Calendar of Events

By: Kenneth Jones

“Dynamic! Rich! Impressive! Cleverly crafted! Articulate! Razor-sharp!” Salt Lake Tribune

A gentle children’s book with an apparent hidden message stirs the passions of a segregationist senator and a no-nonsense state librarian in 1959 Montgomery, just as the Civil Rights Movement is flowering. Inspired by true events, Alabama Story puts politicians, star-crossed childhood friends, and one feisty author in a struggle for the soul of the Deep South.

Clarence Brown 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

At Bearden Goodwill, 5307 Kingston Pike Knoxville, TN, 37919

Goodwill is pleased to host the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program at our training center in Bearden. VITA provides free tax assistance to the community, particularly those with low and limited income, individuals with disabilities, non-English speaking and/or elderly taxpayers.

Please bring social security cards or ITIN letters for each person on the return, photo identification for the taxpayer and spouse, and all paperwork for your turn. This paperwork may include W-2s or 1099-MISCs for jobs, 1099-Rs for retirement income, 1099-INTs and 1099-DIVs for interest and dividends, and/or SSA-1099s for those on social security. Taxpayers who got their health insurance through healthcare.gov must have their 1095-A form. People with HSAs must have the 1099-SA showing how much was distributed to them.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday - 10am-3pm
For more information about VITA, visit www.irs.gov.
Goodwill Industries-Knoxville: 865-588-8567, www.gwiktn.org

First Friday Receptions: February 2 + March 2, 5-9PM, UT Downtown Gallery

Artist Lecture: Thursday, February 1, 7:30 PM
room 109, A+A Building, UT Campus

In this immersive installation, Christina A. West integrates figurative sculptures into an altered gallery space, playfully alluding to the space of the home as a stage set.

Free admission! UT Downtown Gallery, 106 S. Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902. Hours: W-F 11-6, Sat 10-3. Information: 865-673-0802, http://web.utk.edu/~downtown

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

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

Flying Anvil Theatre kicks off 2018 season with Mary’s Wedding, an epic love story set during the first world war. Love, hope and survival are the themes in Stephen Massicotte’s play, Mary’s Wedding, the first offering of an eight-show season by Flying Anvil Theatre.

The award-winning play follows Mary and Charlie from their awkward meeting in a barn during a thunderstorm across the prairies of Canada and the horrific battlefields of the first world war. Up and coming playwright Stephen Massicotte spins a breathtaking saga about young lovers who must surrender their fate to the uncertainties of their tumultuous times – a testament to the power of memory and hope that lingers like a remembered dream.

“It’s a simply gorgeous play,” director Jayne Morgan says. “Beautiful, heartbreaking and hopeful, all at the same time. “

The show stars UT students Emily Helton and Parker Jenkins. Lighting design is by Jon Chemay, with soundscapes by Mike Ponder. Steve Krempasky designed the set, which includes a logging sawbuck that doubles as horse. “The actors use this massive piece of logging equipment to simulate riding,” Morgan explains. “There’s something thrilling about it – they really manage to make you believe they are mounted on a draft horse or charging into a battle, saber drawn. It’s wonderful theatrical magic.” Critics have raved about the play, saying it “recalls the grand passion of Catherine and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights.”

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

"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

Join us for the opening day of our Winter Farmers' Market on January 13th!

Most vendors are located indoors in two fellowship halls, with food trucks outdoors in the parking lot. Farmers across East Tennessee are extending their growing seasons using greenhouses, high tunnels, and row covers, among other methods. Thanks to these hardworking farmers, you'll have a variety of fresh produce to choose from! As always, vendors at our market will offer an array of quality meat, eggs, honey, baked goods, and handcrafted items. Just like last year, we'll have Power of Produce (PoP) Club at each market, offering kids' activities led by educators from Beardsley Community Farm, The Center for Urban Agriculture, the YMCA Community Giving Gardens, Keep Knoxville Beautiful, The Muse, Ijams Nature Center, UT Gardens, and more! At each PoP Club, we'll offer a fruit or vegetable for kids to taste. Every participating child between the ages of 2 and 12 will get $5 in PoP Bucks to spend at the market!

The market will be held every other Saturday, 10am to 2pm, at Central United Methodist Church in the Historic 4th and Gill Neighborhood of Knoxville. Nourish Knoxville: 865-805-8687, https://nourishknoxville.org/

Opening reception on Fri Jan 12, 6:30-8 PM with awards announced at 7 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, www.fountaincityartcenter.com

While ancient Roman coins usually display emperors, a surprising number depict female members of the imperial family, particularly empresses. Coins are powerful propaganda used to advance political ideals and reinforce social mores. Closer observation of these coins reveals a tension between Roman society’s expectations for women and the reality some created for themselves.

In ancient Rome, women had no formal political role and were not allowed to vote or hold public office. They were expected to devote themselves to their family and oversee the domestic sphere. Depictions of goddesses on coins highlight this feminine ideal. Women who stepped outside gender norms, especially empresses who gained informal power, were seen as a threat to social and political order. Julia Domna is one such woman. She exerted political influence over two consecutive reigning emperors—her husband, Septimius Severus, and son, Caracalla—and jump started a dynasty of influential imperial women from the East.

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

View the calendar of ongoing events at http://ijams.org/events/

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