Calendar of Events

In the GEOFFREY A. WOLPERT GALLERY

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Gallery hours are Monday – Friday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm and Saturday and Sunday 10:00 am – 4:00 pm. Information: 865-436-5860, www.arrowmont.org

Art Exhibit at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church
Free and open to the public

When: Opening reception August 18 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.; artists’ talks at 6:30 p.m.

Carra Artis paints impressionistic landscapes in oil. She hopes the viewer, through her work, will appreciate the beauty of God’s creation and mankind’s mark on the landscape. She strives to capture the essence, time, light, and mood of the scene. Almost all of her paintings are “en plein air,” meaning painted on location, or plein air completed in the studio. After moving to East Tennessee in 2013, Artis was overjoyed to find a group of nurturing artists, “Tuesday Painters,” a weekly plein air painting group. She is currently their coordinator. A member of the Arts and Cultural Alliance, her work has hung in shows at the Emporium, winning an honorable mention at the Tennessee Artists Association show in 2016. She has continued her growth by studying with Kathie Odom, John Lasater IV, Jason Sacran, Dawn Whitelaw, and Peggy Root. She has been influenced by visits to major art museums in New York City, Washington, D.C., Paris, London, Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, Florence, and Dublin. Her paintings are in private collections in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

Zach Searcy creates mixed media work with paint, resin, found materials, and inkjet pigment transfers. Compositions juke, push, and pull to create a visceral experience. More recently the works have started to move through all axes, with compositions that spill over the side or toward the viewer. Materials and textures have become fixed in a way that the paintings become something that could be held or touched. This show of new works and old explores the experience of art’s function to take us to a faraway place as well as remind us that we are, in fact, right here. Searcy is a self-trained artist from Knoxville, Tennessee. He has been featured throughout the Southeast; at the NEXT Gallery in Denver, Colorado; and at the William King Museum of Art. He has served as a juror of the Dogwood Arts Festival. Once obsessed with browsing art on his smart phone late at night, Searcy brought this vision to curating a physical space in Knoxville: Zach Searcy Projects. The shows ranged from contemporary painting to a computer-controlled xylophone, and the space hosted for the Big Ears Documentary Project. He resides in Knoxville and splits his time between his studio and throwing darts with his brother.

Gallery hours: 10 AM – 5 PM, Monday through Thursday and 10 AM – 1 PM, Sunday
Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church Gallery, 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37918

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

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

Featuring works by outstanding Polish/American artist Marek Ranis, Art Professor from the Deptartment of Art and Art History at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. www.marekranis.com

Come celebrate Polish Constitution Day and reflect on our Polish American friendship!

Opening reception on May 5, 5:00-7:00 PM. This event is the part of our celebration of Polish Constitution Day!

Pienkow Gallery, Center for Polish Culture, 7417 Kingston Pk, Knoxville, TN 37919.
Info: (865) 584-4116. Viewing hours are M-F 9-5.

Instructor Kay List has found that although there are many fun art classes available, and they are certainly worth the enjoyment they bring to the participants, some budding artists are more serious about learning to paint and desire a more comprehensive class. Serious is also FUN! Kay’s "Beginning Drawing and Painting" class is designed just for you. For adults and High School students. The goal of the class is to bring the student to the point where he/she has enough beginning skills to continue working and practicing thereby improving their skills over time. Maximum class size is 6 students. $150 for six 2-hour classes.
CLASS SCHEDULE FOR 2017:

(Thursday evenings 7-9 PM): April 20 – May 25
June 8 – July 13
August 3 – September 7
September 21 – October 26

(Monday evenings 7-9 PM): June 5 – July 10
July 17 – August 21
September 18 – October 23

About Kay List: Kay majored in art at a 2-year college in California in 1963 and 1964. While married and raising 2 children Kay continued to paint, practicing her skills. In 2001 Kay began to paint on a consistent basis building a body of work before opening Envision Art Gallery in 2015. Kay currently is concentrating on showing and selling her work and starting oil painting classes. She was accepted into the November 2016 Artsclamation! Exhibition, is a member of the Arts and Culture Alliance of Knoxville and 2017 President of Tennessee Art Association in Knoxville TN. A new studio has been constructed for the purposes of continuing her work and hosting her art classes.

At 4050 Sutherland Ave, Knoxville, TN 37919 in the Bearden Art District. Website: www.kaylistart.com; www.envisionartgallery.com. Phone: 865-742-1882

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

With the love of art and entertainment it's no wonder that a bottle or two of wine would get involved to create Wine and Canvas! Awesome local artists, great customer service and beautiful surroundings make for an amazing experience that you don't find anywhere else. Sipping your favorite wine or cocktail, letting your inner artist out to create a masterpiece and maybe breaking into song throughout the night is what we have planned for you! Leave your cares at the door and dive in to the paint party! Best part - you take your artwork with you and leave the clean up behind! Local artists in each city inspire and Instruct Wine and Canvas customers step-by-step to create their finished masterpiece. Each location hosts many events monthly with a different featured painting each night. With our step-by-step instruction method customers without a stroke of painting experience are at ease.

Upcoming events:

$35 per session (unless otherwise noted). Wine & Canvas: Knoxville, TN, 865-356-9179, http://www.wineandcanvas.com/knoxville-tn.html

Six O’Clock Serve host, Wayne Bledsoe, has a special relationship with local musicians and has known and written about many of them for decades. The show's relaxed and informed interviews and performances welcome spontaneity. See who's coming up next on the Swerve calendar: https://wdvx.com/calendar/category/six-oclock-swerve/

Live from Barley's in Knoxville's Old City every Thursday, 6-7 PM. Tickets available at the door for $5.

Barley's Taproom and Pizzeria, 200 E Jackson Ave, Knoxville, TN 37915. Info: 865-544-1029, http://www.wdvx.com