Calendar of Events

Beginning Bridge Lessons is an introductory class that covers the bidding and play of hands, bidding in competition, the Two Over One bidding convention, No Trump bidding, and other bidding conventions for the beginner. Classes will be held on Tuesdays from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., beginning January 23, 2018, at the Knoxville Bridge Center, 7400 Deane Hill Drive. The first two classes are free; there after, the cost $5 per class. Bring a partner or, if not, we will provide one for you.

At the Knoxville Bridge Center, 7400 Deane Hill Drive. To register, follow this link http://www.knoxbridge.org/classes/, contact Jo Anne Newby at 865-539-4150 or email KnoxvilleBridge@gmail.com.

Ijams Nature Center Hosts Nature Preschool Information Sessions Jan. 23 and 31

Parents interested in learning more about the new Nature Preschool at Ijams Nature Center are invited to attend one of two information sessions scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 23, at 6 p.m. or Wednesday, Jan. 31, at 6 p.m. at the Ijams Visitor Center, 2915 Island Home Ave.
Scheduled to open in fall 2018, the Nature Preschool at Ijams Nature Center will focus on child-led, age-appropriate, experiential learning for children ages 3-5.

“Ijams is committed to encouraging and inspiring people of all ages to appreciate and care for the natural world,” Ijams Nature Education Director Jennifer Roder said. “Studies show that teaching young children about nature and encouraging nature play not only helps them develop and learn in fun and engaging atmosphere but also helps them develop a conservation ethic that will last throughout their lives.”

A nature-based preschool blends traditional education standards with the opportunity to learn about and explore the natural world. Children will spend most of the school day outdoors as they learn through play, discovery and inquiry. While they take part in age-appropriate and experiential learning opportunities, they will build a deeper bond with nature.

The Nature Preschool at Ijams Nature Center will align with and take inspiration from Waldorf Education principles, which focus on developing the whole child. Activities will provide sensory experiences with live animals, natural objects, artifacts, trail activities and art materials; encourage curiosity, cognitive growth and motor skills through unstructured, child-led outdoor adventures; build problem-solving, math and engineering skills through hands-on experiences; and cultivate social skills through group play and cooperative learning opportunities.

Ijams Nature Center also is hosting eight weeks of Nature Preschool Day Camp in summer 2018. Camps will be offered in morning and afternoon sessions each week starting June 4. The morning session runs from 9 a.m. to noon; the afternoon session runs from 1-4 p.m. Enrollment is open now. To register for Nature Preschool Day Camp, call 865-577-4717, ext. 114.

For more information about the Nature Preschool at Ijams Nature Center and the upcoming information sessions, visit www.ijams.org/nature-preschool.

Ijams Nature Center is a nonprofit, 315-acre educational nature center for all ages, abilities and walks of life. Located just three miles from downtown Knoxville, Ijams features 12 miles of hiking and mixed-use trails, a public access river dock, swimming, boating, biking and more. The Ijams grounds and trails are open every day from 8 a.m. until dusk. The Visitor Center is open Monday-Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit www.Ijams.org or call 865-577-4717.

Part of the Clayton Center for the Arts 2017-2018 season!
Columbia Artists Management LLC Presents Direct from Dublin, Ireland
An extravaganza of sights and sounds of Irish Culture. An all-star cast brings to life the epic tale of Celtic culture, carrying its traditional melodies and steps to the New World with a Gala Celebration of Irish Music and Dance.

The journey begins in rural Ireland, prior to the Famine, in kitchens, barns and fields. As the Great Hunger closes in, the people look West, across the Ocean, to New York City. Mingling with immigrants from around the globe, the Irish congregate in dance gatherings, some bound for the Appalachian Mountains where ancient Irish melodies fuse with African rhythms, creating American tap dance and early roots music. The journey leads us to the present moment, celebrating the incredible evolution of Irish traditional dance and music, and showcasing the new pioneers who will define the new standard of Traditional Irish music and dance.

Choreographed by Anthony Fallon
Clayton Center for the Arts: 502 East Lamar Alexander Parkway, Maryville, TN 37804. Information/tickets: 865-981-8590, www.ClaytonArtsCenter.com

In 2015, legendary guitarist Bill Frisell teamed up with Michael Gibbs, one of his former Berklee College of Music professors, and the famed NDR jazz orchestra of Germany to record a full length recording of music for big band. The fruits of that recording will be performed live in the U.S. for the first time at this very special event. The New York Times proclaimed that Frisell “plays up the pleasure in the music, and also takes on another often-avoided subject, tenderness.” The Philadelphia Inquirer stated that “Frisell is a revered figure among musicians - like Miles Davis and few others, his signature is built from pure sound and inflection; an anti-technique that is instantly identifiable”

At At The Mill and Mine, 227 West Depot Avenue, Knoxville, TN, 37917. Knoxville Jazz Orchestra: 865-573-3226, www.knoxjazz.org

Guest artist recital

NHMC Band Room 135, Natalie L. Haslam Music Center

Unless otherwise noted, concerts are FREE and open to the public. The Natalie Haslam Music Center is located at 1741 Volunteer Blvd on the UT campus, and the Alumni Memorial Building is located at 1408 Middle Drive 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

A new special exhibit - "The Battle of Campbell Station" - will open January 22 at the Farragut Museum and remain through Friday, June 15.

The exhibit features items from the personal collection of local community member Gerald Augustus, including artifacts from the battle, fought Nov. 16, 1863, on the land surrounding the Farragut Town Hall.

A special "Friends Only" exhibit preview will precede a lecture by Augustus on Sunday, January 21. Friends are invited at 1:30 p.m. for refreshments. General admission begins at 2:30 p.m. If you are not a Friend and wish to join, you are welcome to register during the preview. The lecture on the battle begins at 3 p.m.

The Farragut Museum is committed to preserving the heritage of its East Tennessee community and features a remarkable collection of artifacts from the area, including an extensive collection of the personal belongings of Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, first Admiral of the U.S Navy and hero of the Civil War. Housed in Farragut Town Hall located at 11408 Municipal Center Drive, the museum is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and offers free admission.

Farragut Town Hall, 11408 Municipal Center Dr, Farragut, TN 37934. Hours: M-F 10-4:30. Information: 865-966-7057, www.townoffarragut.org/museum

The 2018 Farragut Primary Schools Art Show, sponsored by the Town of Farragut, opens Monday, Jan. 22, and will be on display through Thursday, Feb. 1 in the Farragut Town Hall..

Don't miss the opportunity to view the work of some of the community's most talented young artists from Concord Christian School, Farragut Primary School, Knoxville Christian School, and St. John Neumann Catholic School.

There will be a reception to honor participating private school artists from 5-6 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 23, and a reception to honor participating public school artists from 5-6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 25.

Farragut Town Hall, 11408 Municipal Center Dr, Farragut, TN 37934. Hours: M-F 10-4:30. Information: 865-966-7057, www.townoffarragut.org/museum

The Hammer Ensemble, Flying Anvil Theatre’s performance wing dedicated to social justice issues, will present The Pall: In the Shadows of Human Trafficking January 21–23 in partnership with Freedom 4/24, a national organization that aids victims of human trafficking. The Pall focuses on the plight of those forced into sex and labor trafficking, a global issue unfolding as close as the next interstate exchange.

The Hammer seeks to embody the essence of Bertolt Brecht’s comment: “Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.” The Pall was developed by the Hammer Ensemble and co-written by John F. Ferguson and Linda Parsons.

By donation only, all proceeds go to Freedom 4/24 in coordination with Run 4 Their Lives, a 5k run/walk on January 27 to raise awareness and funds to bring sexually exploited women and children into freedom. http://www.freedom424.org/knoxville-tn/

Performances are January 21–23, Sunday–Tuesday, 7:30 pm, Flying Anvil Theatre, 1300 Rocky Hill Rd, Knoxville 37919. Call 865-357-1309 for more information. Adults only.

Flying Anvil Theatre, 1300 Rocky Hill Road, Knoxville. Information: 865-357-1309, www.flyinganviltheatre.com

Opening Reception: Saturday, January 20, 8:30pm - til*

C For Courtside is pleased to present its inaugural exhibition, "A Half Note Familiar." The show will include the works of its founding members Lynne Ghenov, Joshua Bienko, John Powers and Rubens Ghenov along with four artists specifically selected by each C for Courtside Directors. Mirroring the intentions of the space itself, "A Half Note Familiar” seeks to consider work from inside and outside the region in a way that contributes to and influences broader contemporary dialogues.

* In solidarity with justice seeking peace minded artists and creative individuals across the world, we are participating in an International Day of Art Action on the one-year anniversary of the United States Presidential UNauguration. We join Laurie Anderson (the brainchild of The Day of Art Action) in our intentions, seeking to unite, connect and celebrate a spirit of love, peace and understanding based in the simple hope that artistic production symbolizes.

Lynne Ghenov has selected Melissa McGrath's work due to the approximation of their praxes and content. Melissa’s work is a response and reflection of a consistent trauma and disaster that has occurred in the landscape where she was raised inscribed on paper through fire. Lynne uses ledger gridded paper salvaged from her parents’ home office acquired after her mother’s death, wherein memory organically and symbolically investigates itself in form within the confines of the stoic gridded structure.

Joshua Bienko’s selection of Eleanor Ray sits in the attraction to slippages that can occur between works. What at once might appear quiet and tragic, holds the potential to become loud and humorous, and vice-versa. Though a dissimilarity may seem obvious at first, they also, perhaps surreptitiously and subtly begin to harmonize more than contrast, operating in cahoots as it were, in a psychological and physical interior space.

John Powers and Kim Faler are engaged in parallel explorations of systems, pattern, sub-pattern, language and personal narrative. Their shared interest in small, potentially mundane moments, rubs against evocations of the unseen forces and glacial timelines that frame our world. Their included works here variously address the passage of time, energy exchange, collapsed narratives and the veil separating the familiar from the anonymous.

Lastly, Rubens Ghenov here compeers his work to that of Claudia Peña Salinas’. Both of Latin American descent (Brazilian and Mexican respectively), their work strangely resides akin to the geometric abstraction of Central and South American artists, though the impetus here may emanate elsewhere. A specific coloration and insertion of memorabilia and objects are inherently present in both, forging an architectonic of the personal mired in the historical and the fictive.

C for Courtside is an artist-run curatorial project space located just north of downtown Knoxville. Founded in the fall of 2017 with the intentions of facilitating multiple creative activities, the Directors (John Powers, Joshua Bienko, Lynne Ghenov and Rubens Ghenov) will work to add to the exciting artistic development and momentum already at foot in the Southeast. In addition to exhibitions, C for Courtside will host artist lectures and guest speakers, live performances, pop-up shows, experimental theatre, justice seeking organizations in need of a place to meet, and other situationist aligned activities. Each endeavor will aim to extend the space of the gallery beyond its physical limitations, while fostering a community based in and on the exigencies of art-making. The launch of the space has been made possible in part by the support of Ann and Steve Bailey Opportunity Grant.

C for Courtside Gallery, 513 Cooper Street, Knoxville, TN 37917
Info: cforcourtside@gmail.com

Between 2006 and 2009, an international team of historians, archaeologists, and geographers traveled to France to rediscover and document where Fentress County-native Sergeant Alvin C. York made his heroic stand. In the Footsteps of Sergeant York, a traveling exhibition from the Museum of the American Military Experience, showcases this groundbreaking research and allows visitors to retrace the steps of one of America's best-known military heroes.

Through the new interactive exhibit, the East Tennessee Historical Society invites you to step back into the the trenches of WWI, to hear the sounds of war, view clips of the film on York's life, see items from the York home along with other interesting artifacts, and experience the front line that made the man from Pall Mall, Tennessee an international superstar.

In the Footsteps of Sergeant York will be on display in the Rogers-Claussen Feature Gallery at the East Tennessee History Center. The exhibit and corresponding programming is presented in partnership with the Museum of the American Military Experience, Tennessee State Parks, The Sergeant York Patriotic Foundation, the University of Tennessee's Center for the Study of War and Society, and the Knox County Public Library.

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

Join us for the opening reception of the Bagwell Center's first 2018 art exhibition: Magic in Folds of Tajtania. Light refreshments will be provided. Tuesday, January 16 at 3 PM - 5 PM

Tatiana Potts is an artist, instructor, printmaker, bookmaker and ceramist. She pulls influence from her travels and her Slovakian heritage. Forever inspired by drawing, she is very much interested in a “world of making.” She constructs, reinvents and combines environments—revealing shadows of the self—using composites of memories, imaginations and architectural structures.

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

"Ebony Imagery XVII" - a Mixed Media Exhibition by African American Artists from Tennessee;
"Travelogue: Colma, California's Religious Stained Glass" - photographs by Nicole Ferrara; and
"Selections from the Permanent Collection" - featuring International Artists including Henri Matisse, Karl Appel, Salvador Dali and many others.

Opening Reception: Sunday Afternoon, January 14, from 2:00 to 4:00 PM, Gallery Talk at 4:00 PM. The event is free and open to the public. Bring your friends and family!

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