Calendar of Events

This exhibit includes photography on a myriad of topics by second-year photography students.

The exhibit is free. 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

OPENING RECEPTION - Monday, February 29, 2016 at the Ewing Gallery, 6-8PM Awards at 7PM

Begun in 1947 by C. Kermit Ewing, founder of The University of Tennessee School of Art, the annual student exhibition has become one of the oldest competitions in the country and one of the highlights of the Ewing Gallery's exhibition season. This competition has been an outlet for UT's talented students for 69 years, wherein countless works of art of every form and medium have been displayed and applauded by The University and Knoxville community. The selection of a student art exhibition is a challenging but meaningful task, and we are grateful for this year's jurors: Pete Schulte and Amy Pleasant (Fine Arts), Bob Newman (Graphic Design), and Nathan Rees (Academic Papers). Please join us for this exciting reception and to see what the UT students have been hard at work creating.

Gallery hours: Mon-Wed & Fri 10-5, Thurs 10-7:30, Sun 1-4.

Ewing Gallery, 1715 Volunteer Blvd on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Information: 865-974-3200, www.ewing-gallery.utk.edu

The Pro Arte Quartet was founded in 1911-12 by students at the Brussels Conservatory and quickly became an exponent of modern music worldwide. During a visit to Madison, WI in 1940, the musicians were stranded by Hitler's invasion of Belgium and the outbreak of World War II. Following their concert on campus, the University of Wisconsin chancellor offered a permanent home to the quartet - it was the first such residency ever in a major American university, and became the model on which many other similar arrangements were developed at other institutions.

Today, in addition to widely acclaimed performances of standard classical repertoire, the Pro Arte continues its tradition of championing new music. In recent years, the quartet has recorded all the chamber music of Ernest Bloch, the fourth and fifth quartets of Andrew Imbrie, and the first and second quartets of Tamar Diesendruck. They commissioned the ninth quartet of Ralph Shapey, premiered Walter Mays' Quartet in G Minor, were recently awarded Koussevitsky Foundation grants for new works by Brian Fennelly and Tamar Diesendruck, and have given numerous New York premieres. In collaboration with Samuel Rhodes of the Juilliard Quartet, the Pro Arte has performed the viola quartets of Roger Sessions and Samuel Rhodes.

The Pro Arte Quartet performs throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, has performed at the White House, and is the resident ensemble of the Chazen Museum of Art, for whom they perform a series of five live radio broadcasts per season. Other projects include a Bartok Quartet Cycle performed in one evening, a Shostakovich Quartet Cycle, and participation in a Beethoven Cycle with the Orion and Emerson String Quartets.

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 is located at 1408 Middle Drive on the UT campus. 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

Presented by Center for Student Engagement, Central Program Council
Culture Week is a week-long program featuring events related to culture, linguistics, food, religion, and social groups.
This event will feature a panel on culture with preset questions and a Q & A session.

Alumni Memorial Building Performance Hall 32, 1408 Middle Drive - Knoxville. For more information regarding this event or to arrange disability accommodations, please contact the Center for Student Engagement at (865) 974-5455.
http://go.utk.edu/events/culture-week-what-is-culture-panel/

Southern Appalachia is rich in history and natural beauty, so the Blount County Public Library is hosting a series of four programs that will emphasize the natural history, indigenous peoples, European immigration, and the resultant culture and social history of our area.

The first speaker, Dr. Paul Threadgill, Professor of Biology at Maryville College, will cover “The Natural History of Southern Appalachia” on Monday, February 29, at 7 p.m. “The Southern Appalachians are ancient mountains,” says Threadgill. “Their rugged topography, favorable climate, and abundant fresh water provide a multitude of habitats which support a rich diversity of living organisms. Over the years successive groups of people have called the Southern Appalachians home.” This presentation will offer a brief overview of the natural history of the Southern Appalachians, touching on their underlying geology, climate, soils, water resources, and biological communities, with a focus on east Tennessee. Dr. Threadgill teaches Introductory Biology, Botany, Natural History of the Southern Appalachians and is co-leader of an international experiential class during which students visit England, Wales, and Northern Ireland to explore Celtic influences on southern Appalachian culture. Since 1998 Dr. Threadgill has been a trip leader for the Wildflower Pilgrimage that takes place each April in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. His research interests include the vegetation of the southern Appalachians and the ecology of wildflowers.

March 29 - The second lecture of this Southern Appalachian Studies series will on will cover the indigenous peoples of the area going back to the first inhabitants through the 1700’s, focusing on how the environment enabled people to live and thrive in this area.

April 18 - The third lecture will discuss what happened when Europeans began moving into the area and encountered the Native Americans.

May 23 - The fourth lecture will concentrate on the resulting culture of the Southern Appalachians which some folks call “hillbilly”.

Free and open to the public. Blount County Public Library, 508 N. Cusick Street, Maryville, TN. Information: 865-982-0981, www.blountlibrary.org

The Town of Farragut and Farragut Arts Council will sponsor the 2016 Farragut Intermediate Schools Juried Art Show this winter at the Farragut Town Hall. Don't miss this opportunity to marvel at the work of some of Farragut's most talented young artists from Farragut Intermediate School and St. John Neumann Catholic School. Awards will be given for best in show and first, second and third places during a reception on Tuesday, March 1.

Reception: Tuesday, March 1 - 4:30 - 6 p.m.

View the exhibition during regular Town Hall hours: Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
At 11408 Municipal Center Dr, Farragut, TN 37934. Information: 865-966-7057, www.townoffarragut.org

History, Food, & Fun! Enhance your time in Historic Downtown with Knoxville’s Award Winning, Original Tour! Enjoy a complete Knoxville experience in just a few hours – enjoy tastings of specially selected dishes from some of Knoxville’s best new and iconic restaurants featuring local, regional, Southern & Appalachian cuisine; add pairings of beer from local and craft breweries, wine flights, craft cocktails, Tennessee whiskey, or even moonshine; hear the history of the city and notable buildings. A must for locals and visitors!

Reservations Required. Purchase Tickets at www.knoxvillefoodtours.com or call 865-201-7270.

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts is exhibiting an interactive installation Working Memory, by Chalet Comellas in the Geoffrey A. Wolpert Gallery. A closing reception will be held Friday, March 11th from 6-8pm. Admission is free and the community is encouraged to attend with their friends and family.

Working Memory is an interactive installation composed of a quilt-like structure made of fabric, ephemera, paintings and sound. The exhibit creates narratives from memories by reinventing materials such as clothing, textiles and found objects. The viewer can shift and change the work to construct new narratives.

Chalet Comellas is an interdisciplinary artist who works in painting, sculpture, fiber art, video and new-media installation. Chalet is an Assistant Art Professor at Florida State University where she received her Master of Fine Arts in 2012. She has performed and exhibited her work in museums, art fairs and galleries including In Light Richmond, hosted by 1708 Gallery in Richmond, VA (2014), Grace Exhibition Space in Brooklyn, New York (2013) and Fountain Art Fair in Miami (2012). Chalet has participated in several public art projects in Florida including an outdoor video installation commissioned by the Tampa Museum of Art during Art Basel Miami (2006). For more information, visit her website at www.chaletcomellas.com.

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

Edward S. Albers, Jr. has a unique way of capturing travel memories. Rather than the traditional camera, he travels with paints, a sketchbook, and a folding stool and often skips shopping for a scenic spot and an hour of sketching. Visitors to the Museum of East Tennessee History can vicariously travel the world with Bud Albers through a selection of his most interesting and beautiful paintings, such as Dublin Doorway, Saint Basil’s Cathedral, Russia, and Hong Kong Harbor from Victoria. Local pieces include a painting of Bud’s grandfather Andrew J. Albers, seated in his carriage and holding his small son, Edward S. Albers, Sr., who became Bud’s father. In the background is the family’s beautiful home that stood on the corner of Market and Locust, until torn down to make way for the present Medical Arts Building. The painting reproduces the scene from an old photograph. The exhibition, Bud Albers Recollections: Works from Life and Travels, is on view in the Bilo Nelson Auditorium of the East Tennessee History Center.

Albers is a retired businessman, philanthropist, and artist, whose family is deeply rooted in Knoxville and East Tennessee. He has a strong interest in history, and his vision was instrumental in the creation of the Museum of East Tennessee History.

East Tennessee Historical Society, 601 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Museum hours: M-F 9-4, Sa 10-4, Su 1-5. Information: 865-215-8824, www.easttnhistory.org

Want to learn a new language in the New Year? Sequoyah Birthplace Museum in Vonore, TN is offering a beginning and an advance beginner Cherokee language class on the following Mondays, February 8, 15, 22, 29, 2016 from 6:30 – 9 p.m. The cost of the class is $40 for all four evenings. The class will be taught by Shirley Oswalt and Mary Brown who are members of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indian.

Anyone interested in taking this class should contact the museum to reserve your space. In case of inclement weather please be sure to call ahead first.

Sequoyah Birthplace Museum, 576 Hwy 360, Vonore, TN 37885. Hours: M-Sa 9-5, Su 12-5. Information: 423-884-6246, www.sequoyahmuseum.org

Opening reception Feb. 12 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.; artists’ talks at 6:30 p.m.

Heather Hartman is interested in the constant flux of the visual world, and our temporary space within it. Through common distortions of light, shadow and atmosphere the familiar can become abstracted and unfamiliar. Thus -- for a fleeting moment -- the mundane is transformed into the sublime. Using a material-driven painting process, her work explores how these phenomena affect her sense of perception and physical location. She uses reductive abstraction to synthesize memories, found images and photographs of her surroundings into multilayered compositions. She has developed a process that involves painting on layers of paper and translucent polyester mesh, allowing her to explore illusionism both in paint and in actual space. The resulting images are a combination of blurry, atmospheric forms and distorted shadows that lie beneath washes of color, and intense passages of light. http://heatherhartmanart.com

Jessica Payne - This series of paintings developed after Payne took three years off from painting to focus on art journaling. After enrolling in a number of online technique courses, she found that she most enjoyed learning about and playing with layering. In her current work, Jessica uses bold color and extensive layering to create depth and mystery. She builds up many layers of paint by constantly painting over her work while leaving some of the previous layers exposed, creating windows or portals to other worlds. She uses glitter, mica flakes and iridescent paint to catch the light and allow the painting to dramatically change, depending upon the light source. Her approach to her art is very spontaneous and playful and draws inspiration from color and imagery found in the garden and forest surrounding her house. www.JessicaPayneArt.com

Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919. Gallery hours: 10 AM – 5 PM, Monday through Thursday and 10 AM – 1 PM, Sunday. Information: 865-523-4176, www.tvuuc.org

Blount County Public Library has been selected to be one of nine sites in the nation to host Discover Earth: Our Changing Planet, a national traveling exhibition exploring the fascinating world of earth science.
Discover Earth: Our Changing Planet explores Earth’s ever-changing physical and biological systems using stunning media and interactive experiences. Earth science topics in the exhibit include topics such as short and long-term time changes, the differences between weather and climate, and what it means to be a steward of our amazing planet.

The exhibition will be displayed at the library from February 3 through April 29. Blount County Public Library will also offer a related series of public events to bring STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programming to children, teens and adults.

The Grand Opening and kick-off event will be on Saturday, February 6, at 2 p.m. Mike Maslona, Great Smoky Mountains National Park Ranger, will give a presentation “National Park Service – 100 Years Old” describing the mission of the National Park Service, in its 100th anniversary year, to conserve over 400 diverse park units throughout the United States and their rich natural and cultural history while also providing for their enjoyment unimpaired for future generations.
Among other presentations during the exhibit will include “Reporting the Weather” by WATE-TV meteorologist, Matt Hinkin, at 2 p.m. on Saturday, February 20. “The Natural History of Southern Appalachia” will be presented by Dr. Paul Threadgill, Biology Professor at Maryville College, on Monday, February 29, at 7 p.m. Other programs will be announced soon and will be available on the library website at www.blountlibrary.org or on calendars or call 865-982-0981.

When visiting the exhibition, plan to spend at least one to two hours or plan several visits. Because there are many interactive exhibits, plan sufficient time to explore the numerous topics and sciences.

The exhibition is free and open to the public during library hours, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Thursday; 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday; and 1 to 5:30 p.m. on Sundays.
Discover Earth: Our Changing Planet was developed by Space Science Institute’s National Center for Interactive Learning (NCIL), the American Library Association’s Public Programs Office, the Lunar and Planetary Institute and the Afterschool Alliance. Blount County Public Library, located at 508 N. Cusick Street, Maryville, where services are an example of your tax dollars at work for you.
For further information about library programs or services, call the library at 982-0981 or visit the Web site at www.blountlibrary.org .