Calendar of Events

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., Sept. 4. There will be complimentary refreshments along with jazz performed by Kelvin Walters.

Most of Gary Dagnan’s oil paintings are of the mountains, hills, lakes and structures of the East Tennessee area. He is inspired by the changing light and colors that come from distinctly different seasons of the South, explaining that he is more interested in the aesthetics of a scene than with documenting a specific place: “I want my paintings to express the emotional and spiritual connection that I have with nature,” he says. With his work in more than 400 private and public collections, the Jasper, TN, native has had 18 solo shows, and his works have been in many national, state and regional art shows throughout the United States. Larry Gabbard enjoys fast-firing techniques that create a rich variety of textures and colors on bisque clay. "I find the unexpected marks made when clay, heat, and smoke interact to be among the most intriguing and challenging of finishes to perfect and reproduce," he says. While most of his elegant pottery is wheel thrown, he seeks out alternative methods, among them raku, horse hair, saggar, obvara, and pit firing. The Cincinnati, OH, transplant began his pottery career after moving to Kingston in 1999. He attends workshops of well known potters as well as classes at renowned educational institutions to learn more and refine his skills.

Owned and operated by more than 60 professional regional artists, the Art Market Gallery is a few doors away from Mast General store and next to Downtown Grill & Brewery. Art Market Gallery, 422 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: Tu-Th & Sa 11-6, Fri 11-9, Su 1-5. Information: 865-525-5265, www.artmarketgallery.net

Arrowmont invites the public to view Materialities: Contemporary Textile Arts, Surface Design Association's 1st International Juried Members’ Exhibition in the Sandra J. Blain Gallery. The exhibit showcases 67 artists, spanning a wide range of textile media, subject matter and presentations. Selected artists are from the US, Canada, Hungary, Iceland, France, Germany, Norway and the UK. A reception will be held Thursday, October 8th from 5-8pm. Admission is free and the community is encouraged to attend with their friends and family.

Materialities: Contemporary Textile Arts’ juror is Namita Gupta Wiggers, curator-at-large and Director of Critical Craft Forum. For a comprehensive print catalog, Wiggers selected 108 works from 91 artists that provide meaningful answers to the question: What do textiles/fibers and their associated processes offer artists that cannot be achieved in other media? The catalog includes full and detailed images, artist statements, and essays addressing the context and evolution of contemporary textile arts. Essay authors include curator Namita Gupta Wiggers, Arrowmont Program Director and fiber artist Nick DeFord, SDA Journal Editor Marci Rae McDade and indigo dye master Rowland Ricketts. Surface Design Association (SDA) is a non-profit textile arts organization founded in 1977. SDA promotes international awareness and appreciation of fiber, textiles & new materials. Members include artists, designers, educators, students, curators, gallery owners and textile enthusiasts from around the world. New members are invited to join at www.surfacedesign.org.

Gallery hours are Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm and Saturdays 10am - 4pm.
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Information: 865-436-5860, www.arrowmont.org

The Knoxville Museum of Art presents The Paternal Suit: Heirlooms from the F. Scott Hess Family Foundation. This unique and challenging exhibition questions where personal stories end and national history begins. Los Angeles artist F. Scott Hess explores this and other questions in this multimedia exploration of the artist’s paternal ancestry going back four centuries.

Meet the artist; cash bar - Thurs, Aug 20, 5:30-7:30 PM

The Paternal Suit consists of over 100 paintings, prints, and objects created by Hess, but presented as legitimate historical artifacts, and supported by photographs, documents, and historical ephemera. Each object and artwork bears an artist’s name and detailed provenance and has been executed in the style of the century from which it supposedly originates. Sculpture, ceramics, furniture, toys, newspaper clippings, historic photographs, guns, and costumes advance the story. Hess does not claim authorship for the works on display, instead, he ascribes to them fictional artists, referring to himself as the director of the “F. Scott Hess Family Foundation.” The exhibition follows Hess’s ancestral lineage from 17th-century England to South Carolina and Georgia, where family members became key players in the War Between the States (1860–65). Through the prism of his ancestry, Hess examines the impact of false history and deception within each generation and throughout society as a whole, and questions the authority of these perceived “truths.” The ultimate subtext for the installation, which traces the trajectory of the Iverson, Patton, Nolan, and Hess family lines, is the seven-year old artist’s abandonment by his own father after a parental divorce.

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10AM-5PM, Sunday, 1-5PM. Information: 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org

Bliss Home is pleased to present The Lake House, by Knoxville artist, Kate Moore, for August and September First Fridays! Bliss Home, located at 29 Market Square, will host an opening reception on Friday, August 7th from 6pm to 9pm and September 5th, 2014 6pm to 9pm. Complimentary treats from Wild Love Bakehouse will be provided.

Starting with a simple love for crayons, Kate decided from a young age she needed to build her life around art. Kate grew into an artist by exploring different mediums, and dabbling in painting and drawing, until she found her own voice as an artist in graphic design. From custom wedding invitations to small business branding, Kate has spent the last seven years perfecting her graphic design skills at her studio, Kate Moore Creative, located on the 100 block of Gay Street. Kate's exhibit, The Lake House, celebrates the gorgeous lakes, rivers and mountains of East Tennessee which make her appreciate her home.

Purchase Kate's art and you are providing ONE MEAL to a hungry tummy in East Tennessee, through the efforts of Second Harvest Food Bank. Kate is so excited to be a part of something so wonderful, and she hopes her art brings fun and happiness the world. Artist's Website: www.livelovestudio.com

marketing@shopinbliss.com, shopinbliss.com, 865.394.6951

The American Museum of Science & Energy will open Nikon Small World, a traveling exhibit showcasing 20 award winning photomicrographs from the 40th annual Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition. This year’s winner is Rogelio Moreno of Panama for capturing a rarely seen image of a rotifer’s open mouth interior and heart-shaped corona. A computer system programmer by occupation, Moreno is a self-taught microscopist whose photomicrograph serves to show just how close the beauty and wonder of the micro-world truly is - not just for scientists, but anyone willing to open their eyes and look for it. Moreno is recognized along with over 80 other winners from around the world for excellence in photomicrography. Winners from Italy, the United States, Austria, Spain and Australia also ranked in the top ten, for exceptional images selected based on both artistic quality and masterful scientific technique.

“Since the competition began 40 years ago, the caliber in quality and range of subject matter of the images, is matched only by the scientists and photographers who submit them,” said Eric Flem, Communications Manager, Nikon Instruments. “So much has changed in science and technology in the past forty years, opening the door for more and more scientists and artists alike to capture and share their stunning images with the world. A look at our gallery is like a time capsule of the advancements made in the last four decades and truly shows the legacy a Nikon Small World continues to build.”

Rogelio Moreno is a first-time first-place winner of the Small World competition, though he has placed each time he has entered the contest starting three years ago. That success is a testament to his incredible skill, as he only began taking photomicrographs in 2009.

Judges awarded Moreno’s shot of a rotifer caught open-mouthed and facing the camera – for its exemplary technique. Capturing the perfect moment when the rotifer opened its mouth for the camera required extreme patience from Moreno, who watched for hours waiting for his opportunity. With the rotifer in constant motion, he utilized the flash to freeze the movement as soon as the mouth opened – still leaving him with only a one- or two-second window to take the photo, and possibly only one shot to get it right. He also used differential interference contrast (DIC) to enhance the coloration in unstained, transparent samples, and to provide a more detailed image of the rotifer.

“When you see that movement, you fall in love. I thought - wow, that is amazing. I can’t believe what I’m seeing. This is something very, very beautiful,” said Moreno of his winning image. “I hope now it can inspire others as much as it has inspired me – to learn about science, to look closely and notice something truly amazing.”

As the 2014 winner, Moreno joins the ranks of 36 other photomicrographers, artists and scientists from all over the world who have taken the top prize. This year’s competition received over 1,200 entries from more than 79 countries around the world. Top images from the 2014 Nikon Small World Competition will be exhibited in a full-color calendar and through a national museum tour. For additional information, please visit www.nikonsmallworld.com, or follow the conversation on Facebook and Twitter @NikonSmallWorld.

American Museum of Science & Energy, 300 S. Tulane Avenue, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. Hours: Monday-Saturday 9AM-5PM, Sunday 1-5PM. Information: 865-576-3200, www.amse.org

Saturdays, 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM and Wednesdays 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM

The Market Square Farmers’ Market is an open-air farmers’ market located on Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville and is celebrating its 12th season this year. The MSFM is a producer only market; everything is either made or grown by the vendor in our East Tennessee region. Products vary by the season and include ornamental plants, produce, dairy, eggs, honey, herbs, meat, baked goods, jams/jellies, coffee, & artisan crafts. With interactive fountains, delicious local food and entertainment, as well as tasty lunch options from some of Knoxville’s best food trucks, the MSFM is a perfect family destination.

In addition to locally-grown produce, local food products, handmade crafts, nursery plants, and mobile food trucks, shoppers at the 2015 Market Square Farmers’ Market will also find:

“VEGGIE VALET” SERVICE: Shoppers are invited to drop off their market purchases with a volunteer at the Wall Avenue info booth while they bring their vehicle around to pick up.

DOG-FREE ZONES: Due to health and safety concerns for shoppers, vendors, and pets, pets are prohibited in the aisle between vendors on Market Square and Market Street.

2015-2016 EAST TENNESSEE LOCAL FOOD GUIDE: Copies of the 2015-2016 edition of the East Tennessee Local Food Guide will be available at the Market Square Farmers’ Market information booth on the corner of Union and Market.

We look forward to seeing you at the 2015 Market Square Farmers’ Market!

Location: Market Square Knoxville, TN 37902. http://marketsquarefarmersmarket.org/

The Confederate surrender at Appomattox Court House in April 1865 may have legally ended the Civil War, but it did not end East Tennessee’s bitter internal war. As Union and Confederate veterans returned home, fierce partisanship and settling of old scores often continued. Some Confederates, feeling unwelcome in their own homeland, left the region, many never to return. Yet, as the months and years passed, the vast majority on each side began to work together to mend their differences and to rebuild their war-ravaged lives and communities. The new exhibit Memories of the Blue and Gray: The Civil War in East Tennessee at 150 will explore early attempts at reconciliation and how we as East Tennesseans continue to remember the Civil War 150 years later.

The exhibition will feature more than 125 artifacts from the collections of ETHS, Gerald and Sandra Augustus, Drs. Anthony and Jill Hodges, and others, highlighting reconstruction, reunions, the Sultana disaster, cemeteries and monuments, commemorative art, educational institutions, collecting of artifacts and memorabilia, and state and local preservation efforts. Clothing varying from period gowns to a Ku Klux Klan uniform to a Confederate reunion frock coat will be on display, alongside a brush believed carried by a soldier who survived the explosion and sinking of the Sultana, a piece of furniture made by the former slave Lewis Buckner, and the diaries of Ellen Renshaw House. Featured Civil War Reunion memorabilia will range from 1881 to 2013 with the 150th anniversary of the battle of Fort Sanders. The “Looking Back” Civil War artifact documentation program of the Tennessee State Library and Archives will be represented with an odd-shaped shoe, fashioned by the Union for a Confederate soldier from Grainger County who lost half his foot in the Battle of Franklin. In addition to artifacts, the exhibition will include a video of Civil War collectors Gerald and Sandra Augustus and a slide show highlighting East Tennessee’s Civil War cemeteries and monuments.

The exhibition is presented in conjunction with the Blue & Gray Reunion and Freedom Jubilee to be held in Knoxville, April 30-May 3, 2015. Four days of special programming highlighting Knoxville and the region’s Civil War history begins with the state's Civil War Sesquicentennial Signature Event with lectures by nationally recognized speakers, a performance by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Civil War artifact documentation by the Tennessee State Library and Archives, student and teacher programs, a Blue & Gray Dinner, and more. Weekend activities include music, vintage baseball games, bus tours to historic homes, forts, and cemeteries, living history, heritage groups, exhibits, a service of remembrance, a Peace Jubilee, fireworks, and more. For more information on the programs of the Blue & Gray Reunion and Freedom Jubilee, please visit www.eastTNhistory.org/BlueGray.

The Museum of East Tennessee History is open 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, Monday through Friday; 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, Saturday; and 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm, Sunday. Museum Admission is $5.00 for adults, $4.00 for seniors, and FREE for children under 16. Each Sunday admission is FREE to all and ETHS members always receive FREE admission. The Museum is located in the East Tennessee History Center, 601 South Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37901. For more information about booking the exhibition, scheduling a school tour, or visiting the museum, call (865) 215-8824, email eths@eastTNhistory.org, or visit www.easttnhistory.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

Ijams Hallway Gallery Presents: The Artwork of Broadway Studio and Gallery Artists

This month's Hallway Gallery shows off the amazing collaboration of the artists of Broadway Studio and Gallery. Bright, colorful, and diverse- you won't want to miss out on seeing the first group showing of these talented artists.

More events at http://ijams.org/events/. 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

This 30-minute documentary, filmed and produced by Jupiter Entertainment, begins in 2009 as Richard Jolley began work on what would become "Cycle of Life, Within the Power of Dreams and the Wonder of Infinity".

Every Saturday & Sunday at 3 PM.

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10AM-5PM, Sunday, 1-5PM. Information: 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org

The Salvage Shop is a program of Knox Heritage, accepting donated historic building materials to prevent these valuable items from going to the landfill. These items are re-sold to benefit Knox Heritage. All donations are tax-deductible.

619 Broadway, Knoxville, TN 37917. Shop Hours: Wed-Fri 12-5pm, Sat 10am - 3pm. Information: 865-523-8008, www.knoxheritage.org

Ramsey House was built in 1797 by Knoxville’s first builder, Thomas Hope, for Francis Alexander Ramsey. The structure is significant for original interior and exterior architectural features and its period decorative art collection. The Ramsey Family was one of the first families to settle the Knoxville area. They played vital roles in developing civic, educational and cultural institutions. Colonel Francis A. Ramsey was one of the founding trustees of Blount College, now the University of Tennessee. One of his sons, Dr. J.G.M. Ramsey authored an early history of the state, The Annals of Tennessee. Another son, William B.A. Ramsey, was the first elected mayor of Knoxville.

Tours: Wednesday-Saturday, 10:00am to 4:00pm (last tour at 3:00pm)
Info: 865-546-0745, 2614 Thorngrove Pike, Knoxville, TN 37914. www.ramseyhouse.org