Calendar of Events

Many people consider Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy​ to be one of the world's greatest novels. Published in 1877 against the backdrop of Russian high society and its frequent hypocrisy, Tolstoy explores themes of love, selfishness, family, and how to lead the best possible life.

Often masterpieces such as Anna Karenina can be intimidating. Knox County Public Library is pleased to partner with the University of Tennessee's Department of Modern Languages to present Tuesdays with Tolstoy throughout April to encourage readers to try Tolstoy's classic story of passion. Everyone is invited to read along and join the discussion.

UTK Russian literature student, Erika Knowles, under the guidance of her major professor, Dr. Stephen Blackwell, will facilitate a four-part study of Anna Karenina at Lawson McGhee Library from 6:00-7:30 p.m. starting on Tuesday, April 7 and continuing on April 14, 21, and 28. Each week, participants will read a section of the book, which they will discuss at the Library. Registration is encouraged at http://www.knoxlib.org/Tolstoy.

Tuesdays with Tolstoy is held in conjunction with the UTK's Leo Tolstoy Festival, which takes place April 23-25 . More information is available at http://mfll.utk.edu/tolstoy/. Dr. Blackwell began the Leo Tolstoy Festival as part of a bigger series called the Great Author Festival.

Many copies of Anna Karenina are available for check out at the Knox County Public Library.
Knox County Public Library: 500 West Church Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-215-8750, www.knoxlib.org

Captivating vocalist Clairdee pays homage to two great innovators in the performance of American popular song: Carmen McRae and her friend and mentor, Billie Holiday. The enduring legacy of these quintessential jazz singers, their friendship from the time singer-pianist McRae was just 17, and their individual musical gifts for storytelling provides a unique celebration of the centennial of Holiday's birth. Clairdee's notable affinity for a song's emotional narrative, and her distinctive, warm voice are framed by beautiful arrangements and propelled by the swinging Knoxville Jazz Orchestra. Located at the Bijou Theatre.

Knoxville Jazz Orchestra: 865-573-3226, www.knoxjazz.org

Spring Choral Concert – Men's and Women's Chorales
and featuring UT's Contemporary acappella groups reVOLution
and VOLume as well as UT's Barbershop Quartet, Four O'Clock Shadow
Tuesday, April 7, 2015 at 8:00 p.m.
James R. Cox Auditorium, Alumni Memorial Bldg.

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

Internationally acclaimed artist Fred Wilson will present the Eighth Annual Sarah Jane Hardrath Kramer Lecture the Knoxville Museum of Art on Tuesday, April 7, 2015 at 6pm.

As an installation artist and political activist, Fred Wilson explores the relationship between museums and individual works, questioning and deconstructing the traditional display of art and artifacts in museums. Wilson is a 1999 MacArthur Fellow and represented the United States at the 2003 Venice Biennale. His work can be found in the Seattle Art Museum, the Corning Museum of Glass, the Tate Modern, Toledo Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

The annual Sarah Jane Hardrath Kramer Lecture honors the memory of a dedicated staff member of the Dulin Gallery of Art and the Knoxville Museum of Art and celebrates her passion for the visual arts and learning. Each year the series brings to Knoxville a prominent artist, art historian, art educator, or expert in a related field.

The event is free and open to the public thanks to support from the Sarah Jane Hardrath Kramer Fund, The Frank and Virginia Rogers Foundation, The Melrose Foundation, and Wayne R. Kramer. Reservations are recommended by contacting ddubose@knoxart.org by March 31. Seating can only be guaranteed to those who make reservations.

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37916. Information: 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org

Drummer, Lewis Nash will perform on April 7 at 8:00 p.m. at The Square Room.

Mr. Nash will perform with several of Knoxville’s own stellar jazz musicians: Vance Thompson on trumpet, Greg Tardy on saxophone, Keith L. Brown on piano, and Taylor Coker on bass. This concert serves as the first of several concerts leading up to the 2015 Knoxville Jazz Festival on August 27-28.

This performance is sponsored by an Arts Build Communities grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission and the City of Knoxville. For more information, call 865-688-6096 or go to www.knoxjazzfest.org.

The community is invited to take part in a discussion of the history and possible future of coal in Appalachia on Tuesday, April 7, at Pellissippi State Community College’s next Faculty Lecture Series presentation.

Grant Mincy, an adjunct faculty member in Natural and Behavioral Sciences at Pellissippi State, presents “Flowers of Darkness: Coal, Power and Liberty in the Southern Appalachian Bio-Region” beginning at 12:30 p.m. in the Goins Building Auditorium at the Hardin Valley Campus, 10915 Hardin Valley Road.
The event is free and the community is invited.

Mincy has participated in a number of protests against the coal mining industry, including an event staged by the Occupy movement at the U.S. Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C., and a march with Appalachia Rising.

“Flowers of Darkness: Coal, Power and Liberty in the Southern Appalachian Bio-Region” is part of the Faculty Lecture Series. The lecture series presentations are among the many events that make up Pellissippi State’s arts series, The Arts at Pellissippi State. The series brings to the community cultural activities ranging from music and theatre to international celebrations, lectures, and the fine arts. This year, the arts series commemorates Pellissippi State’s 40th anniversary.

For more information about Pellissippi State, visit www.pstcc.edu or call (865) 694-6400. To request accommodations for a disability, contact the executive director of Human Resources at (865) 694-6607 or humanresources@pstcc.edu.

April 04, 2015 IJAMS BIRDING SERIES: Birding & Breakfast
April 04, 2015 PEG'S KITCHEN: Breakfast is Served
April 04, 2015 ANIMAL PROGRAM: Ijams Creature Feature
April 04, 2015 ANIMAL PROGRAM: Ijams Nature Center
April 04, 2015 URBAN WILDERNESS: Hike the South Loop
April 04, 2015 ANIMAL PROGRAM: Ijams Creature Feature
April 05, 2015 VISITOR CENTER CLOSED
April 11, 2015 ANIMAL PROGRAM: Ijams Creature Feature
April 11, 2015 ANIMAL PROGRAM: Ijams Nature Center
April 11, 2015 ANIMAL PROGRAM: Ijams Creature Feature
April 11, 2015 SPECIAL EVENT: 26th annual River Rescue
April 18, 2015 PUBLIC PROGRAM: Wagging Walk
April 18, 2015 SPECIAL EVENT: Spring Plant Festival
April 18, 2015 ANIMAL PROGRAM: Ijams Creature Feature
April 18, 2015 ANIMAL PROGRAM: Ijams Nature Center
April 18, 2015 ANIMAL PROGRAM: Ijams Creature Feature
April 25, 2015 PEG'S KITCHEN: Breakfast is Served
April 25, 2015 ANIMAL PROGRAM: Ijams Creature Feature
April 25, 2015 ANIMAL PROGRAM: Ijams Nature Center
April 25, 2015 ANIMAL PROGRAM: Ijams Creature Feature

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

Where: Downtown Knoxville and McGhee Tyson Airport
When: April 4, 2014-March 20, 2015
How Much: Free

Art comes in all shapes and sizes. We invite you to experience some of the larger variety with Art in Public Places, an annual event featuring large-scale outdoor sculptures in Knoxville’s downtown public spaces and also at McGhee Tyson Airport. These larger scale pieces are thought provoking and awe-inspiring.

By displaying these works outdoors, we celebrate not only the art of sculpture but Knoxville’s natural beauty during this year-round outdoor exhibition.

The exhibition presently on view, an interesting and inspirational collection of works by sculptors from across the nation, was selected and awarded by noted sculptor Kenneth M. Thompson. Kenneth holds a Master of Liberal Studies in Sculpture from the University of Toledo and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Siena Heights College, in Adrian, MI. While many of his sculptures are in Ohio and Michigan, Thompson’s work can be seen in other states. He has done 41 pieces of public sculpture across the country. Ken has been making sculpture for over thirty years out of his car-dealership-turned-studio in Blissfield, Michigan. From this facility he operates Flatlanders Sculpture Supply and Art Galleries as well as Midwest Sculpture Initiative, which provides exhibitions that feature outdoor sculpture. Fourteen shows are planned for next year, he says. He also serves or has served on numerous arts-oriented boards.

The Art in Public Places Knoxville program, the 2015-2016 year being its 9th is a featured presentation of Dogwood Arts in partnership with the City of Knoxville Public Art Committee. The 2014-2015 Art in Public Places Knoxville Co-Chairs are Bart Watkins and Jason Brown.

To purchase a sculpture, please call [865] 637.4561.

Dogwood Arts: 865-637-4561 www.dogwoodarts.com

Tracey Crocker, co-owner and artist extraordinaire of Wine and Canvas Knoxville is proud to announce her first "1st Friday" show in Knoxville. Her pieces will be on exhibit at Uncorked on Market Square starting Friday April 3rd throughout the end of the month! Uncorked in Market Square, 18 Market Square, Knoxville. Info: (865) 521-0600

Recent works by Marilyn Avery Turner and Gray Bearden, both of Knoxville, will be on display during the month of April at the Art Market Gallery. An opening reception for the featured artists will be held during Downtown Knoxville’s monthly First Friday Art Walk beginning at 5:30 p.m. April 3, with complimentary refreshments and live music performed by Living Room Roots. In addition, works for the gallery’s annual Silent Auction, the cooperative’s only fundraiser, will be on exhibit through March 29 and ready to bid on.

Marilyn Avery Turner received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her mediums at the time were painting and collage, but since then she has concentrated on printmaking, specifically monoprinting and screen printing, and taught art for more than 20 years in a variety of settings. The New York City native has been associated with the Art Market Gallery since its inception in 1982 but has also exhibited her work in solo and group shows and in juried exhibitions throughout the United States. Her works have received awards in many of those exhibitions and are in numerous private collections. This show features the monoprint and chine-colle, a special printmaking technique using images she prints as collage elements.

Gray Bearden is a ceramic artist who creates two distinct bodies of work: functional tabletop ware and sculptural wall pieces. Though they serve different purposes, the two bodies of work share the same distinct features of pattern texture and detail. all of her work is hand-built by manipulating flat slabs of white stoneware clay into various forms, texturing where appropriate with found and created objects. Color is achieved through use of multiple glaze and underglaze techniques. Gray turned to ceramics after a lengthy corporate career, honing her skills at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and college-level art classes. A member of Foothills Craft Guild and Terra Madre, she has exhibited widely during the last 13 years.

Owned and operated by 62 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., on Tuesday through Thursday and Saturday; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday; and 1 to 5 p.m., on 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.

Where: Bliss Home 29 Market Square Knoxville, TN 37902

When: Friday, April 3rd, 2015 through the end of the month.

Opening Reception: Friday, April 3rd, 2015 6pm to 9pm

Admission: Free

Artist's Website: www.staceyfletcher.com

Due to the overwhelmingly positive response to Stacey Fletcher's March First Friday, Bliss Home is pleased to extend Stacey's March exhibit to April for First Friday!

Bliss Home, located at 29 Market Square, will host an opening reception on Friday, April 3rd from 6pm to 9pm. Complimentary baked goodies from Old City Java will be provided and Stacey's art will be featured for the month of April.

Stacey Fletcher received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting and Drawing from The University of Tennessee in 2003, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Valdosta State University in 2000. She has exhibited nationally and internationally in many individual, group, and juried exhibitions. This includes being awarded the honor of participating in the 2005 Pienkow International Artist Workshop in Poland. Stacey has taught for The University of Tennessee since 2000 as a graduate assistant, an assistant professor, as well as through the personal and professional extended education program. She lives, paints, and teaches in Knoxville, TN.

As a cathartic painter, Stacey’s work expresses emotions and frustrations that would otherwise be hard to express verbally. They seem abstract at first glace to the viewer, but have some sense of childhood imagery disguised among the colorful layers. Her work is fresh with vibrant lively colors, with layered metaphors of herself and others contrasted with the chaotic approach of the energetic marks.

Opening: Friday, April 3 from 5:00-9:00pm
Awards Presentation: 8:00pm

The Dogwood Arts Regional Fine Art Exhibition returns to showcase work from leading progressive and emerging artists in our region. The exhibition will encompass fine art of all styles and genres from artists, with selections made by renowned juror, Mark Scala, the founding chief curator at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, TN.

Mark Scala oversees the curatorial and registrarial management of exhibitions from all time periods, both nationally and internationally. Scala’s most renowned exhibitions have focused on the representation of the body through contemporary art. These have included Fairy Tales, Monsters, and the Genetic Imagination (2012), an international survey that dives into the symbolism of the hybrid body as proposed by sources ranging from folklore and science fiction to recent advancements in genetic engineering, prosthetics, and other aspects of anatomical and psychological adaptation.

Where: Emporium Center for Arts and Culture [100 South Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902]
Times: Monday- Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.; Saturday, 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Dogwood Arts: 865-637-4561 www.dogwoodarts.com