Calendar of Events

Knoxville Children’s Theatre will present Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Jr., a musical stage version of the classic 1989 Walt Disney Studios film, specifically adapted for children and families. The play will be performed September 18 through October 4, Thursdays and Fridays at 7 PM; Saturdays at 1 PM and 5 PM; Sundays at 3 PM.

In a magical underwater kingdom, the beautiful young mermaid Ariel longs to leave her ocean home - and her fins - behind and live in the world above. But first she'll have to defy her father King Triton, make a deal with the evil sea witch Ursula, and convince the handsome Prince Eric that she's the girl whose enchanting voice he's been seeking. Many of the favorite songs of the Walt Disney film are brilliantly recreated on stage, such as the Oscar-winning “Under The Sea,” “Part Of Your World,” and “She’s In Love.” The script is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale and the Disney film , written and directed by John Musker and Ron Clements. The script is written by Doug Wright, with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman & Glenn Slater. The play is produced by special arrangement with Music Theatre International.

KCT will also host a series of "Under The Sea" tea parties to coincide with Saturday 1 PM and Sunday 3 PM performances of Disney's The Little Mermaid Jr. Performances with the tea-party option include September 19, 20, 26, 27; October 3 and 4, as interest and availability dictates. The $25 ticket price includes admission to the performance, as well as food, drinks, crafts and games, all with a special "Under The Sea" theme. Pre-registration is required by calling (865) 208-3677. All tea-party tickets must be pre-paid. Seating is limited.

Knoxville Children's Theatre, 109 E. Churchwell Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information: 865-208-3677, www.childrenstheatreknoxville.com

The Town of Farragut Arts Council presents decorative artist Barbara Enser as the featured artist for September and October. Located at the Farragut Town Hall, the exhibit highlights her paintings of various birds.

A Niagara Falls, New York, native, Enser's exhibit features bird paintings done in various media - including colored pencil, acrylics and oils - and painted birdhouses. A graduate of State University of New York at Albany, Enser taught high school mathematics at West High School in Knoxville in the 1980s, as well as at schools in Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and North Carolina. She is a member of the Rocky Top Decorative Painters, the Middle Tennessee Decorative Artists and Society of Decorative Painters.

Each month, the work of an artist or group of artists is featured in specially designed cases on the second floor of the rotunda in the Farragut Town Hall. For more information about this exhibit or to access a Featured Artist of the Month application, please contact Lauren Cox at lcox@townoffarragut.org or 966-7057 or visit www.townoffarragut.org/artsandculture.

The Farragut Town Hall is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is located at 11408 Municipal Center Drive directly across from the Farragut Branch Post Office.

Reception: September 14, 3-5 p.m. Bagwell Center Gallery

The second edition of this very special exhibition highlights the artwork of students, created while they were studying abroad with the Tennessee Consortium for International Studies. This year's exhibit features work from Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, and various cities in India and Scotland.

Hardin Valley Campus of Pellissippi State: 10915 Hardin Valley Road, Knoxville, TN 37932. Bagwell Center Gallery hours: M-F 10-6:30. Information: 865-694-6405, www.pstcc.edu/arts

Oak Ridge Art Center invites you to the 47th Annual Open Show, a juried mixed-media exhibition open to all artists which showcases exceptional work produced throughout our region. Open Show 2015 will be displayed September 12 through November 7.

Opening Reception: Saturday, September 12, 7:00-9:00PM. Gallery opens at 6:00PM for viewing with a gallery talk at 6:30.
Daily gallery hours: Tuesday through Friday 9:00AM-5:00PM, Saturday through Monday, 1:00-4:00PM.

201 Badger Avenue, Oak Ridge. 865 482 1441 or www.oakridgeartcenter.org for more information.

This exhibition will take the viewer through the evolution of Himalayan artistic styles from the 8th century through the present. From gilded statues of deities, to complex and colorful paintings of religious figures, the objects in the exhibit explore how trade, travel, and the evolution of Buddhism helped foster a strong artistic tradition that continues today.

Exploring the rich history of Himalayan style art in a chronological fashion, the Tibetan bronzes and paintings featured will progressively lead the viewer through the major stylistic developments that took place and provide an introduction to the techniques used to produce these works as well as to the complex religious iconography depicted in them.

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

Arrowmont invites the public to view Time, a collaborative exhibit by Blair Clemo and Jason Hackett, in the Geoffrey A. Gallery. The exhibit showcases an array of utilitarian and sculptural ceramic works measuring time through developed surfaces, symbolic image, and historic and geologic form. Clemo’s work explores time as a significant venture in labor while Hackett’s work is intuitively developed around the concept of time.

Blair Clemo is an Assistant Professor of Craft and Material Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. He received his MFA in Ceramics at New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University in 2010. Originally from Doylestown Pennsylvania, Clemo spent many years out west studying ceramics and working at small production potteries in Idaho and Montana. He has been an Artist-in-Residence at The Northern Clay Center (Minneapolis, MN), the Da Wang Culture Highland (Shenzhen, China), the Zentrum für Keramik (Berlin, Germany) and The International Ceramics Studio (Kecskemét, Hungary) funded by the 2013 NCECA International Partnership Grant. Clemo’s utilitarian and installation work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions nationally and abroad. For more information, visit his website at www.ablairclemo.com.

Jason Hackett is currently the Studio Manager for the Department of Craft and Material Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, the same place from which he received his Master’s degree in Fine Arts in 2005. Prior to obtaining his Master’s degree, Jason held studio management positions for Jun Kaneko and Pewabic Pottery’s Education Studios. His artworks have been exhibited nationally and internationally at the Alexandria Museum of Art, San Angelo Museum of Fine Art, The Mobile Museum of Art, The Virginia Museum of Fine Art, The Taubman Museum of Art, The City Museum of Aviero in Portugal, Galateea Gallery in Bucharest, and the Visual Arts Center of Richmond. Jason was awarded the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship in 2013 for his collaged ceramic works.

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

An exhibit of new paintings at the west Knoxville Tomato Head restaurant.

The Gallery Shopping Center, 7240 Kingston Pike, Suite 172, Knoxville, TN 37919
T 865-584-1075

Info: www.JessicaPayneArt.com

Chicago-born Sandy Brown has degrees in art and education from Northeastern Illinois University, with post-graduate work in studio art and art history at Northern Illinois University. She was Executive Director of both the Monroe Arts Center in Monroe, Wisconsin, and the Monroe Area Council for the Arts in Madisonville, Tennessee. As a watercolorist and mixed media artist, Brown enjoys not only analyzing structure, but exploring atmospheric texture as well. Her painting style is spontaneous and changes as she works. She paints without reference to photos, preferring to be open to possibilities in the present moment. Among her strongest influences are the American Luminists, as well as Constable and Turner. Additionally she is drawn to van Gogh’s work for the passion of his brushwork and purity of color. Her focus is on painting change. Sandy’s emphasis on painting relationships, as opposed to “things,” drives both what she paints and how she paints it.

The exhibit opening reception is Friday, September 18, 2015 from 5:30 – 7:00 p.m. Brown will be on hand to informally discuss her work. The reception includes light refreshments and is free and open to the public. After the reception, Athens Community Theatre presents Steel Magnolias at 7:30 pm in the Sue E. Trotter Theatre. Tickets are $12 adult and $8 student. Athens Area Council for the Arts: 320 North White Street, Athens, TN, 37303. Hours: M-F 10-5. Info: 423-745-8781, www.athensartscouncil.org

In the Imagination Gallery at Children's Museum of Oak Ridge, 461 West Outer Drive, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. Hours: Tues-Fri: 9am - 5pm, Sat: 10am - 4pm, Sun: 1- 4pm

Opening reception: Sept 5, 2-4 PM

Phone: 865-482-1074, www.childrensmuseumofoakridge.org

An exhibition of recent art in a variety of media by Carson-Newman faculty members Chad Airhart, Lisa Flanary, Heather Hartman, Julie Rabun, Raquel Roy, David Underwood, and Mark Wankel.

Opening reception with the artists: Tue Sep 1, 3-5 PM

At Carson-Newman University, Warren Art Building, corner of Branner & S. College Streets, Jefferson City, TN 37760. Gallery hours: M-F 8-4. www.cn.edu

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