Calendar of Events

Beginning in 1832, Drury Paine Armstrong (1799-1856) established a gentleman’s farm and house for his wife and family just west of downtown Knoxville. He named the farm “Crescent Bend” for the commanding view of a majestic crescent bend of the Holston River, now called the Tennessee River. The Armstrongs moved into their new home on October 7th, 1834. Drury Armstrong’s Crescent Bend started with 600 acres of land on the north side of the river, and a within few years he acquired another 300 acres on the south side. He owned several other tracts of land in and around Knoxville, upon one of which a famous Civil War battle, the Battle of Armstrong’s Hill, would be fought. During the Civil War, the house was used by both Union and Confederate Armies as a command center and hospital. Thousands of soldiers encamped and fought skirmishes on Crescent Bend farmland. Originally the Union Army controlled Crescent Bend and built an earthen fortification around the house; began on the western side of the house, wrapped around the back of the house, and connected with Kingston Pike on the east. This defensive earthen trench work gave the Union Army a commanding view of the river and the pike leading into town.

Tours: Wednesday-Friday: 10am – 4pm and Saturday: 10am – 2pm
Address: 2728 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919. Phone: 865-637-3163.
Website: www.crescentbend.com

This “house with many eyes” witnessed the birth and growth of Knoxville, housed Tennessee governors and prominent families, and later became slum housing on the Knoxville riverfront. It was saved by early preservationists from destruction, and survives today to tell the stories of Tennessee’s birth and growth. William Blount, a signer of the United State Constitution, chose to build his home in Knoxville after signing the Treaty of the Holston on the banks of the Holston River just a few hundred yards away from the Mansion’s location. Blount’s Knoxville mansion would serve as the territorial capitol, as well as a family home. The care in construction, and the size and shape of Blount Mansion reflects Blount’s position as a Territorial Governor, head of a prominent family, and influential land speculator.

200 West Hill Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37902. Phone: 865-525-2375
Tours: Tuesday – Friday: 10am – 5pm (last tour leaves at 4pm); Saturday 10am – 2pm (last tour leaves at 1pm)
Website: www.blountmansion.org
Blog: blountmansion.blogspot.com

The exhibit will showcase interesting artifacts from the museum's permanent collection that have not been displayed in many years or have never been on display. Spanning numerous decades, featured items include personal household items such as electronics, tools, clothes, hats and hat boxes, children's toys, and more. In addition, the vignette in the Doris Woods Owens Gallery will display furniture and household items from an 1890s-era bedroom.

Farragut Folklife Museum, 11408 Municipal Center Dr, Farragut, TN 37934. Hours: Monday-Friday, 10AM-4:30 PM. Information: 865-966-7057, www.townoffarragut.org

The Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority (McGhee Tyson Airport) and the Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville are pleased to present “Arts in the Airport”, a new exhibition featuring selected artwork from 36 artists in the East Tennessee region. “Arts in the Airport” was developed to allow regional artists to compete and display work in the most visited site in the area. The current exhibition features contemporary 2- and 3-dimensional artwork and is exhibited in the secured area behind McGhee Tyson Airport’s security gate checkpoint through April 8, 2015. Please note: the exhibition is normally available for viewing only by visitors flying in or out of the airport. Otherwise, artists and their guests may view the exhibition during the opening reception and by appointment with Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority staff. Contact Becky Huckaby, Director of Public Relations, at (865) 342-3014.

Juror Joshua Bienko, Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, provided this statement about the exhibition: “The Arts in the Airport show is an incredible collection of artists work dealing with a wide array of ideas in a variety of mediums. It is an opportunity to peek into the minds of so many talented artists living among us. For me, Art does not provide answers, theories or quantifiable data in as much as it prods questions, provokes interpretations and resists resolutions. The works selected for the show are intended to begin conversations and dialogues. They are organized in a way that encourages dialectics to immerge, questions to form and conflicts to exist. I am so happy to have had the opportunity to engage with the work of these local artists who attest to the vibrancy of the arts here in the greater Knoxville area.”

The following artists’ works is on display: Sheila Chesanow of Athens; Anne Freels of Clinton; Veronica Fay of Crossville; Amy Masters of Gatlinburg; J. Brooks Brann, David Butler, Valentino Constantinou, Delia Foster, Marcia Goldenstein, William Goolsby, Beauvais Lyons, Tom McDaniel, Rose Montgomery, Althea Murphy-Price, Dick Penner, Indra Sahu, Jenny Snead, Daniel Taylor, Clay Thurston, Mary Julia Tunnell, Marilyn Avery Turner, Richardson Turner, Hawa Ware, Lida Rice Waugh, and Kurt K. Weiss of Knoxville; Steve Chastain of Louisville; Mary Bogert, Carl Gombert, Adam Griffin, John Patterson, and Bill Womac of Maryville; Eric Buechel of Pleasant Hill; Yvonne Bartholomew-Thomas of Seymour; Pat Clapsaddle and Marty McConnaughey of Sharps Chapel; Tyson Smith of Townsend.

A gallery of images may be viewed at http://www.knoxalliance.com/album/airport_fall14.html. For more information, please contact the Arts & Culture Alliance at (865) 523-7543.

The exhibit, Made in Tennessee: Manufacturing Milestones, at the Museum of East Tennessee History through April 4, chronicles the history of manufacturing and manufacturers in Tennessee over the past two-and a-half centuries. A companion student K-12 curriculum has been developed and is available for teachers and students. As with all exhibitions and programs developed by the East Tennessee Historical Society and the Museum of East Tennessee History, Made in Tennessee features a “grassroots” approach, turning to communities and individuals across the state for help in identifying content and artifacts.

The exhibition begins at the workstation of Knoxville Glove Company employee Margaret Newcomb, who personally sewed more than 10,800,000 industrial gloves from 1953-2013. Visitors are invited to “clock in and out” using a time card and an authentic time clock and will enjoy more than 80 artifacts of iconic Tennessee products, from Jack Daniels to JFG coffee to an Alladdin/Stanley thermos to an employee-signed hood of a Volkswagen. The perimeter of the exhibit includes 20 “Did You Know?” facts about manufacturing in Tennessee, such as did you know that Mastercraft, the world’s largest producer of ski, wakeboard, and luxury performance power boats, built their first ski boat in a two-stall horse barn in Maryville in 1968? Visitors will encounter other surprising facts: Did you know that in 1810, there were 14,000 registered distillers in the state, producing some 25.5 million gallons a year? Intriguing is the fact that by 1980, the Marathon was the only car that had been produced completely in the state, yet by 2010, Tennessee was the “#1 state in car manufacturing strength.” Following its run at the Museum of East Tennessee History, Knoxville, the exhibit will be made available to museums across the state through 2017.

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

Art in Public Places Knoxville is a monumental installation of large-scale outdoor sculptures by regionally and nationally acclaimed artists. The sculptures enliven downtown Knoxville as well as McGhee Tyson Airport.

Opening Reception: Friday, April 4, 5:00 – 9:00 pm
Award Ceremony: Friday, April 4, 5:30 pm

We are honored to announce noted sculptor, Kenneth M. Thompson, as the Juror for the 2014-2015 exhibition!

Most of the Festival's wide range of arts events, performances, and exhibitions are offered to the public free of charge. Dogwood Arts: 865-637-4561 www.dogwoodarts.com

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