Calendar of Events

Prog-rock veteran act Umphrey’s McGee emerged in the mid-‘90s when they started jamming together at the University of Notre Dame. Through their 16-year career, they have performed over 100 concerts annually, released seven studio albums and sold more than 3.3 million tracks online. You don’t want to miss this show happening at the Tennessee on Thursday, January 29th, 2015.

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

Sturgill Simpson’s authenticity stands out like an island of hope in a sea of tacky. Bonafide mountain hillbilly soul, as pure as you are going to find anywhere. All it takes is one listen to finally understand. With a new album and a child on the way, the 35-year old singer-songwriter, who describes himself as anxious to embrace change, is about to experience a lot of it. Critics may have dubbed Sturgill Simpson the savior of traditional country music, but that’s not a title he’s willing to embrace. Shrugging, he says, "I’m just trying to save myself." Experience the music for yourself on Wednesday, January 29, 2015!

Bijou Theatre, 803 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information/tickets: 865-522-0832, www.knoxbijou.com, www.ticketmaster.com

January 29, 2015
William Baxter Lee III Grand Foyer
The Athena Awards
Sponsored by Bristol & Bragg, Sullivans and The Daily Times

Join us for the 3rd annual Athena Award presented by Bristol & Bragg, Sullivans and The Daily Times.The Athena Leadership Award is given to an individual who is honored for their professional excellence, community service, and actively assisting women in their attainment of professional excellence and leadership skills.

Tickets are $45

Clayton Center for the Arts: 502 East Lamar Alexander Parkway, Maryville, TN 37804. Tickets are available at the Clayton Center Box Office M-F 10AM-6PM or by phone or online: 865-981-8590, www.ClaytonArtsCenter.com

We regret that due to circumstances beyond our control, the Auction on Thursday, January 29 at SmartBank-Cedar Bluff benefitting Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts has been postponed. We apologize for any inconvenience to you. We will let you know when the event is rescheduled.

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Information: 865-436-5860, www.arrowmont.org

Dr. David Northington, the Powell Distinguished Professor of Piano at the UT School of Music, will perform his only solo recital in Knoxville this year on Thursday evening, January 29th. The concert will be held in the Sandra Powell Recital Hall at 8 PM in the Natalie L. Haslam Performing Arts Center on the UT campus. Northington, whom the New York Times has called "an immensely gifted musician.....who combines the technical mastery of a virtuoso with the musical sensitivity of a poet", will perform works by Mozart, Schumann and Chopin. Northington has performed throughout the world in over 12 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
The concert is open to the public, free of charge.

Thursday, January 29, 2015 at 8:00 p.m.
Sandra G. Powell Recital Hall, Natalie L. Haslam Music Center

UT School of Music: Unless otherwise noted, concerts are FREE and open to the public. The Alumni Memorial Building located at 1408 Middle Drive on the UT campus. (The James R. Cox Auditorium is located in the Alumni Memorial Building.) The Natalie Haslam Music Center is located at 1741 Volunteer Blvd on the UT campus.
*For individual or small group performances, please check the web site or call the day of the event for updates or cancellations: 865-974-5678, www.music.utk.edu/events

Marble City Opera will present La Femme Bohème, an all-female cast of Puccini’s opera La Bohème at NV nightclub in Knoxville, Tennessee at 7:30pm on January 24th and January 31st, 2015. The production will be presented with chamber orchestra, conducted by Peter Leonard, former Artistic Director of the Volkstheater in Rostock, Germany.

Marble City Opera was founded in May of 2013 and continues to make waves in the Knoxville music scene. In 2014, Artistic Director and soprano, Kathryn Frady’s world premiere performance of Amelia Lost received the high honor of being named the Most Memorable Operatic Performance in Knoxville by Alan Sherrod in Arts Knoxville.

The La Femme Bohème cast will feature online magazine Sexi Soprano writers as well as Knoxville favorites, including Kathryn Frady as Musetta and Metropolitan Opera National Council Regional Semi-Finalist, Linda Barnett as Rodolfo. There will be an open bar before, during, and after the performance. Admission is $20 for adults, and $10 for students. Tickets may be purchased at the door or online at knoxtix.com.

The work in this exhibition explores the non-objective and propositional quality that sculpture can have, and the ways in which we can understand something devoid of specificity and illustration. Presented on custom-built risers and linear structures, individual components are often physically or conceptually networked together with arrangements of objects ranging from the random and chaotic to the precise and articulate. Through careful positioning and intentional framing the works are suggestive of abstracted models and diagrammatic systems that allude to a sculptural logic that is both pragmatic and allusive at the same time.

Paul Sacaridiz will be lecturing at UT in room 109 of the Art and Architecture building on Thursday, January 22 at 7:30 PM. There will be an opening reception the following evening, Friday, January 23, with the artist at the UT Downtown Gallery from 5-9PM. We hope you can make it to these events.

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

Drawn from the McClung Museum is an innovative exhibition project involving 28 artists, each of whom will produce original prints in response to objects from the collection of the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture. The exhibition will pair the objects and the prints to address how we perceive and interpret art, science, and culture. Like the museum itself, the objects are varied, ranging from a mastodon mandible and an Egyptian ibis mummy, to a Victorian hair necklace and an Ojibwa men’s ceremonial dance apron.

The exhibition is being held in conjunction with the SGC International Printmaking Conference, which will bring 1,500 printmakers to Knoxville from the United States and abroad March 18–21, 2015.

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

Tennessee Stage Company Presents Its 6th Timeless Work – A Benefit Production of HARVEY

Where: The Historic Southern Railway Station, 300 West Depot Avenue
When: Jan. 22 – Feb. 1, 8:00 pm Thursday – Saturday; 2:00 pm Sunday matinees

Tickets on sale now: limited availability. Call (865) 546-4280 for reservations or go online to purchase tickets through Paypal at www.tennesseestage.com. General Admission: $ 15; Students/Seniors $ 12. Group discounts available.

The Tennessee Stage Company, known to Knoxville audiences for Shakespeare On The Square and the New Play Festival returns to our Timeless Works series this winter with the Mary Chase’s classic comedy, Harvey. This most gentle of comedies is the story of a most unconventional man who has dropped out of the rat race to live a simple life with his most unusual best friend, Harvey, who just happens to be a six foot tall invisible white rabbit! Harvey is a collaboration with the Historic Southern Railway Station newly renovated and now being operated as an event space by the Blueslip Winery. This beautiful structure is a perfect backdrop for the simplicity and whimsy of the story of Elwood P. Dowd and his rabbit. Timeless Works was conceived by the Stage Company as a benefit series to help raise funds for our other programs, Shakespeare On The Square, the New Play Festival and our Education and Outreach programs. All the artists donate their time and talents and all funds raised go directly back into the work of the Company.

Tennessee Stage Company: 865-546-4280, www.tennesseestage.com

Arrowmont invites exhibiting artists and their families, members of our community and the public to the 17th Sevier County Biennial Juried Exhibition celebrating the creative talent within Sevier County. The opening reception will be held Friday, January 16 from 6:00 – 8:00 PM in the Sandra J. Blain Galleries and the exhibit will be on display through March 13, 2015. The Gallery is open Monday – Friday 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM and Saturday 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM. Tours are available by reservation, and can be arranged by calling 865-436-5860. The opening reception, gallery and tours are free to the public.

Arrowmont is grateful to Sherry Masters, owner of Art Connections in Asheville, North Carolina, who served as juror this year. With over 140 entries and 103 works of art accepted into the exhibition, this show is a glowing testament to the artistic talent and dedication of Sevier County residents. Of the works accepted, 13 were chosen to receive awards. The artists will be presented their awards on the evening of the gallery reception.

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Information: 865-436-5860, www.arrowmont.org

Free and open to the public - Opening reception January 16 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.; artists’ talks at 6:30 p.m.

Claudia Dean - I Live in Knoxville Now
Through her watercolors, Dean tries to express Knoxville through images of its places. She begins with a photograph, which allows her to isolate and formalize the image before she draws. The photographs are "snapshots" of places that resonate for her and she wants to express the feeling of intimacy and significance in the image. She acknowledges her love of craft and repetition in the quilt pieces, which are intended to convey feeling or emotion in a more musical way than the representational images. She carries over discoveries and lessons learned in each type of work to the other. Dean was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and studied painting and printmaking at Kansas City Art Institute. She was a craft jeweler in Albuquerque for many years, selling work in craft galleries in the southwest and California. In 2003 Dean moved to Knoxville with her family and returned to two-dimensional artwork.

Mark Evans - En Plein Aire
Evans has always enjoyed taking pictures in national parks, and he likes to bring joy and beauty to the viewer. He entitled this show “En Plein Aire” because just as the invention of oil paints in tubes allowed people to work outdoors in the countryside and get the images they wanted, digital photography has allowed Evans to create the images he wants. He started taking photographs as a child with his father’s old camera. He shot black and white film and did his own darkroom work because he couldn’t afford color slide film. What he really liked was slide shows of people’s trips. Eventually he could afford slide film and he hasn’t been in a darkroom since. He’s been doing digital photography for five years. eBooks of Evans’ national park pictures can be found at marksparks.us.

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

The Fountain City Art Center's 4th Annual Theme show, open to all artists, will be on display January 16 through February 13. The opening reception will be January 16, from 6:30-8:00PM. Theme: East Tennessee Treasures.

213 Hotel Rd, Knoxville, TN 37918
(865) 357-2787, www.fountaincityartctr.com