Calendar of Events

Drawn from the extensive collection of the Reading Public Museum, this vibrant exhibition examines the key role played by artists’ colonies in the development of American Impressionism. It features more than 50 paintings and works on paper by Frank W. Benson, Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, Ernest Lawson, William Paxton, Robert Reid, Chauncey Ryder, John Twachtman, Julian Alden Weir, and many others.

Many of the nationally prominent artists represented in this exhibition have ties to East Tennessee and the KMA’s ongoing display Higher Ground: A Century of the Visual Arts in East Tennessee. More than a dozen participated in large art exhibitions held in conjunction with Knoxville’s 1910 and 1911 Appalachian Expositions, and the 1913 National Conservation Exposition. Their paintings appeared alongside those of several East Tennessee artists represented in Higher Ground, such as Catherine Wiley, Lloyd Branson, Adelia Lutz, Charles Krutch, and Hugh Tyler, to name a few. These sprawling and ambitious exhibitions were designed with the goal of bringing the “best contemporary art in America” to people of the region. The displays highlighted art currents of the day, and allowed East Tennessee artists to demonstrate their proficiency in a national context.

Among other ties, John F. Carlson served as a juror for the 1913 Expo art exhibition along with Knoxville impressionist painter Catherine Wiley. Robert Reid was one of Wiley’s art instructors during her studies in New York, and Mary Cassatt’s intimate domestic scenes inspired Wiley’s career-long interest in depicting women and children. As a result of these and other connections, this exhibition offers a broader national lens through which viewers can assess the work of Wiley, Branson, Lutz, Krutch, Tyler and other Higher Ground artists who also experimented with Impressionism.

Organized by the Reading Public Museum, Pennsylvania. The museum is holding an opening reception Thursday, August 10 from 5:30 to 7:30pm. This event is free and open to the public.

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

Who's ready for Back to School? We are! Find great deals on stylish clothes for the students in your family at Goodwill!

Now, looking great is even more affordable than ever! Show your college ID August 11-27 for a 25% student discount! Don't wait for tax-free weekend! Clothes at Goodwill are tax-free year-round!

Goodwill Industries-Knoxville: 865-588-8567, www.gwiktn.org

The Knoxville Watercolor Society will be exhibiting recent artwork from its members at the Knoxville Museum of Art. The museum and show are free and open to the public.

The public is invited to attend the Knoxville Watercolor Society's opening reception at the Knoxville Museum of Art on Sunday, August 20th, from 2 pm. until 4 pm. Meet the artists and enjoy complementary refreshments.

The Knoxville Watercolor Society is an active, juried membership group of regional artists. Additional information on membership is available online at www.knxvillewatercolorsociety.com.

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tu-Sa 10-5, Su 1-5. Information: 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org

Stories in Stitches: Quilts from the East Tennessee Historical Society’s Permanent Collection

East Tennessee families treasure quilts made by their ancestors. Besides warming and decorating the bed, quilts also serve as reminders of important events—births, weddings, service to our country, the death of loved ones. Often, these memories are preserved in notes attached to the quilts or through stories handed down to younger generations. Sometimes notes are lost and memories fade, leaving families with a "mystery quilt." Did Grandma Jones or Granny Smith make this quilt? Or, was it Aunt Jane? When did she make it? Why did she choose this pattern? What caused this stain or that tear? These are some of the mysteries that quilt historians try to address through genealogical research and technical analysis.

From histories handed down to mysteries that remain, the new feature exhibition at the Museum of East Tennessee History provides visitors the opportunity to learn the "stories in stitches" from the quilts that have been entrusted to the East Tennessee Historical Society. Stories in Stitches features more than two dozen quilts with dates ranging from c. 1820 to 2001. The exhibition will be on display in the Rogers-Claussen Feature Gallery of the East Tennessee History Center from August 7, 2017 - January 2, 2018. Stories in Stitches is dedicated to Linda Claussen and Ginny Rogers for their years of service and support of the East Tennessee Historical Society’s quilt collection.

When the East Tennessee Historical Society was founded in 1834, early collection efforts focused on books and manuscripts. In more recent decades, objects began to be added, and the idea of displaying them in a museum grew. The ETHS Permanent Collection acquired its first quilt in 1992, one year before the Museum of East Tennessee History opened on the first floor of the renovated Customs House. Now a part of the expanded East Tennessee History Center, the museum and its collection includes more than 100 quilts. The ETHS Permanent Collection focuses on quilts made or used in one of East Tennessee’s 35 counties. An acquisitions committee reviews potential additions, evaluating the quilt’s history, condition, and importance to the collection as a whole. Some quilts are displayed in the museum’s signature exhibition, Voices of the Land: The People of East Tennessee. Others are cared for in climate-controlled storage and are brought out for special events or exhibitions like this one. The exhibition highlights more than two dozen quilts in a variety of fabrics, and patterns, and highlights some of the families who have made and cherished them. Patterns include everything from Rose of Sharon and “Knoxville Crazy Quilt” to a Civil War memory quilt and one pieced together out of clothing labels. The quilters range from John Sevier’s wife Bonny Kate to the Smoky Mountain Quilters of Tennessee.

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

A resident of Maryville, Jon Pemberton makes wildly creative pop culture art work featuring icons. A self-proclaimed nerd, Jon says "I used to hide the fact that I may or may not be a geek, but I have come to understand that being a geek means that you are passionate about something to an extreme point. These are images of my passion, and I accept that."

Rala, 112 W. Jackson Ave, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-525-7888, https://shoprala.com/

The Art Guild at Fairfield Glade presents its 8th Annual Judged and Juried Fine Arts Show. This exciting show will begin with an Awards Reception on Friday, August 4th, starting at 5:00 p.m.

In addition to wall art including pieces in photography, watercolor, oil, acrylic, pastel, pen, ink, and pencil, artists proficient in clay, sculpture, jewelry, wood-working, and mixed-media will be displayed. This year’s Juror-Judge is Joseph S. Mella, director of the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery. With almost 30 years of experience working in art museums, Joseph Mella manages, curates, and oversees the operations of the Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery and its collections within the College of Fine Arts and Science.

Art Guild at Fairfield Glade at the Plateau Creative Arts Center, 451 Lakeview Drive, Fairfield Glade, TN 38558. Hours: M-Sa 9-4. Information: 931-707-7249, www.artguildfairfieldglade.net

This month's gallery exhibit features the work of Ijams' senior naturalist, Stephen Lyn Bales! A talented artist and designer who has been with Ijams for 19 years, Stephen Lyn also has written books on nature for UT Press including Natural Histories and Ghost Birds. His latest book, Ephemeral by Nature, will be available in the Ijams gift shop in September. All of the pen-and-ink works featured in the gallery were done in conjunction with one of his books, newspaper articles, River Rescue t-shirts or for interpretive signs at Ijams.

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

Recent works by photographer Ron Sullivan and potter Linda Sullivan will be on display. Ron Sullivan says about himself, "My photographic influences include photographer Jerry Uelsmann, whose work I first came across at Columbia College in Chicago. He is a master photographic composite artist whose surrealism developed in the darkroom before there was any such thing as digital manipulation. The objective of all of my images is the same as that for every painter, photographer, sculptor, poet, filmmaker: get the viewer to linger before the image, to wonder exactly what is being presented here. Is that a photograph, a watercolor, a print? In the current series titled Ports of Air, I am using composites of several images to correlate to Wallace Stevens’ poem, Anecdote of the Jar."

Linda Sullivan describes her process this way: " The process for creating crystalline work is challenging in that successful results require several steps to ensure that crystals form. Conditions must be just right – appropriate clay body, fluid glazes with specific chemical ingredients, correct thickness of glaze, and complex firing/cooling kiln cycle. As a result, the failure rate with this technique is greater than in my previous work. Still, experimenting with crystalline glazes has been a nice change of pace, and opening the kiln to see crystal formations on the pieces has been quite satisfying."

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

The Art Gallery at Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church (ORUUC) will present an exhibit of the work of Kathy Holland from July through September 8. A gallery opening talk and artist reception will be hosted at the church on Sunday July 16, at 12:30 p.m. The public is invited.

ORUUC is located at 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike in Oak Ridge. Admission to the gallery is free and open to the public Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. For artists interested in a showing contact Nancy Starr at starroakridge@gmail.com or call 865-483-8684.

Reception: September 1 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Stone, Mesh and Metal features prints by faculty from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville School of Art in the school’s nationally ranked printmaking program. Beauvais Lyons, Althea Murphy-Price and Koichi Yamamoto are pursuing their art using a variety of printmaking methods including lithography, screenprint and intaglio, reflecting the materials and processes of their chosen media. This exhibition offers a sampling of some of their recent investigations.

Blackberry Farm Gallery (Maryville College), Clayton Center for the Arts: 502 East Lamar Alexander Parkway, Maryville, TN 37804. Information: 865-981-8590, www.ClaytonArtsCenter.com

During the American Gilded Age, which offered unprecedented access to consumer goods, what one owned or had the ability to buy became an important way to assert one’s identity.

The American Gilded Age (1870–1900) was a time of rapid modernization and great expansion of the country’s middle class. Though there was also vast income disparity, most Americans experienced an increase in overall quality of life.

Mass manufacturing permitted most people to buy a wealth of new goods, and the growth of trade and travel meant that Americans had new access to, and interest in, goods from around the world. Suddenly, even the middle class could emulate the wealthy, and identity was bound more than ever to what one owned.

From fish forks and fashionable dress, to furniture and fine china, this exhibition explores the seemingly superficial personal and household objects consumed during this era and how they were visible and powerful symbols of wealth, power, and social class. They speak not only to the great change changes occurring in America at the time, but to our continuing preoccupation today with the objects we choose to buy, wear, and display.

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

Art in Public Places Knoxville (AIPPK), now in its 10th year, is a featured presentation of Dogwood Arts. In partnership with the City of Knoxville, Art in Public Places Knoxville is a juried exhibition of large-scale sculptures created by exceptional local, regional and national artists. The 2017-2018 Exhibition will feature up to twenty sculptures in downtown Knoxville, the McGhee Tyson Airport, and Oak Ridge as juried by Knoxville-based sculpture artist John Douglas Powers.

Dogwood Arts, 123 W. Jackson Ave, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-637-4561, www.dogwoodarts.com