Calendar of Events

Join us in our 38th season for a series of three recitals by three internationally acclaimed pianists. Programs will include classic and contemporary offerings for all audiences.

In the Sandra G. Powell Recital Hall in the University of Tennessee’s Natalie L. Haslam Music Center, 1741 Volunteer Blvd., Knoxville 37996. Tickets/information: 865-408-8083 or www.youngpianistseries.com

A program of the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Centennial Collaborative
Celebrating the Achievement. Continuing the Legacy: The Tennessee Woman Suffrage Centennial, 1920 – 2020

Tennessee figured prominently in the quest for woman suffrage when a young man’s vote in the Tennessee Legislature, August 1920, changed the course of political history for Tennessee and the nation. Young Harry Burn of Athens cast the tie-breaking vote that made Tennessee the 36th and final state needed to ratify the 19th Amendment, thus giving women across the nation the right to vote. The public is invited to a program at the East Tennessee History Center on Sunday, March 18, as leading scholars discuss the suffrage movement in Tennessee and the important work of the women who rallied to win the support of the people and the legislature. The program is free and open to the public and is hosted locally by the East Tennessee Historical Society.

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

The Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra will perform a free concert in honor of the 200th Anniversary of Second Presbyterian Church on Sunday, March 18 at 3:00 p.m. at Second Presbyterian Church. This performance is free and open to the public and will be performed in memory of Betsey Bush, who served for many years on the Knoxville Symphony Society Board of Directors and was a member of Second Presbyterian Church.

Aram Demirjian, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Music Director, conducts the Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra in music specially selected for this concert. Guest artist, Sarah Morgan, joins the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra on Appalachian dulcimer.

Musical selections highlight the region’s history and the role of Second Presbyterian Church in Knoxville over the last 200 years. Traditional folk songs such as Wayfaring Stranger and When Johnny Comes Marching Home would have been popular during early church history. Shaker Melody from Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Conni Ellisor’s “Blackberry Winter” with dulcimer soloist are to represent the unique history of Appalachia and feature the dulcimer, an indigenous instrument. Percy Grainger’s “Irish Tune from a County Derry” and Copland’s Symphony No. 3 speak to the unique Scotch/Irish traditions important in the history of this area. Traditional hymns including “Morning Has Broken,” “Amazing Grace,” and “How Firm a Foundation” will be performed to celebrate the musical traditions and ancestries of the Church.

Sunday, March 18, 2018 at 3:00 p.m. at 2829 Second Presbyterian Church, Kingston Pike. This performance is free and open to the public; no tickets are required. This performance will take place without an intermission and there is a reception for all to follow in the Fellowship Hall.

Knoxville Symphony Orchestra: 865-291-3310, www.knoxvillesymphony.com

Trek back to a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth!

Calling all budding paleontologists and dino-fans of every age! Don’t miss your chance to visit Time Trek Laboratories and travel to pre-history for a roaring, stomping, roam-through experience like no other. Time trekkers can jump into the world of dinos, with hands-on exhibits sure to delight even the smallest Microraptor in your brood. Cuddle with a baby dino, test your knowledge in our live-action, family game show, have a close-up encounter with a life-like, roving dino skeleton, and more. You’ll be giddier than a Spinosaurus on a scooter as you unearth family fun of prehistoric proportions!

Child (ages 2-12) children under 2 free with a paid adult

Anytime Pass: Avid Trekkers can gain access to Time Trek Laboratories across multiple days and have the exclusive ability to arrive whenever works for their dino brood. No need to reserve a specific time slot for these Treks-perts, just show up ready to have a roaring good time!

Senior: Patrons 65 years or older save $5. Discount excludes Early Entry and 2-day Pass/Anytime entry.

At Knoxville Convention Center, 701 Henley Street, Knoxville, Tennessee 37902. Tickets: www.discoverthedinosaurs.com

Dragon Lights, Knoxville’s first-ever Chinese lantern festival, will take place at Chilhowee Park and Exposition Center and will be open every night from 5:30pm until 10:00pm.

Featuring over 40 larger-than-life lantern displays, Dragon Lights is the largest Chinese lantern festival in the Eastern Unites States. Thousands of sculptural and light components make this event a true visual treat. Dozens of Chinese artisans travel the world to keep this century-old tradition alive, and they will be constructing the displays on site at Chilhowee as the festival draws near. Dragon Lights also will feature performances by Chinese acrobats and Chinese folk art demonstrations, as well as children's activities.

Don't miss this unique experience. Tickets ($16 per adult, or $10 for children) are on sale now. Call Ticketmaster at 1-800-745-3000 or stop by the Civic Coliseum Box Office. (Group tickets for 15 or more are only available at the Coliseum Box Office, 865-215-8999.) http://www.chilhoweepark.org/dragon-lights-festival/

For his film installation at The University of Tennessee Knoxville's Downtown Gallery, 106 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902, in conjunction with the 2018 Big Ears Festival, Los Angeles based collage film artist Lewis Klahr will present a looped, rotating selection of his films that explore the vicissitudes of time and memory. Many of the films included will be from his ongoing, open-ended series of digital films Prolix Satori. Also included will be a special sequence assembled to be screened only under the following weather conditions — severe overcast or rain lasting at least 60 minutes.

About the Artist
Lewis Klahr uses found images and sound to explore the intersection of memory and history. He is primarily known for his uniquely idiosyncratic films, which he began creating in 1977 and has screened extensively in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Lewis Klahr teaches in the Theater School of the California Institute of the Arts and is represented by The Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London.

Lewis Klahr is currently at work on a new feature length series of collage films titled Circumstantial Pleasures and Porcelain Gods, a retelling of Jean Luc Godard's 1963 film Contempt as a collage novel.

EXTENDED HOURS DURING THE BIG EARS MUSIC FESTIVAL
Thursday, March 22: 2:00 P.M. – 6:00 P.M.
Friday, March 23: 11:00 A.M. – 8:00 P.M.
Saturday, March 24: 10:00 A.M. – 4:00 P.M.
Sunday, March 25: 1:00 P.M. – 5:00 P.M.

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

McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture announces the Museum Store Spring Sale March 15 through March 31.

Shake off winter and enjoy blooming flowers with handmade garden art by local artisans, seeds, and beautiful botanical items in the Museum Store’s Spring Sale.

UT Students and Museum Members always enjoy 10% off all purchases, and all Store proceeds benefit the museum’s free educational programming.

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, 1327 Circle Park Dr on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Hours: M-Sa 9-5, Su 1-5. Information: 865-974-2144, http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu

The Appalachian Arts Craft Center in Norris will hold its Spring Porch Sale starting on Thursday, March 15, and continuing for about two weeks. The Porch Sale, held each spring features outdated stock, seconds, student crafts and nonjuried work by members. It’s an excellent time to get great deals.

The Appalachian Arts Craft Center is a nonprofit center with a mission to support arts and crafts in Appalachia through education, sales, and community involvement. The center is located at 2716 Andersonville Highway 61, Clinton, TN, one mile east of I-75 north at Exit 122.

Appalachian Arts Craft Center hours: M-Sa 10-6, Su 1-5. Information: 865-494-9854, www.appalachianarts.net

Please join us for the reception on Saturday, April 7th in the Blain Gallery for light refreshments.

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts announces Alternative Bodies, a group exhibition showcasing new work by the 2017-2018 Arrowmont Artists-in-Residence: Xia Zhang, Paige Ward, Elyse-Krista Mische, Emily Culver, and Max Adrian. In vulnerable ways, these artists touch on a variety of topics related to the body such as queerness, sexuality, faith, race, and death. These artists are playful and inventive with their processes in order to start conversations that may otherwise be difficult to digest.

Works such as those by Zhang, Culver, and Adrian focus on matters of flesh and bone: what it means to touch bodies, to express ourselves through our bodies and the objects we interact with, to be celebrated, stigmatized, or separated because of our bodies. Tactility is a key element for these works which span a breadth of materials like faux-fur, orange peels, and rubber. Works by Mische and Ward, on the other hand, consider spiritual existences in pursuit of greater understanding of our mortality and what lies in wait beyond the body. Objects like concrete pillows and monumental papier-mâché vessels reference the body through its absence. Metaphors for faith and self-preservation speak to multiple possibilities of seeking and finding comfort.

Collectively, all five artists encourage the viewer to contemplate other perspectives and expressions of humanness at a time when the world feels more divided than unified. Alternative Bodies aspires to a level of empathy and compassion for the hopes, hardships, and successes we all have within our physical forms.

The Artists-in-Residence Program is an 11-month program which provides early career, self-directed artists time, space and support to experiment and develop a new body of work in a creative community environment. Each year, five artists of different media are selected for the eleven-month program, which begins mid-June and continues through late May of the following year. Participants receive exhibition opportunities, teaching experience, professional development and a private studio.

In the Sandra J. Blain Gallery, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Information: 865-436-5860, www.arrowmont.org

The exhibition will open on March 10 from 7 to 9 pm with a gallery talk at 6:30

Featuring local artists whose work is composed of reused or re-imagined materials, ephemera, or found objects.

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

Check out the full festival schedule and details here: http://tennesseestage.com/2018/01/05/new-play-festival-2018/

by Paul Leeper
Three very unusual looks at love which comes in many guises.
As everyone knows, love is not for the faint of heart.

March 9–25 at Theatre Knoxville Downtown
Thursday thru Saturday at 8pm & Sunday matinees at 3pm

For tickets and more information, please contact Tennessee Stage Company: 865-546-4280, www.tennesseestage.com

The Story Story, a new original offering from local duo Sara Gaddis and JP Schuffman, is an exciting twist on the classic hero's tale. In the tradition of the fully realized fantasy universes such as The Dark Crystal and Alice in Wonderland, a group of travelling performers weave the tapestry of Uri of the Sash, a village healer turned hero when a cave-dwelling creature called Lescau the Dusk Walker curses her village and sends her on a quest to find the origin of all human stories. On her journey she encounters a host of amazing creatures and characters, faces untold danger, and must to rely on her willpower, wits, and a bit of magic to save her friends from a terrible fate.

The Knoxville Theatre Club ensemble consists of six local performers familiar to regular viewers of Knoxville theater, portraying every role from eccentric tinkers and talking dogs to nightmarish monsters and a three-headed librarian. This world premiere production combines reverence for traditional storytelling with fantastic puppetry, fast-paced humor, a unique mythology, and exhilarating up-close stagecraft.

The Story Story stars Raine Palmer, Debi Wetherington, Sara Gaddis, Caleb Burnham, Chad Wood, and JP Schuffman. The show's co-creators Gaddis and Schuffman have been producing original work together in NYC, Nashville, and Knoxville since 2010. In 2017, they founded Knoxville Theatre Club (www.knoxvilletheatreclub.org) which has hosted workshops and local community events such as The Pop-Up Theatre Project, Drama & Drinks, The Crow Flies Scriptworks, and the Knoxville Theatre Slam.

The Story Story runs March 8-10, 16-17, & 23-24 at Modern Studio, 109 W Anderson Ave, Knoxville, 37917. The show is suitable for all ages, and tickets are available at the door or in advance via the website, www.knoxvilletheatreclub.org/tickets.