Calendar of Events

Set in Reagan-era New York, the play follows forty-eight hours in the lives of three wayward adolescents on the cusp of adulthood. Shy 19-year-old Warren has stolen $15,000 from his abusive father and turns to his bullying friend Dennis to hide both him and the money. Dennis then hatches a plan to score a major drug deal with the money, as well as to help romance Jessica, the girl Warren pines for. By turns funny, caustic and compassionate, it is a snapshot of the moment when many young people go out into the world, far less effectual than they could possibly imagine.

This production contains strong language and adult themes and is recommended for mature audiences only.

A Pay What You Wish Preview performance will be held Wednesday, October 26, a talk back with the cast will take place Sunday, November 6 following the 2:00 pm matinee, and an Open Captioned performance is on Sunday, November 13 at 2:00 pm.
Lab Theatre, 1714 Andy Holt Ave on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. For information: 865-974-5161, www.clarencebrowntheatre.com. For tickets: 865-974-5161, 865-656-4444, www.knoxvilletickets.com

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts invites you to view Pigment of Our Imagination – an exhibition by artists Sam Mitchell and Aric Verrastro. Pigment of Our Imagination showcases an array of mixed-media jewelry pieces created by Mitchell and Verrastro independently and collaboratively. Mitchell's whimsical adornment explores childhood themes through personal memory and new experiences she shares with her son. Verrastro's vibrant work reflects the energy of a city environment and its nightlife.

Sam Mitchell is a maker and educator residing in Iowa City, IA. She received her BFA from James Madison University in 2009 and her MFA in Metal and Jewelry Arts from the University of Iowa in 2014. Mitchell was a recipient of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Grant in 2012. Her most recent work has been shown at Sieraad in Amsterdam (2015), AV Gallery in Vilnius, Lithuania (2014) and The Walker Center in Minneapolis, MN (2014). For more information, visit her website at www.aldentedesigns.com.

Aric Verrastro is currently a foundations lecturer at the University of Wisconsin – Stout in Menomonie, WI. Verrastro received his MFA in Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design from Indiana University in 2015. Aric was recently selected as a finalist for the 2016 Art Jewelry Forum Artist Award. Verrastro’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in Milwaukee, WI, Bloomington, IN, New York, NY, Houston, TX, Aspen, CO, Vilnius, Lithuania, Stockholm, Sweden, Munich, Germany and more. For more information, visit his website at www.aricverrastro.com.

In the Geoffrey A. Wolpert Gallery. Admission is free and open to the public. 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

Opening reception on Fri Oct 14, 6:30-8:00 PM. Free and open to the public.

Exhibit viewing hours: Tu, Th 9-5; W, F 10-5; Sat 9-1. Fountain City Art Center, 213 Hotel Ave, Knoxville, TN 37918. Information: 865-357-2787, http://www.fountaincityartcenter.com/

Open Show 2016, Juried exhibition by regional artists, through November 5th.

Oak Ridge Art Center, 201 Badger Avenue, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. Hours: Tu-F 9-5, Sa-M 1-4. Information: 865-482-1441, www.oakridgeartcenter.org

Back for her third showing at The Tomato Head, Ruth Allen skillfully crafts vivid drawings and paintings featuring nature’s flowers and wildlife. Since her last visit from Athens, Georgia, Ruth has had two paintings selected for juried shows and currently has a painting showing at ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Her work will be on view at Market Square from October 2 through November 7 and will then move to the West Knoxville Gallery on November 7 through December 5. For more artist information, please visit The Tomato head blog: http://thetomatohead.com/ruth-allen-featured-artist/ or https://www.etsy.com/shop/100tinybluebirds

Tomato Head, 12 Market Square (865-637-4067) and 7240 Kingston Pike, Suite 172 (865-584-1075), in Knoxville.

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts is exhibiting over 70 silk paintings by 36 national and international artists in two exhibitions. The exhibitions are in conjunction with the Silk Painter International’s (SPIN) biennial conference “Silk in Transition” being held at Arrowmont October 7-15, 2016. Arrowmont invites the public to view the exhibitions and attend the reception. Admission is free.

A reception will be held Saturday, October 8, 2016, 6-8pm. Awards will be announced at 7pm.

SPIN members were asked to create works that answer the questions, “What does silk painting mean to you? What does it mean to the silk artist? What does it mean in a transforming landscape?” The result is a dynamic group of silk paintings, sculptures and installations that explore a variety of themes and subjects. Silk Painters International (SPIN) is an international organization of silk artists, painters, practitioners and educators. Their mission is to establish silk painting as a recognized art form by encouraging and promoting the collecting, displaying and production of silk art at the highest level.

In the Sandra J. Blain Gallery. Admission is free and open to the public. 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

In honor of Knoxville’s 225th anniversary, this exhibition explores the city’s heritage as seen through archaeological discoveries in the “Heart of the Valley.” Using historic artifacts unearthed in and around Knoxville, along with historical images, maps, documents, and oral histories, the exhibition tells the story of Knoxville’s development from a frontier settlement to an industrialized city.

Opening reception for members on Fri Sep 16, 5-7 PM.

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

Please join us for our new exhibition! Opening reception Fri Sep 2, 5-7 PM in the main lobby of the consulate office, which hosts modern art from both established and emerging Polish artists. Please RSVP: drpienkowski@gmail.com or 865-584-4112

Marcin Kowalik’s paintings are dominated by abstract forms and empty spaces while featuring vibrant colors, illusions and a precision of lines and geometric structures. His work is nonanthropocentric – human figures rarely appear, and when they do, they are faceless, devoid of identity. Kowalik’s perception of reality dictates his work. His gaze is the architect’s – registering solids, enriching them with vibranace and a dose of artful spontaneity which gives rise to his novel, uncanny universe. For Kowalik, Picasso is a master of augmented reality. Kowalik is primarily interested in the Cubist period in the work of the Spanish artist, in the composition of spatial forms and their fragmentation. One of Picasso’s most fascinating aspects is his extraordinary inventiveness. Paintings, which appear shattered into prismatic fragments and recomposed without conformity to their initial arrangement, can be ‘read’ from the foreground, followed along the path delineated by the painter and, suddenly, apprehended not from the front, but sidewise.

In 1944, Pablo Picasso joined the Communist Party. It seems to have provided him with a model of victory and strength which he begins to identify with the Communists. His joining the Party has obvious roots in his painting, which he considered to be more than a mere source of pleasure. Line and color were his arms, which he wielded in his revolutionary fight. He confided in Communism, enchanted with the specious beauty of its motivating ideals, but was even more partial to the company he could find in its circles. The stage in the life of the celebrated cubist sparked Marcin Kowalik’s new cycle. The cycle on a (wo)man at work. Each of the thirty canvases represents a person with their occupational attribute. The different quality of the paintings in “A Tale of the Working (Wo)Man” cycle arises from the overload of minimalism, the pinnacle of which was reached by Kowalik in his work on “Convergents”, one of his most recent projects.

Here, he has sought chaos – introduced into his art by people, as various and volatile as the nature of painting. Despite his desire to renounce his creative asceticism, Kowalik’s human is still confined by the minimalist formal limits. To demonstrate a human form, it is sufficent to simply sketch an eye, the shape of a head and, immediately, a face outline becomes recognizable. This is the machination of the human mind – symmetrical points are sufficient for our imagination to fill in the missing parts. Apparently, the human has finally moved to the center of the young painter’s field of interest. However, these are mere appearances. Kowalik does not stray far from home and attempts to misplace the human figure, offering its simplest possible representation. He tells the tale of a human, but his tale is extremely complex and multi-faceted. He posed the challenge and has risen to it himself – undertaking the effort of organizing the experiment. He invited over a dozen of amateur painters to cooperation on committing to canvas their image of an occupation, inspired by the output of the author of “The Weeping Woman”. Website: www.kowalik.art.pl

Viewing hours M-F 8-5, Sat 8-11:30 AM. At the Center for Polish Culture | Pienkow Art Gallery, 7417 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919. http://www.consulpoland.com/index.php/center-of-polish-culture/

The Knoxville Museum of Art announces Romantic Spirits: Nineteenth Century Paintings of the South from the Johnson Collection, featuring more than thirty 19th-century masterworks from the renowned Spartanburg, South Carolina-based collection.

The paintings in Romantic Spirits present an evocative glimpse into nineteenth-century Southern life, and reveal the importance of oral tradition and “a sense of place” in the development of the Romantic Movement in the South. The exhibition seeks to present a balanced view of how Romanticism evolved in the North and the South, the genre’s ties to Europe, and how culture, customs, education, and travel influenced each artist. It also reveals connections between featured painters and their contemporaries, specifically authors and poets such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, among others. One of the highlights of the exhibition is a masterful still life of peaches by Knoxville artist Lloyd Branson.

The public is invited to an exhibition preview reception on Thursday, August 25 from 5:30-7:30pm.

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

Get out and see some live music!
Open Chord Music, 8502 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919. Information: (865) 281-5874 or http://www.openchordmusic.com/live-music-venue

The MSFM, a project of Nourish Knoxville, is an open-air farmers’ market located on historic Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville. We are a producer only market – everything is either made, grown or raised by our vendors all within a 150 mile radius of the MSFM. Products vary by the season and include ornamental plants, vegetable and herb starts, produce, dairy, eggs, honey, meats, baked goods, jams/jellies, coffee, & artisan crafts.

With interactive fountains, live entertainment, delicious local groceries and tasty lunch options from some of Knoxville’s best food trucks, the MSFM is a perfect family destination. For events, please visit our special events page.

Location: Market Square Knoxville, TN 37902
Hours are Wednesday from 11am to 2pm & Saturday from 9am to 2pm
http://marketsquarefarmersmarket.org/

A world-class visual arts exhibition of large-scale outdoor sculpture which enliven downtown Knoxville, the McGhee Tyson Airport and Oak Ridge. Sculpture artist Isaac Duncan III, a Brooklyn, New York native who currently resides in Chattanooga, Tennessee served as the Juror for the 2016-2017 exhibition. #AIPP

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