Calendar of Events

Saturday, September 6 & 13 - Registration: 10:30 a.m.
Kerr Building / Chilhowee Park

Participate in the Tennessee Valley Fair's fourth annual Lego Extravaganza. Individuals and teams of all ages are welcome to enter this live Lego build event. No preregistration required. Hundreds of individuals and families competed in this event in 2013.

Prefer to take your time building your Lego masterpiece at home? Entries are also being accepted for the Lego Build Exhibit. Entries are submitted prior to the Fair and remain on display all 10 days, September 5-14. Categories include: Original Free Build, Children's Toy and Patriotic. The registration deadline for the Lego Build competition is August 22.

The Sequoyah Birthplace Museum, Tennessee’s only tribally owned museum and Fort Loudoun State Historic Area are partnering for the Great Island Festival on September 6-7, from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. each day.

At Sequoyah Birthplace Museum visitors will have the opportunity to step back in time to experience Native American food, Cherokee arts and crafts demonstrations, music and dance. Special demonstrations and displays will include Cherokee life in 1700’s and a Civil War encampment and the Civil War battle re-enactment will be at 3:00. The 23rd Annual Fall Festival’s theme is “The Americanization Program of the Cherokee”. Visitors will be able to meet and talk with Cherokees from the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Nation in North Carolina. Cherokee cooking demonstrations will be held in our newly reconstructed 1800’s dog-trot log cabin with Johnnie Sue Meyers. Meet and chat with Miss Cherokee and have your name written in Cherokee. Special entertainment will be provided by the Warrior Dancers of Ani-Kituhwa who are the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation official ambassadors. The Cherokee Historical Society will be performing a special program on the Trail of Tears. One of this year’s highlight will be the Tennessee State Parks Birds of Prey program on both days. Cherokee Storyteller, Lloyd Arneach will be telling Cherokee stories on both days as well as selling his book and cd’s.

Other activities include posters from Cherokee Elementary school. Darts, beads, talking sticks, face painting and free Cherokee name cards will be available for children. We will also host a children’s blowgun competition on Saturday and an adult blowgun competition on both days. Traditional Indian Fry bread and Indian tacos, and other food and drinks will be sold. At the 18th century Trade Faire at Fort Loudoun visitors of all ages will enjoy strolling thru the Faire as they did in the 18th Century. There will be demonstrations throughout the day in artillery and musketry, along with several battles and skirmish re-enactments, the big battle demonstration daily at 1:30. Merchants and artisans will be on hand to peddle food and wares reminiscent of the time. Period food will be sold by Liberty Free Tavern. Visitors can learn about slate tombstone carving, 18th century salt making, blacksmithing and carpentry.

Music and other entertainment acts will include The Traveling Caudells, a traditional vocal duo; Out of the Ordinary, featuring a hammered dulcimer, English guitar, harp and vocals; and the Beggar Boys, talented singers and fiddlers. Common Stocks Curious Booth of Wonders, and the Amazing Juggling Budabi Brothers will also delight and astonish visitors of all ages. Returning this year will be Faire Wynds Circus, featuring musicians, a conjuror, equalibrialist, contortionist and an escape artist. Musical acts Thunder and Spice will bring to you music that will make you want to sing along.

The festival is named for the “Great Island,” a Cherokee village site 250 years ago. Today, Fort Loudoun State Historic Area and the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum occupy an island created by the Tellico Lake Project. Tickets are $5.00 each and children 12 and under are free. Advance tickets available at both locations. We will have a shuttle bus available between the museum and Fort Loudoun State Historic Area.

Sequoyah Birthplace Museum, 576 HWY 360, Vonore, TN 37885. Information: 423-884-6246, www.sequoyahmuseum.org

Escape the crowds of Market Square for a magical evening at the other market square. Sample the generous offerings of Knoxville’s favorite food trucks and be delighted by street performers and live music while partaking of beer and wine. Dance the night away to live music under the stars and bask in the glow of twinkling lights in your own private piazza.

Sponsorship support provided by North South Productions, Dixie Kitchen, Oakwood Senior Living, and Historic Knoxville High. 100 guests, $50.00 per person. Location: North Knoxville, Emory Place.

Knox Heritage’s popular series of fundraising dinners, Summer Suppers, takes place annually in some of the region’s most spectacular historic places. The suppers are organized by host committees of volunteers who work together to plan every detail.

Knox Heritage: 865-523-8008, www.knoxheritage.org

Individuals interested in learning and playing the game of chess can participate Saturday, September 6, 2014, from 9:00 am till 2:00 pm at 504 Market Street (Krutch Park) in downtown Knoxville, TN.

This is the first annual Chess in the Park, sponsored by the City of Knoxville Special Events, an event for non scholastic chess players. Don't miss the opportunity to observe, learn, and play your hand at chess. There will be workshops, demonstrations, and give aways to families participating. Are you a player looking for a pick up game or a parent that wants your child to develop confidence, analytical skills or how to get a chess club started at your school? Again you won't want to miss this free opportunity to ask expert chess instructors and players what it takes to excell in chess and have loads of fun playing your friends and colleagues.

For more information contact: Michael O. Moore, moorechess@gmail.com, 865-360-6706

On September 6 UT plays Arkansas State. Before the game, UT's College of Arts and Sciences presents the Pregame Showcase, featuring Norman Mannella, Associate Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy. “From Atoms, to Matter, to Marvels: All Around Us” is the title of his talk.
The Pregame Showcase is a public lecture series scheduled two hours before each home football game at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The program features 30-minute presentations by all-star faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences on topics related to their field of expertise, followed by a 10- to 15-minute question-and-answer period. The carefully timed programs allow football fans to have plenty of time to enjoy the lecture and still get to the stadium by kickoff.
Football games attract a larger and more diverse audience to campus than any other single activity, and everyone is welcome to attend the Pregame Showcase, including fans from the opposing teams.
The Pregame Showcase starts 2 hours before kickoff in the University Center Ballroom (Room 213) and is free and open to the public. A reception for our guests will follow the program.
http://www.higherground.utk.edu/pregame-showcase/

Tennessee loves Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, which is available to every community across the Volunteer State. The statewide program is made possible through a one-to-one match by the Governor's Books from Birth Foundation.

Join us in the East Lot beside Neyland Stadium from 9-12 on Sept. 6 for a tailgating party with the ultimate bookmobile. In honor of this milestone, the Books from Birth 10th Anniversary Tour is making a stop at Neyland Stadium. Activities include: enrolling children, recognizing the work of volunteers and donors and engaging communities in support of the program. The GBBF will provide reading-themed giveaways for children at each stop. Rumor has it that the Governor and First Lady may be on board!

It is our immense pleasure to invite the community to the next First Friday Art Opening at the Blount Mansion Visitors Center. We are privileged to have acquired many wonderful pieces over the years, and now we are going to display them for our visitors. This exhibit will showcase some of the best art that the Blount Mansion Association has collected since 1926. These prints and portraits help to make the house truly an amazing experience and help to tell the story of Knoxville, Tennessee, and the United States. The show will include portraits of some of our most famous Tennesseans, such as Territorial Governor William Blount and his half-brother, Tennessee Governor Willie Blount, as well as Charles McClung and John Sevier. Visitors will also see great historical figures such as George Washington, Henry Knox, and Louis Philippe, King of France. Knoxville’s prominent citizens are featured here as well, with portraits of Charles McClung and Mary Boyce Temple. There is also a set of three John Catesby prints and other decorative pieces that will showcase the breadth of the collection here at the Governor’s House.

As part of the First Friday, the opening reception will be from 5:00 to 7:00 on Friday September 5th here at the Blount Mansion Visitors Center at 200 West Hill Avenue in Knoxville. There will be beverages and light refreshments available. This is a free event and all are welcome. Please come and enjoy the event and have fun!

info@blountmansion.org (865) 525-2375

Recent works by painter Victoria Simmons of Knoxville and jeweler Sissy Caldwell of Maryville will be on display at the Art Market Gallery for the month of September. An opening reception for this featured exhibition will be held from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Sept. 5, during Downtown Knoxville’s monthly First Friday Art Walk. There will be complimentary refreshments and live music by the Accidentals.

Victoria Simmons is an award-winning artist whose works are in private collections throughout the United States and abroad. Besides two solo exhibitions, her paintings have been juried into many regional and national shows. A long-time hiker and birdwatcher, Victoria has spent most of her life creating images from nature. Although dogs and horses remain her favorite subjects, she loves painting animals of all kinds, and wildlife and birds of the Smokies will be featured for this show.

Soon after retiring as an executive from TVA, Sissy Caldwell discovered a bead shop with exquisite seed beads and crystals that could be stitched into jewelry. Always having sewn and done embroidery, quilting, crocheting, and knitting, she took classes in off-loom bead weaving, andFeatherbells jewelry was born. Sissy’s artistic signature is a blend of various jewelry-making techniques, such as off-loom bead weaving with precious metal clay or glass, in order to create distinctive jewelry and gifts.

Owned and operated by about 60 professional regional artists, the Art Market Gallery, at 422 South Gay St., is a few doors 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.

Bliss Home is pleased to present Secret Life of Plants by Knoxville photographer, Dennis Sabo, for September's First Friday. Bliss Home, located at 29 Market Square, will host an opening reception on Friday, September 5th from 6pm to 9pm. Complimentary Steamboat Sandwiches will be provided and Dennis' art will be featured for the month of September.

Dennis Sabo, a Loudon resident, is an internationally honored photographer specializing in contemporary abstract, and landscape photography. His award-winning work has appeared in various publications, television, the Internet and institutions, among them NOVA, PBS, National Geographic, and Blue Planet. A frequent lecturer and workshop instructor, Sabo is mostly known for his fine art abstracts of the natural world. He has refined the fine-art photograph into an interpretive collage of color and texture. The title for this exhibition is Secret Life of Plants an impressionistic and expressionistic art view of this very special component of nature. www.dsabophoto.com

shopinbliss.com | 865.394.6951

The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present a new exhibition of photography entitled “America Divided” by Antuco Chicaiza of Sweetwater. The work in “America Divided” is meant to create a dialog about the division that government and society has created in America today. Several pieces only show a rectangle with eyes on a white canvas. “The rectangle not only shows the part of a person on which we usually focus, but it is also means to represent the hyphen, that separates us as a nation,” says Chicaiza. The exhibition will be displayed in the Balcony gallery of the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville from September 5-27, 2014. A public reception will take place as part of First Friday activities on Friday, September 5, from 5:00-9:00 PM with complimentary hors d’oeuvres provided by The Melting Pot and music by Cat’s Away. The First Friday reception also features a Jazz Jam Session hosted by Vance Thompson and Friends from 7:00-9:00 PM in the Black Box Theatre.

Antuco Chicaiza has shown his work in solo exhibitions at Casa HoLa in Knoxville, the Clayton Center for the Arts in Maryville, The Rose Center in Morristown, The Nashville International Airport, the Embassy of Ecuador in Washington, DC, and the Latino Arts Center in Milwaukee, WI.

“America Divided” will be on display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street. Gallery 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 the Web site at www.knoxalliance.com.

The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present a new exhibition entitled "CHIAROSCURO! The Excitement of Strong Lights, Shadow and Color”, featuring original artwork by three local artists: Susan Mink Colclough, Olga Rader, and Bill Womac. The exhibition will be displayed in the main gallery of the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville from September 5-27, 2014. A public reception will take place as part of First Friday activities on Friday, September 5, from 5:00-9:00 PM with complimentary hors d’oeuvres provided by Qdoba Mexican Grill and Jason’s Deli and music by Cat’s Away. The First Friday reception also features a Jazz Jam Session hosted by Vance Thompson and Friends from 7:00-9:00 PM in the Black Box Theatre.

Susan Mink Colclough is a native of Southwest, Virginia. A classically trained pianist, she grew up knowing the great connection that all of the arts have with one another. Tutored in oil-painting, she acquired a deep appreciation for the Impressionist Movement. She studied art in Paris and Southern France and has painted plein air in the gardens, olive groves, and footprints of Vincent Van Gogh. Colclough has taken advantage of her travels across the United States and her experiences in the cultures of Czechoslovakia, England, Germany, Austria, Ireland and the British West Indies to expand her painting endeavors and increase her love of the whole artistic experience. She currently resides and practices in her studio in Walland. For more information, visit www.susanminkcolclough.com.

Olga Rader is a versatile artist with a multi-faceted background. Born in Kazakhstan and raised in Uzbekistan, Olga was exposed to Arabic, Asian, and Eastern European influences, which continue to find their way into her work. She graduated from Moscow University with degrees in Art and Animation Direction, and followed that with a career at Souzmultfilm, the largest animation studio in Russia. Upon moving to the US in 1997, she began concentrating on all forms of her artistic expression; oil painting, sculpture, doll making, iconography, and children’s art (illustrations and murals). She has exhibited at numerous locations in Los Angeles and Knoxville, TN. She is currently an exhibiting member of Bunker, a group of LA-based expatriate artists from Russia and Armenia, the Knoxville Art and Culture Alliance, A1 Lab Arts, and Fine Arts Blount. Olga's interests include Hatha Yoga and Tai Chi, which she has taught in both California and Tennessee. Olga’s art is infused with spirit, strength and character that mirrors her own personality and life story, and is absolutely unique. For more information, visit www.olgarader.com.

Bill Womac began painting at an early age but only became serious about it after studying art at the University of Tennessee. As his career involved much travel, he was never able to fully concentrate on painting until a few years ago when he stopped traveling and opened Boyd Thomas Clothing in Maryville. During his travels, he spent many hours in galleries from Seattle to Sarasota, New York to Palm Beach, and Santa Fe to Sedona. His greatest influences for his work come from other artists. Womac finds an artist whose work inspires him and takes classes and workshops from them on an annual basis, including Bob Burridge, Bill Buchanon, Robert Joyner, and Skip Lawrence. Womac works primarily in acrylics and layers his paintings using both brushes and the palette knife to achieve the desired textures. He paints in a loose, casual style featuring abstract figurative works as well as more recognizable still life and iconic representations.

“CHIAROSCURO!” will be on display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street. Gallery 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 the Web site at www.knoxalliance.com.

The UT Downtown Gallery is excited to present Air of UT, an exibition of the Limited Box Edition project, curated by artists Wade Guyton '95, Josh Smith '98, and Meredyth Sparks '94. The Limited Box Edition project is part of a fund raising campaign to support the School of Art's Artist-in-Residence in Painting and Drawing program. Now in its 32nd year, the Artist-in-Residence (A.I.R.) program enriches a student's experience by bringing a different artist to spend the semester teaching undergraduate and graduate students. The resident artists are selected because they have launched successful careers in the contemporary gallery and museum world nationally and internationally. They furnish students with significant role models and faculty with new professional connections beyond Knoxville.

RECEPTION: Friday, September 5, 5-9PM

Each of the organizing alumni -- Wade Guyton, Meredyth Sparks, and Josh Smith -- benefited from this program, and have asked their former School of Art peers as well as past Artists in Residence to contribute images to the three curated portfolios making up the Limited Box Edition. AIR of UT and the Limited Box Edition is a celebration of the legacy and impact of the Artist in Residence program on the School of Art and its graduates.

Curated by Meredyth Sparks and featuring work of: Pinkney Herbert, Meredyth Sparks, Marlo Pascual, Ann Craven, Carrie Moyer, Jackie Gendel, Mira Schor, Melissa Gordon, Ezra Johnson, Kelly White, and Marlo Pascual
Curated by Wade Guyton and featuring work of: Guyton/Walker, Pamela Jorden, Judith Eisler, Wade Guyton, Cheryl Donegan, Sam Gordon, Keltie Ferris, Richard Phillips, Amy Green, Pamela Jorden
Curated by Josh Smith and featuring work of: Richard Aldrich, Jon Boles, Josephine Halvorson, Suzanne Joelson, Ashley Nason, Virginia Overton, Michael St. John, Josh Smith, Gary Stephan, Wallace Whitney, Josephine Halvorson

All events are free and open to the public. UT Downtown Gallery, 106 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Wednesday-Friday: 11AM - 6PM, Saturday: 10AM - 3PM. Information: 865-673-0802, http://web.utk.edu/~downtown