portraits, still life and landscapes on her own, she became serious about art in 2005, studying various media with Hongnian Zhang at the Woodstock (NY) School of Art, Lois Woolley, Anthony Ryder, Susan Ogilvie, Nelson Shanks and others. She holds a certificate from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, and is completing work on an MFA at Academy of Art University. Her paintings have been juried into a show at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art Museum, and the International Miniature Painting competition. She paints representationally, currently in oil and pastel.

Owned and operated by more than 60 professional regional artists, the Art Market Gallery, at 422 S. Gay St., is a few doors away from Mast General Store and next to Downtown Grill & Brewery. Hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday; 1 to 5 p.m., Sunday. The gallery is wheelchair accessible, and parking in the abutting garage and on the street is free on weekends and after 6 p.m. weekdays. For more information, call 865-525-5265, or visit artmarketgallery.net, or facebook.com/Art.Market.Gallery.

Silvia has been on a journey punctuated by artistic endeavors and service to others; a journey where her love of painting and her desire to help victims of domestic coexist. Having worked as bilingual advocate for a domestic violence program she is now in the process of creating a non-profit organization tohelp immigrant women in similar situations. As opposed to her first book, “I Wish…I Wish…I Wish…” which she wrote for children, Silvia’s current book, inSpanish, is on domestic violence. Silvia is a graduate of Leadership Plenty, the Citizen Police Academy, and the Knox County Community Action LeadershipProgram. And when she has extra time, Silvia is a professional chef and loves making fine custom jewelry.

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

The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present its National Juried Exhibition of 2014, a new exhibition featuring selected works from 36 artists in the Southeast region. The National Juried Exhibition was developed in 2006 to provide a forum for local artists to compete on a national scale and display their highest quality work. The exhibition encompasses all styles and genres from both emerging and established artists working in a variety of media such as drawing, photography, digital media, watercolor, oil painting, encaustic, ceramics, and woodworking and will be displayed in the Emporium Center from February 7 – March 1, 2014. Most of the works are for sale. A public reception will take place on Friday, February 7, from 5:00-9:00 PM with a brief awards ceremony at 6:00 PM in which $1,000 in cash awards will be announced. The First Friday reception also features a performance by Tennessee Stage Company from 6:30-6:45 PM and a Jazz Jam Session hosted by Vance Thompson and Friends from 7:00-9:00 PM, both in the Black Box Theatre. Complimentary hors d’oeuvres will be available and chocolate fondue will be provided by the Melting Pot of Knoxville.

Paul Collins served as juror for the exhibition. He is a multidisciplinary artist and curator from Nashville. Collins makes drawings, paintings and sculpture that combine humor, tactility and observation to examine the world around us. He has an MFA from Yale and has been a resident at Skowhegan, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, and the Vermont Studio Center. Collins works as Gallery Director and Assistant Professor of Art at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville. “This exhibition offers a powerful view of artists’ narratives and responses to the challenge of creating images in today’s day and age,” says Paul Collins. “The works all evidence a strong sense of voice in answering their own questions of what makes us vital as people and what compels us to make artwork.”

The National Juried Exhibition of 2014 is on display February 7 – March 1, 2014 at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, downtown Knoxville. Exhibition hours are Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM and Saturday, 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM. For more information, please contact the Arts & Culture Alliance at (865) 523-7543, or visit our web site at www.knoxalliance.com.

The Arts & Culture Alliance proudly presents “Afghanistan: Unordinary Lives”, a new exhibition of 20 photographs by Slovenian artist Manca Juvan that portrays civil society in Afghanistan. Juvan made several trips to the country between 2003 and 2009, documenting the lives of Afghans who, after the fall of the Taliban, had been promised much by the international community. Their lives, unfortunately, were little changed for the better. The images have been published in a book of the same title that aims to encourage continued discussion of Afghanistan, particularly of the daily lives of ordinary citizens who are usually omitted from the political/war discussions in the media. The photographs will be displayed in the Balcony of the Emporium Center from February 7 – March 1, 2014. A public reception will take place on Friday, February 7, from 5:00-9:00 PM with complimentary hors d’oeuvres available and chocolate fondue provided by the Melting Pot of Knoxville.

“Despite the international community’s efforts to crush the Taliban regime in Afghanistan after 9/11, and its promises of bringing democracy and rebuilding to this war-torn nation, the ongoing war and instability continues to diminish the hopes of the Afghan people,” says Manca Juvan. “Stories on the lives of ordinary Afghans caught in this endless conflict of interest and the ongoing struggle for money, power, and overall control remind us what the real images of war and poverty, of lives far from ordinary, look like.” Prior to exhibition in Knoxville, the collection of images has shown at Gallery MC in New York; Ljubljana Castle, Koroska Gallery of Fine Arts, STOLP Gallery, and Museum of Modern Art in Slovenia; Photomed festival in France; the Federal Parliament of Belgium; and the Abbaye de Neumünster in Luxembourg. For more information on the Afghanistan: Unordinary Lives project, visit www.mancajuvan.com/unordinarylives.

Born 1981 in Slovenia, Manca Juvan has worked as a freelance photographer since 2000 after completing her studies at the Slovene School for Photography. She has been selected as Photographer of the Year in Slovenia for her reportage work in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and has been twice commended for her work on Afghanistan by the Slovenian Association of Journalists. Her book Afghanistan: Unordinary Lives was published by Sanje publishers in 2010 with an English edition following 2012. In 2011 she was chosen as one of three recipients of a scholarship for NYU/Magnum Foundation Photography and Human Rights Program. Juvan has published photographs and stories on Venezuela, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Thailand, India, the United States, Serbia and the EU countries, among others in The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Chicago Tribune, National Geographic (Slovenia), Time.com, Marie Claire, and The European Voice. She is a member of the International Association of Photojournalists called SPUTNIK. She has worked as a mentor on photo documentary workshops and more recently university photography programs, and she prepared several solo exhibitions and participated in many group displays home and abroad.

Her visit has been coordinated by the Embassy of Slovenia in Washington and Lydia Pulsipher, Professor of Geography, Emeritus at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and Honorary Consul for the Republic of Slovenia to Tennessee. For more information on Manca Juvan, visit www.mancajuvan.com.

At the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, downtown Knoxville. Exhibition hours are Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM and Saturday, 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM. For more information, please contact the Arts & Culture Alliance at (865) 523-7543, or visit our Web site at www.knoxalliance.com.

Bliss Home is pleased to present Knoxville artist, Christi Shields, for February's First Friday. Bliss Home, located at 29 Market Square, will host an opening reception on Friday, February 7th from 6pm to 9pm. Complimentary Steamboat Sandwiches will be provided and Christi's art will be featured for the month of February.

Christi's February exhibit is a collection of paintings which express emotions from the past through continued experimentation in innovative, edgy and modern acrylic techniques. Christi uses a very action oriented process along with layer techniques and color to create depth. By using bold colors, texture and movement, Christi aims to evoke an emotional response from the viewer.

Admission: Free
Bliss Home, 29 Market Square, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-329-8868, www.shopinbliss.com